A Dance Around The Subject

I used to dance around the subject, but now, I just come right out with it: "What do you want for your birthday?" "You can get me a knife-sharpening kit I have my eye on." "I'm not getting you a knife-sharpening kit." "You asked what I wanted." "There's nothing fun about a knife-sharpening kit." "I think it's fun." "Of course you do."

So tomorrow, after the marching band from Temple Abi Gezundt performs "Happy Birthday" on the front lawn, I won't hand hubby a knife-sharpening kit. Instead, I'll hand him two of the three gifts I've thoughtfully purchased after agonizing for weeks. I can't reveal them just yet, in case I force hubby to read today's blog, something I try never to do anymore. You live and learn. The third gift -- the one that Yossi from Brooklyn keeps telling me is "on the way" -- has yet to arrive and naturally, it's the one gift I'm 100 percent certain hubby will actually use, as opposed to last year's expensive artsy pen, safely hidden away in a cabinet, never to be seen again. Why must hubby's birthday be so challenging for the SJG?  The answer is simple. Why should it be any other way?