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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