How to give gifts

A favorite part of my week is Wednesdays around 11 or 12.

My buddy Todd and I go out to lunch at Spokes. A local bar/restaurant around the corner from his house.

We’ve done it for about a year now.

It’s close, and we both got tired of trying to decide where to go every week.

So spokes it is.

We have the same server/bartender every day. Her name is Candace.

Candace, is lovely!

We’ve become good friends with Candace.

She’s a sweet, beautiful, mother and wife.

And recently she graduated from yoga teacher training school.

YAY! Everyone congratulate Candace.

Before I get into what Todd did. Let me preface with a quick little story.

One day I wanted grapes with my chicken. Just grapes.

I like grapes. They are yummy, easy to eat, and at restaurants, you don't have to worry about stems, because they remove them for you.

But spokes doesn’t have grapes. The only fruit they had was pears.

I said fuck it, go with pears, but Candace found it hilarious, and was very accommodating about how the pears were pre-peard.

Diced, sliced, or whole?

In the coming weeks, since she always has our order memorized she would ask if I want pear in it.

And, for the sake of the joke, of course I’d throw them on in.

Now we make tons of pear-puns and anytime Todd and I see a pear we think of Candace.

Now back to Todd…

Todd is one of the Kindest people I’ve ever met.

He makes things for people all the time, and he’s a busy mother fucker.

He's extremely considerate. For instance, when people are at his house, he plays the music they like to listen to.

He'll probably hate that I'm talking about him like this 🤣😉.

So upon hearing about Candace's graduation, he decides we need to make her something.

And by "we," I mean him. I had a very limited advisory role in the project.

Candace had told us about how she wants to do high yoga, which both Todd and I support and may or may not have tipped her in pear flavored weed gummies from time to time.

So Todd decides to buy her a pear shaped pipe and a lighter in her favorite color, then shave out a pear of yoga blocks to hold the lighter, one held the pear weed gummies and lighter, and the other held the pear shaped pipe.

It was soo cool, and not hard, but also not easy to make and put together.

We also went on a 2hr shopping hunt for pink yoga straps, but could not find any.

I thought to myself, damn Todd, you’re putting a decent amount of time and money into this, is it worth it?

Answer:

a

big

fat

Candace's reaction upon receiving the pear of yoga blocks was immensely grateful, surprised, and appreciative.

Making it so that the weight of cost to time was drastically tipped in the favor of her reaction.

It was also hilarious that she didn't want her boss to see, but I don't blame her. Some bosses are not super cool with, now legal, drugs.

This made me realize how much fun it is to build for people, and how worth it a well timed, well designed, and well intentioned gift is to give.

What will you make and give to someone, before Christmas or maybe for New Year's when they aren't expecting a gift?

It can be simple, just carve their name into something by hand, or draw them a horrible picture. You don’t need to have maker skills like Todd and I, just make it personal and personalized.

You won’t regret it.

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