2001-07-11 - 10:26 a.m.

Had the dubious pleasure of shopping for Gus yesterday.

Why is said pleasure so dubious? you might ask. Well, today is his birthday, and as much as I would love to buy meaningful and wonderful presents for my boyfriend for every occasion, doing just that is like trying to lead a rhino through an olive without disturbing the pimento. Because Gus is hard to buy for. And if that's his worst fault, which it may well be, I am a lucky girl... did I mention that Gus is hard to buy for?

On top of having no idea what to get him, my financial situation is... interesting. Though better than before, it has not quite transcended "difficult" area, because last week, I lost my ATM card. Huzzah. And not in my bag or my apartment - I really lost the thing. It's not a huge deal, but it does require me to make all withdrawls over the next few days in Squirrel Hill, and therefore shopping is more or less limited to there.

And I really need to try to avoid spending too much. But how much is too much? We weren't together very long when my birthday and Christmas rolled around, so things didn't get too extravagant. However, this coming year, Gus would like to get me a sewing machine (presumably to commemorate both occasions, but still...) So the formula for calculating how much his present should be worth is...

Divide cost of sewing machine by 2:

$150/2=75

and find difference between the cost of Jenn's Birthday Present '00 and Jenn's Birthday Present '01:

JBP'01-JBP'02= $50

Ok. So I got him a $20 brass candelabra. But does the final figure include dinner as well? For my birthday lunch, we got crepes. Granted, I wanted crepes, but they were cheap, as crepes are wont to be. Tonight, we are going for sushi, which is expensive, and Gus' brother Jim is coming along. Should I pay for him, as well? And what about drinks? Gus is turning 21...

In other news, Donovan is postpoing his wedding. And I had this incredibly devastating dream that Gus' mom died. And Hatbox has taken to defecating all over the kitchen floor on a twice-daily basis.

What the hell?

What I'm wearing:

What I'm reading:

What I'm doing after this: