Thursday, January 3, 2008

I Think too Much for my Own Good

I am weird about gift giving. If I put too much thought into it, it's distressing. If someone gives me something, I feel like I owe them and vice versa. I know that defeats the purpose of a "gift" but that's how I feel.

A few months ago, I bought something for TheGuy, but I became so anxiety-ridden at the thought of giving it to him that I never did. Then I thought I'd wait 'til his birthday, but we all know how that turned out. Then Christmas came and I went so far as to wrap the damn gift, but then stowed it in the back of my closet.

I know, I'm seriously perturbed.

My warped reasoning was this: If I gave him something, and he didn't get me anything, then he would only be buying me a gift out of a sense of obligation. And I didn't want that.

So when he never showed up at my door bearing gifts, his already-wrapped present was left to collect dust.

On Tuesday I went to his house and we watched some more It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (thanks MD!). Between episdoes, I got up to use the bathroom and when I returned, TheGuy had moved and was sitting in his chair. He said, "So I got you a Christmas present. It was supposed to be here a week ago but I ordered it from Amazon and accidentally selected 'free shipping' so it took a long time to get here."

I opened it and thanked him, but made no mention of his present. If I tell him now, will it seem like I rushed out to get him something and fabricated some lame story about my gift-giving neurosis?

I am such a head case.

6 comments:

Milwaukee Girl said...

I think if you explain the whole story he'll be delighted that you didn't want him to feel obligated.

MAX said...

Well? What did you get?!

SHW said...

Yeah, what did you get? Don't leave us hanging like that!

Milwaukee Girl said...

Not too much pressure here - but I need my WTP fix :)

Anonymous said...

New relationships are so hard when it comes to birthday and holidays for me also. Even when I started seeing Chris again. He didn't get me anything for my birthday the first time (again) so I didn't get him anything for christmas. He got me a christmas gift though and i felt embarassed. So for his birthday I wanted to make up for not buying the christmas gift. But I was so nervous even when just picking out the gift. I was to meet him at a bar with all his friends there, so he had to open his gift in front of people. Lots of pressure. Uh, I don't miss those uncomfortable days. But the sex was better back then. Hmm...

MD said...

Holy crap was that a story or what! In cases where I'm not sure if I'm going to get a gift or not, I'll typically get a nice one so at least I'll look really damn good!