Club Endless Fantasy

Ian: I think it’s a card game. Apparently, some of the cards are really expensive…

Elly: Cool, well maybe I can go to the magic store if my Bob likes the same thing.

Ian: I don’t think you get the cards at a magic store.

Elly: That’s confusing.

Ian: Let me know if you need any help. We’re still on for tomorrow, right?

Elly: Yeah, but you haven’t told me what we’re doing. I need to know what to wear…

Ian: Wear something comfortable.

Elly: That’s a very wide spectrum.

Ian: Jeans and a t-shirt would be perfectly fine. Bonus points if it’s a Christmas t-shirt.

Elly: I’ll check my closet. Oh wait, I don’t have to. I have no Christmas t-shirts…

Ian: Any t-shirt will do.

Elly: I have a Bill Cosby t-shirt that says “Drinks Are on Me.” Will that work?

Ian: Please tell me you’re joking.

Elly: I am, but someone actually wore one of those to class once…

Ian: How about a t-shirt that doesn’t have anything offensive on it?

Elly: I’ll see what I can do.

The workday ended, and once everyone was out of the office, I made the trek to accounting. It took me a couple of minutes to find Bob’s desk. I didn’t see anything that indicated he was into grumpy cats or magic. He had a picture of his family on one side of his computer, and a picture of his dog on the other side—his dog was quite adorable. I didn’t see anything that told me what he was interested in other than his wife, kids, and fur-baby. I decided to take a risk and rummage through his desk drawers. That could have gotten me fired if anyone saw me doing it, but I was the last one in the office, so I didn’t think it would be a big deal. It wasn’t like I was trying to steal anything. I had a good reason for digging through his stuff.

Hmm. What is this?

Most of the stuff in his desk was work related, but in the back of the drawer, I found a couple of fliers for rock bands. He seemed to be into music—that was a start. I sat down at his desk and pulled out my phone. I wasn’t sure if I could find anything on his Facebook page, or if I could even find his Facebook page, but I wanted to get confirmation before I went all-in on rock music as his main hobby. Luckily, he was the only Bob Langston that popped up in my list of mutual friends, so I assumed that was him. I didn’t friend many people from work, but I got several requests when I was an intern and was scared to turn them down.

“Yep, that’s definitely Bob.” I flipped through his page.

Bob’s Facebook page was similar to his desk. There were a lot of pictures of his family, his adorable dog, and buried in the history were several pictures of Bob at a concert. His interests seemed to be on the heavier side of rock music—almost all of the bands he tagged were in the Heavy Metal genre—Metallica, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Slayer, and a bunch of bands I hadn’t even heard of. I had a solid lead, but I didn’t know how to turn that into a gift. I assumed tickets for a big show would be rather expensive.

Thank goodness his profile isn’t private…

I went to his timeline and looked through some recent posts. It appeared that he didn’t just enjoy Heavy Metal music, he also liked collecting memorabilia

, and his newest obsession was vinyl records from his favorite bands. I didn’t even realize that they still made vinyl records, but a little more research confirmed that bands were releasing limited numbers of them for people who still liked to collect that sort of thing. I flipped over to Amazon and found that some of them were quite expensive. I managed to find two from the bands he tagged that were in the twenty-five dollar range, so I added them to my cart. I had no way to confirm that he didn’t already have them, but at least I put some thought into the gift.

That’s more thought than I’ve put into a gift in years, so maybe I’ve warmed up to the holiday season a little more than I realized.

I felt good about my gift for Bob, and I really did need to get a move on my shopping, so I made a list when I got home. There was no way that I could buy gifts for everyone, and I hadn’t participated in the family gift exchange since my father was buying the gifts that I gave people. They normally drew names so that everyone would have something to open after Christmas dinner. It was a tradition that I never particularly enjoyed, mainly because my interest in the holidays were already soured by that point.

My list didn’t end up being very long. I needed to buy something for Ian, my parents, and I decided that I would get a gift for Starla since she invited me to Christmas dinner in the first place. I normally had the gifts for my parents shipped to their house, but if I was going to see my father, I could deliver his gift in person. I doubted I would see my mother at all. If she wasn’t on a cruise, then she would likely spend the holiday season at a resort where it was warm. She still sent gifts to her family, even if her husband didn’t celebrate Christmas, so I did feel obligated to get her something every year.

Alright, I can knock out everyone except Ian on Amazon. I literally have no idea what I’m going to get him…

My mother collected Russian figurines. She inherited the bulk of her collection from my great-grandmother and continued the tradition of adding to it every year. It was easy to find one that she didn’t have and ship it directly to her house with a note that said Merry Christmas. I usually got my father a tie, socks, or something that didn’t require much thought. The holiday spirit must have been trying to get a grip on me because I found myself browsing memorabilia for his favorite college football team instead of the normal stuff I got him. I found a nice piece of wall art that his wife would probably hate, but I didn’t care. Stella was next up, and I just made a mental note to buy her a bottle of wine—the same one we shared when she came for a visit. She obviously liked it.

Maybe I should push her outside of her comfort zone and give her a gift certificate for Famous Sid’s as well. That would just give her an excuse to visit me though…