Coming to Terms...: A Little Assistance, Please?

Thursday, June 28, 2007

A Little Assistance, Please?

I'm looking for inspiration from any and every corner.

Sunday is the husband's birthday.

Last year, he bought me a restaurant for his 50th birthday. WE signed the papers on the very day. I did not have enough brain power to think of anything else, so I sent him back to Illinois to celebrate with his family.

A couple of days ago, I asked him what he wanted for his birthday.

He said, "A day off."

Unfortunately, the way things are looking, that is the one thing I won't be able to provide.

Anyway...if anyone has any suggestions for what a wife with no time and scarce little money can provide for her long-suffering spouse as a special birthday present, I'm all ears.

Just please don't go the sexy negligee, date-night route; I don't think either of us has the energy for that right now...

Thanks in advance...

8 comments:

AnonymousJune 28, 2007 at 12:13 PM
Take out (preferably delivered so you don't have to step foot in a restaurant), maybe a movie.....and a nice long NAP! :)
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AnonymousJune 28, 2007 at 12:25 PM
How about a computer generated coupon (you are so artistic) for a day off when that's possible! Then, as the previous customer suggested, take-out delivered and a movie, along with a nap!!! Good luck in finding the perfect gift! Hugs, Lisa
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AnonymousJune 28, 2007 at 12:27 PM
I meant commenter..........not customer!! Geez, what a Freudian Slip!!!! Huh!! LOL, Lisa
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AnonymousJune 28, 2007 at 2:09 PM
That sounds like a really good idea. Good luck.

Jackie
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AnonymousJune 28, 2007 at 2:31 PM
Oh yeah, dinner and a movie and a bottle okay maybe two bottles of wine!
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AnonymousJune 28, 2007 at 7:15 PM
Since a day off isn't feasible, how about a break from some household chores, if you could fit say a week's worth of lawn maintenance into the budget, or even turning a blind eye to what he doesn't get done sometime. A set of computer generated get out of home work free coupons that he could use at his discretion could be a little gift. Or if he'd like this sort of thing, a professional massage to help him relax wouldn't take a whole day and can seriously break the stress.
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AnonymousJune 28, 2007 at 9:51 PM
How about sitting down and writing out 51 things that you love about him? And if you do that, make him keep the list, so he can pull it out and read it from time to time...

Judi
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AnonymousJune 30, 2007 at 5:22 PM
So, what did poor husband receive for his birthday gift?
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Where I'm From

I am from station wagons, from kool-aid and turf-builder.
I am from the three bedroom, one bath ticky-tacky box
with the swath of weedy lawn; from lightning bugs,
June bugs, and mosquitoes the size of small birds.

From nights near as hot as the days,
spread-eagled on sticky sheets
crickets creaking, horns honking,
trains rumbling and whistling in the distance…

I am from snow to the eaves, jewel-studded ice storms
and green-black thunderstorms with sideways rain.
I am from bright red tulips, honeysuckle berries,
and worms on the driveway after a cloudburst;
from daisies, tiny wild strawberries, “Queen Anne’s Lace”
and crashing the kite into power lines.

I am from “Look what followed me home from school”
and never having too many animals. From Taffy and Rusty
and Sunny, the yellow headed parakeet, who could say
“Happy Birthday” but only when he thought
no one was listening…

I am from the women who shuttle the carpool,
punch the clock, scrub the toilet,
then climb into the bottle, the herb
or the fantasy to quiet the noise in their heads
and the men they choose to rescue
or who choose to rescue them.

From “When you meet the right one, you’ll just know”
and “Your dad was a virgin when we were married…”
I am from the dutiful eldest daughter who paired off
home made and pro-created at the appointed time,
and the other four who didn’t.

I am from the tearful Catholic and the stoic agnostic;
the rope stretched taut between belief and unbelief,
pulled one direction, then the other…
the eternal tug of war never won.

I’m from pioneers of urban exile; before the country clubs and the soccer and the Rolls Royces.
I’m from the first McDonald’s and the last Tastee Freez.

I am from the great moldering box in the upstairs closet;
roaring twenties sepias stacked on
shiny square instamatic shots, discoloring with age.
I am from the five stair-steps, the Christmas trees, the campfires,
and the blurred mountains captured from a moving car.

I am from the unlikely union of a country boy and a city girl,
brought together by Hitler and Hirohito;
and the neighborhood of compromise
that kept them both sane…almost.

On Where We're Destined to Go...

As for life, I'm humbled,
I'm without words
sufficient to say
how it has been hard as flint,
and soft as a spring pond,both of these
and over and over,
and long pale afternoons besides,
and so many mysteries
beautiful as eggs in a nest,
still unhatched though warm and watched over
by something I have never seen
-a tree angel, perhaps,or a ghost of holiness.

Every day I walk out into the world
to be dazzled,
then to be reflective.
It suffices, it is all comfort -
along with human love,
dog love, water love, little-serpent love,sunburst love,
or love for that smallest of birds
flying among the scarlet flowers.

There is hardly time to think about
stopping, and lying down at last
to the long afterlife, to the tenderness
yet to come, when time will brim over the singular pond, and become forever,
and we will pretend to melt away into the leaves.

As for death,
I can't wait to be the hummingbird,
can you?

Mary Oliver

Thursday, June 28, 2007

A Little Assistance, Please?

8 comments:

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