Happy birthday to me...
A few years back, and having been single for 11 months thanks to the ex Mrs Davros, I was just starting to get my head together again. However, on occasion the Black Dog would start barking again and I'd have a bit of a wobble - nothing too serious thankfully.

Having been in my flat for coming up to 6 months, my birthday loomed - 32. Hardly a milestone, apart from being my first birthday as a singleton since I turned 18... This particular birthday fell on a work day, and also coincided with the office Christmas bash. I felt good about it, I could celebrate my birthday in style, and with good people, and forget that I was, in fact, a grieving wreck of a person who longed for one thing and one thing only.

I got up and got ready for work, and was halfway through my coffee when I thought I heard footsteps. That might be the postie, I thought, and stomped downstairs to have a look, in anticpation of the mountain of cards that would no doubt be piled up on the mat. My family are a bit crap at this sort of thing - forgetting to post on time, or even assuming that I'll be visiting around that time since it's so close to Christmas so I can pick up birthday cards / presents then. However, this year was bound to be different - I've had a traumatic year, so they're bound to be a bit more switched on.

However, I got there to find...

A single envelope on the doormat. I opened it, and there was a birthday card. From a friend that I'd only just got aquainted with. Bless her. However, the crushing disappointment that I felt from the realisation that no one in my family had managed to get a card to me on the actual day of my birthday was just one of the most hollow feelings I've ever endured.

This was compounded somewhat by the bus ride home, on which my ex missus was also sat - it had been her works bash as well, it transpired. By this point we were still on friendly terms and she wished me a happy birthday and we sat and chatted for a bit. Unfortunately, the effects of alcohol since lunchtime conspired to switch on my melancholy chip, and I spent the last 20 minutes of the journey blubbing like a girl over some non-received birthday cards.

Seven years later and I still get cards late, or not at all. Much as I love my family, this really does piss me off, especially as I never fail to remember anyone elses birthday.

Meh.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Sun 29 Jun 2008, 16:41, 7 replies)

My mum is crap...
She's always forgetting to get me a card or it's late. I've got used to it now and laugh about it. Still, it would be a shock if she remembered one year.
( girlinthehole, Sun 29 Jun 2008, 16:52, closed)

^^
It's weird how it can be the little things that bring about an unwanted appearance from the Black Dog. I can cope fine most of the time with major stuff, but any minor irritation can flip the day on its head.
Last week I got dumped via text off my girlfriend, 10 minutes after I'd kissed her goodbye and jumped on a train home. I shrugged and went down the pub. The day after something I'd ordered at work didn't arrive, which led to me chucking my headphones across the room and kicking the door as I stormed out the office.
( Boss Keloid Got your mother's maiden name tattooed on my arm, Sun 29 Jun 2008, 16:52, closed)

I'm rubbish at remembering cards for people
I'll buy them a present and phone them or see them on their birthday no problem, but never the card to finish it off.
( fuck shit up the best you never had, Sun 29 Jun 2008, 17:01, closed)

I always forget birthdays
I even forgot my own once. Honestly!
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Sun 29 Jun 2008, 20:46, closed)

pink cards with teddy bears on, every fucking year.
i'm 34 this year and, despite the fact that my parents know i loathe pink with a passion and i'm not a girly girl, they will buy me a card saying "to our special little girl", decorated with fucking teddy bears and covered in pinkness.
being forgotten about sucks, but most birthday cards suck, too.
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Mon 30 Jun 2008, 1:55, closed)

Black dog beckons...
When I first met my ex girlfriend I could be certain of both birthday and Xmas cards from her for the first few years, then we went off at tangents, both found new partners, but kept in touch.
After 15 years we got together as lovers rather than friends, she became the mother of my children, and we split up...
Not drastically bad, we lived around the corner from each other, I saw the kids every day until my mother died and I had to move home to look after my dad, giving up the house I was renting.
Six weeks later he died.
My daughters are 10 soon.
I've never had a birthday card from them, or fathers day card, and the only Xmas cards I've ever had have been ones she's written in a rush whilst I've been delivering presents.
Yet, every year I get excited just before each event, and every year I get disappointed.
They were on MSN almost constantly when they first got a pc, I chatted to all my girls (they have a 12 yr old sister that I consider mine) but I've not seen them online for months. Emails and letters go unanswered, the phones constantly on answerphone with no response to messages left there.
I know I have a good life now, my wife loves me very very much, and I love her, but a simple message for 'daddy' would mean so much.
(paof2 Nude might not be rude, but rude could be nude..., Mon 30 Jun 2008, 7:57, closed)