A Test of Friendship

I have to buy a birthday present for a friend.  I feel like I know her pretty well so it should be pretty easy to pick out a present for her, right? Ehh...not in this case.

Buying presents for people isn't just about the concrete, material object that gets wrapped up and beribboned, because it represents the abstraction of how the gift giver perceives the recipient's needs, desires and quirks.  For some friends it's easy to figure out what to buy because they make a point to say "I want this" or "Man, I wish I could get one of those".  They're not super materialistic but they know what kind of stuff they like and want.  This friend likes things-- we're all human, after all, we like to collect stuff-- but she's not particularly particular about amassing material goods. 

Hm, I think I know what I'd like to get her yet I'm still apprehensive about how much she'll like it. I'm not very competitive, I don't need for her to have that (above) kind of reaction to my gift; I know that others who know her better will get something that'll knock her socks off.  But I still think (and hope) she'll like it. 

One of my closest friends in the past consistently gave me presents that were...uninspiring.  They were nice, but I thought that she could've come up with something a little more suited to my taste.  I still have many of them but always felt a grain of ambivalence.  But you could say that her presence was her present to me.