Saturday, March 24, 2012

The Strangest Christmas Gift


I’ve tried all week to come up with a list for the blog assignment. Sure, I make lists. I have a grocery list in the little notebook I carry in my purse: milk, toilet tissue.... I have a list of tasks to accomplish in my day planner: write another scene for my next book, critique chapters for my writers’ groups… Yeah, I make lists, but they’re about as entertaining as—well—reading a grocery list.  So what have I done that would make a list anybody would want to read?

Nothing.

For some reason, though, my thoughts kept returning to a Christmas party I attended while I was working for the Fortune 500 corporation.  I was seated at table with the vice president of the division, his wife, my supervisor and her husband, who was a factory manager, and a department manager and his wife. I was the lowest person on the totem pole at that table, there only because my job had high visibility in the division and in the community.

Needless to say, I sat quietly and listened to the conversation—something I’m quite good at because I’m a devoted introvert. Somehow, that conversation drifted to listing the strangest Christmas gifts we’d ever received. I can’t remember all the gifts that were added to the list. I was just trying to keep a low profile because, really, what could I say that would top a Porche?

But then all faces turned to me.

And I just blurted out the gift my husband had given me last Christmas.

“An atlatl and three spears.”

I won.

12 comments:

  1. Loved your story as I had a similar problem this week, but managed to find something to write about. Like you, I am an introvert, and then I got to the end of your post and realized, I am a lot like you! An atlatl! How original and hilariously funny! I'm so glad you won!

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    1. I will admit that I have yet to try out my atlatl, but it holds a place of honor on a living room end table, not far from the spears. Yes, I have strange decor. And you're right. It was not done by a decorator. : - )

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  2. That is priceless!!
    Kathy
    HTTP://gigglingtruckerswife.blogspot.com/

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  3. ha. don't you love the unexpectedness of things, sometimes.
    nice write.

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  4. Yes, I do--sometimes. And I have to admit that my husband caught me completely by surprise with that gift. Some day I'm sure I'll have to give up the spears (the nursing home will probably frown on them ( - : ) but I hope to hand on to the atlatl.

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  5. I admit I had to go look it up, but now I know that an atlatl is a stick used to throw another stick further than you could throw the stick without the other stick. Why didn't you just say that Angela?

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    1. If I had done that, you wouldn't have learned a new word, would you Mike? : - )

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  6. I'll be sure you get to take your spears into the nursing home. Unless you start threatening the other residents with them...

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    1. Thank you, Katriena. You're a good daughter. : - )

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  7. I think you'd have won even at a very large table.

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