I Bought My Friend Socks For Her Birthday. Yes, socks.

They weren't silly or cool or fun. They didn't have anime versions of sushi on them. They didn't say "My other socks are Ferraris". They were ankle height running socks. In gray. And they were exactly what she wanted.

When I started GiftMinder I had a good idea of how I would use it. It's become the place I put the random things that come to me that I want - and then maybe someone else gets them for me before I get them for myself. Case in point - I love a nice pen. Cross pens in fact. I decided to buy myself a new pen until I realized that my birthday was coming up in a couple of months and it might be nice to have someone else get that for me. Pens make nice gifts for the right people after all (I'm one of those people). So my GiftMinder wishlist has become not a carefully crafted list of the perfect gifts but a long list of anything and everything that comes to me. It might be months of research for the perfect THING or it might just be a whim. If someone gets me something off of that list, I'm ecstatic.

So back to my friend. She is a runner. As in she does 10Ks for fun and to help prep for marathons kind of runner. So having a brand of sock I've never heard of on HER wishlist wasn't really surprising. What was surprising was when I clicked "I'll get this" in GiftMinder proudly letting anyone else know that "Wait! I'm going to be purchasing these perfect socks for my friend!" She didn't want just any old pair of socks. She wanted THESE socks and she likely knew what she was doing when she put THESE socks on her wishlist. So I didn't say "Oh, she needs socks. I'll get her a 12-pack of generic socks." I knew that she wanted THESE socks and those are the ones I got for her. She loved them and I looked like a gift-giving genius.

Since I started GiftMinder, I've learned that people put the things that matter to them on their wishlist. And what matters to me is giving them something they truly want. For my friend's birthday this year? Mission Accomplished.