I always feel sad and frustrated when I am given a present and it is something that I can't use. It makes me feel as though I am being ungrateful if I don't keep it, but my life is already too cluttered to keep things that I can't use.

I've also discovered that people's feelings can be easily hurt when a gift isn't kept. I am always sincere when I say thank you for a gift sincerely given. I am thanking them for the thought, not just for the present. But when what was given goes back to the store or gets passed along to someone else or politely declined (like the really nice, really expensive, and really huge computer speakers somebody tried to give me a couple years ago) some people are offended. I always tread on eggshells when I have to do that.

Today I was given a late birthday present and I'm trying to decide what to do with it. I am a terrible person to purchase clothing for, even when I am the one doing the shopping. I am oddly sized, so it is nearly impossible to predict what will fit. I wear a small/medium/large, so any given item will have a 33.3% chance of fitting and a 66.6% of not. Even shoes, for which I do have one correct size, don't always feel right on my feet. Catalogue shopping is nothing more than a fond daydream in my life. For that reason, I try to discourage people from buying clothes for me.

So, when the sleeves are so long that they come halfway down my palms, when the store won't take and exchange because there is no receipt, no tags, and they no longer have the item in stock, and when I know that none of my friends would be interested, I'm kind of stuck. Ebay and charity are both options, but it always feels so wrong to send a new gift down those routes.

I swear I don't do this on purpose, but I've got a huge guilt thing going on right now. I really do like getting presents, but I'd rather get no present at all than a gift that I can't use. I'm an ungrateful wretch, aren't I.