Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site uwmacc.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!godot!harvard!seismo!uwvax!uwmacc!rick From: rick@uwmacc.UUCP (the absurdist) Newsgroups: net.singles,net.social Subject: Re: Gifts (rerun) Message-ID: <559@uwmacc.UUCP> Date: Wed, 12-Dec-84 19:01:59 EST Article-I.D.: uwmacc.559 Posted: Wed Dec 12 19:01:59 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 14-Dec-84 05:39:10 EST References: <11282@gatech.UUCP> Reply-To: rick@uwmacc.UUCP (Rick Keir) Distribution: net Organization: UWisconsin-Madison Academic Comp Center Lines: 32 Xref: watmath net.singles:4859 net.social:354 Summary: [ Gift for line-eater bug -- it deserves one too ] Since Spaf has brought up the subject, I thought I'd mention the nicest gift I ever got. Two years ago, I had signed up for an impractical course load. I'd just returned to school after having a real job, and wasn't dealing very well with poverty, loneliness, and all the other things that keep campus counselors employed. One night, I'd stayed up 24 hours straight trying to get a program to work; the class had a really severe lateness penalty (10% a day). Around 10 that morning, I realized that it was NEVER going to be finished, and that I was going to drop the class instead. I decided to stay awake long enough to keep a luncheon date I'd made the previous week, with my friends Cathy and Mary. I don't remember much of the next two hours -- staring at the wall of my office, probably. We met, I explained what had happened, and sort of looked blank the rest of the time. Then I went home, and collapsed. When I woke up that evening, there was a rose in a vase on my dining room table. Somehow, despite having classes all afternoon, Mary had made time to go out and buy a flower, get a card, write a very nice note, and truck over to my place and set the whole thing up. I almost felt like crying. Finding out that someone cared that much about what was in some ways a pretty petty problem was incredible. That was the nicest gift I ever got: not the rose, but the caring. -- "I get by with a little help from my friends." -- Lennon & McCartney Rick Keir -- MicroComputer Information Center, MACC 1210 West Dayton St/U Wisconsin Madison/Mad WI 53706 {allegra, ihnp4, seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!rick