My Happier Birthday

I just turned 51 and had a happier birthday.  This may have been the best birthday I have had in years.  The only one better was when my daughter was born on my birthday.

Birthdays and birthday parties have not been a thing for me.  Growing up, we did not have full blown parties.  A cake, sometimes a present.  But nothing big.

When I was married, we had big family birthday parties for our kids.

Big, expensive, all day and all night happier birthday parties.  And we went to all the niece and nephew parties.  It was nice but exhausting.

Now, it is not a thing anymore.  And I'm good with it. 

But I still like to have a good birthday somehow.

Let Me Tell You About My Happier Birthday and Why I Think it was so Good

First the timeline

  1. Left house at noon
  2. Bank
  3. Goodwill Store
  4. Coffee shop
  5. Payless Shoes
  6. Second Goodwill Store
  7. Wal-Mart
  8. Panera Bread
  9. ALDI

What I Liked

  • We did not stay too long at any one place.
  • I bought the clothes she wanted.  My birthday gift to her was buying her the things she wanted, rather than trying to find something on my own.
  • We took care of a number of little errands I needed to do.
  • We talked a lot.
  • We spent the day together.  We have not had a lot of time together since she started working last winter.
  • It was more of an experience birthday rather than gift giving.

Per Cloud Living

Creative Birthday Gift Ideas

Happier birthday ideas include giving great experiences rather than objects.

Happier Birthday Details

My daughter and I left the house around noon.  We went to the bank to deposit a check and some cash she had received from her mother and her two grandmothers. She received some substantial money.

This makes me happy because other people love her enough to give her nice gifts.

We drove 10 miles to the closet Goodwill store to shop.  She loves to shop for clothes at Goodwill finding all kinds of nice clothes at a very modest price.  She loves to dress well and has a very full wardrobe.  She is bargain conscious but fashionable.  We live in a fairly ritzy city with a lot of her friend from rich families with nice new cloths all the time. 

I love how she is frugal and sensible enough to shop for bargains and that she cares about how she looks.

I was shopping for pants, but did not find anything.  I did buy the aviator sunglasses I wanted with some winter boots and a picture frame.

I had told her that my present to her was buying her some new clothes today.

happier brithdayMe and my daughter

We stopped at a nice coffee shop near that Goodwill.  She likes flavored ice coffee and I had a latte. 

We talked for awhile, not in a rush at all. 

She did not have to work today and was not planning on meeting up with friends until tonight.  We talked about the college planning informational meeting at her school this week and she requested the day off from her part-time job at Panera Bread right on the work website.

I love talking to her about adult things and that she is so responsible.

We drove toward the Big Goodwill store and as we were passing by Payless Shoes she asked me to stop there to look.  Of course, I said.  We zipped in but could not find anything. 

I have never found a decent pair of shoes for me at Payless.  Those types of shoes are just not good enough or supportive enough for me.  I don't know why I bother looking.  She did not find anything either.

We went into the Big Goodwill...it is a massive store.  I found 8 pairs of pants that were my size and the type I like.  I tried them all on, none worked.  I was not surprised or that disappointed.  I want to lose some weight first anyway before spending money on pants. 

Plus, there is a specific brand that I like and none of these were it.  I had looked on-line earlier that day on Amazon and Zappos and those 2 stores did not carry them.  I looked on the actual website and they did not seem to make the type of pants I wanted anymore. 

struggle with this all the time...I find some article of clothing that I love, fits me perfectly and that I look good in, wear that piece of clothing until it is threadbare, and want to replace it with the same piece..  But can never find the same piece. 

She found a pair of jeans, and 4 tops.  I bought 3 books.

We needed belts, and did not find any at Goodwill, so went went to Wal-Mart.  We each found a nice, new belt that we needed and shopped for shoes. 

I do not have any success at Wal-Mart with shoes.  She has found quite a few shoes there over the years.  I need really good, supportive, perfectly fitting shoes.  These are expensive and hard to find.  I seem to get the wrong shoes as often as I get the right ones.

It was around 4 pm and we had not eaten since a mid-morning egg and toast breakfast.  We went to Panera.  Not the one she works at but the next closest one to home.  We ordered a sensible, healthy meal, we had been talking all day about how both our goals is to lose weight this year so we are smaller for our next birthday.

I did need some groceries, so we made one more stop at ALDI's.  I did not buy any of the junk food that I love and is so cheap at ALDI's, just some healthy items.

Our day over, we went home, unloaded and put away all our new items.  I relaxed in my big recliner for a bit, surfing the web while she got ready to go out with friends.

I am happy to have spent the day together, happy to me in my nice home and comfortable recliner and happy she has nice friends to spend time with.

happier birthdayMe and my son

I thought about my weight loss goals, changed into my walking clothes and told her I was going for a walk.  She said she was leaving for a friends house, came up for hug and our day together was done.

When I finished my walk my son called me to wish me a happy birthday and said he would be home in a half hour and could I stay up to see him?  Of course, my happier birthday just got even happier as he walked in and we talked a bit before I went to bed.

We made plans to go out for a family lunch the next day.

Happier Birthday Summary

Accomplishments:

  • 5.5 hours with my daughter.
  • Bought some needs for me, good books, brown leather belt, picture frame, winter boots.
  • Bought her some nice clothes.
  • Good coffee out.
  • Nice dinner out.
  • Bought healthy groceries.
  • Discussed end of high school plans, college plans, fitness plans.
  • Seems that there are no issues to be worried about with her.
  • Made plans for a bit more birthday fun tomorrow.

Reasons for a Happier Birthday

One of my favorite things to do is to hang around with the people I love the most.  One of the best ways to do this is to spend many hours together driving from place to place getting some things done, doing some fun things, spending a little money, getting out of the house and enjoying life.

I did this on my sister's birthday earlier this summer.

I used to love doing this with my parent's.  They are the most fun when we were out driving around from place to place.

I do this as often as I can with my kids and my friends.

It works really well with girlfriends and wives.

Try it on your next birthday or person you love birthdays.  You may like it better than a big party.

› › Happier Birthday

The only way I could become the happier man I am today was by leaving my wife.  You might be in the same situation I was in.  I suggest you take a look at my book - Leave Your Wife & Become a Happier Man with the 3 Step System.

Click to go to learn more about the book

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