Saturday, January 08, 2011

Describe a recent Aha! moment

Continuing with the post a day challenge, it was pondering for some time just what was meant by an Aha! moment. A few came to mind, some sillier than the rest.

First: Wife's Christmas present.

A week before Dec 25, and like a typical husband, I had not got Caitlin her Christmas gift yet, because I simply didn't know what to get. Then I was watching a trailer for the upcoming Thor movie.

After showing the clip to my wife, she told me that she was very much looking forward to that movie since Thor was her favourite Marvel character. We have been married for seven and a half years, and that was the first time I heard that come out of her mouth.

She then went on to explain that it's part of her heritage, since she is part Swedish. Nothing mentioned about the the physique that would make Isaiah Mustafa look like a ninety pound teenager, but I'm sure she has some kind of reserve for that some where. Or the hair. Or maybe the beard? She has mentioned she likes me with a beard.

Now my mind is reeling. My wife has a favourite comic book hero. I must capitalize on this! I could get a compendium, or individual issues, or some kind of collectible figure or bust. Heroclix? Nothing seemed to work though. The only idea that held any ground was getting gift certificates to see the movie when it comes out later this year.

Then we went to my office Christmas party at Jubilations Dinner Theatre. After seeing what happened with the two people from my office who had birthdays within a week of the party, Caitlin and I had a conversation that was something like this:

Caitlin: "We need to come here for my birthday."
Me: "And my birthday?"
Caitlin: Nodding "And our anniversary."

It didn't come to me immediately, but soon enough, the Aha! moment finally hit me like a ton of bricks. Season Tickets! A little bit of investigation and I found that they indeed did have season tickets available, and they were reasonably priced. The only catch is that the cheaper tickets were only for tickets on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday. That worked out well, since in 2011 Caitlin's birthday is a Wednesday, our anniversary is a Tuesday (dark day for Jubilations, so the closest day would be a Wednesday), and my birthday is a Sunday. Though we might go on a Wednesday or Thursday. This was an idea that sounded really, really good, and felt right. The only thing that was holding me back was the price. If we went ahead with this, it would be the third most expensive thing I would have ever purchased for my wife.

What were the other two? Well, not counting the car, as it is something that's used by the whole family, and not counting our daughters, because they're priceless (as in I can't count how much money we've spent on them because that number has not yet been determined. By science.) so that leaves the two most obvious things.

1. Her wedding and engagement rings
2. Her netbook (which I use quite a bit now...)

Hence this was a bit of a big step for me. But when she opened up her gift Christmas morning, and saw those tickets, I knew I had done right.

I don't have many of those moments, but my wife says otherwise.

I still try to make them count.

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