Big, Big Mistake

Part 1 of 3, Thinking Outside the Box

How very fortunate one is in life to have both good and very useful insights. Even better is to articulate these insights online on one's website and have them validated by your readers. Best is to be a man, have insights regarding women and gifts of flowers and chocolates, and have those insights validated by women around the world. And what more opportune time to use these insights than on Valentine's Day, now assured as to exactly what should be done?

However, as I wrote on December 7, 2007 in Foolish Crash, "there are different kinds of fools."  In that story, I discussed a specific type of fool, one who neglects simple, prudent computer procedures that everyone knows well and suffers severely. I was that fool.


But my foolishness comes in different flavors. I am also the type of person who, armed with insight, goes ahead and ignores it in order to look more clever and less cliched than the masses, like in buying a much more useful (aka unromantic) gift on Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day is not the time to be creative or try thinking outside the box, particularly outside a box of chocolates or a box (or bouquet) of long-stemmed roses. Regardless of any novel gift ideas, at least one box you give should hold the type of gift which most women hold dear on such a day. But I thought I could break the rules and march to the beat of a different box-giver. Big, Big Mistake.

My girlfriend, in the opinion of a technophile, badly needed an upgrade for a TV located in her kitchen. Outdated technology is common in many households, particularly by those who put other interests first. This was a perfect opportunity to give a much-needed gift of lasting value. But virtually every woman alive who celebrates Valentine's Day, regardless of what she may say, has an expectation. And that expectation was clearly outlined in my story Happy Valentine's Day.

But I was undeterred by my own better judgement and was unflagging in my desire to think outside the box. And what better place than New York City to find a gift, traditional or not? So it was, that on Sunday, February 12, 2012, two days before Valentine's Day, I made a pilgrimage to B&H Photo to purchase an LCD HDTV and wall mount, in spite of my instincts as to the proper gift to give a woman on this most romantic of holidays.

My fate was not yet sealed - after all, flowers were still an option as an additional gift. If I elected to supplement the TV, my girlfriend would have the discretion of deciding which gift was primary and which was the icing on the cake. All bases would be covered, both the romantic and the practical.

Tomorrow, in Part 2, we will see the decision I made, the gifts I gave, her reaction, and whether or not I made a Big, Big Mistake :)