Andrea has a knack for giving me pretty cool gifts.
After our engagement, we made the rounds of several parties held for us by mutual friends. As was typical at these events, everyone asked to see her ring. She politely obliged, but told me afterward she was rather sad she was the only one to have a physical memento of the engagement. I shrugged it off, "Pfft. Don't worry about it." But she got it in her head she wanted to reciprocate. A week or so after I returned to my apartment in Birmingham, a shipment arrived at my door. I smiled when I saw the sender's name. Andrea had just given me a brand new stereo system!
Receiver, dual tape deck, surround sound speakers, remote control, and, very spiffy for the time, a twenty-five CD caddy. I'm not even sure I had 25 CDs then - a lot of my music was still on cassettes. I called her up to thank her and she laughed at my giddiness.
Back in those days, I was a gym rat and would be a regular fixture at either the base gym or the YMCA. After we got married, we got commercial memberships, but because of where we were then living, the nearest gym was 30 minutes out. Working out started to become a time suck. She stepped in and got me a Bowflex. Again, I was ecstatic.
Her gifts haven't always been strictly practical. On one occasion of either an anniversary or birthday, I found a large package waiting on a table for me. Like an excited kid, I tore through the wrapping paper to expose an unusually shaped wooden box. My brow crinkled, not sure what to make of it. I slowly undid the latches and lifted its lid to reveal a functional, vintage brass sextant. Andrea knows what resonates with me, and the symbolism of this gift was profound. Sextants were critical for mariners in determining their location because you can't tell where you're going if you first don't know where you are.
Perhaps her most interesting gift was one I received when we were still dating. We'd been seeing each other for a while, and exchanging cutesy, coupley presents was not too unusual for us. At one relationship milestone we were celebrating, she gave me a thin, wrapped package. When I picked it up, I found it was flexible in my hands. Intently curious, I tore off the paper to reveal an issue of Sports Illustrated.
HaHa. Okay. So we're doing gag gifts now. She of all people knows I'm not a sports buff. But she kept looking at me expectantly, and I wasn't sure what she was waiting for. I took another look at the issue in my hand and my eyes popped. This wasn't any Sports Illustrated, it was that year's swimsuit edition.
OK, so this is a joke, right. Where's the camera? Is that Allen Funt behind that desk? Andrea snickered, still waiting for me to catch on. So I looked closer at her oddball gift. Slowly, the realization sank in. I started flipping pages, and my smile got wider and wider. My girl had gone to the trouble of making multiple color photocopies of her face, cut them out, and affixed them to every model's picture in the magazine from cover to cover.
It was the brassiest most gnarly gift she'd given me, and it was yet another tick mark in the "she's the one" column.
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