Just like everyone else, my boyfriend has a birthday once per year. His happens to be on October 15th. And, as with every other October 15th, this one has me totally and completely unprepared. The past few years have seen their fair share of bad gifts.

October 2014 was filled with financial struggles, so I opted for the cheap (but romantic—or so I thought) gifts. I think I wrote over 20 "open when..." letters which got progressively more hurried and sloppy once the count got into the double digits. I made a jar filled with date ideas (which we never used). I also spent hours and hours recording a mediocre CD of random songs I was able to find karaoke versions of on YouTube that I could sing to and record. Oh, and then the CD wouldn't play once I had it made. So, he never actually heard it (I'm actually okay with that).

It should also be noted that for my 18th birthday back in July 2014, Brandon planned an elaborate surprise trip that took us all day. We started at IHOP, drove down to Des Moines, went to the Blank Park Zoo, shopped at Jordan Creek Mall (he said he would buy me whatever I wanted for my birthday present), ate at an Italian restaurant, and wrapped up with Adventureland. My lame birthday planning dims in comparison.

Although I can't remember what I did for Brandon's 2015 birthday, it wasn't grand. More likely than not, I bought him a sweatshirt and took him out to eat. I'm sure I tried and tried to plan something but settled for telling him to let me know when he wanted to go to an Iowa basketball game.

This year, I really did try. Although I completely blew the element of surprise, I planned a trip to Indiana to see the Iowa vs. Purdue football game on Brandon's birthday. I figured a weekend away would be nice, and we haven't gone to an Iowa game all season.

Just over a week before his birthday, we stopped in at the humane society, something I like to do occasionally. I had no intentions of taking home a pet. Brandon found a kitten he liked, and we ended up taking her home. (I like to pretend that this was a selfless birthday present, but I actually really wanted the cat, too.)

Adopting little Jewel had complications. She was sick, so we had to agree to foster her until she got better, at which point we could go back and complete the adoption. As Jewel got worse, we began to reconsider our trip to Indiana. Eventually, we decided that our new pet was more important than a football game. We cancelled the trip and stayed home to nurse Jewel back to health.

So, I guess my birthday plans never actually go as planned, but, hey, at least we got a new fur baby out of it. Happy birthday, anyway, darling. I'll try again next year.