Tornado Birthday Shopping!

I’m back from my two-week vacation to Toronto and aside from all the mayhem and destruction it went pretty well. I ended up switching my ticket and I got into Ottawa around 23:45 Wednesday. I was supposed to come home yesterday (Thursday) but that turned out to be the same day as the GF’s birthday.

So I’m at the shopping mall right now where I just spent a good part of my Friday afternoon looking for a gift for my aforementioned girlfriend. And her birthday this year is a special one – I can’t give out her exact age because that would leave her vulnerable to identity theft and direct marketing initiatives – but let’s just say that when any anniversary is a multiple of thirty, it’s a cause for extra celebration. This is why I put a lot of thought into what to get her this year and I have to say, I really think she’s going to like this jigsaw puzzle.

After you’ve been with someone for a couple of years you would think that it would be straightforward to identify and acquire a birthday gift, but let me tell you: it’s not that easy. Ravensburger has such a wide array of puzzle sizes and styles, it can be a lot of work deciding which is the perfect one.

Just look at this selection.

But if I understand my GF (and I do) I know that she loves challenges. The other day she said that living with me is incredibly challenging – she sounded really serious when she said it but that was just her dry Finnish robotic-style humour. After all this time together I can tell when she’s in Robo-Finn mode, and it always puts a smile on my face. This is why I decided to get her a 1500-piece puzzle instead of the traditional 500 or 1000-piece ones. Those extra 500 pieces might not seem like a lot but let me tell you, that’s another five or six hours of puzzling right there.

Once I had the size narrowed down, I had to select the image. This was really important because she’s going to spend a lot of hours on this puzzle and it has to be something she wants to look at. So how do I know what she likes? Well, the key to a healthy relationship is being able to listen to the other person. But just listening is not enough, you have to remember what they’re saying too. I can recall several times over the past year when she talked about just wanting to get away. And being from Finland (where it’s winter ten months of the year) she’s going to want to go somewhere tropical.

I put all this information together and voila! The perfect birthday gift:

She’s big on saving the environment so I’m not going to get it wrapped. That would just upset her.

Alright, I’m glad that’s out of the way. I find shopping stressful so I’m always happy when it’s over. And now I’m going to head out from the mall. The tornado warning seems to be over and I hope there’s something to eat at home. I’m starving!