My mom always gets frazzled about gifts. She agonizes over what to give someone. She debated with herself about a gift certficate for my favorite dog-loving neighbor who helped us out a few times this year: Amazon or Metropolitan Market? Finally she realized her neighbor has received packages from Amazon. Like, duh! It was the right decision.
Some gifts, she says, come easily. She always gives her hair stylist a gift certificate to Macrina Bakery, which is practically next door to the shop. This year she gave a few books to people because, she said, the books seemed to fit the recipients so perfectly.
But, she adds, “If I make a mistake, it’s no big deal. The books are currently stocked in bookstores. The recipients can sell the books to used book stores or re-gift them easily. Libraries will be happy to take them.”
This year she’s going a little off the deep end, in my canine opinion. She’s giving her own pottery to selected friends. A normal person with my mom’s talent level would bury those pieces somewhere deep, like in the dog park with old tennis balls. Not my mom. She’s showing them off as if she were a pro.
I adore my Uncle Lance (that’s not his real name, of course; he’s always in disguise) because he appreciates me so much. Recently he met my mom for coffee. “If Gracie’s with her sitter on Tuesday, we’d better meet Wednesday,” he said. “I don’t want to miss seeing Gracie.”
My mom needs more friends like Uncle Lance. Alas, she gave him the misshapen object you see in the photo. It’s one of her earlier works, when she was just getting started on the wheel this fall. She glazed it black because he one said he likes that color. Uncle Lance actually claimed he liked this object. He sent my mom this photo of the pot on sitting on his shelf. It’s only a few paw-lengths tall: about 4 to 6 inches, my mom says. So it won’t exactly jump out at people who visit Uncle Lance’s home and admire his good taste.
Humans are SO complicated. Dogs get treats, period. Of course, I’m still holding out for a new leash. My mom got a gift certificate from Macys. Does Macys carry leashes? Maybe if I chew up her gift card she’ll get the hint.