Watch Out - Birthday!

It all began with looking at watches together. And almost ended there.

Maybe you can't relate to this, but being a style-blind male in a household of style-conscious (but by no means conformist fashion victims) females? It makes things like gift purchasing for my wife a legitimately fraught prospect. 

I mean, I truly appreciate the fact that our relationship is one where we are able to be honest with each other, and I've learned not to take it personally when she asks to exchange a wool coat (that I surprised her with at Christmas) or expresses a preference for a different piece of jewelry (than the engagement ring I had picked out). No, seriously; I would be gutted if I ever found out she only accepted a gift from me to prevent me from feeling bad - which is why most times I am careful not to ask. 

The struggle is, as they say, real.

But I knew she was considering replacing her existing wristwatch, and I knew her nature would prohibit her from spending an adequate (not exorbitant) but adequate amount of money to secure a quality timepiece. 

So over month before her birthday, we started looking at watches on the Costco website, which led to many discoveries.

How about this pink one? Nice, but too girly, really.

This blue one? Mm, I think the face is too big, I'd worry about breaking the crystal.

This one with the gold and silver band? Ooh, that's actually - ugh, no - it has little jewels around the face... too much bling for me.

I shrugged and put is aside but never stopped searching on my own. Trying to find a stylish ladies watch, relatively blingless, with the proper-sized face and a metal wristband was proving fruitless. I had also hoped to find her one that would not require replacing the batteries, like the Eco Drive I got in 2018 after ten years with my employer. 

But just last week, with no other gifts panning out and still holding out hope, I checked the Costco site on a whim. I discovered they had recently added a new Citizen Eco Drive, with a gold and silver band but with zero bedazzlement. Yesterday morning, while doing all the shopping (including Audrey's requests for tiki drinks after her birthday sushi outing, I saw it in stock at my local warehouse and picked it up. 

At Gintaro for sushi

Driving home though, the second guessing began. I told myself that the store's ridiculously permissive exchange policy meant the watch was a no-risk purpose, but there was more than financial impact at stake, here...and not my ego either.

What man doesn't want to, at least occasionally, delight the most important woman in his life?

There have been so many times I have given up on surprise, taken her shopping and paid for the thing she selected to ensure reception, but sometimes I long for the sense of surprise I have achieved on select occasions in the past.

Both girls were home when I returned with the watch, a cavalcade of groceries and two bottles of Lamb's Navy Dark. After they helped to get everything stowed (bless 'em!), I asked if they wanted to see what the gift I had chosen. 

When I opened the box and showed them, they both made tremendously inflected and the precise number of Os in their "oooohh" so I began to relax.

I explained their mother's dislike of bling on watches and Fenya nodded, saying, "it's still pretty though - the face looks like it is made of marble." Glory agreed and liked that now the two of us would have similar looking watches. And they both marvelled at the revelation that it should never, ever need a replacement battery, which also helps maintain the watch's water resistance (50 m).

On a whim, I had bought a bag of Cracker Jack. I moved the watch from its box, placed it in a cloth bag while still wrapped around the pillow it came on, placed that into a ziploc and resealed this package inside the Cracker Jack with some super glue and packing tape (for the infuriating tears that appeared in two different places). I had done this same trick over twenty years ago with the family ring I gave her, which had honestly left her gobsmacked. (I waited two days before finally admitting I had opened the foil bag from the bottom and resealed it with glue, while she had opened it from the top and couldn't possibly have noticed.)

This time, I simply put the confection into a gift bag and covered it with crepe paper, but she still grinned delightfully when she saw it. (She did notice the packing tape repair while trying to extricate the interior bag.)

But I was so very gratified when she saw the watch and gave even more Os, with even more inflection that the girls had the afternoon prior. 

I am (probably inappropriately) transparent with the girls about some of my insecurities, such as giving gifts to their mother, so they both reassured me afterwards that I had done well, Glory adding that she had seen Audrey in the kitchen admiring the watch on her wrist, despite the band needing to be resized.

Happy birthday sweetheart - I hope you remember the surprise for a long, long time.