Giving something up

After launching BuyBenaniPhone.com and receiving more than $10 in donations (although I really only got $6.56 because of PayPal transaction charges), I decided on the day they started selling them to go with some work friends to the mall during lunchtime to see if people were actually lining up outside. At that point it was 100 people and counting.

To razz Chel about her persistent denial of my iPhone dreams, I called her (on my non-iPhone) and left her a message that we were stopping by the Apple store. She called me back and told me I should go ahead and get it.

“You’re yanking my chain,” I said, or something to that effect.

“No, you should get it. Congratulations on a great first year of law school!”

Suffice it to say that much of the rest of the afternoon was spent coming up with my purchase strategy. We had to go somewhere that night, so I knew that joining the line outside the store wasn’t the way to go. I decided to order it online promptly at 8 p.m. when it became available. With all the hype I just knew it would be sold out in a few minutes. But I got through, and my phone would be delivered within 2-4 weeks.

The next day while I was out running some weekend errands, I happened to drive by the Apple store again so I decided to stop in and see if I could try it out. There was a pretty big crowd milling about, but no line or anything, so I figured the store had to have sold out their allotment for the day. After a friendly Apple store rep gave a few of us a guided tour of the iPhone, the guy next to me announced that he was going to go get one, walked nonchalantly up to the counter, and checked out.

Huh. So they’re not sold out! I nonchalantly walked up to the counter and purchased my own birthday-slash-Christmas-slash-anniversary-slash-first year of law school gift. (And yes, I did cancel my online order.)

So the iPhone is great and probably the coolest gadget I’ve ever had (and that’s saying a lot). But it’s too bad we got one, because Anne let me know yesterday morning that the Kidd Kraddick morning show was giving away an iPhone to one lucky man. The catch: the wife had to call in and simply give up something of value to the guy. I called Chel (this time, on the iPhone) and left her a message that we missed out…that she could have won me an iPhone by giving something up.

She left me a joking message back that she did give something up. She gave up her dining room table!

That may not sound like much, but if you’ve talked with Chel about home decorating lately, you know that she wants nothing more than a nice dining room table. We had almost saved up for it, and then I came along with BuyBenaniPhone.

The cool thing I’m learning about marriage is that it’s full of opportunities to give and to serve. I’m blessed — beyond the iPhone — that my wife gives so much to me every day. I hope that I can find ways to give and to serve her even half as much. Hopefully that will include a dining table and chairs sometime soon.

But in the meantime, you can play with the iPhone if you come over for dinner — you just may have to sit on the floor.