All right, so now that our anniversary’s over, I can fill you in on the rest of the ridiculous story of acquiring the gift for my hub-a-lub.
I’ll start off buy saying that finding an anniversary gift is hard, especially when you’re not sure exactly what you’re looking for! I would have been better looking for a Custom Anniversary Gift online rather than heading to the mall but at least I’ve learned my lesson this time and can change my ways next year. There are so many items which would have been so perfect for my husband too – clothes, keyrings, lamps, you can even Make your own photo wallet, the list goes on. In fact hearing about all the gifts my friends gave their husbands for their special day is really making me kick myself. One of my friends decided that on her anniversary, she was going to customise a wallet and a key chain for her husband with photos of them, and he got her personalised Necklaces with name on it in return. Isn’t that so sweet, I’m definitely going to try that next year. Last week we had gone to the mall to waste time, and he had found a zippy at Nordstrom that he wanted. Of course he would never buy it for himself. To call my husband frugal would be a dramatic understatement and complete misrepresentation of the facts. So despite the fact that our fourth anniversary was supposed to be linen, silk or flowers, I went with cotton. In addition to being frugal, my husband is also very tall. Taller than average. Shopping for him is a bit of a chore at times. It’s actually not, but he’s so darn particular about what he wears that it becomes a headache — mostly for him.
Anywho. Boo and I returned to Nordstrom to pick up the anniversary gift. Here we are at Nordstrom, zippy in hand, ready to go, and then I start comparing sizes to make sure I’m getting the right one. The 20-something salesman comes over and asks if I need help, to which I reply, “I’m just trying to figure out what size to get,” to which the salesman (and by man I really mean dude or guy) promptly offers to be my personal male model. (Win!)
He tried on a few different sizes for me, and as I’m holding the original size and zippy I wanted to purchase, he takes the one he just tried on to the register. I follow him, still holding the one I actually want, and as he rings up the one he tried on, a sudden wave of unease comes over me. You see, I have several hoodies and shirts from the same brand that I was purchasing for my husband. I bought them at Nordstrom Rack, so there were imperfections of course, but there were some that were so striking that I had vowed to always inspect every apparel item I purchased from this particular brand.
But, I decided not to risk sounding crazy — I was also dressed completely inappropriately for Nordstrom-shopping so I was trying not to draw more attention to myself than absolutely necessary. I let him package up the one he had tried on without inspecting it first.
In the midst of my disappointment of buying the wrong zippy, another customer came over to do a return. Now I definitely couldn’t tell him I wanted a different one on the basis of possible imperfections and holes. I instead turned my attention to a basket of belts. Perfect. I finally found the belt I had been looking for since last Christmas. I was, of course, again undecided on the size so my salesman tried on a couple different ones for me. (Win!)
Zippy? Check. Belt? Check.
After a full morning of shopping fun, I hauled Boo and I back home, fed him lunch and right after he fell asleep for nap, I began assembling the anniversary goods. I opened the bag, took out the zippy to inspect it in the privacy of my own home, and much to my disappointment, annoyance and dismay, there was a hole!! I should have trusted my gut and told the sales guy to ring up the one I had picked out. Stupid, rookie mistake! Oh, I could have kicked myself.
Ugggggh.
Then I spent about a half hour debating whether I should just give it to my hubs and then show him the hole and we could return it this weekend. But let me just tell you something. Ever since becoming a stay-at-home-mom, I abhor shopping with the rest of the population of the United States during peak shopping times. I decided that if Boo woke up from his nap early, we would drag ourselves back to the mall to right the wrong. If he slept to normal time or later, we would skip it and suck it up and return to the stores with everyone else in the Greater Cleveland area.
Alas, Snarfy woke up much too early for my liking (on a normal day), so back to the mall we trudged. We went straight to the rack, picked (and thoroughly inspected) a new zippy, and the exchange was completed.
Hubs opened his gifts and loved them.
The. End.
