Law Students

JP's Present

By Anonymous

We spent 8 hours at various car dealerships yesterday and I cried at one of them.

Not because I was pregnant and tired and hungry (though I was all of those things) and not because I had entertained a toddler for 8 hours (though I'd done that too)- and not even because JP had been playing one dealer off another for hours and couldn't make up his god damn mind about which car he wanted. No, it was because of his answer when I walked him over to a corner of the dealership and demanded to know which car he wanted. See one had fancier features than the other- it was the first car we saw (at a different dealership), the only one he test drove, and I knew he loved it. But the other one, which was also very nice, had been bargained down to a ridiculous price that would have cost us $3,000 less over 6 years. I no longer cared about price, it was 8:15 and I wanted to go home. But he looked at me, so torn, and said, "I can't do this to my family. I can't make us pay more just because I like the upgraded car."

I blinked at him a few times, a million things flooding into my head as to why he could absolutely ask us to pay an extra $40 a month so he could have the car he loved -- things like the fact that he always deposits his birthday and Christmas money into our account and then never spends it; that he hasn't bought new clothes or shoes in four years; that he eats a PBJ at home every day rather than buy food at school like I always did; that he goes out with friends and doesn't drink to avoid a bar tab, saying he can have a much cheaper beer at home; that he never, ever questions my purchases even during all the years that he worked and I didn't; that even before we were married and I lived off him and our money really was his money, he never once referred to it that way; that he never asks for anything... But mostly I thought of Chicago and how he worked such long hours and had a 60-90 minute one-way commute and he still got up with Landon every other time he woke up. Even though I was a student and I could (and did) skip class and sleep. Even though he woke up early to swim at cheap pool that was 30 minutes in the wrong direction. Even though there were mornings that I was so exhausted I'd stay in bed and start to cry and JP would get up and do another feeding even though he was even more tired than I was. And then he'd go to work for 12 hours and come home and get right back in the rotation with me. He never once referenced the fact that I was a student and he was working full-time and I was the mother and I had more free time- he just did it. Because he was the other parent and why wouldn't he?

I thought of all that and started crying (I'm crying again now typing it out)-- then gave him a hug and spent 2 minutes trying to tell him through my blubbering that we were leaving to go back to the first dealership and driving home in the fancy car because it had everything he wanted but wouldn't ask for. As I was choking that out, JP was looking at me like I'd lost my mind, Landon was looking worried, and I started to laugh because my nose was running and I had no kleenex and I was a ridiculous mess.

An hour later we drove home in this.

We ended up with a pretty good deal since even though I no longer cared how much it cost, JP did, and he called up dealership #1 on the way over to tell them how low we got dealer #2. They knocked off another $1,000 and JP felt better. I was just glad we could finally go eat dinner.

But it is a beautiful car and JP is so excited. The first thing he did this morning was go into the garage and then run back into our room to tell me the whole garage had a new car smell. We drive our cars forever (before last night both of our cars were more than 10 years old) so he better soak up that smell while it lasts. But it is nice to have a car made this decade and to know it's under an all-inclusive super extended warranty for 6 years.

And mostly, it's nice to know one of the most amazing and giving husbands and fathers I know got something he so wanted and deserved. Even if I had to make a fool of myself in front of ten random car salesman to get him to understand that.

Full post as published by Lag Liv on December 20, 2009 (boomark / email).