Hello, my name is Dominique, and I’m addicted to retail therapy in the form of gift giving.
I realize that almost anything can be addicting, but this one really took me by surprise. I like getting gifts, always have, and I enjoy giving other people something that made me think of them, or that I know they will appreciate, and this is all very reasonable. But this week, I went on a gift-buying binge.
Looking back, I see it all started with Father’s Day. I had decided that since I am now a 27-year-old adult, perhaps it’s about time I did that thing where I buy cards for the dads and grandpas in my life, and actually send them. In the mail. On time. Given my customary mode of operating, this was pretty revolutionary.
Surprisingly enough, that all went of without a hitch. But then it occurred to me that if I could handle father’s day, I should probably give birthdays a try. So I consulted some more informed members of my family, and managed to save everyone’s birthday into the calendar of my fancy phone, with reminders set two days ahead of time so I would have time to do something about them.
Well, the first birthday was coming up, so I went in search of the perfect birthday card. Do you have any idea how many cards there are in the world? And, of course, you always find the one you want in the last place you look, so on the way to this perfect birthday card I found potential birthday cards, baby cards, miss you cards and thinking of you cards for all sorts of people to whom I would never normally send a card.
It might have ended there, except I also started brainstorming gift ideas for a friend’s birthday. Now, this friend deserves the very best a birthday has to offer, and I had set the gift bar fairly high last year (I hand-made her a pirate flag. Yeah, I know, I’m amazing.) so I was a little worried about keeping up. Long story short, one good idea followed the next, and now I’m fairly certain I could blow my life-savings on this one friend alone (which would be a really bad idea, since I don’t’ really have a full-time job).
Mere days after this, I remembered it was the first birthday of my best friend’s daughter. Once I was at the baby store, I found that I could just as easily spend all my money on her. And then I thought of other close friends I have who either have children currently or are expecting them. I also remembered that this best friend’s birthday is also just around the corner. Then I found out (through facebook of course) that it was this best friend’s mom’s birthday!
Add all this to the fact that my own Mother’s, Granny’s and Sister’s birthdays all occur within the next thirty days, and my head started to spin. It was all I could think about. I was out of control! I was a gift-giving, card-sending, money-spending lunatic! Six presents, five birthday cards, two elaborate party plans and one return later, I ran out of a store practically in tears.
Maybe I should just stay out of the birthday scene for a while. OH NO! I just checked my calendar, and my other Grandma’s birthday is also this month. AAAAAUGH!
