A Significant Purchase

Yesterday was a good day. Yes, a very fine day around these parts.

Oldest Daughter and I made a little trip to Best Buy. This was a large moment in her 17-year history. It was time to make a purchase.

This purchase was a bit of a celebration . . . a celebration of a child that, since she got her first dollar, has saved and been wise with her money.

While her siblings spent their allowances and spare change on washable tattoos and plates of basketball-game-nachos and music downloads, this girl quietly saved her money . . . year after year after year.

Always saving for an abstract "something" that she might want in the future . . . something big. And so now here we were and she was buying, with all her own money, her own top notch laptop computer.

Me: "Oldest Daughter, look over here!"

OD: "Mommmmmmmmm . . . you have got to be kidding. You are kidding, right. Are you actually taking a picture???" {wild eye-rolling}

Cashier: {furtive glancing from face to face, nervous giggling}

Me: "Honey, this is a big moment. I'm proud of you!"

OD (under breath between clenched teeth): "I am not looking. You are embarrassing me!"

Me: "Of course I am. It's my joy!"




As Oldest Daughter handed over the stack of her-own-saved-over-the-years money, I saw stacks of $1's from summer painting jobs, stacks of $5's from years of pet sittings, stacks of $10's from allowances, and $20's from babysitting . . . all saved, unspent, kept for that special purchase . . . someday.

(I'll insert here that this kind of thinking is quite foreign to me. That I gave birth to this child is nothing short of a genetic anomaly, which is probably why I am so impressed. I personally break out into a severe case of hives if I ever have in one spot $50 that is unspent.

Which is also why the Man of the House handles all our finances.

He, on the other hand, gets a rash when he does spend $50. We go through a lot of cortisone cream.)

When Oldest Daughter turned over her entire life savings to the cashier, the cashier slowly (painfully?) counted out every bill . . . and then gave Oldest Daughter back one penny in change.

One penny.

Me: "Oldest Daughter, Oldest Daughter, turn around. I want to get a picture of your smiling face on this significant day.

OD: "I don't h-e-e-e-a-a-a-r you!"

Shoot . . . that girl knows I love her!!