First off, I’d like to apologize for my extended absence on here. Part of the time was spent fighting off some sort of illness (not the flu, thank God, but whatever it was required a lot of sleep, a lot of fluids, a lot of chicken noodle soup and a couple hot showers scattered in there as well). The other part of the time… I have no excuses and beg the court to show mercy. If it doesn’t, then I probably won’t be able to finish this blog entry. Bummer.
In the last couple weeks, I bought a bunch of gifts for family and friends. Consider them very belated Christmas presents, “Giving Day” gifts or “I suck and I’m trying to make up for not getting you anything for your birthday in seven years.” Whatever they are, I went on a bit of a buying spree. On Friday, I met a couple friends for dinner—as a form of coercion, I let them know I’d be bearing gifts. Normally, it takes us eons to find a good day and time to get together, but apparently, the temptation of those gifts was pretty coercive since we met up in less than a week.
I brought a bag with me that had four items inside, one of which was a gift for someone else and one was for me. One of my friends there was Brian Farrey, author of The Vengekeep Prophecies and just an all-around swell guy, especially since he wasn’t overly judgmental when I missed two of his book signings. He agreed to autograph some books, so I brought one for my niece and one for myself—thankfully, his signature in mine didn’t include anything overly judgmental.
The third item in the goodie bag was a book for Jeremy entitled The God Question, which I thought was awesome for two reasons. 1) Jeremy is a religious individual and I thought he’d enjoy the subject; and 2) it was signed by the author, Andy Pessin. (He was a philosophy professor of mine back at Kenyon, so getting it signed “To Jeremy” didn’t require too much begging.) I gave the book to Jeremy, who thought it was pretty awesome, too.
The fourth thing, my gift for Brian and Ben, was because they kept telling me to watch The Big Bang Theory. They were the ones who applied the most pressure and ultimately inspired the blog entry about “Should I watch it?” back in mid-November. I decided to give it a shot, so they lent me their copy of the first season. I definitely enjoyed it, but not as much as they do: I have yet to insert any lines from the show into the middle of a conversation.
Anyway! When I returned Season 1, they admitted that due to various sales at stores, they’d purchased the fourth and fifth seasons, but not the second and third. (Given their ability to quote lines, I’m pretty sure they’ve already seen all the episodes anyway.) Thus, I decided to fill half of the hole in their collection: I bought them a copy of Season 2. It wasn’t signed, but I thought they’d still like it.
And they did… sorta. Just before bringing out my gifts for everyone, Brian and Ben explained that they had something for me as well. Just recently, they went out and bought something for themselves, then brought it to lend to me: Season 2 of The Big Bang Theory.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Consider the title of this entry. I didn’t want to be an Indian giver. According to Wikipedia, it’s “a person who gives a gift (literal or figurative) and later wants it back, or something equivalent in return.” I told the guys ahead of time that they didn’t need to buy me anything—saying “Thank you” was enough. Suddenly… I got my gift back. Brian and Ben were very gracious and accepted mine with thanks, then “lent” me their copy of Season 2 on a permanent basis. My gift was their gift was my gift. Bummer.
