The Perfect Present
What is it about getting older that has completely changed how I view what I wanted for my birthday? Years ago a friend of mine told her husband and children that all she wanted for Mother's Day was to have them change all the burned out light bulbs in the house.I totally get what she was talking about now.This year I decided that for my birthday I wanted Jason to clean out his closet in our bedroom and I also wanted him to take care of all those "merchandise boxes" that accumulate in the basement - waiting in case something doesn't work a week later and you want to take it back. That's it. That's all I wanted. In fact, it would make me incredibly happy to get those two things for my birthday.
He did it. We've been together for a long time and he now knows, when I ask for things like this, that I truly mean that it's what I want. I helped him with his closet - not too hard since we do it about once a year. But he has to decide the clothes that stay and the ones that go to charity - I want to toss many more than he does and Jason, over the years you have gotten SO MUCH BETTER at not being a packrat! After 17 years of marriage, hoarding is getting squeezed out of you by your overly-anxious-to-toss-it-out wife.Seriously though, thank you. No longer is it a battle over whether or not you will keep the sweatshirt you loved in high school that doesn't fit and is falling apart. You have learned to see reason, learned to compromise...or maybe you have just learned to see it my way and that's what makes me so happy. We have a little box of all your treasured sports jerseys safely tucked away in the basement instead of having them hang in the closet. I would have sent them to charity. See...compromise.
Next, the box pile in the basement took about 40 minutes to go through, break down the boxes and stuff the trash in the garbage can. He has to hire a neighbor kid to come help him with projects like this - to be his hands. Maybe that's why I love this kind of gift so much - someone else gets to be his hands besides me. And they even cleaned out and organized all those cables and cords that you have to save in case you need them for some ambiguous AV situation in the future. A dream come true since I have no clue which ones are important and which ones aren't.
One year I told him that all I wanted was for him to clean off his desk from the piles of papers that always accumulate around his space. Another year I wanted him to put all of our financial investment info on the computer, with explanations of what each one was, so that I would know what we had out there and why. Now don't get me wrong, I like "stuff" just as much as the next girl, but I have a feeling, that someday in our future, I will be telling him that all I want for Mother's Day is to have all the burned out light bulbs changed in the house.Thanks for making my birthday wish come true, Jas. I'm sure you can't wait to see what I ask for next year. XOXO