Birthdays

Let me start this off by saying that no, my birthday is not today, nor was it yesterday or anytime soon.

One of my good friends birthdays was yesterday and to say that she didnt have a good one is an understatement. While I didnt spend the day with her, she came over later on and told me about her day. She had been crying (with some breaks) for about five hours. Hours of crying on the day she looked forward to for the entire year at least five years. Her eighteenth birthday was supposed to be the best one yet--filled with things she could now do as an adult, cake and fun.

As I sat alongside her, trying to make her feel a bit better, I couldn't control what came out of my mouth: "birthdays are always bad".

At first, I tried to cover it up. You know with "I mean, um.." but then I realized, its true. Birthdays never seem to live up to their expectations. No matter what, it seems that something always goes wrong.

I decided to come in to the world on December 25th a.k.a what I consider to be the worst birthday. Everyone always talks about the "double presents" I must get and how fun it must be. I dont like it. I dont get double presents. Its hard to distinguish between my birthday and Christmas. A day I want to be all about me is all about someone else, family gatherings and every business and thing to do is closed.

I have other friends that have planned elaborate parties to have 15 people show up out of the hundred they invited, to go out to dinner and not be able to get what they want,to miss the movie they were supposed to go to, etc.

It just seems that something always goes wrong and makes the birthday less that exceptional.

So, a question for everyone out there...
Do you enjoy your birthday?