My birthday is in two weeks and today my wife Amanda asked me what I wanted as a gift from her. We always buy something for each other and usually we tell each other what we want. In the beginning of our relationship we would surprise each other and there were some gifts from both sides that sort of struck out. One year she bought me a really nice and expensive cordless razor. She knew I wasn’t a real big fan of shaving in general but I have to for my job. It was a good idea but I couldn’t use it. I didn’t like how it worked and it made me get some nasty razor burn no matter what I tried. I felt bad but she had to return it. I think we went out to a nice dinner with the money she got back from it.
The one time I swung and missed with getting her something was a lot worse. She had just started a new job and was in need of some new outfits to wear to work. I don’t know what I was thinking but I decided to get her an outfit for every day of the work week. That would be 5 different outfits if you aren’t keeping score at home. Out of the 5 she ended up only keeping 1 of them. The rest much like the cordless razor was returned. We didn’t go out to dinner with that money instead I let her pick out her own clothes. That was and will be the last time I ever buy her anything like that. She is extremely picky when it comes to what she wears. She is also apparently hard to shop for with her size. She’s small and wears either an extra small or small depending on the brand. I’ll never forget the look on her face when she tried to pretend that she liked everything that I got her.
I’m not really sure what I’m going to tell her to get me this year. I have a few different ideas but nothing is really jumping out at me. One thing I think would be nice is going to see my favorite team play. I haven’t been to a Bears game in years and with how their season is going so far their tickets shouldn’t be in high demand. Amanda is not into football at all so I’d probably take my brother Rob or one of my friends. I’ll have to look at their schedule and some ticket prices before I decide on that. I’m not sure how she would feel about buying me those for my birthday either. She might bet upset I’m not celebrating with her.
Another thing I was thinking about was a weekend away with her. We haven’t done something like that in a long time. We wouldn’t even have to go far. We live in the Chicago suburbs so just going into the city would be fine by me. There is always something to do in the city. We haven’t been to Lincoln Park Zoo in years and that is actually free. It is really weird to have a zoo in the middle of such a big city. I always thought it was weird anyways. I wouldn’t mind going to Shedd Aquarium too. I can’t even remember the last time we were there. I just remember it gets really crowded so I’d want to get there early to beat the rush.
The only other thing I can think of are all weather mats for my truck. I still have the carpet ones that came with it when I bought it last year. I’ve been meaning to replace them but have not gotten around to it. Maybe I’ll tell my wife those 3 options and have her surprise me.
