Last year, I wrote about my strong affinity for the Charlie Brown Christmas episode. I watched it again last night following a holiday party we hosted. Yet again, I am convinced that everyone could benefit from embracing its messages of anti-commercialism and peace on earth.
Something happened at last night's party that my brain is stuck on - I just can't stop thinking about it. We had a white elephant gift exchange, and I brought four extra presents in case some people had forgotten. One of our guests got one of my presents, a leather journal, and she was visibly and loudly disappointed in her gift. She warned others to be wary of gifts wrapped in the same paper. (As a side note, what's wrong with a leather journal?)
Her marketing worked, for at the end of the evening, the two gifts that remained after everyone had gone were two of my extras. We decided to just return the gifts to me and call the exchange over. I was actually glad no one had picked them, because I didn't really want to hear more negativity about what I had brought, which was a photo album and a pen and pencil set. Who would want to hear smack about what I thought was a nice gesture? Plus, I'd have two emergency, wrapped and ready to go gifts.
The leather journal recipient insisted that she open the extra gifts. I asked her not to, hoping we could move on and stop hearing about how she hated her journal. She threw one of the extras at me, saying ,"Fine!" while she continued to unwrap the second one. She decided she liked the album and that liking it made it rightfully hers. Later on in the evening, she found the extra gift that she had previously thrown at me (I put it to the side of the room), quietly opened it and took it home as well, tucking it into her album.
Granted, these were not big ticket items. But, the spirit in which I contributed them to the pot was so that everyone would feel equal and have one gift, even if they forgot to bring one. White elephant gifts typically span the range of the hilarious (a box full of "All Purpose Sauce" and "Canned Meat Product" was a winner) to the incredibly useful (George Foreman Grill) to the cool (huge talking Simpsons PEZ dispenser, stolen three times) to the mundane that one person may like but that another may hate (leather journal, I guess). Most of the fun of the exchange is the mystery of what you'll end up with, in my case a flashlight shaped in the form of a fish. Stealing gifts and bitching about what you get just doesn't seem consistent with the holiday spirit, and I'm pretty sure Charlie Brown would agree.
After 32 hours of confusion over SFO airport parking, driving through a mini-flood, almost missing my connecting flight in Narita because I fell asleep in the seats outside of the gate, sleeping on a patch of carpet on a "Welcome to Thailand" display in Bangkok's International Airport, and having some difficulty distinguishing the Orchidacea Resort from the numerous others in Phuket, I made it in one piece, relieved to meet up with Kevin in Phuket, Thailand.
As I expected, Phuket was your standard Asian beach resort tourist area, complete with hot weather, gorgeous scenary, comparatively mediocre food, and a lack of culture. We witnessed awkward displays of affection between European men (many with wedding bands) traveling with Thai women (none with wedding bands). On our first night, we had a one hour foot massage, and on our second, we had one and a half hour traditional Thai massages, though they recommended that I extend mine because I seemed unnaturally stiff, also known as completely lacking flexibility.
Chiang Mai was much cooler in temperature and warmer in friendliness. We spent time browsing the day and night markets, finding lots of trinkets and scoring a great hand carved wood piece that will be a special Christmas gift - special because of the effort required to transport the thing from Chiang Mai to Bangkok to Narita to home. Cooking class was a "blast," and I impressed myself by remembering where the office was located. I am now much more of a chef, having nearly doubled my Thai cooking repertoire. Also taxing on the memory was recalling the location of the "nice lady" who sold cute stuff and made one deliciously memorable coconut shake.
After 3 days in Chiang Mai, we headed to Bangkok. Rather than spend much time looking around, we vegged in the hotel room. I came down with some random illness, of course...I always get sick. So, it was nice to sleep.
I met up with Brian, and we did some shopping, oh, I mean we "ran errands." I now have even more inventory (stuff, junk, crap) to sell - oh goodie!
Thankfully, my flight home was only 19 hours, because I got stuck in the same row as a man who couldn't stop talking, even though he had nothing at all of interest to say. I got through customs without issue, and was greeted with a scowl by my airport shuttle driver. I had made an advance reservation in order to get a discount, and he was obviously disappointed. Being in no mood to deal with passive aggressiveness, I point blank asked him what was up with his obvious disapproval in my having selected his service for a ride home. He acknowledged that he was ticked off to have to do his job and take me to a residential area in traffic for such a low rate. When I offered to handle my own luggage, given his obvious dismay, he grimaced and told me that I shouldn't be ridiculous as he threw my treasures into the back of his van. Welcome home to America!