My third month of this giveaway blog project started with the first rejection of one of my giveaways. The manager (or owner) of the DVD store didn’t want the chair (see February 28!). She called me with a nice message thanking me for thinking of her shop but that she really didn’t want it. I was disappointed, of course, but not terribly surprised. The chair was not in very good shape, and it was probably a shock for her to see it in the shop when she came in this morning. Just as I had rushed over there with the chair last night, excited that I had found a home for the chair, I rushed back over there this morning to take it back, humbled by the realization that spontaneity is not always a great thing, and good intentions need to be accompanied by common sense and consideration, otherwise we know just where they will lead.

What rain in Los Angeles looks like

Today, a giveaway was looking logistically tricky, as I had to work with my son Theo on his math homework and rainclouds were threatening to prevent any outdoor activity – a problem we rarely face in Los Angeles. We had been planning to spend the afternoon with my sister, Roshan and her daughter, Kaia, but they were feeling worn out because Kaia had been up most of the night with a nasty cough. Instead of just giving up on seeing them, I took a risk with the good intentions again and offered to buy some bread, cheese and dessert and drive over there to spend an afternoon together indoors. It poured with rain for half of our 40-minute drive to their house, and we even spotted forked lightning in the distance ahead of us. Once there, we spent a mellow time munching on bread and cheese, drinking tea and laughing at their dog Hachi, who has perfected his sad pout and was using it to score food. Outside, the rain – and even hailstones – intermittently pounded on the roof and back patio, but failed to disrupt our living-room picnic. While the kids played a video game together, David, Roshan and I chatted about mortgages and movies and other grown-up stuff. It was one of those gentle afternoons that no one usually writes about, but at one point, when the rain had lightened up a little, I sneaked out to my car knowing that it wouldn’t be wise to run around later today in the rain trying to give something away to a stranger (I try to learn my lessons). In my bag of goodies I now keep in the trunk for emergency giveaways, I found a purple cotton cardigan and gave it to my sweet, coughing niece, who happened to be wearing a t-shirt of identical purple. Today, the giveaway item itself was inconsequential, but the calm, no-pressure family time together was just what we all needed.