It's Valentines day. Usually Alisa and I don't give each other presents -- we talk about what we want to get and then get stuff when we want it, rather than playing games about doing things for holidays or birthdays. But every now and again we make exceptions.
Years ago, when Alisa and I lived in Kokomo, I saw a pretty gold ring with a ruby that I wanted to get for Alisa, but we really couldn't afford it. I went back several times to look at it, but eventually selected a little gold ring without the ruby. I've always kind of regretted that. So on Saturday, when I had a little free time, I went out to look for ruby rings. I went to the local "artsy" place first. I walked up to the counter and asked to look at the ruby rings: a simple gold ring with a ruby. Well, they didn't have anything quite as simple as what I was looking for, but the real shock was when I looked at the prices: the least expensive ring was about 5 times what I was hoping to spend. I retreated after a few minutes. A bit discouraged, I drove to the mall. I checked a big-box store, but they only had "created" rubies. I tried first one jewelry store, but all of theirs had nasty little diamonds in the settings: I thought those made the ring look cheap and junky. But at another jewelry store, I found what I was looking for: a small, but dark ruby cut in a heart shape with a simple setting. And the price was exactly what I had decided I was willing to spend so I bought it instantly. As the woman was wrapping it up she asking "Are you 'presenting' on Monday?" I was thrown by the lingo for a moment, but admitted that, yes, it was a Valentine's day present.
Yesterday, I had noticed that there was a section of the paper by my place at the table talking about the "cost of Valetines". I thought for a few moments, but couldn't resist and asked Alisa "Did you leave this out for me to look at?" She said, no, she just hadn't read it yet. "And we don't buy presents, right." I hummed noncommittally. "You didn't get me something, did you?" I admitted it was possible.
This morning, I "presented". She loved it and even the children were very impressed. "How much did that cost," Daniel wanted to know. I'm not big on the whole jewelry/consumer experience, but it's fun to do something special now and again when it really is special -- when it really is a surprise.
This morning, Charlie said something about mimes which reminded me of the time Alisa and I went to Universal Studios. At one of the outdoor theatres, there was a mime who would make fun of people as they came in and seated themselves. Sometimes he would follow people and mimic how they walked, immediately turning away and pretending they weren't doing anything if the person turned around and looked at them. When Alisa and I came in, he got between us and took my hand, walking along with us for a step or two until I realized it wasn't Alisa holding my hand -- when I looked at him, he affected shock, probably mirroring the look on my face, much to the amusement of the audience. It was funny, when you weren't the butt of the joke. I told this story to Charlie and he asked, "What did the children do?" I was stumped for a minute. It was probably during a weekday and so there probably weren't many children there, but I'm sure there were some and I don't have any recollection of any children there at all. Before I had children of my own, children were kind of invisible to me (unless they were making noise or something).
StevenBrewer