The Return of Man Boy
My husband bought himself a PlayStation 3 last night, thus introducing the triumphant return of Man Boy. Man Boy has been on hiatus for the last few months, with T starting another business venture and running the show for our house renovation. It's hard to be Man Boy when Man Man duties call.
His 27th birthday is next week and I have a hard time every year figuring out what to do for him. Saying that, it is important to point out that T is impossible to shop for, not just because he is the most tediously selective price matching shopper on the planet, but also because, throughout the year, if he wants something he will go ahead and buy it for himself.
I asked him last night at dinner what he wanted for his birthday, and he mentioned the Sony PlayStation 3. BUT, he added, they are expensive so he didn't expect me to get it for him.
FINALLY- Mr. Impossible to Shop For had thrown me a bone.
I told him that since he has been doing so much for us with the house renovation and all, he deserves a fun toy like a new PlayStation. He hadn't gotten anything like that since I bought him a PlayStation 2 five years ago, so why not?
The moment I hinted that I was ok with it, his eyes lit up and he insisted that we go to Best Buy after we got done eating...just to price them out (as if he didn't know already). Naturally when we got there, and he saw the PlayStation in all of its shiny delicious newest-Sony-toy glory, his eyes went from lit up to glazed over with sheer delirious delight.
It was as if we had just stumbled upon the Holy Grail. I almost expected him to kneel before it and hail it "Excalibur."
He was ready to buy it right then and there, but I asked him to please hold off just three more days so I could get it for him for his birthday.
"Won't it be more fun if I wrap it up? Like when you're a kid and you have to wait, then you can unwrap it and it will be that much more exciting?"
"But I want to play with it NOW." (said wistfully, with both eyes glued to the PlayStation in the glass case)
"I KNOW! I'm not saying you won't get to have one, just wait a couple of days so I can get it for you! Jeez."
"But Babe, it's for BOTH of us. It has a DVD player and we can check the Internet on it and it has Blue Ray..."
He had regressed into the mindset of a kid trying to sell his parent on buying him a new toy. I'm familiar with this approach. I've been working this angle to get what I want since I started talking, and I STILL use it. I'm the master at it. I do it to him all the time and I think he has caught on to my sales technique.
Very good, young Padawan.
So we go around and around, but his blinders were on for good. He couldn't understand that he was still going to get it, but that he needed to WAIT until his actual birthday so I COULD BUY IT FOR HIM SO IT WOULD BE FROM ME!
The impatient Man Boy itch for instant toy gratification had taken him over and he was a lost cause. I got him so far as OUT of the Best Buy, but as soon as we got home he immediately hopped online to price surf, finding it at Sam's and Wal-Mart.
"They have it at Sam's for the same price BUT you get a free Spiderman on Blue Ray DVD if you get it there."
Suddenly T was interested in owning Spiderman on DVD. I had dragged him to all three of those movies in the theater and, after each one, he had acted indifferent and had told me that he didn't think that they were all that great. Now he needed to own one.
~SIGH~ I wasn't going to hear the end of it. I told him that he should just go buy it already if he wanted it that bad. I think he just might have left little puffs of smoke under his heels, he was out the door so fast.
About an hour later he came home glowing and proudly dumped the box onto the bed. He did a little happy dance once he got it out of the box (calling it, I quote, "beautiful") and anxiously hooked his new "pet" up to the t.v. in our room.
We watched JUNO (I told him he had to rent it and watch it with me if he was going to buy that PlayStation), and afterwards, as I settled in to turn in for the night, I went to sleep to the sound of a Tiger Woods video game.
It makes me happy to see Man Boy happy and giddy like that, although now I am back in the boat where I have no idea what to get the guy who gets himself whatever he wants. I told him last night that I would get him some video games at least, to go with the PlayStation. That was something that I could get him that he would like.
Then this morning at work he calls me and tells me that he has already ordered his games off of Ebay because he got a good deal on them.
DAMN IT! His solution to my problem is suggesting that I buy him a couple of Hibiscus plants that he likes to put in planters on the back patio.
I am including this last detail of sharing his semi-feminine passion for Hibiscus flowers as revenge for making his birthday present shopping NO FUN for me this year.
Muah ah ahhhh.
