The Price of Priceless

So as Lisa mentioned, John was mesmerized by the sticks offering green lighted goodness being sold by the street vendors at Trevi Fountain.

We did not initially give in to his pleas that we buy one but had a good discussion at dinner with him about how much of his money he would be willing to spend on the battery operated wand. He has about 30 Euros he has been carrying around since our arrival in Dublin. Our kids don't really care all that much about stuff. They spent a total of 3 euro each in Paris on little colored Eiffel Towers for their friends.

Anyway, he said 20 and we told him that would be too much. We had a discussion about how much it was worth and all agreed in the end that 5 euros would be reasonable (Lisa has asked me to add here...That you need to keep in mind, at this point we did not know what the asking price would be).

No commitments were made to purchase one and we were distracted by some of the best pasta and gelato I had ever eaten. (Surprise surprise)

After dinner, we headed back to Trevi Fountain. Before we even made it to the attraction, the vendor was upon us. Showing us all the cool lighted patterns it could make on the cobblestones, the apartment walls, the fountain itself. Convinced that the flashlight really was cool, I said "how much?" The vendor said "20 Euro," to which I responded with a little laugh "oh no" and kept walking. As he followed me, my adrenaline began to rush as I realized I was about to enter a financial negotiation.

My favorite game on Earth. A pastime learned from my father.

At that moment, on my right a familiar voice queried "How about 10?"

Huh? 

Hadn't I defered the lifting of every heavy object to her over the past 11 years?  Didn't I do the right thing and sit back and let her manage shoveling the walks, mowing the lawn and teaching Maggie Algebra?

Hadn't I even let her edit my blog entries???

Was it true she had just jumped into my negotiation? My wheelhouse? And what is worse....started at 10 Euro.

You can imagine how frustrated I was. I recognize that I don't bring much to our marital table (other than popping out a couple of great kids), so when the rare opportunity to use my skill set in the wild arises, I really don't expect anyone else to speak.

There was no fixing it. You can never pull back once the number is on the table.

But I wasn't going to go down without trying....So I say...."Oh my gosh...not 10, maybe 5."

Now I am negotiating on my own side....bidding against myself which is such a rookie error--my dad will literally roll his eyes when my mom reads this to him....but the only way to remedy the situation. So he kept following and said "15...."

By this point, the lightbulb had gone on for Lisa and she knew her speaking had been like me explaining the offsides rules of ice hockey to just about anyone. I saw her and Maggie, out of the corner of my eye move on to a different attraction. "How much are the roasted Hazelnuts?"

I was finally, on my own.

I knew the only way to salvage was to keep walking. After he asked for 15. He then said "how about 12?" I said no again and kept walking. He then finally said "Okay. 10."

Of course that was as low as we could now go having offered that once before....So I gave in and handed him the only bill I had.

Which was a 50.

And as I did, all I could think was I could have saved us a few more euros if I had not been interrupted.

Hell, we could've been 2 Euro toward a return trip had we just tossed it into the fountain!

And then on second thought as I looked the man in the eyes to pay him I realized that perhaps I should have given him 20.

This is an image of Johnny's "Bedtime Grand Finale" made with the flashlight on the ceiling of our hotel room. Tomorrow night's show has been promised to be choreographed to the Theme from Star Wars.