Tales from the Towers: New Year presents and seasonal change

I have to go out shopping for gifts. Twice a year I buy small presents for close friends and I have, in front of me, a list of names. Next to each name are some observations which originated thanks to experience gained over the years.

Here I see the name of  Daniela and right next to it I have noted down many holidays ago:

"No chocolates, she has diabetes. Nothing which bears the color mauve. Mauve causes her to feel depressed!"

And then there is Esther. In my neat handwriting I have noted down next to her name:

"Don't buy her earrings again! You keep forgetting that she has no holes in her ears, and if she wears clips, she loses them!"

Ah, and here is my old friend, David. He gets upset when I buy him wine.

"You don't know anything about wine", he accused me repeatedly, "so if you want to buy me wine, then take me along and I'll choose the wine you buy for me!"

And last but not least there is Batya.

"You shouldn't buy me anything!", she always reproaches me while eagerly tearing open the package I had brought along!

So maybe I really won't get her anything for New Year's this time, but I can't risk to see the great disappointment on her face when there will be no package to be opened.

And what am I going to buy for Linda? Once I brought her flowers and she started to sneeze and sneeze and she was still sneezing when I left half an hour later.

Next to Linda's name I noted down;

"allergic to cats, flowers, honey, cake containing nuts, and most of all she is  allergic to her ex-husband"...

Yes, they are all my good friends. And I wish they would note down things about me.

If they would take the trouble, I wouldn't have gotten that dreadful yellow scarf because I look jaundiced when I wear yellow, and shouldn't good friends know which color suits me? Yes, and I wouldn't have that bottle of cologne which, whenever I use it, all the dogs on the street start sniffing me, nor would I have eight discs of Strauss waltzes.

TV informed me that the season of "Desperate Housewives" is reaching its end! I'll have to find something else to be addicted to - but I really liked so much being desperate with them! It's so nice to be desperate while wearing designer clothes on perfect figures and having one or two adoring men around!

"You know", I tell my friend Ziva who also watches Desperate Housewives, "I am so pleased that the series has a happy end and Susan marries the man she loves!"

"You call this a happy end?" she says, "talk to Susan 10 or even 5 years later and you'll find out what that happy end turned into!"

Considering Ziva's two broken marriages and countless relationships, all of them starting with great romance and ending in bitter partings, I hardly can blame her for being a tiny bit cynical.

I keep on getting up around 6 o'clock in the morning but I no longer have my first cup of coffee while watching the sunrise. It's because although I get up early, the sun gets up late. The house is completely dark and I often climb back into bed waiting for the day to come up. Back in bed uninvited thoughts assault me, like remembering that I owe visits, telephone calls, replies to e-mail messages. And I certainly need to put my closets in order.

I also realize that the autumn blues will bother me for a while like they do every year, but the time will come when I finally enjoy the cooler weather.

So will all of you. I hope.

Lucca