The iPad

Courtney recently turned 30. I came to realize that sometimes surprising your wife with a gift, can cause some undue stress on the marriage leading up to the surprise, because you have to convince her that she is in no way going to get said gift.

Such was the case for Courtney’s 30th birthday. The gift? The iPad2.

It really started a few months before her birthday where we witnessed the power of Steve Jobs first hand on a return flight from Kansas City. I think we counted about 10 iPad’s just within our viewing range. Courtney, while holding her iPhone4, gave me the “pretty please” look and said she wanted one. Without hesitation I said “No chance. All it is a big iPhone 4 without the Phone part and $600 less from the checking account.” She did her pout face and went back to whatever she was doing.

The next day was when I thought the iPad would be a perfect gift. I have a few rules on gift giving. You can’t meet the rules all the time, but when you do, the gift becomes elevated in the pantheon of great gifts. The rules?

1) The gift has to be something the person wants
2) The gift has to be something person wouldn’t otherwise buy for themselves
3) The gift is likely to get a positive “surprise” reaction.

And so because I wasn’t about to bust out the $600 for Mr. Jobs latest toy, I recruited the parental units to combine on this gift. Lucky for me they were all in, and so the plan was under way.

In the mean time, it felt like every corner we turned someone else was telling Courtney how great having an iPad was. One time she came back home and was very excited and went on a 5 minute “download” (that what I refer to it when she has lots of thoughts in a bottleneck up in her head and she has to get them out…and now!). One of her friends just showed her the Nook color, and how “amazing” it was, and how she could get text books on them for school and they were cheaper and…well, it just kind of kept going.

Great. So, she has bailed on the iPad, but now focused her attention onto the Nook Color. The only valid excuse I could come up with, was “when we have kids we can look at getting a tablet of some sort” I also used this excuse for getting a camcorder. I mean, what could we possibly need to record now? (Blog posts are forthcoming to answer this vital question…stay tuned!)
So I kind of skirted by that whole, “I need a tablet for my education studies” by blaming it on our unborn children…stay classy Jon! This began to back fire over time, because she got increasingly frustrated and thought it was going to be a “crappy birthday, because my husband won’t let me get anything I actually WANT for my birthday”. I paid for this in the form of golf outing guilt trips. (Sorry, Chad)

What was even better is Father’s Day was 1 week before her birthday, and through a roundabout process, my sister and I determined that the Nook color would be a good gift to split for my dad. Good except for one small thing…I had to tell Courtney what we were getting my dad. Crap.

J: “Hi Hun! I love you SO much!“

C: “What do you want.” (yes, we are at that point of our marriage already)

J: “Shawna really wants to split a gift for my dad that requires splitting for my dad for father’s day.” (yes, I tried to push this decision on my sister, but that pretty much failed)

C: “ok. What is it?”

J: “Nook Color” (sarcasm waterfall is let loose)

C: “Why would anyone want that? It doesn’t do anything! It only gets you books including educational text books for cheaper, and can download apps…that is just dumb.”
J: “I love you?”

C: -silence-

J: “so…is that a yes?”

C: “You know, when we have kids, you owe me big! I am going to get a camcorder, a tablet computer and whatever else you pawn off on our unborn children. Tablets are ok for your dad, but NOOOOO, your wife can’t have one!”

J: “um…you didn’t answer the question…”

C: “You are so…so…GRRRR! Fine.”

1 more week…

At this point her mom was saying, we can give it to her early? It might make this next week easier for you? I was steadfast. No, there is a plan in place, we are going to follow it. I will just take the “love” shrapnel for a week.

So unknown to her, she was actually getting a Flip camera as well, in part so we could record the reaction to her opening her iPad.

So a week later we were at a wine bar and she looks at me and says “you know, I really want a camcorder, not one of those fancy ones, just one of those Flip one”. I look at her with a searching look, did she know and she was trying to tell me that she knew? I’m pretty sure I just grabbed my glass of wine and stared off some other direction… She didn’t know that in less than 10 hours she was going to get her Flip camera. So in my mind, I am thinking “I might just survive this…”

The next day was her Birthday Pool Party for her at the Prebish Pool, which is quickly developing a bit of a reputation. A reputation along the lines of “What happens at Prebish Pool, Stays at Prebish Pool”. Another Post with Video will provide some insight into this…
But for the Birthday Girl of honor, did taking the “love” shrapnel pay off? I’ll let you decide.



Happy Birthday Courtney! And thank you to all who helped me keep this a surprise, and those who were blissfully unaware and made my task a bit more difficult at times…thank you as well.

Jon