Frivolity
Today was the 13th anniversary of Howard and my wedding. In past years we’ve celebrated by saying “happy anniversary,” painting the house, or forgetting it completely. On our 10th anniversary Howard’s big gift to me was a mcgriddle. We just haven’t made a big deal out of the event. This year I wanted to do something. I wanted to go out on a date and spend time with just Howard. Our anniversary seemed like a good excuse to impose on a friend for free babysitting, so away we went.
Our budget has been very tight for the past two years. We have some more wiggle room now, but we still have to count pennies. We decided to splurge on a full price movie. We bought tickets early and had time to kill. Howard had noticed that the shirt I was wearing had a stain on it, (I meant to change, then forgot) so he sugguested that we wander into Sears and buy me a new shirt as a present. That shopping trip was a delight. Howard was focused on “get shirt for Sandra.” I was focused on savoring the experience of getting to select a brand new shirt for myself. It had to be a shirt I would love because I’d be paying an order of magnitude more money than I am accustomed to spend on any single item of clothing. Clearance racks give me sticker shock these days. Fortunately Howard was also focused on “make Sandra happy.” And I had a goal of “have fun with Howard.” So it worked out alright. We found a shirt I liked and then I was uncertain about and then liked. Howard was stable in his liking of it. We bought it and I changed into it. I’m still wearing it and I like it. We spent some of the rest of the evening laughing at each other for acting so typically male and female during the shopping trip. I don’t think we have ever gone clothes shopping together before and our different approaches and selections were amusing.
As an aside, I don’t know if there is any expression of love greater than a man volunteering to attend upon his wife while she browses through a women’s clothing section. I don’t think Howard realized what he was signing up for, but he never once complained. He teased me later. I teased him later. But He was honestly just glad to make me happy. It makes me sniffle to think of it.
We ate dinner at a mall chinese place. It was cheap, fast, close, and relatively yummy. I managed to not dribble anything on my new shirt. Then we watched Monster House. It seemed appropriate to watch a mildly spooky movie for a 13th anniversary. After the movie I didn’t feel quite ready to go home. Howard and I do lots of things together, but this evening had a real “date” feeling to it that I was loathe to relinquish. Going to movies together is a thing we occasionally do, but the focus is usually on the movie. We dash there and then dash home. Tonight the focus was on being together and it was wonderful. We stretched the evening just a little longer by stopping for ice cream.
Every penny we spent tonight fell under the category of “frivolous spending.” We didn’t need to see a movie, or eat out for dinner, or buy a shirt, or eat ice cream. But when I add it all up we spent less than $60. Was this evening worth $60 to me? Yes. Definitely. No doubt about it. Of course it has now whetted my appetite. I want to do more frivolous things. Some of them cost money, some of them don’t, but all of them make me feel care free and pretty and young. It’s nice to feel that way when the rest of my life is so stable and responsible and full of dishes and weeds.