The Exact Perfect Gift

It’s been a technologically frustrating 2008 for me. First, after months of having the colors on my laptop screen skew at random, I tweaked it too much and cracked the screen. Now, besides the black line across one corner, everything on my screen is tinted blue. Makes it hard to see things in red, such as anything done in the Track Changes mode of Word.

On top of that, my wonderful laser printer informed me that it needed a new drum. No problem. I ordered and installed one. So now every few lines are faded. Makes each page a bit hard to read. My poor critique group has endured this for several weeks.

Add to that a bit of a money crunch at our house and I have been left to endure. I’m not complaining, mind you. I’m not even throwing a fit. I know how insignificant these things really are. They are just annoying. So fellow Life Sentence-ers Mary DeMuth and Leslie Wilson conspired to give me a boost for my birthday. They gave me a gift card to Office Max to help remedy whatever it could.

Simple, right?

Never!

Backstory: Apparently when they went to get the gift card, they were out. Completely out of gift cards! Go figure! So they had to buy something and then return it to get a Merchandise Credit card. Okay. No big deal. But in doing so, it made an odd amount, because of tax.

After much consideration, I went to Office Max to buy a new printer, one that was on sale and, with my “merchandise credit” and a coupon, would cost me $5 or so. Again, never as simple as it seems. The first store was out of the desired printer. Today I went across town to another Office Max. No printers on the shelf, but a wonderful guy found one in the back. I took it to the register, handed the man my coupon and my card, and waited, cash in hand, to hear what I owed.

The man looked at me, incredulously. “It’s the same amount.”

“What do you mean?”

“The card.” He looked back at his register. “It’s exactly the same amount as the printer. To the penny.”

I just laughed. God is so good. He let my friends give me the EXACT perfect gift for my birthday! So here’s to happy printing, where all the words come through on the page. Thanks Mary and Leslie!