I’m wondering about the times you bought something with every intention of it belonging to x, only to discover it seems to really belong to y. Not like the time Homer bought Marge a bowling ball (with his name on it) for her birthday.
For instance, I bought my husband a t-shirt with a dog haiku on it. It has been hanging in my closet since the day it came, and I’ve worn it countless times. Mr.stretch has yet to wear it. Neither one of us planned it that way but somehow it became my shirt.
What brought this idea to mind is my Pink CD. I bought the Pink CDs for me. The day of arrival, the Pink CDs were put in the CD changer and I got to listen to them all. Then I’m Not Dead wandered off to mr.stretch’s car and I haven’t seen it since. I’m sure he’d bring it in the house if I asked, and I know where to go get it if I really want it. But somehow it became his CD. The best part of this is mr.stretch is 47 years old and he drives around in his Spitfire with the top down, listening to P!NK. He reports getting funny looks from the young female drivers he sees. I wonder what the macho boys think?
So what have you bought that you thought was for you, but somehow it belongs to your SO, brother, friend, hamster, whatever? Or you bought it for someone, but now it’s yours?
Well, there’s the cell phone that’s theoretically mine, but not really.
Hubby had a cell phone, I did not. Then his job provided him with a cell phone, so he gave me his. Except, he’s not supposed to make personal calls on his work phone. So almost every week, when he leaves for work, he takes “my” cell phone with him so he can use it to make personal calls.
So, realistically, I still don’t have a cell phone, but he has two of them! :rolleyes:
I think my wife and I have purchased or wound up with numerous t-shirts over the years that were too big for her, so I got them, or didn’t look right on me, so she got them.
Most recently would be the t-shirt I spent thirty-five f’in dollars on at The Police concert this summer, only to get home and find out it didn’t fit right. However, it makes me just as happy to see my wife wear it since she couldn’t make the concert, so it’s all good.
Our first pug was bought for 1) our other dog (he’d been chewing on his leg, Vet said “he’s bored, get him a pet” so we got our dog a puppy :rolleyes: ) and 2) Mr. Athena, who was giddy about those silly bug-eyed lil’ sausage dogs. I certainly had no interest in yet another dog, especially a pug.
Then she came home, and she sat on my lap, and then she fell asleep on my lap. Rinse and repeat daily for the next 4 years, up to today.
It’s no secret exactly whose dog the pug is. She’s so much my pug that we had to get another pug for Mr. Athena.
My brother used to be really great at re-appropriating stuff I bought for me. From CDs to shoes (I have big man-feet) to gas in the car (“oh hey, my tank is dry can I just take your car tonight thanks!”)
I always thought he was very clever for being able to do this - because I just let him do it for 20-odd years. One minute I have something new and the next now ZipperBro has something new! Hey…where’d my stuff go?
He’s married now and we both have our own homes, so there’s no more “confusion” as to who’s stuff belongs to who. Although he did seem to manage to re-appropriate my basement into his personal storage area…hmm…
I bought the first four Harry Potter books for my son for Christmas several years ago. They sat unread in his room for several weeks.
His sister asked to borrow the first book to read and now all the books are on her book shelf with the added ones that came out later.
He later “borrowed” them back from her and read each one and he just borrowed the lastest one from her to read.
It was like when they were his he had no interest in reading them but once they became hers he could not get enough.
I don’t really know how they worked it out that she kept them other than my son is lazy and probably figured it was easier to leave them on her bookshelf.
Back around when I was a senior in high school, my mom went book shopping before she got her hair done. She got herself a book, and then just to be nice picked out a book for me that she thought looked like something I would like–A Game of Thrones. She accidentally took my book in to her hair appointment instead of hers.
So when she got home, she said “I have good news and bad news…” The good news, of course, was that she got me a nice gift. The bad news was that she started reading it while her dye was setting and liked it so much that she wouldn’t give it to me until she was finished with it.
My mother had never, and has never since, read a fantasy series. She LOVES those books.
My situation is the reverse; my husband bought me a really nice, top-of-the-line laptop last year. I’ve never even gotten to touch it, let alone use it. He’s bought me countless computer games, devices, and gadgets, and I’ve never gotten to use any of them.
My wife does this with books - I’ll buy a book (usually secondhand) that looks interesting, get it home and put it down, intending to start it that evening or the next day, then I’ll come back later to find that she’s stuck into the fifth chapter.
After that, the book vanishes to wherever it is she keeps books she’s reading.
A month or so later, I’ll remember and enquire if it was a good read, and please can I have it back, and the answer is usually that she got two thirds through it but didn’t like it, and yes, she’ll look it out for me sometime (which doesn’t actually mean I’ll necessarily ever see it again).
Oh, sure. My husband had a dog for two years before we got married, but she immediately chose me as Favorite Person when I moved in. She was definitely my dog less than a week after we got married.
Then he bought me a Leatherman for Christmas (I asked for it, so don’t jump on him). I haven’t seen it since the February after.
There are numerous other examples. It happens a lot.
I managed to maintain notional possession of the budgie though - he was my Christmas present a couple of years ago and I always try to refer to him as ‘my bird’ - my kids keep trying to correct me and tell me he’s our bird, but I’m not giving in on this one - this was MY Christmas present. MINE!
The loveseat. We intended to share it with the dogs - one person and one dog, generally. But about 99% of the time the girl dog is up there taking her half out of the middle. She LOVES that thing.
I decided that my daughters were old enough to have their own computer. I do all my own upgrades, and rarely throw away the old parts, so I had almost enough leftovers to do it; they just needed a monitor. So, I bought a little 15" LCD for them, and hooked it up to the second output of my video card to make sure there were no dead pixels… It was at least a year before I finally built their computer, because having two monitors is so nice, I couldn’t bear to part with it. (However, I didn’t buy myself another secondary monitor until months after I built their computer.)
I don’t know how many books my daughter and I have appropriated from each other. My husband brought home a kitten with every intention of it being my daughter’s cat. However, the kitten decided that HE was her human. She also didn’t like the name he wanted to call her, and let us know that her name is Mere. Or possibly Meer. She’s not too good at spelling (the cat, not my daughter). I have received several gifts that seemed to find their way into my daughter’s possession, like the pendant watch, and the jump drive.
Back when I was a mid- to late teenager, me and my mom had the exact same shoe size. Hilarity ensued.
My mother routinely wanders off with my dad sweaters and shirts. I think he buys spares just for her (she’s weird about presents).
Typo Knig loves tools and his favorite place to window-shop is the local independent hardware store (Fischer’s, for NoVAers. Great place). So when I heard of a CD called “Toolbox Classics”, by Woody Phillips (classical music played on a variety of tools, really) I thought he’d enjoy it.
As far as I know he has never listened to it. It’s one of my favorites, however!
