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Alright, so I'm as sentimental a fool as the rest of you.
Whenever it gets close to Ross's birthday - about a month away - I start looking at our old wedding photos.
The day after his birthday, you see, three years ago, he flew across the country to California to come get me from grad school, and help move me and my stuff home to Austin - for good. We were engaged back then, and had been for two years.
But rather than fly, we drove home to Texas in my car. Which literally broke down once every hour. He performed most of the driving, while I chirped hollow, annoying encouragements along the way.
"Oh, look! A saguaro cactus!"
"Wow, this road is smooth."
"Who's excited for CRACKER BARREL?"
(And if this tells you anything about the trip, Cracker Barrel really was the highlight of the whole thing).
When we finally pulled into our Austin driveway, sloughing off sticky Red Bull cans, beef jerky wrappers, and relational tension when my good mood finally ran out, I said meekly: "Happy birthday...do you, um, still want to marry me?"
And he said: "Bringing my future wife home is the best birthday present I could ever ask for."
!
(Pause. I feel compelled to apologize here, because this same story would make me throw up in my mouth a little if I heard someone else tell it. So, sorry everyone).
Anyway. This is why I think long and hard about Ross's birthday presents. I've knitted. I've done power tools. I've thrown a surprise party. I have two ideas for this year, one more experiential in nature, and one that is more gadget-y.
But neither one is perfect? He is a contented man. And shopping for men that claim to be already fulfilled is a near-impossible task. Even though Austin provides no shortage of novel adventures to try, and handmade bits of magic to gift.
so what do men want for their birthday?
(PS: This has nothing to do with anything, but while we're going back in time may I show you my favorite wedding pics? These were shot by the lovely Cory Ryan and manipulated by moi).
5 comments:
OMG, I am cracking up at the bottom picture!
awwwwwwww that did not make me throw up in my mouth, that made me audibly saw "awww!!". I AOL. (awww'ed out loud? think it will catch on?)
as for birthday presents... that's a tricky one. I do this little thing where I'll write down birthday ideas in a notebook as they come to me. Most of them end up being crap, but occasionally there's a good one in there. in the past, I've gotten my bf a calculator watch (he loved that one), the original star wars trilogy on dvd, and a giant vintage map of the us. As you can see, I really play into his nerdiness around birthdays. My advice, although it is nothing specific, would just be to get something thoughtful, and something HE wouldn't get himself... but that he loves!
good luck!
that picture is hysterical and you my dear, looking AMAZING.
Your mom's face wins hands down.
@Curt Haha, I still crack up when I look at this picture too. As @Pang said, I think Mom takes it. :)
@Kristen - Sound advice, per usual! I had a friend in college that wrote down gift ideas for people. I've started doing that (sort of) with the Notes app on my phone...but perhaps need to be more regular about it.
@Hipstercrite - Thanks!!! It's funny to see me blond way back then.
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