They really DON'T get it.

Now, after 8 years together, I have learned something interesting about my husband. It was something that I was convinced couldn't be true, but come to find out, it really, truly, clear-as-day IS.

MEN DO NOT GET HINTS.

I have learned this, rather annoyingly, actually, over the last 7+ years, and this time, since I HAVE learned this, I tried a different tactic.

I TOLD. I didn't HINT.

I said, "You better do something big for my birthday. I'm turning OLD, we'd better celebrate."

I said, "I've never been to the Space Needle. Let's go for my birthday."

I said, "I want a mixmaster for my birthday."

I said all of these things not once, not twice, but multiple times over the past month. He has TOLD me that I need to TELL him, not HINT, when I want something. So I TOLD him.

So today, the last Saturday, the last night we really have to go out before my birthday, I ask, "Did you make reservations at the Space Needle?"

Do I really need to tell you, dear readers, what the answer to that question was?

Well, actually, I do, because it illustrates my point.

He said, "I thought you wanted a weekend away."

...

A wha...?

Did I say ANYTHING about a weekend away up there? Okay, granted, a weekend away would be GREAT, but he told me to tell him what I WANTED, so I DID.

Oh, the other thing he said? A weekend away would be contingent on me feeling better. Which sounds very sweet, but in Scott-speak, is really just another stall tactic so he doesn't have to actually plan something by any particular date. Because I guarantee you that this weekend away is not planned in any sense of the word.

He is such a wonderful man. I couldn't ask for a better husband, father, man. But I think, after 8 years, I think I've learned to accept this part of him. I'm going to have to give up ever expecting to be surprised by a gift.

Even after I've hit him over the head with it.

Dammit, I think I'm just going to go buy myself some jewelry. I'll tell him it's his birthday gift to me.