Old shiny/avoid list, typed up and updated a little

[azurelunatic]

This got written up and tacked in a place where it could not be missed after a discussion over a notable disaster of a gift. (I'm still sifting through a pile of papers, and the easiest way to dispose of old papers where the information should be kept but the paper could be tossed is to type them up for LJ.)

Shiny
small crock pot (got one now)
ice cream maker
bath products
good lotion
shiny pens
bookstore gift certificate
Trader Joe's gift certificate
flowy black skirts in my size
another body pillow (I now have two or three more)
mixer

Good scents:
sandalwood, musk, rose, vanilla

---

Things to avoid:
Things with gratuitous chickens
the dreadful lavender-scented gift basket thing (this was a specific gift with some very nasty items, in addition to lavender being a scent I don't care much for)
useless decorative items that need to be dusted

Comments

[kokuten.livejournal.com]

gratuitous chickens?

-K, confused.

-K, can't think of a critter who would offend him when used in that manner

-K, possibly enlightened

-K, done with postscripts.

[azurelunatic]

One giver of gifts, a friend of the family, someone who knew that I had raised chickens as pets in the past, gave me, over a quick succession of holidays:

• a dreadfully "cute" chicken tree ornament
• a chicken-themed note cube/whiteboard/shopping list combo
• a chicken beanie baby
• a chicken calendar

Any single one of these items, if taken individually, would have been pretty much all right, except for the ornament, which was an offense before the gods of my youth. It was incredibly useless, but at least it was ugly.

[azurelunatic]

The woman had somehow picked up the idea that I was interested in chickens, as a theme, rather than the more specific interest in my pets.

The chicken calendar, of the lot, was the best. It had very good artwork and chickens who looked like chickens with personality, rather than the more "country"-themed other items and the frankly useless beanie-thing.

[azurelunatic]

... and of all the things I abhor, it's people getting the idea that I have a themed collection of chicken stuff. I have a horror of winding up with a collection that I don't even want, though I'd probably nip it in the bud after a few years of shell-shock.

[pyrogenic.livejournal.com]

I sense a certain vein of bitterness... ;-)

[azurelunatic]

There was a friend-of-the-family with a horror story. And my social group in Phoenix includes one of those women in General Fandom who has already passed into Crazy Cat Lady status, albeit only with two cats. And she acquires things (read: bargain-hunts obsessively) and distributes them amongst her friends. And she is rather over-thematic, once she gets the idea that someone likes something. And since her gift choices are ordinarily impeccable except when they're based on a bad assumption, she sets the theme for the gifting habits of the entire social circle.

She is also unfortunately Socially Touchy with inbound communications, though somewhat Socially Oblivious with outbound communications.

I found it politically advantageous to inform other close members of the social group who know how to speak with her tactfully that chickens were Not My Thing. And in a very timely fashion, too, because the woman had already acquired at least one bit of chicken-themed crap with me in mind.

Gratuitous chickens

[sithjawa.livejournal.com]

The parents of some friends of mine got in a sending-things-with-gratuitous-chickens-on-them war with another family member/friend/something like that. They would send one another really Wrong chicken items, each one more bizarre than the last. The war ended with a bookmark featuring a golden chicken and the words "Jesus loves you!" because it was of insurmountable bizarreness.

In the course of moving, they managed to get rid of most of the chicken items, except the chicken teapot where you poured through the beak. We argued for a while over whether this was more or less disturbing than a chicken teapot that the chicken-themed hunting lodge of dclayh's family had, where you had to tip the head up and pour the hot water through the... er... jugular.

The correct answer to gratuitous chicken gifts is probably to determine the person's own favorite animal and send them an appropriate response. Except, escalation.

Re: Gratuitous chickens

[sithjawa.livejournal.com]

*A* friend of mine, even. I don't know her brothers.

Re: Gratuitous chickens

[azurelunatic]

See, though, chickens aren't really my favorite animal.

Chickens are just animals who tend to have beings who I like as friends in them. Same with cats. And, I suppose, some dogs are beings I like as friends as well. (As opposed to "like as dinner", because that's not an individual-being sort of thing. Though I do like some chickens as dinner, especially that goddamn rapist rooster.)

As a "favorite animal", I would have to go far more along the lines of ravens, dragonflies, butterflies, and frogs. Not chickens. And as far as "favorite decoration theme", I would have to say it's about evenly split between roses and blue/gold sun-moon-star-zodiac.