Holiday shopping?... not I! Blog #11

It is the Sunday  before  Thanksgiving,  2014.  Sunny and beautiful  weather out, so I decided  to drive to our Spa - Los Abrigados near Tlaquepaque in Sedona.

  

A month ago I had an unfortunate  accident.  I fell on an uneven cement walkway and was very bruised, bloody and achy, so no swimming or exercising of any sort while I healed,  just  waiting to get better.  Grateful that nothing was broken.  I patiently waited  and today decided to make an appearance at the spa which probably would be filled with people.

      

To my surprise there was no one around except the friendly  employees who waited  to help if needed.

All alone  in big exercise room, alone in the shower and dressing  room on such a day... why?  Ah- I figured it out. This is  the last  chance to go shopping before Thanksgiving!!!!!

     

Started  laughing ---- remembering our travels with my companion Andrew in the late 1980's and '90's all over the world and saying "Now is the time to find all the unusual  gifts for all the holidays - no hurry-  and prices much lower then later.  During the summer I live for four months  in Wellfleet, Cape Cod, which has so many galleries and talented  artists around.  There are always lovely and interesting gifts to chose from for the rest of the year. Something catches my eye and reminds me of a family member or friend who would like it, so I get it and hold on to it, maybe for months. 

   

Imagine-  all the stress and rushing and being tired.  Why wait till the last moment?  Believe me  ----  it will make you  so happy not to be rushing or stressed, but rather just enjoying, swimming, or doing what is fun instead of last minute getting over-priced  presents.

    

Here is a funny example from the very early days of my marriage to Fred Fleissig. He came on some kind of Holiday with a gift to surprise me.....and I really gasped.

Imagine being surprised with a full length  stiff corset (the kind  worn  in the 19th century)  waiting for me, standing up by itself  in the living room!?

 Where on earth  is the saleslady  who dared convince my husband to buy such an atrocity?  

I imagine he was probably  coming home  through Grand Central  Station in NY when   Fred remembered at the very last minute to get a gift for me, and in a hurry to catch his train ride to White Plains, he bought this thing that was waiting for years to find a man in a hurry.

This kind of incident  repeated  itself twice more during the year. I finally asked as kindly as I could muster to save Fred from having to chose presents for me, "Why don’t we make a pact, and I get the money and can choose my own present?” 

  

With a smiling face Fredziu (endearing Polish diminutive) agreed  to do that in the future which lasted 38 years of our marriage, from 1946 until he died in 1984.

   

Everything is  cheaper and you save a lot of aggravation.  Shop off off season.  You will thank me with a smile!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving  at 94  -  enjoying it very much! 

- Nika Fleissig

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