The Parable of the Lost Best Buy Gift Card

OK... so this isn't really a parable... but I thought it made a great blog title. Anyway, the best way to start this story is to rewind to last Christmas. I had received a $200 Best Buy gift card from one of the vendors we deal with at my company. You know the deal... you spend some money with them every year and they want to keep you happy... so they hook you up around Christmas time. In the past 8 years, I've received my share of gift baskets, cookies, Omaha Steaks, Starbucks coffee assortments, etc. -- they start arriving right after Thanksgiving and continue until New Years Day. It's kind of cool at first, but toward the end, you start pawning the cookie baskets and tea and crumpet sets off on the others in the office. One gift that I actually kept, however, was the aforementioned $200 Best Buy card.

The only problem is that I didn't really "need" anything from there. I bought "The Office" Season 2 DVD set and something else, but still had about $150 on it. So, I just hung on to it. Now, it's important to note that one of my pet peeves is having a huge wallet. I don't want a George Costanza sized wallet. I like to keep it as slim as possible. So, needless to say, I didn't bestow upon the Best Buy gift card the coveted real estate that is my wallet. Instead, I would just carry it around in my front pocket. Now this was around Christmas time, so I had some other Gift Cards in my pocket at the same time.... probably another $100 worth from Macy's and other similar places.

Kelly would always tell me to put them in my wallet... and.. well, you know... coveted real estate... so I never did. As usual, I should have listened to Kelly because after a month of carrying them around in my front pocket.... I lost them. They, literally, just disappeared. I looked everywhere for them.... but they were no where to be found. Now think about this for a second... if you had two $100 bills in your pocket one day and then you lost them the next... you would be bummed. And, I was a bummed... but I got over it pretty quickly though and moved on.

Now... to complete this story, I have to give you some more background. Four or five years ago, Kelly and I were laying around my in-laws house when I heard something jingle in the couch cushions. Instantly, I dove into the couch cushions to see what kind of treasure was to be found... and, boy... was I ever glad I did. We scavenged $10 or $12 bucks out of those seat cushions. Each time I dove my hand further into the cushions I would pull out more and more quarters and each time Kelly would squeal with delight. It was ridiculous... the money just kept flowing. I fed into the frenzy and would dig around and try to pull up 2 quarters... .and when I succeeded I would give my best game show announcing voice and proclaim:

"TTTTTTwwwwwwwwwoooooooooo Quarrrrrrrrrrrttttttterrrrrrrrrssssssss!!!!!"

Toward the end... tired from laughing so hard and excited about our $12 windfall... we gave up and forgot about cushion diving for many years.

Then, last week, while taking a little stroll down memory lane I decided to do a little digging (besides... times are tough.... gas prices are kind of high, you know?) in the in-laws cushions to see what I could find. At first, I just pulled out a couple of pennies... but I knew there had to be the holy grail of all cushion finds -- the quarter -- in there somewhere. So I dug a little further... and felt something strange. It felt like a couple of credit cards... intrigued I slowly pulled them from their cushion confinement and there it was..... the long forgotten Best Buy gift card along with the other's I had lost months ago!!!!!

AH... how great is that? I then did what any self-respecting veteran of cushion coin diving would do... and proclaimed:

"Twoooooooooooooooooooo Quarrrrrrrrrtttttttttttteeerrrrs!!!!!" Which, to a rookie, might sound odd... but to a vet.. you know that yelling "Two Quarters" is the equivalent of "TOUCHDOWN!" no matter what you it is you might find... even a gift card.

You should have seen Kelly. She was so proud of her man (as she should be... I mean... have you ever pulled $200 worth of your own gift cards out of your in-laws furniture before??? I think not). So, anyway... moral of the story... check your in-laws seat cushions next time you visit and pray that you score BIG... just like I did.