Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Purim

Do you know what Thursday is? It's Purim. If you're not Jewish, you probably don't know what this is. I'm not Jewish and I'm very sorry to say that I have no idea what the day is celebrating. I do know though, that it is a day that I celebrated for many, many years.

It all started when X and I decided to start saving for a house. We were living in a one-room apartment at the time, and it was pretty nice, but we were starting to consider having a family and obviously we required a little more room. So we put a moratorium on any extraneous spending.

HAHAHAHAHA! Look: I'm not the kind of person that's addicted to shopping. My home will never been seen on Hoarders. I rarely do any sort of retail therapy. But when I want something, I will usually buy it.

Back then, I was a receptionist at an insurance company and as every receptionist knows door-to-door sales is not dead. We had a constant stream of sales people coming in to leave books or kitchen items for a few days then come back and take orders. On this particular spring day, it was paintings. And there was a painting that went so well with our decor (please keep in mind this was the early-90s) and the saleslady convinced me that the frame alone was worth twice what she was selling it for. And so I bought it. And then I panicked.

Wasn't I supposed to be saving money. That painting was a whopping $80. That was our grocery bill for a week. So I turned to the calendar. And what do you know, it was Purim. I couldn't think of a better reason to give a gift.

To give him credit, X was delighted. And we continued to celebrate the day with gifts for him throughout our entire marriage.

PS. The painting looked similar to this. I am so embarrassed right now.


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