Chaos Attraction

Gift Angst

2008-04-22, 9:58 a.m.

I think it's pretty silly that I have to have so many wish lists. There's:

(a) My personal wish list, i.e. 25 pages of books I want to get sometime, but don't seriously think anyone else is gonna get me. Not really meant for observation by relatives. Or other human beings, probably, because it's very much the "hm, sounds interesting, I clicked on the random thing" list.

(b) The gift wish list (about 3 pages) that I send out whenever someone asks me what I want, which is selectively chosen along the lines of "Definitely is likely to be in Borders because nobody's gonna order anything" and "doesn't have any tree-hugging hippie stuff on it."

And then I apparently have to make a THIRD list, i.e. "wish list that doesn't have *gasp* anything WEIRD on it like science fiction, so as not to freak out the relatives when they ask what I want and then they had a cow seeing wish list #2."

This seems silly. I especially think it's ridiculous that so many relatives had a shit-fitting cow when I requested some murder mysteries that happen to have a tarot card theme in the title. (And oddly enough, don't have much to do with tarot.)

(*sigh* If I ever get a book published- any sort of book, really- they're gonna be forced to be aware that YES, I READ STUFF THAT ISN'T 100% REALISTIC. And write about stuff that isn't. And is hippie-themed. And then I probably get tarred and feathered at Christmas, right?)

I can't help but think that those who ask what to get me don't actually uh, want to hear what I want, they just want a list of "acceptable" items and then some people just get what they want even if it's random anyway. I was watching this video on shopping for picky Taurean folks and I couldn't help but agree that (a) don't put the damn raisins in my chocolate, (b) also skip the scratchy fabric, and (c) I hate when someone gets me something I really don't like because yeah, I feel obligated to keep it forever anyway. Someone loved it...unfortunately I wasn't the one that loved it, but I feel guilty if I throw it out and I definitely hurt someone's feelings if I want to take it back.

I feel ridiculous having gift angst, since I'm the least picky person in the family, dammit.


My writer's group is now going to do blind submissions in June. I can't help but think, "Um, aren't we all seriously going to be able to identify who did what by now?" This will fly for those who submit a few times a year, but those who have been in group for a while, I think we're all going to guess the following people's stuff right off the bat if they submit:

(a) chick who isn't good at spelling and writes mysteries
(b) chick who doesn't like commas and writes obscure stuff
(c) guy who writes horror
(d) guy who has no plots, ever
(e) guy who writes about his happy sappy childhood
(f) me, who's all snarky and shit and writes about teenage-sounding people

Unless anyone does a drastic style change, and I dunno about that. Hell, I'm actually trying something semi-drastic for me (writing a fairy tale I started last night), but I think everyone would immediately know it's me, even if it's not snarky.


Still don't know if I'm going to do Whole Earth booth or not. Mom wants to be in town the entire damn weekend and "do something" that isn't Whole Earth, and she wants to go into Old Sac or something because her birthday is Train Day and she wants an excuse to go out there, so that's a problem. And uh, I have nothing new and apparently no motivation to do anything new for sale.

I really shouldn't do it.

I will feel guilty if I don't.

Argh. Head hurts.


It's supposed to rain all day and night today. Naturally, I have an EC class today where we are supposed to go outdoors to do something. Whee! Spring so screws with your head.


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