Trading Birthdays

In my experience, birthdays as a single person are challenging.  When someone in a couple has a birthday, it’s kind of the partner’s “job” to make her feel special, throw a party, invite friends to dinner, and so on.  When you’re single, it seems a little attention-seeking or even pathetic to arrange your own festivities.  Now, I’m all for celebrating the wonderful woman I am.  When I bought my house, I took the opportunity to invite my friends over for a joint housewarming/birthday party to celebrate this accomplishment as well as my 27th birthday.  It was one of the few times I’ve had a group of people over, as I’m not much of an entertaining type.  But as years since passed, I’ve never understood how to commemorate my “special day”.  My opinion is that others should be celebrating me on that day.  I balk at the idea of bringing in snacks to the office – what the hell, I have to bake for you jerks? – but of course I always do, because, well, that’s what one does in corporate America.