When Gary and I agreed on Wednesday night that there would be no exchange of Valentine’s gifts, I admit I thought forlornly of my fortieth birthday, when a put-upon florist deliverywoman staggered into my foyer under the weight of a Chinese vase full of forty roses, one for each year.
So when I heard him come home today I was surprised to see this:
He couldn’t decide between red or yellow, so he asked the floral department if they could put two different types of roses in one vase.
This is how he is. This is good. I asked if he was annoyed that I hadn’t purchased a surprise gift for him (because WE AGREED) and he said, “The red roses are for you and the yellow ones are for me.”
It's rooooomance! (but yes: if No Gifts is agreed upon, then not-expecting gifts is very important! I am glad he was not secretly cranky about you doing what had been agreed upon.)
Also: I hope you do end up very much liking Thyroid Medication Gary, wherever exactly he ends up on the scale of wackyness.
Posted by: KC | February 15, 2019 at 06:29 PM
KC - This is not the first time he has broken our agreement. When I break the agreement he is outraged. And I do like New Gary, but I’ve liked all the New Garys.
Posted by: TheQueen | February 15, 2019 at 09:59 PM
I would be fairly peevish, I admit, if someone broke a No Gift Agreement, unless they had a very complete explanation for it which included convincing arguments that they did not in any way want me to break it also. But in that provisional lies the key: I was exposed at an early age to the Expectations Have Not Been Met concept, and I have yet to figure out how to just shrug that possibility off when there *might* have been expectations. (I think, at this point, my dislike of disappointing people probably exceeds my dislike of being conversationally categorized as a source of disappointment, but I enthusiastically dislike both, anyway, and semi-compulsory gift-giving is still sometimes a bit of a terror to me for this reason.)
It is awfully nice to like all the versions of your husband. I approve of this state of affairs. :-)
Posted by: KC | February 15, 2019 at 10:46 PM
KC - I have rectified everything. I bought him a muffler.
Posted by: TheQueen | February 16, 2019 at 07:10 PM