Well, another birthday has come and gone. Celebrated a milestone birthday the other day. Had as much fun as I could, even though I didn't particularly start the week feeling like celebrating.
The week began like normal. Early on, I had a family issue that left me in a negative frame of mind. It was something that was out of my control, but of course it had to happen during my birthday week. I tried not to let it affect me too much, but it wasn't something that I could easily ignore, either.
I tried to keep the person in question out of mind as much as possible. When the birthday rolled around, I went out to lunch with Mom at one of our favorite restaurants. I was pleased to see some wonderful birthday greetings from friends and relatives on my social media pages. I went to a big league ball game that evening, and even though my team lost and didn't play well, I still enjoyed going to a game on a nice night. I also bought myself a few souvenirs while I was there.
Yesterday, I was looking forward to going to lunch with a few friends. I think that I invited about 40 friends via social media to a low-key lunch. I had never created a social media invite for anything before. A few people let me know that they weren't going to be able to attend, and I was fine with that. I didn't invite a lot of people, and I didn't invite anyone from out of state. I also knew that a few people already had plans that weekend, which I understood as well and I didn't invite them for that reason. If I didn't have the family thing going on at the time, I probably would have followed up with people who said that they were interested or didn't reply to the invite. I'm sure that there were people that I forgot to invite, but I did share the event a few times, so that anyone who wanted to go would be welcome to do so.
When it was time for lunch, only one friend showed up. I was disappointed, but tried not to let that show. I had a great conversation with my friend, and I feel like our friendship got stronger. I'm glad that we've gotten to know each other much better than we did when we went to school together. I'm very happy that we make an effort to be in each other's lives.
Afterwards, I ran an errand and treated myself to a movie. I turned down an invite by a friend who couldn't make lunch to listen to live music last night because I just wasn't feeling up to it. I was kind of worn down from the week, and I was tired too. I started feeling tired during the movie, but I apologized to my friend and offered to go out to lunch with them at another time.
I know now that it's fairly common nowadays for people to bail on birthdays and other special events. I've read several articles and blog posts where this has happened. This surprised me at first, because it's contrary to how I was raised. When I was little, being invited to and attending someone's birthday party was a big deal. You were expected to attend and bring a gift. It seems like birthdays kind of get progressively worse when you get older.
I still had a good birthday in spite of all that happened. I took the weekend off from work and I'm going to reevaluate my associations with the friends who didn't respond to the birthday invite. I'm also learning to show more appreciation for the people who did reach out to wish me well and put a smile on my face. Maybe I need to concentrate on the quality, not quantity, of the friends that I have. I don't think that I'm going to plan any more get-togethers, unless it's a meal with family which is something that I do for all of my birthdays. I'll also probably be less likely to attend or respond to events from people who ignored my invite. Some of them may need to be downgraded from friends to acquaintances.
I'll still concentrate on following my dreams and doing more of what I want to do. I have a few concerts on tap, and I'm looking forward to seeing a few friends from other states there and some of my favorite bands. It'll take a few days to forget about the negative and focus on the positive. The family stuff will sort itself out over time.
Well, that's all for now. Time to do more reading, writing and enjoying my favorite entertainment programs. Until next time, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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