The Gifts

We’re back from Tahoe. There was still enough snow for some fun skiing. I took a lesson in the morning while Jrex hit some black diamonds—then he kindly joined me for a couple greens and one and a half blue slopes. After my knees started aching, he skiied a few more tough slopes while I lounged in the car and called Mom K. She was SO happy I called. She’d wanted to call but was worried that her once (and sometimes twice) daily phone calls during our cross-country drive had been, well, a little stressful.

What? You don’t care about all that? Skip to the chase? Sheesh. Impatient, huh?

As I mentioned, my gift for Jrex was a book.


The title-- “Thin Threads: a Decade of Drama”.


The contents? His poetry. Over the years he’s written poems on various scraps of paper. I selected the best of them (or at least the ones I enjoyed most!), put them in chronological order, designed a layout, and hand-bound the book. I spent a grand total of $24 (with 26 hours of labor).



He said it was the best thing I could have given him. If you can read Korean, his name is on the cover as well as part of the title page.

Here’s what I wrote about the author on the back page:

Musician, poet, husband, friend. Born in Korea, most of his life has been spent in the USA. Despite his status as a Yankees fan, he is loved by anyone who has worked with him, eaten his food, or heard his dry wit. While wrestling with life’s deepest questions he’s managed to complete a Ph.D. in bio-physical chemistry, an Internal Medicine residency, an Oncology Fellowship and three years of slogging research. All this on less than five hours of sleep most nights.

His wife knew he was a keeper when she saw him standing firm in a swirl of her mother’s sisters. A man who could exude peace, stability and humor in the intensity of a gathering of [Last Name] women was a man to be reckoned with.

His gift to me? Well, first a story. (Patience IS a virtue!)

My wedding and engagement rings were burgalarized from our house in Baltimore back in 2003. We bought a replacement wedding ring right away. For this anniversary I was hoping he’d get me a ring, but after I found The Box and casually mentioned, “my ring”, he’d said, “It’s not a ring”. I was bracing myself to act excited when I saw a bracelet or necklace. Also, please note, I’m usually very good at spoiling a romantic mood. We did the gift exchange at a fancy restaurant. As I saw him pull a little blue velvet box from his pocket, I exclaimed, “You lied!!”

Turns out he didn’t lie, exactly. The Box only contained loose stones for Jrex’s selection. At the time of our conversation, there was no ring, yet.

This ring is what Jrex had originally hoped to find when he shopped for my engagement ring. He and Jeweler Friend worked very closely to design this one, pick the right sapphire and get it done on time. It’s beautiful.


On the way home, I called my sister. I told her the ring was very ‘blingy’. She laughed, “Maybe it’s only big in your head.” Um. No. It’s big.