Shopping Challenged

With the men of the house spending the week at band camp (lucky guys!), we women have been planning to do some girl stuff, but we're running into difficulties. We'd like to shop til we drop, for instance, but there are obstacles.

First, we need to shop for birthday gifts for the young man who will turn 17 next week, but he's not cooperating. For weeks now I've been asking him what he wants for his birthday, but he keeps saying, "I don't know." When I push and hint and try to finagle an answer out of him, all he'll say is "I'm content." How do you wrap that up and put a bow on it?

I've also been trying to shop for a new briefcase, but I'm not sure I'm ready for that kind of commitment. I'm moving fairly smoothly through the five stages of grief, from denial through anger, bargaining, and depression, but I'm not quite ready for acceptance yet. I thought shopping for a new briefcase would help me cope with the loss of the old one, but it just introduced new difficulties: I fell in love with a gorgeous leather briefcase that does everything I want a briefcase to do....except it costs $370. I am already thinking of it as "my" briefcase even though all I'm entitled to at the moment are periodic visitations at the leather store in town.

So for the moment we are Shopping Challenged, but I don't expect that situation to last long. Tomorrow we'll head for the mall and try to get inspired. There must be something there that can satisfy an overly contented adolescent, and maybe I'll prove fickle and fall in love with a more affordable briefcase.