I'm pretty sure families have their own gift-giving rules, and you should go with those. Or what you feel like/can deal with, either way.

almost all of the stuff I haven't touched in 8 years IS historical stuff. I need to sort through it all at some point, but now is not the time.

Yeah, just move that shit.

I ran out of tape! Oops. Also I have probably half of my books packed and am out of small boxes. I'll need to strategize what else to put in the bigger boxes so they aren't too heavy.

Books go well with towels.

My friend texted me to say she would be out today. Not sure what that means. (She has 2 children so is likely to have something planned although Sunday am is usually when we talk)

That's a good sign, Sophia.

I think my (ex)friend has some issues that she's not addressing -- rather than deal with the fallout of apologizing and feeling bad, she's walling off people from her life.

Sometimes friendships move on -- you grow apart, have fewer interests in common, it's more of an effort than it's worth. I'm sad but OK with that, but usually you give the other side of the relationship proof by a couple awkward encounters, instead of pulling the plug and running away.

It'll be like the nail polish box, but hot and geeky.

Except that when you get the box, you'll never send it on.

I strongly suspect that it's also because the Paterno family donated a ton of money to build that library, and that's why his name is on it in the first place, so it would be kind of awkward to keep the building and take down the name.

There may also be contractual obligations with regard to the donation/naming.

I'm pretty sure families have their own gift-giving rules, and you should go with those

If we had rules, I wouldn't be wondering.

The unwritten rule in my family is that people will give what is easy for them to give. Like, when my brother worked at Joe Boxer we could all expect pajamas, that sort of thing. Which probably doesn't help you.

My sister and I are particularly crap at birthday gifts for each other, though. So many lengthy phone calls on one another's b-days ending with "so, I had no idea what to get you..." and "really, I don't need anything, we're good." giving each other the relief of not having to shop, essentially.

If we had rules, I wouldn't be wondering.

Fair enough.

I am hugging my teddy bear and waiting for Zenkitty's comfort food!

I can put in a standing weekend order for chocolate and wine, if you like.

Birthday gifts are hard. Everyone should have an Amazon Wish List, dammit.

I'd like to be feeling better about the social media situation today, but I'm not. The person who was poking at me is now all hurt because I was "unkind" in suggesting that he simply unFriend me if he didn't like what I'm saying.

Connie, I have the same problem you described, with getting rid of stuff that I know someone else would want, and the thrift store would probably just throw away. Freecycle is totally the place to get rid of things like little bottles! Useful-but-I-don't-want-it things. Freecyclers will take *anything*. Egg cartons, cardboard tubes, broken stuff. You don't even have to meet them. At least around here, the accepted etiquette is to leave the item in an accessible place outside your house, and let whoever's got dibs know where to find it. Some people leave things in their mailboxes.

I'm not sure there's a Freecycle in my town. And then I'll need to get past Hubby's phobia about "giving away good stuff to people we don't know." Issues. we have them.