Too Subtle for Me

Ok, a little background is required to fully appreciate this story. I periodically bug John to put in writing what he likes about me. This is extremely difficult for him. He is very, very, very good at showing me he loves me by doing things for me so I'm not really complaining, I just happen to be a very verbal person and so every once in a while this pops up. This year around our anniversary and my birthday was one of those times. Anyway, so John gave me two books for my birthday. Now I love to receive books for presents, but sometimes when I get them it demotivates me in reading them because, hey, I own them and could read them anytime. (You know in case I was snowed into my house for a week and couldn't get to the library, I would definitely need something to read.) Anyway, so needless to say I didn't read the books. I put them on my bedstand with the other books I intend to read and would look at them every now and then and think, I really ought to read those books. They look like very good books. I think John made a couple of obscure comments about how he was glad that I "eventually" got to the books he bought me. (Which I do by the way, it just takes me a while, especially when I'm not reading that much anyway.)

So fast forward to this morning. I was kind of grumpy this morning. I stayed up way too late last night and was really tired. This combined with a couple of stinky diapers and screaming girls made for one not happy me. I was laying on my bed thinking I needed to be more happy when I saw those books. I thought maybe some uplifting reading would get me in a little better mood. I started reading the first book and got like 15 pages into it and found a little paper that had the date of my birthday on it and one thing John appreciated about me. I thought that's interesting, I don't remember reading that before. So I started flipping through the book and about every 20 pages there was another little paper that said something else he appreciated about me. I couldn't believe it. I looked at the other book and sure enough every few pages there was a little paper. I was shocked. Here was the list I had requested months ago and I didn't even know it. I might not have read those books for a while (years actually) and missed it. At first I had a fleeting thought that maybe these were books that he gave me last year. But when I looked at the date it was this year, phew! It only took me 3 months to get it. My next thought was what a turkey (in a good way) John was. I could have been mad at him that whole time and he would never have said anything even though he had done the requested thing. I wasn't but I thought that was a pretty big gamble. Anyway, it did make me happy and laugh. I do like surprises and John sure is full of them. He's a good guy. Maybe it was just his little way of motivating me to read books sooner.

Incidentally, one of the last pieces of paper said, "I'm glad that you eventually read all the books I buy you." Ha Ha. Very funny. He is funny. But maybe a little too subtle for me sometimes.