A hardware store might be the one place where I might walk out with just one thing. You need a certain-size bolt, and you walk out with said certain-size bolt. Maybe your purchase totals 30 cents. You feel so disciplined. But there was a hardware store in Galva, Illinois (it may still be there) we used to go to when we were young that was more department store than hardware store, at least in my mind. One year, when my sister and I were rather young, we somehow had scraped up a few dollars to buy mom a Christmas gift, and we had to buy something there because that's where mom needed to go and it was just a couple of days from Christmas. We were much too small to drive, and the planets had to line up properly for us to get to go to Galesburg. It was a pretty big deal that we had enough money to actually buy her something, so we had to make this gift count. We looked and looked and finally chose a beautiful dish and it amazingly fit our budget. We had never seen anything like it. It had a metal base and the dish was elevated quite high above the base. It had these cute little cupids on it with arrows. We both agreed that this was the perfect elegant gift for our mom, probably better than anything we could have found in Galesburg anyway. We took it up to the counter, and paid for it. The cashier wrapped it up and told us both, "What a beautiful soap dish. Your mom will really love it." I was speechless, and remember thinking--soap dish? What is a soap dish? We bought mom a soap dish? So that means it's going to have to be in the bathroom? We wanted it to command the center of attention for all to admire, and were a little devastated to hear it was going to have to be in the bathroom. I don't think we realized we realized we possibly could have exchanged it. Funny, but it might be the only gift I can remember giving our mom.
One of the best Christmas gifts I ever received were watercolor lessons from Jill Pritchett, an artist in Bluefield, Virginia. I was working in television news at the time, and feeling somewhat overwhelmed with work and keeping up the house (which is laughable now), and my husband hinted to me something about how great it would be for me to take watercolor lessons. At that moment, I think I was picking up clothes off the floor and irritated, and I remembered saying...you better not have bought me watercolor lessons for Christmas! I don't have time for that! Sure enough he did. I went to my first class and was hooked. She was an immensely talented artist and such an interesting person. After a few weeks, she warned us we wouldn't have class for a bit as she was taking a trip and was going to hike Mt. Kilimanjaro. She didn't make the summit but she fell in love. She came back from the trip and started a beautiful landscape of the mountain and their tents glowing in the night. She explained that she had fallen in love with a guy from Pennsylvania who happened to be on the trip, and her painting showed it. Eventually she closed her shop and moved to Pennsylvania to marry him. I have some jewelry that she made and a watercolor of Muir Woods and they are treasures to me. I always figured it had to be love because she got terrible diarrhea from the meat they carried up the mountain. It wasn't refrigerated, and at meal times, the guides would shave off the outside of the meat and cut off an inner portion for cooking. She was sicker than she'd ever been, humiliated from gastrointestinal issues, and yet, in love. My fellow painters and I were all a little heartbroken about losing our teacher, but so glad for her happiness.
I guess it was a little before Christmas 2007 when we were at a mall in Tucson, and I dropped a hint about the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix. This time, it was my husband who made that sort of comment---you better not have bought tickets to the Fiesta Bowl because I don't want to go. I didn't say anything, but of course I did. How could I not? He used to teach at WVU and they were going to be two hours away in Phoenix? Slowly he came around to the idea. We were all pretty angry that West Virginia's coach had left, and it definitely affected our enthusiasm about the game. It all changed when we got there. Anyone dressed in blue and gold was an instant friend, and it was a gigantic party in the mild desert air. The Oklahoma fans were some of the most polite fans we had ever seen and apologized in advance for the beating they figured we would take. We were surprised to win and had a great time.
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