Gift giving - just tell me what to buy

We are in the throws of finals and if I am completely honest, it sucks. My roommate and I keep sending each other memes (an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature) of having mental breakdowns during finals and that’s helping. Her lab partner will send cat memes to her if he knows she’s sad; that’s adorable. I need cat memes to help me get through finals at this point. 

I have a Media Law exam on Thursday (I will be done by the time this is published and I am greatly looking forward to that time) which has been stressing me out. My professor’s exam is only five questions, but it’s twenty-five pages of class lecture I need to know for only those five questions. It’s unreasonable in my opinion, or maybe it’s just upsetting to me because I am the one who has to take it. 

What I did appreciate was a study break when my sister invited me to get coffee on Monday. We met about halfway between Waseca and the Cities and got coffee in Northfield. It felt very adult-like, the way we two sisters drove an hour just to get coffee with each other on some lovely Monday afternoon. Even though I had seen her over Thanksgiving, it was truly heartwarming to me to get coffee with her. After coffee we went Christmas shopping in downtown Northfield, which was also fun. I was grateful she was shopping with me because she is really good at gift giving and I am not so good, despite my efforts. 

Gift giving can be difficult for me. It depends on the person, but I usually don’t really know what to get because I’m worried they won’t like it. Thankfully, my sister and I are at the point where we just tell each other exactly what we want. She showed me the color of the water bottle she’s getting me and I had her choose whether she wanted the tan or brown sweatshirt of what she showed me. Easy peasy.  

I feel bad for my family, though, because I am really bad at telling people what I want. Most of the time I say “I don’t care” because I genuinely don’t. Somebody could get me just about anything and I’d be satisfied. But that makes it extremely difficult for my family and I feel bad about that. At this point, just get me socks and I’d be happy. Literally, I’m at that point where I want socks for Christmas. My goodness, I must be turning into an old(er) person. 

I bought myself a Christmas gift of a beginner embroidery/needlepoint kit and I’m excited. I can’t wait to curl up on the sofa wrapped in a snuggly blanket watching a good TV show and do some embroidery like a cute little old lady (no offense to anyone, I promise it’s meant in a good way). 

Even though there has been final prep work, I’ve also been grinding away working at the Minnesota Daily. I love my job there, but sometimes it takes a lot. Such as yesterday, I spent all of my free time outside of classes finishing up a story because I had a last-minute interview, I had to go back through the recording of that interview to get quotes, and then I had to write the story which ended up being five pages long. Many of my stories I thoroughly enjoy writing though, so it is worth it. I only have one story left to write for the Daily this semester, but it’s a really big, heavy-hitting one, so it will probably not be done by the end of the semester, which means I’m practically done for the semester. It is a bit of a relief, I will not lie. Time to go back to studying. 

My Determination: “You speak an infinite deal of nothing.” ― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice.