Monday, May 31, 2010

My Birthday Wish List

So this morning, my mom handed me a pen and some paper and told me, "Write down what you want for your birthday." Of course, I am the kind of person who wants a lot of things, but needs very little. I am extremely impulsive, and arguably quite greedy. The things that I want change almost daily, and so it is quite difficult to pick things I want over a long term.

Sure, my wish list started off pretty good...
30 Rock/Glee on DVD, Target Gift Card, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Wii Points
But unfortunately, my desires are often easily changed and influenced, and I start to worry about the cost, and after a while, my list starts to look like this:
Perry the Platypus plush toy, Pokémon cards, clicky erasers, Batteries, and one of those Glade air fresheners that releases fragrance every time you walk past it
In my defense, those air fresheners ARE awesome. Right?

In short, I'm very easy to please, but nearly impossible to satisfy. It's one of my greatest weaknesses. I'm the kind of person who will make a huge deal and be all happy about getting some colored pencils, but at the end of the day I'll still think, "Well, I never did get that movie I wanted." It's not that I'm ungrateful-- it's just that I want a lot of things.

When I was little, my parents would buy me a lot of little things, and my brother always got one or two big things. That way, the joy of opening things was prolonged for me, and the surprises never seemed to end. I always thought my brother foolish-- there he was, all finished opening things on Christmas morning, and I was still opening yet another package of little plastic animals or another book. Couldn't he see how much bigger my pile of unwrapped gifts was? While I marveled at the sheer number of all the accessories that came with my Barbie's new horse stable, my brother was contently playing his new Game Boy Color game, or waiting for nightfall to use his new telescope. What good was something without lots of fun parts, or something you had to wait to use? It all seemed very plain to me that I had the better deal.

But a week after Christmas, my brother was still playing his game, and what was I doing? I was realizing that my horse stable didn't come with all the pieces advertised on the box, and that I had lost a few of the ones that had come with it. So I've come to realize that quality is always more important than quantity.

Unfortunately, I still have an aversion to getting practical things for holidays. I hate it when I get clothes for Christmas, and when my brother's girlfriend offered to take me shopping for a real bag, like a Vera Lang one, I just thought, "But I already have a bag. Why do I need another one?" I fail as a girl, obviously. But I've never been one for wanting to buy clothes. Sure, if I'm in a clothing store, I'll ooh and ahh over all the cute stuff, but I'll hardly ever dole out the cash for them. I just figure that if I make myself cute enough, I won't need cute clothes to look cute. Or something like that.

So I end up asking for stupid stuff like batteries or air fresheners. And then remembering a day later that I really wanted some fine-tipped outlining pens.

It's a good thing my family and friends know me so well: they know exactly what sorts of small delights I flip for, so I know I will always spend my holidays smiling. Some of the coolest gifts I've ever gotten were things I never would have thought to ask for: A home-made book about My First Wii, a 365-day calendar with pictures of dragons, a deck of Fairy Oracle cards... My friends get me things I didn't even know I wanted. And that is why they are awesome.

So I'm not quite sure what I want for my birthday. But I know that I'll get a bunch of awesome things anyway.

And if you want to get me an air freshener, I really like tropical scents. Just saying.

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