Gift paralysis no more
Bekka lives in the micro-house on the farm and came over for pizza the other night. She is a traveling nurse, a jujitsu warrior who who can change the head gaskets on her jeep without getting her hands greasy, play piano and cello for hours like only angels know how, and cook ramen from scratch. That, my friends who love their microwaves, is a 3--day endeavor, not the instant pack.
She always brings over a bottle of wine from her latest wine club batch and though I am not a drinker, I get to keep the last few inches for cooking when she leaves. Anyways, a wise and delightful friend is Bekka. And when the frozen pizza I had disguised with all sorts of toppings from the fridge was ready and we had both admired the fact that her hair was almost long enough to band into pigtails, I posed the question I had been sitting with for days. You guessed it. What do men get for teenage daughters on their birthdays?
My ex is so skilled at this. She is constantly on it. A child’s birthday can be 10 months away and she will see something in the store that clicks, buy it, squirrel it away until the next big day. I, on the other hand, get increasingly anxious as the date comes close and face excruciating paralysis finally breaking down in Rite Aid on the evening of, in utter despair. I know they love candy and candles, I know they need deodorant and hair bands, again??
My youngest beloved just turned 13. Mazal tov to Lily! Yes, her bat-mitzvah is planned for May and she has been preparing for it over the past year. But what to get her? Ask her, you say. I did. I don’t know dad, maybe fluffy socks and hairbands?
Listen up my friends. Yes you, the doting but clueless kinds of friends. Men. Listen up.
Hear the Bekka.
Jewelry, she says. So simple. And don’t over think it. She has a wrist, a neck and ears. Any pretty something to adorn any of those body parts will do.
Jewelry my men. No more toy shops, no more Rite Aid gift or candy isles. You got this.
So I headed to this woo store in Port Townsend, naturally it’s called Phoenix Rising, got the down and dirty on her birthstone and looked no further. Within minutes I was presented with an aquamarine stone on a silver necklace that looks just the way I feel about her. And when she opened the box, I knew my years of present paralysis were finally over. At least as far as the girls are concerned.
Thank you Bekka, from all of us.
