Tomorrow is the SO's birthday and I really don't know what to get him.. What he wants, of course, is his life back, with him in control of everything. It was an imaginary state when he was in better health; it is a maladaptive neurotic dream in his current condition.

So, barring the insane and unreachable, what can I give him for his birthday? For over 20 years I've had the experience that nothing I gave him or did for him was quite good enough, quite up to his standard. However, I've kept trying--after all, one simply cannot ignore birthday and holiday gift-giving, even though it has always been an exercise in disappointment and rejection.

I've given him things to try to help him adapt to his new environment and bring a bit of enjoyment: cell phone, CD player, handheld voice recorder, notebook computer, bluetooth ear piece, non-bluetooth ear piece, books, and so forth.

I offered him a Kindle, because he could enlarge the font as much as he needed to read easily. I didn't even get a, "No, thank you," for that offer.

They all sit on surfaces or in drawers, unused. Some he's even given back to me eventually. He just sits there, hunched in his chair (which he selected himself because I refused to do it for him--which would have allowed him to find fault with it and return it) and watches television. Fox News, OMG.

So I think I'll resort to the one thing that seems to be acceptable: sweets like brownies or cookies. Either he eats them himself or he give them away, but at the very least he doesn't put them in drawers or give them back.

With a blue bow and a birthday card.

I'm open to suggestions, if you have any better ideas.