the gift that keeps on giving.

Ben and I just celebrated...I mean acknowledged our sixth year of marriage. We’ve never been exceptionally romantic and generally use such occasions to justify buying something we want but don’t particularly need or take a trip we were planning anyhow. Christmas, birthdays, same routine. This bit of practicality aside, we still usually honor the day with a card, letter, dinner, phone call, something.


This year I fulfilled my duty by getting a card the day before and I had planned on setting it out with his lunch (yes I make him a lunch AND breakfast now, if I don’t he doesn’t eat) but I couldn’t find it to sign it, plus I had the feeling that anniversary was nowhere on his radar and I didn’t want to drop any clues and save him. So he works all day (5am-8pm, that's right 5-8 not 8-5), I got one phone call around 11 and I thought he must have realized (or maybe Jenisteen, who always remembers, saved him with a phone call) the date, but no, nothing. I bite my tongue, because I want to catch him face-to-face in his neglect. I find my card, and put it out for when he gets home. Then on second thought, I hide it away because I don’t want him to feel bad for forgetting.

He comes home and wants to go eat. Since he wants to go out I think he must have remembered. But I can tell by the options of places he is running by me that it is sheer hunger that is fueling this outing, not commemoration. We decide on a Mexican restaurant we’ve been wanting to try. Chips and salsa come. Ben’s trying to shake the workday and wrangle the kids. I put my hand on his, I can hardly contain my own giddy excitement as I try to decide when to spring it on him. Should I wait until the waitress comes and make a remark like, “since it’s a special occasion I think I’ll have dessert first” or just tell him. Because I am afraid if I wait much longer I may prompt an inquiry regarding my smirk/full toothed grin I say “Happy Anniversary”. Do I wish I had a camera to record the look on his face. Yes. A split second of pure shock, surprise and distress. Eyes wide and if both of his pupils could dilate they would have. He glances at his watch hoping it can save him. It’s not often that one pulls one over on Ben so I enjoyed his discomfort however brief it was. After the initial shock subsides he becomes embarrassed and a tiny bit sheepish. I can’t contain my glee. I was right, it hadn’t even crossed his mind. Not even when his co-worker got flowers from her husband that afternoon for their anniversary!

In the end it’s fine, he got his card later that night. I got my laughs and what I love more than anything - a good story. He said that now I “have something to talk about with my friends…the gift that keeps on giving”. He knows me so well.