making a list, checking it twice

this thursday marks one month till my quarter-life birthday. i love birthdays. i love balloons and streamers and cakes and goodie bags and group pictures and birthday dresses and signs up around the house and shaving cream on the kitchen table and presents stacked up on the floor near the couch. i love all that. i love people singing happy birthday and scooting in towards the birthday honoree. i love watching someone made to feel special. when i really love someone, when i really care about a person, there is nothing better in the entire world than to watch them glow, to watch their faces light up and feel like they are the star of the day. there is NOTHING like that.

i was thinking today that if my life should change assumed course, i'll work to buy a bed and breakfast in california or prince edward island. and it'll have so many rooms, but still feel undescribably cozy. and i'll invite all my friends and acquaintances to come and stay for a weekend, a month, a season, a year. it doesn't matter. and i'll throw them the best birthday parties, too. celebrations they will never forget.

for me, the hardest part will be picking presents. i love presents but i stink at getting them. so i will have to hire a present-picking genius to join me at work in the b&b. i wish i had good ideas, but i don't. i wish people would tell me all the things they love in the world. ok, yes, i'm sure my friends have many times said what they love, but my hearing priority is always towards how people are feeling, what they're thinking, etc. somewhere in my head, i misplace those obvious details. i apologize.

have you ever met those people who know all of their friends favorite things? i love those people. i envy their brains and memories. but i need help. i need lists. i need everyone i know to make a list of everything they love (or really don't love) and send it to me. this is no joke. i want to get good at present-giving. please help.

as an example (and only as an example, ok?), i've provided a sample from my list below:

1. i love books about the civil rights era.
2. i love candles.
3. i also really love fireflies and fireworks and anything else that lights up the night.
4. i love live music.
5. i love picnics and wine and bread and cheese (though i've never been on a picnic with wine and bread and cheese).
6. i love stationary and stamps.
7. i like house things from pier 1 and crate and barrel.
8. i really love dinner plates and mugs and glasses.
9. i like butterfingers and 100 grand bars (do those still exist?)
10. i love big presents that are obnoxiously huge.
11. i like chunky bracelets and small necklaces.
12. i really enjoy corn on the cob and freshly cut green beans.
13. i like crew neck sweaters or sweaters where the seem is straight at the shoulder (i look stupid in sweaters where the seam goes from the armpit to the neck - i may very well be the only one but it makes me look ridiculously geeky).
14. lotions are nice, but anything really goopy or too fruity is not for me.
15. i like big nights out where you go from one place to another to another and take your time at each one.
16. i like car rides.
17. i love a good board game.

my roommate kat says this is enough. she says people will think i'm making my birthday list to which i fervently disagreed. i just wonder if my favorite things are pretty generic. so please send me your list. i need to start planning.