For a few hours the day before Susan’s birthday, I felt like I was just going through the motions. Susan’s been working so hard and travelling so much that she hasn’t given much thought as to what she wants for herself. Normally, that’s how the kids and I shop for her; she tells us what she wants and then we go pay for it.
About an hour before they closed, Morgan and I drove to Hobby Lobby with hopes of inspiration, looking to find something (anything) that Susan would like. Hobby Lobby has all kinds of things to hang on walls and spruce up your house, but a lot of the items felt generic to us. Nothing says “I was thinking of you on your birthday” like a new pair of faux-weathered window shutters.
We did eventually find a few things we thought she would enjoy, but while we were looking around I ended up on an aisle full of inspirational signs. The theme of the aisle was “family,” and most of the signs there reflected that theme.
While I was standing there, I started to cry.
Not, you know, “boo hoo,” but I got choked up and felt burning tears coming. It was like being blasted in the face a thousand times with the same message: “Family, you idiot.” Susan is the core of our family. If our family were a train, Susan would be the conductor driving the train around with our kids in tow while I’d be the dipshit in the caboose waving at people.
Before we left Hobby Lobby, we double-checked our basket and made sure everything we had picked out was something Susan would like and that we weren’t just “going through the motions.” Later, the kids went out on their own and bought Susan a few snacks. We all got her cards, too.
Susan’s favorite meal is breakfast, and on her birthday we went to a restaurant we haven’t visited before called Good Gravy!. Not only were the proportions huge and the prices affordable, but they have 40 different types of gravy to choose from. Mason’s breakfast (chicken fried steak with eggs and biscuits and gravy) came on three separate dinner-sized plates! Good Gravy! is a great place to have breakfast if you want to save money and skip lunch.
After returning home and opening her gifts, it was back to the grind. Susan and I went to work and the kids went back to bed. During my lunch break, I hung Susan’s gifts up on the wall. No more putting things off until tomorrow.
Before bed, I reflected on those family-themed signs I stumbled across. I began to second guess myself and wonder if we shouldn’t have bought her one of those, too. As I drifted off to sleep, I realized that she wasn’t the one who needed to see those signs. I was.
Happy Birthday, Susan.
Love, your family.