My grandmother gave me a card for my birthday with a $50 tucked inside, and this charmed me. I was never excited about cash for gifts when I was in my late teens and early twenties because I felt a Responsibility To Spend It Wisely, and it kind of bummed me out. There would be something I’d want, but I knew I had car insurance due, and it never occurred to run up a line of credit (thank God). I’ve never been in debt, and I’m proud of that, but I also never spent my birthday money on something fun. I did this year, though. I ordered the yellow Bayan Hippo bag that I blogged about two days ago, and I have fifteen dollars left. I put it towards this, which is a little more expensive than $15, but it’s something I really want.

You may recall it being mentioned in my 2008 gift guide, under the section “For the Ladies to Wear”. I described it as “Hands down… my favorite item of all of gift guides.” Since then I’ve mentioned it to Rob about four times a month. I’ve also sent him the link randomly over IM in the middle of the day, and once, in video chat room with our friends, I showed everyone the link and said, “This is a really great necklace and I really like it and I hope that Rob buys it for me.” I would often pull it up on my laptop while we were side-by-side on the couch, elbow him, and say, “This is gorgeous! I want it.” We even got into an argument once, where he said, “If you want something, you shouldn’t hint at it!  You should just say it!” and I was all, “Fine! FINE! I WANT YOU TO BUY ME THIS FUCKING NECKLACE!” He didn’t.

Today, I gave up and started to buy it myself, and as I was clicking, Rob wandered down from his lair office to take a break from editing audio.

“Look!” I said, all sassy “I’m buying this for my damn self!”

He squinted at the screen. “What is it?”

“The necklace.” I figured that was all the explanation he needed sledgehammering him with hints for so long.

“Which necklace?” he asked. “Can I see?”

He clicked to the bigger picture and shrugged. “Hmm.  I’ve never seen this before.  It’s nice.”

He’s dead now.