So I was talking to my gf yesterday and she started bitching about how I wouln't give her a wish list for christmas. As I joke, I sent her to the Cobb website, thinking she would get a kick out of it. Well, she took it seriously and now she's all about getting something for my car. The problem is I'm not sure what fits my car and what dosn't. I'd really like one the kartboy shifters, but they only say 98 and newer. Is there a short-shifter for my car? If so, where can I get a new shifter skirt (is that what it's called?) to go with it. Mine is one of those nasty-ass plastic intestine looking ones.

I too have a 97 L. I suggest you do some searching on this site with key word shifter. You could always call Cobb, too.
The shift boot from an RS can go on but it will leave a lip exposed on the surround. You can instead buy a generic leather boot from an auto part supplier and do some DIY. Here is a good write-up. [URL=http://wac.addr.com/auto/obs]

I was thinking...if you are looking for something to start with why not upgrade your rear sway bar. It makes a big difference.
The shifter will likely end up grinding your gears and shortening the life of you tranny. The synchros only work so fast.
You can pick up a 17mm bar from a WRX. People are selling them all the time in the classified forum. Or you can buy an 18mm from subaruparts.com for under $100.
my 2 cents.

I was thinking of going with some whiteline strut towers before I went with the sway-bar, but I could always do both. I didn't know the WRX bars would fit our cars. How big is ours stock? I heard 13, but I could be wrong.

The oem is 13mm. The 17 or 18 will make a big difference. Far more than strut towers. Only the rear tower will make much difference and you will need to cut out your side panels to install it, then undo it when you need the cargo space.
For this reason the strut towers are pretty low on my list of things to do.
I would do the following:
rear sway - (cheap, easy, big gain)
tires - (even bigger gain, but $$)
Struts - (firm things up, but $$)
Springs - (for now I'm going with used RS springs because they can be had for low $)
HD endlinks (fairly cheap and much better than oem)
poly bar bushings - (cheap with moderate effect)
Once this is done, I would move onto braking (RS fronts, Legacy rear discs, steel lines, slotted rotor, ebc pads)
Along the way I will do some frilly stuff like painting mirrors and handles, interior trim, leather shift boot, etc.
My 4 cents:)