Bear and I have a tradition.

It started one year with Bear asking, "Hey, what do you want for Christmas?"

The problem here is that I don't really get gifts. I receive them, certainly. I just don't understand the point. If I need something, I go get it. There's usually not a lot that I need, I have too much stuff as it is. What with moving in a month, I'm trying to clear out a lot of the stuff that I do have.

A dear friend of mine takes this concept a step further. You can't give Rahni anything. It doesn't work. She's terribly polite, and will accept it with a smile around whose edges plays a touch of uncertainty. And, within the next six months, no matter what it is, she will have gotten rid of it. She already has what she needs, and anything else is just extra. If an item is extra, it serves no purpose - gotta clear it out for the things that do.

There's an Aborigine saying, something to the effect of, "It's only a gift if the receiver wants it." If it's something that they didn't really want, then it's just a gift to you, the giver. You get to feel better, because you got them something.

So, I told Bear that I just wanted a day. Just the two of us.

This is kind of a big sacrifice from Bear, and I knew this when I asked. He's wildly popular, frenetically social, and terribly busy. All the time, everywhere he goes. That's Bear. Asking for a day takes a lot of time away from the other things he's doing. Asking for a day with no one else - Bear multitasks at socializing. It might just be because that's the only way that he can manage most of his relationships - that he sees six people at a time.

But, okay. Well, then the next issue comes up. What do we do with a day together?

I like the outdoors. And the woods. And getting active, and competing for the right to be top-dog, and talking about all kinds of things. Bear likes big social groups, and video games, and listening to dark music.

So, we settle on a movie day.

It's well-understood that Bear and I have wildly different tastes. Last year, we did an every-other thing.

1) Willow
2) Requiem for a Dream
3) Pretty in Pink (the only reason to watch this movie is Duckie, but Bear hadn't met Duckie, and that simply had to be rectified)
4) Something Fairly Dark Whose Title And Plot I Can No Longer Remember
5) Yellowbeard (meeting halfway)

This year, the plan ran:

1) Stardust
2) Fight Club
3) Peter Pan (2003)
4) The Pianist (kind of meeting halfway)

Save that somebody forgot his copy Fight Club back on the other side of the Rockies, and The Pianist was not available. Somehow, The Big Lebowski made it on the list instead.