The Present

I shared this with Jason and Daniel tonight and now I will share it with you.

I received the greatest Christmas present I have ever been given by my parents in terms of usefulness and enjoyment since the Winnie the Pooh record player from Christmas '77.

It's a blanket. Or perhaps you call it a "throw." I'm not quite sure. It's red with blue stitching around the corners and extremely soft and extremely large, so much so that I can wrap myself in it. I've had soft blankets before and I've had large blankets before but I have never quite experienced the convergence of large AND soft. This is a special feeling.

Usually my parents buy me crap. I've received a flashlight for Christmas for the past few years and if you're telling yourself that a flashlight is VERY useful I would agree except for the fact that I have received so many of them over the years that after the first flashlight the rest lose their usefulness because you can only really use one flashlight at a time unless you share your other flashlights with others.

But this blanket, wow. I watched Garden State tonight with my new red blanket wrapped around me. I have made it through the past few nights of moderately cold temperatures with the warmth of my new red blanket enveloping me.

I haven't felt this much comfort from a piece of material since (and I hope Luke is reading this because he is the only one who might possibly remember) the blue-hooded sweatshirt I gave to my dad for Christmas and borrowed in the summer of '96 to take to Estonia with me. I LOVED that blue-hooded sweatshirt. I got it at Montgomery Wards, which I don't think exists anymore, for a small price but it was soft and lined on the inside with the same material that they make thermal underwear with. The hood was large and bulky and I looked so cool, almost like a rock star, with that blue hooded sweatshirt.

Somewhere along the way, however, Old Blue went missing. I'll tell you the truth, I have held out hope that one day Blue would show up again. Every time I run across an old box of clothes I open it with a quiet anticipation that Blue Hooded Sweatshirt has been hiding out for all these years.

But it probably won't happen. But in the meantime, I have New Red Blanket to keep me warm. New Red Blanket is perfect for this time of the year. I love cold weather but I hate being cold and perhaps this is why New Red Blanket means so much to me right now because I can be warm in the midst of the cold.

If you're looking for a spiritual or political or sociological application, sorry. I just wanted to share with you my feelings for Old Blue and New Red.