Monday, November 19, 2012

What Women Want


I may have some of the details incorrect but the bones of this story are true. A girlfriend of mine brought her new boyfriend to her family’s Christmas Eve celebration. Later in the evening, when it came time for the friend to open the boyfriend’s gift, the Grandpa, who was well into his eighties at this point, observed that his very style conscious granddaughter had received a very ugly sweater.

As everyone kissed each other good-bye at the close of the celebration, the Grandpa turned to the boyfriend and said It was nice meeting you. I hope you have a nice life.

My oldest daughter once brought a very good-looking boy home during her freshman year of college. He was kind hearted and very much infatuated with her. But in an effort to show his affection he invited her to a culinary experience at his favorite Italian restaurant-The Olive Garden.

I knew I was never going to see him again.

My middle daughter, who has dripped in fur and shiny things since the age of two, once received a necklace of oversized brown and green beads as a Christmas gift from a boy.

She broke up with him the next day.

It is not that women are shallow—it’s that the value of a gift for them is more about being understood, than the monetary worth of the thing itself.

And the reason I am still married is that when I was pregnant my husband routinely brought me home take out  from Fianona’s Restaurant---escarole and potatoes--without ever being asked. One Christmas he bought me 5 pairs of flannel pajamas because he knew I liked cozy rather than sexy sleepwear. Recently he bought me a license plate cover that said I Love my Dog.

He gets me. 

It’s the glue of all relationships.

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