it was...

A sweatshirt. I bought my husband a sweatshirt for his birthday.

I know, I went overboard in the romance department.

But it's ok. Really. He told me.

You see on Easter Sunday as we were headed out the door to my parents house he pulled off his favorite blue sweatshirt and said he needed something decent. I laughed and ask why it wasn't decent.

It's one of those things that if you see it every day you don't realize exactly what it is, or what it has become.

My husband bought his favorite sweatshirt in July 2004 or thereabout. It was at a friend's wedding up in Maine, and he found a great hoodie in the island gift shop. Well, 7 years later the sweatshirt is more grayish than navy, has a few bleach stains, and has shrunk a size. Or he has grown. It was just his birthday, so we will say the sweatshirt shrunk.

But he was right. It was not an out of the house sweatshirt anymore.

But it was his ONLY sweatshirt. While I have three that I can wear out of the house to the grocery or hardware store, this was his only one. And then I looked at mine and saw that no, I probably shouldn't be wearing them out either. But, it was his birthday.

So after work on Monday I went to the Celtics/Bruins store in North Station for an easy pick up.

Or not.

First of all, he is an admitted fair weather Bruins fan, so I really wasn't looking for a Bruins sweatshirt. Especially at $70 a pop. But jeeze. U-G-L-Y. The ones they had looked like the defects. The Bruins are in the playoffs right? And not playing in a garbage dump? Cause that's where these belonged.

But I wasn't there for the Bruins ones.

Then I saw the Celtics sweatshirts. And rubbed my eyes to make sure I was in the right place.

All they had were sweatshirts with giant embroidered basketballs. And at first I wasn't sure they were basketballs. It was like something my mother would wear. I wondered when embroidery had become hip again, and was glad I wasn't hip. I searched the entire store and there were no other kind. All I wanted was a black or gray hooded sweatshirt with BOSTON or CELTICS on it. Not an example of cross stitching.

Honestly, I can't even find a picture of it.

So I left empty handed, and a little pissed off. Had I thought of this earlier I could have gone through the various websites that sell sports gear.

The next day I went back into the store to make sure it was as ugly as I remembered it.

It was. So I moved on.

One thing that husband recently requested from me was to lay off the Old Navy clothes. Pretty much his entire wardrobe is ON. What can I say? They are pretty easy to get to and have good basics. Most of my clothes are also ON.

Of course after he tells me this I know the only place I'm going to find a sweatshirt is at ON. But I try. Marshalls. Target. TJMaxx. Random stores in Downtown Crossing. Nothing.

Finally I enter ON and there they are. A wall of them.

With so many to pick from I know I need to choose carefully. But I see this one.


It's white. Horrible. Husband turned a navy sweatshirt gray, who knows what will happen to the white.

It says California 1975 surf on it. Horrible. We live in Massachusetts. He is not born in 1975 (although close!) and he doesn't surf.

I love it.

I can picture him wearing it on the beach with his back to the waves. Like we were in California. Hell, maybe it IS 1975.

I stare at it, touching the soft lining.

I look around and spot a guy about our age and go up to him. I've become that woman.

"Excuse me, would you wear this?"

The guy looks around and then at me, afraid. He thinks I'm hitting on him. By trying to dress him.

"No, it's for my husband. I'm trying to pick one out. Would you wear this?"

The guy is more relaxed now that he knows I wont be following him home.

"No. No way. It's white and would be really hard to keep clean."

Figures.

I thank him and go pick out a plain black one. Then also pile a blue one on that is similar to the white one.

So I have a risk (the blue) and a safety (the black). Armed with two T-s (NOT from ON), a stone beer mug with a bottle opener attached to the bottom, and a chili chocolate bar I'm done.

Except for one thing.

At the last minute I also buy the white sweatshirt.

It looks awesome on me.