Interesting day so far. I'm not getting that much work done, but that's okay. I needed a bit of a break to recharge my ideas any way. I do better when I can really attack the work in a nice large chunk of time - four or five hours or so.
As I was leaving to pick Gail up a retirement gift, who should I run into but Eric, Mr. countryscribe himself, here at Caribou coffee. We chatted a bit. It appears that he and Loiel have been asked to attend our Boston trip for the MNHS this summer. Before we could really get to visiting, though, someone else he knew walked in, and I excused myself.
Then it was off for a gift. I first stopped at Pier One Imports. I was, selfishly, hoping to find some Halloween deals. We're still two weeks from Halloween, and the damn store had all their Christmas stuff up. Oh man. Please.
On to the mall. Macy's, though, had a huge Christmas tree up too, plus all their Christmas merchandise. What is this world coming to. We are still mid October! Stop the insanity.
Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but not so early. What are we going to do next, put out the Fourth of July stuff in January?
Since we needed to get Gail a card, after Macy's and Spencer's and B. Dalton (I actually found the pumpkin carving book that the pictures previously posted on here came from and a great short horror novel "Dark Harvest," winner of the 2004 Bram Stoker Award), I made beeline for the Hallmark store. It was the jackpot. I not only found a card, but a nice figurine symbolizing love too. Plus, I found a frame and the quote "Life is what happens while you're making other plans." This is ironic. It is one of my favorite quotes from John Lennon, from his song "Beautiful Boy." When Kristie and I were first dating, we were talking on the phone. I was in my apartment and she was in RLF at home. She had the radio on and happened to be listening to that song (I didn't know that Lennon used the quote in that song). In fact, I couldn't even hear the radio. We were talking about life and stuff just happening for a reason when I thought of that line and said it. Well, as I said it, she heard the line (which was also one of her favorites) repeated in the song. It was at that moment, or so she tells me, that she knew I was the one. I knew she was the one the moment I saw her, of course. And that's the truth! So to make a long story short, once I saw the frame with the quote, it was easily worth the $9.50 it cost.
At least at Hallmark I found a Halloween candle in the shape of graver stone. I couldn't resist.
Then it was off to UND to show the gifts to Kristie and to have her fill out the card. Her office is nice. It's the total opposite of the farm supply store she used to work at.
Of course, one of the first things I pulled from the bag was the Halloween candle. Kristie giggled when I showed it to her and she read the "RIP" on it.
"It's not for Gail's retirement!" I said.
"Oh," Kristie giggled. "That would be funny though."
Then we rushed over the Gail's retirement party, which felt like an English department curriculum meeting since I again was the lone Y chromosome (two others did show up though!). It was a great little reception. By far the highlight was a coworkers retelling of Gail accidentally bringing a beer to work in her lunch. They got quite a kick out of that. And if you knew Gail at all, you would know how easily that would happen. Not that she is a booze hound or anything. She doesn't drink. But her children do when they come home (usually Thanksgiving or Christmas). Unfortunately, Gail NEVER throws anything away (she always gets insulted when she offers us a pop and one of us - usually KoKo or me - will check the date), so she must have meant to grab a diet Coke and nabbed a Bud Light instead. Ha.
She will be missed at work.
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