Day 9

My deployed husband and I were Skyping* the other evening.  At some point, he said to me, “Could you send me a new stylus for my IPad?  I can’t find mine… “

I have to say, I think I exercised great restraint. Because, my first reaction was to scream, “WHAT PART OF NOTHING NEW DIDN’T YOU UNDERSTAND?”  Followed by me holding up my index finger and saying, “I got your stylus right here.”  (Please note: I said index finger, not middle finger as I try to keep my non-verbal communication G rated no matter how annoyed I am)

But, I didn’t. Instead, I did the next best thing.  I ignored him and moved on to the next topic.  This is a tactic my children employ frequently when they don’t want to do something and it seems to work for them.

So after the call, I gave it some consideration.  My first thought was to call his sister and have her buy one and send it to him.  I figured that, while not optimal, it was at least not officially breaking the rules. But then on a lark, I went to EBay.  And do you know that there were 20 USED styluses listed?  Can you believe that?  I didn’t even know those things had been in existence long enough to create a resale market for them. The one I picked was “factory refurbished” which seems kind of strange.  How do you suppose you refurbish what amounts to a small plastic stick?

In any case, now that stick is on its way to Chris and everybody is happy.

*As an aside, do you like how I made a verb out of a voice-over-IP service?  I had to look that up, by the way, because when I started to think about it, I realized I had no idea what Skype actually was other than the magical way you can talk to someone halfway across the world on your computer…for free. But that is what it is, a voice-over-IP, and also, to so many military families, a lifeline.