Bear with me - I feel like whining

I don't get a ton of social invitations, but I get a few. Sometimes they coincide with family obligations (mostly birthdays), in which case I turn them down in favor of the family thing, and if I might sometimes wish there weren't so many obligations, I've never let them hear a peep about it. Because:

1. I really don't want to miss these things, even if I grump about them privately a little bit.
   
   
2. When I get my one personal day of obligation per year, I expect everyone else to pretend to be just as delighted as I am on their birthdays, anniversaries, school things, etc.
   
   
3. It's their day, not mine. If I wanted to go to that other thing that badly, I would just go. I wouldn't ask them to reschedule their stuff for my convenience. Until today, I didn't even realize that it was an option. But apparently, it is... starting with my birthday!

Yes - due to some "misunderstanding" which my sister and mother are now blaming on each other, it seems that I'm going to be taking a day off work to celebrate my own birthday.

At my old job, I used to take my bday off because I was always looking for any excuse to take a day off from that madhouse. Last year, it was also a handy subterfuge for a job interview. (In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't get that job.)

But I'm not thrilled to be asking for a day off on the last business day before a deadline. (Which is unlikely to move again, knock on wood.) It won't be a big deal at all and nobody will be upset about it; but it's just not how I wanted to spend my vacation time. I wanted to take some time off AFTER the deadline.

Of course, when I let slip that I was miffed about this, everyone claimed that I had misunderstood. (That's what happens when someone leaves a message on your answering machine saying that everyone has plans on either Saturday or Sunday that weekend.) The innocent reply was, "but (X) IS your birthday."

True. We all have birthdays on weekdays from time to time, but this would be the first time we had a birthday party on a weekday starting at 4:30.

(I can't believe I'm complaining that my own birthday has become an obligation for ME.)

And by the time everybody backpedalled and said no, no, that's not what we meant, please you don't have to ask for the day off, I had already asked for it. And if I'm going to take the day off then we are damn well going to have a party and we are all going to LIKE it goddamn it!

Or as Clark Griswold would say: "You'll be whistling Zippity Doo-da out of your assholes!"

I suppose I could look at it differently and be grateful that they want to do anything for me at all, but since we always do birthdays, and since this particular one reeks of obligation, plus I have a headache, I think I'd rather go to Burger Chef and get a Fun Meal. The truth is that I'm not extremely excited about this thing to begin with, and I'm sort of beyond the point where it seems likely that I'll be getting a pony not that I ever wanted one, etc.

I was so pissed off about this that I started writing this as soon as I got home. I haven't eaten yet. I'm missing my telenovela (the machine is getting it, so it's okay, but I really prefer to watch it when it's on). I think I should maybe stop sulking and get on with my life. :-)

Again, I don't really care that much about the damn birthday. In fact, I'd be thrilled if there were some way to postpone it for a few years. I'm just disappointed that they had to make it so obvious that it was going to be a pain in the ass for them.

Useful Spanish of the day
¡Feliz cumpleaños, maldita sea!
Happy birthday, dammit!