LJ and I went to a diner around 1:00 and each had a slice of cherry pie. That’s not some sort of slang for sexual encounters, by the way. We are friends who went to a Jersey diner and each ordered pie from the waitress. The pie was eaten. When I was leaving LJ’s apartment, my stomach was grumbling quite loudly. It was the subject of laughter. When I got in the car and was driving home, cramps started. I got home and the pie caused me some decent pain and suffering.

Lesson learned. No more cherry pie this late in the evening, or at all, really.

Without sounding schmaltzy or sentimental or mildly obsessive, I have to state that this was one of those evenings that will probably carry me through a solid few days in a good mood since there was just good conversation and laughter and happy friendship vibes going. It’s always pretty awesome to spend some time just talking with a friend and not have other plans for an activity or errand. Catching up, sharing stories and offering advice, joking, hopping out to a diner halfway through the evening to quell a sudden pie-craving and then talking some more.

Today was a productive day indeed. I woke up at 7:30 and then let myself sleep until 10. Went to the bank, took out my pre-budgeted Christmas shopping funds and went to a few stores.

Stop #1 was Church Street in lovely downtown Montclair, NJ, to pick up some things I had put on hold at Copabananas when I was there on Wednesday. Of course, I found some new things today and added on another $10 to my purchases.

Stop #2 was my great new discovery. Well, not that new. I knew it was coming since there were signs up a few months ago, but I hadn’t had a chance to actually enter the store - Modern Yarn, a few doors down from Copabananas.

OH MY GOODNESS. I love this place!! I walked in and just kept wandering back and forth along the wall, absorbing the beautiful colors and varieties of yarn that they have neatly arranged in square grid shelves along the wall. There were gorgeous silk yarns and amazing handmade wool ones from Uruguay. HEAVENLY. I couldn’t spend too much, but I bought two really nice soft wool skeins in turquoise and orange (for a gift I’m making) and then another skein of a pale pink wool/silk blend yarn, shot through with tiny strands of silver. It was made in Japan and is just so delicate looking and gorgeous. I didn’t know what I’d make from it, but I got it just because it was so lovely. I brought it home and showed it to Amanda, my brother’s girlfriend. She liked it a lot, so I decided to add that to her Christmas gift and am making her (to her knowledge and with her input and approval) a really long, really thin scarf of sorts. It’s about 2 inches wide and will be about 4 feet long when it’s done, so she can wear it as a belt or wrapped around her neck several times with long ends hanging down as a fashionable and sort of practical accessory.

I will be going back - if not simply to buy more yarn, then to take some classes since they offer those as well. What was super-impressive was listening in to some of the other customer interactions (I was self-service, really) and hearing that the proprietress of the shop who was working there today was willing to print them some free patterns for projects in the store so they could try something new. When I went to pay for my yarn, she struck up a conversation about the Japanese silk yarn with me, told me how much I would love knitting with it (and she’s right, I do!) and showed me a sweater she’d knit herself using that yarn which was on display in the window. I’m excited to visit there again and again. Wowie. Just gorgeous and fun. NOT frumpy in the least - no afghans or toilet paper cozies making an appearance there.

Stop #3 was Target so I could get some DVDs that various family members requested on their Christmas lists, photo albums for a gift for my dad, and some stocking stuffers. I couldn’t resist buying “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” on DVD since it was $7.90 (odd price, I know) and then also got some eyeshadow. I’ve been wanting to get a golden shimmery eyeshadow since it sort of makes my eye color “pop,” so I spent the $4 and got that. I was still under budget since the DVDs I got were on sale.

Stop #4 was Marshall’s where I failed to find the pajama sets my mother had mentioned. Oh, well.

I returned home and started knitting the scarf for Amanda after conversing with my brothers to plan something for our parents since they are impossible to shop for. I’m sure that everyone reading has some family member for whom it is impossible to select gifts. Whether you’re shopping for Hanukkah/Chanukah or Christmas or something else, there’s always someone who already has everything he/she could ever want or need and who poo-poos any other ideas you might present. This is the “impossible to please” gift recipient. Unless you have the money or other such resources to provide them with a costly gift or use psychic powers to divine their heart’s desire, you’re pretty much screwed and scrambling for something completely off-the-wall and creative or thoughtful.

Alternately, they might be the kind of person who doesn’t really have any clear-cut interests that you could use to select an appropriate gift: no hobbies, no quirks, no favorite anything. They might be the family member who is “all work and no play” or the family member who is simply boring and lacks distinct personality traits. This is the aunt or uncle or in-law who watches “Oprah”, but only because that’s what’s on when they get home from work. They wouldn’t want the boxed set of Oprah’s favorite moments. This is the cousin who listens to top 40 radio, but doesn’t want any CDs since they think they might not like all the songs on a CD enough. New clothes? Nah - what they have now is fine. Gift certificate to their favorite store? Nope. “Gift certificates are impersonal.” Ugh.

Selecting a gift for either individual requires some creative thought. We have some ideas now and might have something good in place before the parents return from their cruise on Wednesday. I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning, knitting and brainstorming/coordinating with siblings on Christmas gift ideas and such.

Anyway - geez. It’s 4 a.m. BED. I can sleep in this morning, but within reason! I don’t want to be unable to sleep tomorrow night.