Pillow talk...

I just realized that I only have two weeks before we leave for Chicago, which means that I have to get all my Christmas gifts purchased, organized and wrapped before then. And I promised Eric I’d bring along some cookies when I visit him, so I’ll have to make those right before I leave. (And I can’t forget to burn a few for dad – dad likes his cookies well-done. Dad is weird… :))

I remember one night near Christmas a couple years ago when I was talking to Faisal on the phone, and trying in vain to wrap a present at the same time. And it wasn’t the fact that I was on the phone that was making the gift-wrapping task so difficult – it was because the gift I was trying to wrap was a pillow. (“A pillow???” is what I believe Faisal said when I told him… and just as I explained to him, I’ll explain again: it wasn’t just a plain old pillow pillow. It was a throw pillow – a decorative pillow. A pillow with an embroidered pattern and tiny little mirrors scattered over its surface. The kind of pillow one might actually GIVE as a gift, if they were so inclined…) Faisal was heading for a Home Depot, and when he got there, he said he’d call me back when he was finished buying 2x4s or doorknobs or buckets of paint or whatever it was he was buying.

And after about 30 minutes, he did call back. And after that same 30 minutes, I was STILL sitting on the floor of my living room, attempting to wrap that stupid decorative pillow. How was I to know how difficult it was to wrap a pillow? How was I to know it would take so long to find a way to wrap paper around an object with no discernable edges? Obviously, as it turned out, it was QUITE difficult. (What I believe Faisal was thinking as he spoke to me that night: “She’s STILL trying to wrap a PILLOW? What. A. Freak.” I’m pretty sure it was something like that…)

I did eventually get the pillow wrapped, quite nicely, in purple tissue paper tied with ribbon. And here’s the best part: I never did exchange gifts with the intended recipient of that pillow. By the time January rolled around, I realized the painstakingly-wrapped pillow was never going to be opened by anyone except MYSELF – the very person who sat on the floor for 40 minutes to wrap it in the first place. But you’d better believe I had a great time UNwrapping it – and now the lovely pillow is sitting on my couch in the TV room, to constantly remind me of how much time I wasted when I wrapped it…

And I only mention this little anecdote because the next two weeks may not be enough TIME to take care of all my Christmas responsibilities. You would THINK that two weeks would be long enough to wrap everything, but I guess you never know.

But I DO know that no one is getting a pillow this year…

That's 40 minutes of my life I'll never get back...