What's In It For Me?

As a kid-size SJG, as opposed to a kid-size adult, whenever my parents went on a trip without us, which was pretty much 100 percent of the time -- my family just didn't travel well as a team, locally, or globally -- my brother John and I had one and only one question upon their return.

Examples of what we didn't ask:
1. How was the hotel?
2. How was the tennis?
3. How was the food?
4. How was the flight?
5. How was the weather?

When you're kid-size, let's face it, you don't care about those things. Those things have nothing to do with you and your personal universe. You only care about one thing:

WHAT DID YOU BRING ME?!!!!

Sometimes we waited till they got through the door to ask. Sometimes we waited till they got out of the car. After all, we were the ones stuck at home with some babysitter from an agency, some middle-aged gal who expected us to follow rules and go to bed on time. We were the ones who'd suffered while they were off having fun without us. We deserved a gift. A nice gift. Whatever they brought us, I can't remember. Well, that's not entirely true. I do remember the best one, a Seiko watch from Japan.  I wore it forever.  I'm happy to report that I've passed this gift for wanting a gift on to my children. We always brought them something whenever we went away, which was almost never. And they bring us something whenever they go away, and it's usually much nicer than anything we ever brought them.

Early on in our marriage, I had to teach hubby about not coming home with bupkis after one of his show biz-related trips to somewhere that sounded fun to me, even if it was torture to him. The first time he came home empty-handed in the early '80s didn't go over well. So now he always brings me a little something. Yesterday was no different. After returning from his 18-hour trip to Las Vegas, he handed me a little brown box. "Oh, boy, oh boy!" I opened it, slowly, just to keep the suspense going. "Oh honey, what did you do now?' "You'll see." And there it was: rolled up neatly in an artsy way, something I love so much, I've written about before: A shower cap. The man knows me so well.