Bubble No. 71: Prepare the “Awww”

     Well, I got my six-month anniversary present from Neko last night. (About twelve days early. ^_^) He’s as bad as I am. As soon as I buy a present for someone, I want to give it to them right away. None of this "waiting" stuff. Now! Now! (Hence why I tend to pull the last-minute gift buying. I can never wait until the proper day.) Neko’s the same way.

     So, I work all day yesterday (day six out of an eight workday stretch) and then scamper off to get my nails done. (Yes, I am that much of a girl.) It doesn’t take long, much to my delight, and I find myself with an extra twenty dollars and the whole mall for my perusal. The nail salon is very close to EB Games, and with the memory of Neko pawing through our collection in search of something new to play, I go in to see if I can find the full version of the demo game he was enjoying. (Conkers: Ally Squirrels fighting Nazi Tediz. Very, very amusing. Highly bloody: definately not for little squeaky things.) Alas, no luck with that, but I did find a glorious copy of Doom 3. (*grin!* Also not for little squeaky things, but oooooo I love the blood.) I snatch that up and zip home, feeling quite proud that I found something I know he’d like.

     Of course, upon getting home, I’m struck by the "Oh God what if he already has it?" panic switch, and spend ten minutes going through the games to make sure Doom 3 appears nowhere. Spify! No Doom 3. I, like the frighteningly good little housewife I’ve become (Fenshae and I have a myriad of jokes about that: we’re forming the Housewives Club with Crimson Iris) clean the kitchen and the living room, pour myself something to drink and flop onto the "couch" to read. I end up falling asleep, and awke up with a very handsome cat kissing me. (Gotta love mah neko.) He gives me this huge grin, and I sleepily point to the chair with Doom 3 on it and tell him I got him a little pressie. (Curse you and your infectious phrasing and gestures, Fenshae!) He’s all perky about that, and then tells me he got me my anniversary present. I perk myself, and laugh when he tells me he hid it in our room. (I’m the housewife. You can’t hide things from me in that apartment.) We laugh because he knows I’ll find it, so he gets it to fork it over early.

     Now, to understand the effect of this, one has to consider that gifts from my ex were…lacking in romance. He had his own ideas about what was romantic, and his gifts were often thoughtful and rarely something I didn’t like. Presentation…lacked, often. (Nothing like getting a Valentine’s Day gift in the bag from the store while he plays a video game.) When we first started dating, money was something he very rarely got, so I never bugged for those big, shiny presents. After he got to college and ended up rolling in the dough, I tried to avoid hinting about really special presents (which naturally take a bit more money) but I always thought that since I scraped together the money to get him things he’d really like (a daisho set, for example) that he could put forth a little effort for me. (The relationship was on the downward slide from his end anyway, so eh. *shrug*) That being said…

     I cried. I flat out teared up and started sniffling, because Neko was sitting so hopefully in front of me, holding out a little black velvet box with the most beautiful blue topaz ring. It’s silver, with three blue topaz stones, two smaller ones set on either side of a central stone, all oval cut. The setting is spectacular, because they shaped the silver in such a way that it looks like the topaz is bordered by diamonds. I cried, sniffled, kissed him, thanked him, sniffled, kissed, sniffled, smooched, kissed, thanked, sniffled. *laughing* He mentioned we might need to get it resized as he’s pulling it out of the box, and I slip it on my left ring finger. Perfect fit. Perfect. Neko puffed up proudly and said that just proved he’d had great luck in finding a promise ring. In my head: "…promise ring? Oh my gods… *sniffle!*" So I cry and snuggle and kiss him a little more, then have a totally girly *squee! I got a shiny!* moment, which makes him crack up laughing. Promptly send text message to Fenshae, then a picture of the thing. Tackle Crimson Iris when she comes in and show her. Spend the entire night doing everything left-handed to show off the ring. *laughing* I’m so horribly girly.

     The only problem is I know I can’t top this for his gift. *snerk* For one, I have neither his patience or the money to carefully tuck cash aside. Not to mention buying him a ring wouldn’t work too well, considering he’s an electrical constructor. I have a gift in mind for his birthday (which he’s wanted for quite some time) but I want to save that for then. Now I’m kind of at a loss what to get him. I’m thinking of a couple of things, but they don’t seem…equal to this. *laughing* Of course, not much could be equal to this. I think I’ll just buy him whatever seems right and then really go for the "Yeha!" on his birthday and Christmas. (We’ll have our own Christmas! *SQUEEEE!!!*) So…one can accurately guess that if I wasn’t already head over heels for this silly cat, I’d be doing a tumble now. *purr*

     You know, it’s not really the ring itself. Nor is it the fact that he spent a lot of money on me. It’s that he remembered my favorite gemstone, searched through a number of stores, saved the money, chose the ring and hid it. Essentially: this wasn’t an "Oh crap, our anniversary is tomorrow!" kind of gift. He thought about it. He planned it. He had something in mind, and it wasn’t something I’d have to go "Oh…how…sweet…" (I do believe a gift in and of itself is always wonderful, but sometimes you really are disappointed, and it happens to everyone. Doesn’t make a person greedy, it just means that you had high hopes. *shrug*) Really, it reminds me of my dad hunting for liquid silver for my mother. (Apparently, I am stuck with my father. *laughing* But Neko’s not as taciturn, and he’s more social. This I love.) It’s not the physical object itself, (even though yeah…I do adore this ring), but the fact that someone cared that much to really fight to find something they thought you would like.

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     …not to mention I still think promise rings are terribly romantic. *grin* So colour me pink, blushing and happy today, that’s for sure!