A Christmas Story, by way of a Question

1.03.2010

This post was originally just gonna be a question: "What colors do you see when you visit this blog", but I've gotta give the back story...

Imagine it: it's the night of December 23rd and Jay & I had determined that we would exchange gifts this night because we were scheduled to leave on the 24th for our holiday travel / family extravaganza. So we separate and go into different rooms to wrap gifts. In my head I'm thinking that he'll need a solid hour to wrap all of my gifts, both because he got me many, many gifts, and because well, he's a man and men are... let's just say that in my experience, men are not blessed with talent in the art of gift wrap.

About 15 minutes in to the wrap session, there was a rap at the door of the room I was in. It was Jay, joyfully letting me know that he was done and asking whether or not I was done. I quickly scanned the 3 out of 12 gifts that I had wrapped and politely let him know that 1) I was not done, and 2) I was very impressed with his ability to wrap ALL of my many gifts in such a short amount of time. I also secretly panicked, as we had not set an official spending limit and had simply agreed to spoil each other to a point that we felt comfortable with. "Oh crap!", I thought, what if I had gone way overboard with all of these presents and what if he had only bought me a pair of cute socks and a tube of Burts Bees. Nah. Never. Not Jay. Not in a million years. And so I dismissed the thought and wrapped on, for at least another 20-30 minutes.

When I finally emerged from the bedroom, I had to struggle to carry and see my way through the pile of neatly wrapped packages in my arms. By the time I got out to the living room where the Christmas tree was, I almost dropped them. Not because they were heavy or falling out of my arms, but because I saw what was under the tree waiting for me: 4 gifts. "Just four?", I thought, as I eyeballed the twelve that I had for him. Huh.

We shared a hug and both expressed utter excitement about giving each other gifts, and Jay says, "well you definitely win in the quantity department..." And since the joy is truly more on the giving side, I feel really excited and kinda feel bad that he only has four gifts to give me. poor guy.

So he starts opening my gifts to him: a really nice chef's knife, a Ken Burns documentary series, shirts, music, etc. He hands me one gift but states that 3 out of the 4 are all connected so I would need to open it, not look at it and just put it down and cover it up. "Huh,.. shady", I think. I open #1, put it down and cover it with wrap. I open #2, put it down and cover it with wrap. Meanwhile I give him more gifts to open: DVD's, another shirt, more kitchen stuff, etc. Finally it's time for gift #3, the one that is connected to and will explain #1 and #2; I open it and see that it's an electronic gadget. After a couple oohs and ahhs, and a "what is it?", I realize it's a GPS system.

{Before I proceed, I should tell you that I love maps and that I have a great sense of direction. In fact, I love to get lost for the sheer enjoyment of finding my way out. So a GPS system is the LAST thing I would want. It's like a chef getting a years subscription to "Microwave Meals". I also think that GPS systems are making people dumb, but that's a whole other blog}

I had to be honest, but I needed to buy myself another 20 seconds, so I was like, "ohhh, what is it? Ohhh, okay, well, um, I really, uh-- yeah I really don't want this. Sorry love, but it's not really me, ya know?" And Jay was like, "well I know how much you love maps (SO SWEET) and I thought it might be useful on our road-trip (again, very sweet and thoughtful), and I thought you might really like it" And I was like, "yeah, I like maps, when they're on the wall or in an atlas. Sorry presh" :( So there it was: 3 out of 4 of my gifts were a FAIL. 75% down the tubes. It was classic, and as disappointed as he was, he was a good sport and we were able to laugh pretty hard about it, which was a gift unto itself.

So it all came down to the fourth and final gift, which totally looked like a shirt box or maybe a board game. I picked it up and thought "yes, definitely a board game", which was cool cause games were on my list. I peeled back the upper left corner and just saw white. I ripped some towards the center and saw some pinkish / purple design. And then I realized: it was a new laptop :) And, it was a really really nice laptop; a MacBook Pro, which is an upgrade from my current one, which has recently started to become sluggish, burnt, and has possible and probable internal melt issues. EPIC SUCCESS! It was classic, 75% epic failure followed my a major face-saving gift. I'm so glad it wasn't a shirt! That would've been a total FAIL.

So anyway............... that's the back-story of the original question of this blog. On my old computer the colors are slightly different and I'm not digging the way my blog colors appear on this new laptop. And that has me wondering, what do you guys see? The color on the sides is supposed to be more pinkish, like Magenta, but on my new screen it almost looks more reddish, like Burgundy. And the text box is supposed to be brown or khaki but it looks greenish now. Either I need to tweak my screen colors or I need to tweak my blog; either way, I definitely need your help!

Thanks, and Merry Christmas! I hope your gifts, both received and given, brought as much laughter and joy as ours did :)

3 comments:

Mona said...

I see magenta and khaki. yay new computer! way to save face, Jay-bo. :)

Unknown said...

i see pretty much what you described seeing on your new macbook...but i also have a new macbook, so i guess it really just depends on each person's individual machine? but hey, since it's a new year and newness abounds, why not tweak the colors for the hell of it anyway?

JenRae said...

I see magenta and tan also... but it looks different than I remember, so maybe it's just coincedence that you got the new computer and the colors changed on the website?

That stinks that the GPS was a bust. i am so with you on that though... I love taking a road I'm not familiar with and figuring out where I am going, learning a new route, and seeing something that i wasn't aware of!!!
Chey and I don't even exchange gifts (even before the girls), because he always got me stuff i didn't want or need, and I would get upset about all the money that was wasted!!!

the new laptop sounds awesome though!!!