Best/Worst Gifts

My father, God love him, firmly holds that if it is practical, it canNOT be given as a present for any holiday or occasion. He learned well from his own father, who gave clothesline and a toaster as presents (in Grandpa Speed's defense, they WERE items for which his wife had asked). My husband subscribes to the same rule. And.... I'm trying very hard to break him of it!
I have more than enough clothing. I have more shoes than I wear. I LOOOVE jewelry, anything colorful or sparkly, but I have more than I wear, especially since until I get Kittyboy to leave what I'm wearing alone, I can't wear much at all. He's broken chains. "Samson" is another of his nicknames. Flowers die. Plants, I have to find room in a window for. Unless there's a book or movie I'm really wanting, or music, or something, what I usually ask for is something I've actually been wanting and NEEDING.
I am the sort of woman who will ask for a new set of pans - a really nice cleaver - a vacuum cleaner - a bookcase - a coatrack. And I will be sincerely happy and grateful and jump up and down when I get it. If I've spent more than a week thinking, "GEE that thing would make my life easier," said item will appear on the wish list for the next gift-giving occasion. My "big brother" the trucker found me a magnetic knife bar at a truck stop which thrilled me to bits the Christmas he gave it to me.
Case in point - for Mother's Day, I wanted a clothesline. I really, really, really wanted a clothesline. My "clothesline" last year was a rope around a tree on one end and the TV antenna on the other. It was blocked on two sides by the house and the garage, so it didn't get as much wind as it might have, it was under a TREE so it didn't get much sun, and so it was dysfunctional in the truest sense of the word - non-functioning. All spring, I asked for a clothesline. Actually, "asking" is too polite of a term. I nagged, shamelessly. But installing a real clothesline is a Project, and so kept getting put off. So when Husband asked me what I wanted for Mother's Day, he heard, "Clothesline! Clothesline! Clothesline! Clothesline! Clothesline! Clothesline!"I even went to Menards to see how expensive they were, and told him where they were, how much, all that. I was REALLY looking forward to hanging my laundry.
I don't remember what he came home with instead of a clothesline. I think it was flowers and candy. Anyhow, I was CRUSHED. I had TOLD him what I wanted. I had told and told and told, and how could he not have listened? I didn't want flowers, or candy, or even a special meal necessarily. All I wanted was a clothesline! And... sniff... I didn't get one.
Seeing me ready to cry with disappointment FINALLY convinced him that I had been serious. I wasn't just asking for one for Mother's Day because I wanted one in general, I really did want one. The next day, he swung by Menards after work, and came home with a bag of concrete and an expanding, rotating clothesline, and on his next day off, he put it up. I was sooooo happy...
So now he believes me when I tell him I want a big aluminum mixing bowl for Valentine's Day. Now if only I could get the rest of the WORLD to believe me.
Apparently I'm a freak!