Skip to main content

From the Jaws of Defeat

Lately, I have become the de facto present-wrapper in the house. It's just one of those things that happens over time; one person does a particular task a few times in a row, it becomes routine, and then next thing you know, you're the present-wrapper. It's not a bad thing, and it's not like the Mild Wife is incapable of wrapping presents. It's just that I usually do it.

Now, the extra repetitions means that I have all sorts of opportunities for shenanigans (like the time when I used LOTS of tape for my younger cousin's present). I'm a tad more grown these days, so the shenanigans have evolved over time. Instead, I end up having to figure out how to do things like gift wrap a beanie in an acceptable manner.

You know those little pre-made bows that you can stick on top of presents (like these)? I use those things now. There has occasionally been ribbon attached to the presents. Cards and red envelopes have been taped to the outside of the present. As you can imagine, not every present is a nice even rectangle, and even then, the dimensions of the available gift wrap don't line up neatly with the size of the present. Basically, there have been lots of gift wrapping puzzles to solve.

The latest incident, however, stands out. It wasn't a particularly complicated puzzle, but we had bought three little books, so I had a little pyramid on my hands. Well, I figured that I'd just treat it like a big book, and I measured out the required wrapping paper for one large book. It's important to note that I did actually make the effort to measure this out, because I didn't want to be wasteful with the wrapping paper. I even cut off the extra bits that I didn't need.

So, I pulled the paper over the top, taped it down, and then started in on the sides. This process was what I had actually been worried about, because non-rectangles tend to add a little bit of spice in to the process. What I hadn't accounted for, however, was that I had somehow measured the size of the present incorrectly. Rather than having a bit extra so that the ends overlapped, I had too little wrapping paper. There was something like half a centimeter of present that peeked through, and I simply could not cover it with the piece of gift wrap that I had in my hands.

What to do? What to do?

Well, I decided that the pieces I had cut off might actually come in handy. They were likely too small for a second present anyway, so they were going to become a decorative band-aid to my problem. I randomly started folding the gift wrap to try to make it into some kind of adornment, and ultimately came up with this:

Don't ask me what that is. It's just decorative
I was actually fairly proud of myself for making it look presentable. Sure, presents don't normally have that sort of "origami" attached to them, but it's not like it looked obviously wrong. All in all, I got the job done, and salvaged the present from my screw up. Heck, now that I know how to do this, I may even intentionally wrap a present with some sort of adornment on the sides. Necessity is the mother of invention, they say.

Most of all, though, I was happy that I am still undefeated against presents. I have yet to find a present I could not wrap, so my streak continues. You see? This is why I'm the present-wrapper at home.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pink

Way back in high school, there was a male teacher that all the girls thought was attractive. It was an open secret that a bunch of them had crushes on him. In fact, the school newspaper even did an article about him that quoted some girl saying, "he's so cute, he even makes pink look good." Yes, he had worn a pink shirt to school one day, and it had apparently been a big hit. I was reminded of this story when my sister-in-law suggested that she would choose pink as the color for her wedding and bridal party. I don't think I've ever made a color look good before, but I remember thinking, "well, I know it's possible to not look stupid in pink as a straight guy, I guess I can try." And I think that's almost exactly what I told her. I also happened to own a gray suit, so I figured the combination would look all right. However, I was pretty much the only one willing to play along. My sister-in-law's brothers wanted absolutely no part of th...

Dreams

Normally, I don't eat very many sweets. I tend to eat pretty generous portions, but I generally prefer savory food over sweet. In fact, I usually prefer things half as sweet when possible. My preference doesn't have anything to do with health reasons, it's just one of those things that I've always liked better. That said, I do inevitably eat dessert, particularly if I'm out with other people. My stance towards dessert is roughly equivalent to those who are social drinkers . If other people want to munch on something for dessert, I'm not about to cross my arms and refuse. That'd be just a tad gauche. So, I do eat some dessert. I even have a few standby favorites that I'll usually order when presented with them (brownies, creme brulee, and apple pie). But left to my own devices, I'm not about to go hunting for dessert. Apparently, this means that the sugar can really mess with my system under the right circumstances. As I've discovered, ...

New York City Trip (Day 1)

After my crappy flight , I was now in Newark, New Jersey at 7AM on a Friday morning. I had done a little bit of reading up, so I knew which bus I needed to take and where I was going to get off. All in all, getting into the city was surprisingly easy. I suppose speaking the language does make things simpler. Through no real planning of mine (a theme of the trip, at least on my part), I picked one of the later bus stops at which to get off, Grand Central. I actually just figured that getting off at Grand Central would give me options, and heck, it's called Grand Central. That just screamed "decent place to disembark that might be close to some stuff" to me, so that's where I got off. However, it also meant that we drove down 42 nd St to get to my bus stop. That just happens to be a big street, and it gave me a glimpse of Times Square as we drove by. My bus stop choice had accidentally given me a rough layout of the city. Go me. I had about 6 hours to kill...