How do I deal with this difficult friend?

Jeannie is a friend I've known for 20+ years. We clicked as soon as we met and have stayed in touch even though I moved to the other end of the country 10 years ago. She has always claimed to be "depressive" which, frankly, is hard to believe as she's outgoing, the life and soul of the party, and has dozens of friends who genuinely seem to like her. I like her too, when she's acting normal! But she's becoming a drain on my mental reserves by doing and saying increasingly hurtful things. I've started to think her mental problem isn't depression but a deep need to test people out. It's almost as though she wants to push her luck to the point that people will react badly, so she can say, "See how bad I am, so nobody likes me in the end." She plays the depression card in order to make people feel sorry enough for her to help her out no matter what she asks of them. Here's my current problem. For the past few years Jeannie has claimed that she just doesn't have the time/heart/inclination to get me a gift for birthdays or Christmas. This doesn't matter to me at all - I don't think of friendship as tit-for-tat. When she sends a gift she always says, "You won't like it but I couldn't think of anything else to get you." I am never rude or dismissive about her gifts, by the way - throwing things back in people's faces just isn't my style. One year she even told me to buy something for myself and she would send a cheque to cover the cost. Maybe I'm unreasonable, but I find that insulting and hurtful. I passed it off with a light-hearted comment that she could send me a pretty leaf she found on the ground and I'd be very happy with the thought behind it. The next year she talked her daughter into buying me a book online and having it delivered to me. I've met the daughter only twice, and then only to say hello-goodbye in passing. Of course, the girl doesn't know my taste in books at all and was probably irritated with Jeannie for dumping the job on her in the first place! I can only describe the novel she sent as the worst kind of misery fiction (child abuse, beaten wife, unsuccessful attempt to run away, blah blah). Now Jeannie has gone back to the old "you buy it, I'll send you the money" idea. How on earth do I deal with this? I half-jokingly mentioned this aspect of her personality to her husband and he replied, "Yeah, just imagine how I feel - I've been married to her for 45 years." Sorry, I hadn't meant to go on at such length. In any case it would take 4 volumes in small print to relate all the hurtful little remarks and actions which make me feel like a gullible patsy in her life. I'm not a confrontational person, so telling all this to Jeannie is absolutely out of the question - I would die with embarrassment and shame if I ever said anything as hurtful to someone as "Please stay out of my life from now on." Anybody out there got any helpful ideas? Thanks for listening, folks.