Turning 29 sucked SO MUCH. I was an emotional hot mess (and needlessly dramatic,lol)--I felt like I had wasted my whole 20s, I was seeing all my friends getting married/have babies and I was wallowing in my perceived hole of nothingness.
What birthday sucked the most for you?
Question 2: My 13 year old sister is turning 29. (How did that happen!?!?!?) I would like to send her something special for her birthday (just in case she gets a case of the dramas). I am stumped. Ideas welcome.
29 was really hard on me, too. I actually struggle more with odd-year birthdays. Turning 30 was no biggie whatsoever, but I wasn't crazy about 31 either.
35 was the hardest for me to come to terms with so far (for some reason 35 was the first birthday that felt grown up/old to me)
But my 30th was the suckiest. I had a colicky 6 week old baby, severe PPD, and a less than understanding family. My husband bailed on the birthday plans I made, then didn't even get me a present. My birthday is mid-June, which seems to be a busy time for my friends-- I tried to plan myself a 30th bday dinner with friends, and no one could come.
It was... not a good time.
I recommend a singing telegram for your sister.
(Kidding. Everyone knows a stripper is the traditional 29th birthday gift)
32. My H went out with friends the night before, drank WAY too much, decided to take a nap in his car to sober up, then wound up falling asleep there until 6am. I paced the halls all night with a fussy baby fighting back tears and wondering when to start calling hospitals. He did not respond to repeated calls or texts. Then, of course, he was a sick, hungover mess the whole next day and totally useless as a co-parent, so I spent all day watching the baby. It sucked so much, and I was really, really pissed.
29 was hard, but for a different reason. My father passed away 4 days before my 29th birthday. I just said I skipped turning 29. Every year since has been difficult, as my birthday and my father's death will forever be linked. I had a really hard time when I turned 33, for some reason. That year it really hit me between the anniversary of my father's passing, my lack of a baby, and various other things that were going on at the time.
However, I'm happy to say that 35 (my last birthday) was amazing! My mom paid me a surprise visit and we found out the next day that we were expecting a boy. Life changes pretty quickly!
21. I had Lyme disease and felt awful and couldn't drink. Not that mattered because I was at my parents' house for the summer but none of my friends were in town. And I got in a huge, huge fight with my mom the night before during which she told me she wished I had never been born.
25 was second-worst. No celebrating -- it was spent driving up to Albany to take the bar exam, staying in a hotel room with a leaky ceiling (I couldn't change rooms because the hotel was filled with bar exam people) and studying all night (when I wasn't busy puking from nerves/stress).
35 was the hardest for me to come to terms with so far (for some reason 35 was the first birthday that felt grown up/old to me)
But my 30th was the suckiest. I had a colicky 6 week old baby, severe PPD, and a less than understanding family. My husband bailed on the birthday plans I made, then didn't even get me a present. My birthday is mid-June, which seems to be a busy time for my friends-- I tried to plan myself a 30th bday dinner with friends, and no one could come.
It was... not a good time.
I recommend a singing telegram for your sister.
(Kidding. Everyone knows a stripper is the traditional 29th birthday gift)
DO NOT send her a singing telegram! My husband sent one to my work on valentines day the year I turned 29. It was as terrible as it sounds.
35 was the hardest for me to come to terms with so far (for some reason 35 was the first birthday that felt grown up/old to me)
But my 30th was the suckiest. I had a colicky 6 week old baby, severe PPD, and a less than understanding family. My husband bailed on the birthday plans I made, then didn't even get me a present. My birthday is mid-June, which seems to be a busy time for my friends-- I tried to plan myself a 30th bday dinner with friends, and no one could come.
It was... not a good time.
I recommend a singing telegram for your sister.
(Kidding. Everyone knows a stripper is the traditional 29th birthday gift)
DO NOT send her a singing telegram! My husband sent one to my work on valentines day the year I turned 29. It was as terrible as it sounds.
FALSE! it wasn't my birthday, but the time a pink gorilla in a bikini was sent to sing for a friend's birthday was one of the highlights of my professional life. You just need to make sure there's a crowd involved.
Post by rachaelnicole on Aug 31, 2014 20:42:13 GMT -5
I can't remember exactly which birthday it was, but DH's friend called me and said they were having a party for his girlfriend on the day of my birthday. I don't really know why, but I completely thought it was actually a surprise party for me, and that was just their way of getting me there. Until we actually went to the party, and nope, it really was a birthday party for DH's friend's girlfriend. I spent the entire night being pissed off. I was probably more mad at myself more than anything.
My 21st kind of sucked, actually. My bestie went out of town on a road trip and didn't invite me. She made it up to me for my 29th, by meeting me and my sister for a night of fun at a hot spring. It was awesome
My 27th was pretty awful. My birthday fell on Easter that year, DS 1 was 7 months old and still waking up several times every night, I was BF-ing and the only one getting up with him, and H completely flaked on planning anything even after I'd asked him if he wanted me to make plans. It took until around noon for me to completeley lose my shit, at which point he packed us all in the car, dropped me at Ulta with instructions to "buy yourself some pretty things," and took DS to a salon to get me a spa GC. Naturally they were closed because it was Easter Sunday, but I think he did wind up getting me a massage at some point the next week.
To his credit, he has gone above and beyond every birthday since to make up for that one terrible day.
For the OP's sister, I'd suggest flowers to her work and maybe a bracelet or pair of earrings that you know she wouldn't buy for herself but will wearl regularly.
I just turned 29 two weeks ago. This is my toughest one so far. I don't care about celebrating but we did not plan on spending the day doing work and stressing over it. I'm so over this and ready for a normal 9 to 5/6/7/whatever job. I'm just realizing that I spent my 20s working too much instead of having fun and enjoying my youth.
Like others, I freaked out over 29, thinking OMG I'm almost 30! 30 is going to be hell. But by 30 I was dealing with far bigger issues (namely cancer/chemo) than worrying about turning 30. You'd think it would have sucked, but it was nice enough. My friend hosted a low-key pool party and my folks came to visit.
I think my worst was 25 or 26. I invited a bunch of friends to join my for drinks and dinner (in the grad-student way where you paid for your own tab lol). One showed. ONE. Everyone else canceled at the last minute. Fuckers. A couple of friends who both were born 2 days later invited me to join them on their birthday dinner, but I was kinda pissy still.
Second worst was 34. I had to travel for work and I arrived in town that afternoon. My meetings weren't til the next day, and I had no contact info for my colleagues. So, I had my birthday dinner at a Red Robin bar lol
Honestly, I've given up caring about birthdays. I don't like to celebrate, partially bc it's statistically the hottest day of the year around here, so eff that! And partially bc it just ends up being a let down if i try to care about THE day/age. I joke I rescheduled my birthday to September. In fact, I'm going to ireland next week to celebrate 40!
my most recent one (34, just a few weeks ago). I was super jetlagged/out of it, it was the first day back at work after summer and we had a million meetings with lots of bad news, hardly anyone at work said happy birthday to be because they forgot to write "Happy birthday Magpie" on the big whiteboard, which they always do for everyone's birthday except mine (my birthday always falls on the first or second day back from summer, so it's always crazy at school), our babysitter got sick and had to cancel at the last minute so we were stuck at home with the baby instead of going out to dinner, and my H forgot/didn't get me a gift or card (I was okay with not getting a gift because I couldn't think of anything that I wanted, but we always make each other a card on our birthdays). He has since made it up to me though
I wouldn't say any have been terrible, but my 24th was the worst one I remember. We were getting married a month later,I had just had my bachelorette party, so I didn't feel like I should do anything big for my birthday. We made no plans, so we wound up bowling with one single guy friend who also had no plans. But, one of the best things happened that night when single guy friend had his couple friends come meet us (so, spending my birthday with people I didn't know) and the girl became one of my best friends. So, the actual night wasn't great, but it turned out well.
Post by Norticprincess on Aug 31, 2014 21:27:33 GMT -5
Most if my recent ones I haven't liked. Nothing to do with getting older or the number.
My 28th - first with out my brother - he'd passed 9 months prior and we shared a birthday. Other than 31, I haven't really celebrated a birthday since.
30 was a mix I got a wonderful present as I got to sleep in my own bed after over a month in the hospital. Had to cancel my dive trip. 31 my friends and family celebrated I was highly medicated as I'd found out I'd relapsed the day before - my doc and NP let me have the weekend to get things together and not be admitted on my bday. An entire weekend of putting on a medicated happy face. While DH cancelled my make up for last year bigger dive trip that I was supposed to pick him up to head to the airport hotel after my check up. 32 - first one after my dad passed and his is shortly before mine. DH tried to distract me and we went OOT.
Post by crashgizmo on Aug 31, 2014 21:38:19 GMT -5
29 was the worst for me as well. I was divorced, working 2 jobs to pay the mortgage on a house I hated after my exH went to jail, and I was dating a loser who flaked on me all the time. I was convinced I wasn't worth loving and would end up alone. I went and bought a bottle of Jack Daniels and drank alone. It was quite the rock bottom for me and the eye opener I needed. Three weeks later, I quit my job and sold the house and moved to another state. I met DH two weeks after that, and every birthday since then has been wonderful.
@mrschicken, can you spend some time with your sister on her birthday, or do you live far away? I think a spa day or something similar would be a great present for me. Otherwise, I like the jewelry idea- a bracelet or earrings.
I will be seeing her the week after (she is coming out to ca to meet our niece, and I'm going to drive up to the Bay Area to hang out with her and the rest of the family. So a spa day thing with her would be tough, but maybe a massage gift certificate or a mani/pedi for her to indulge in to prepare for her trip might be awesome.
I think this year will kind of suck. I'm turning 30, but it's not because of that.
I don't think I'll celebrate because I'll be at the hospital all day. I have friends, but I doubt any of them will do anything special for me on my birthday. Plus a lot of them are in residency, so super busy this year.
One of the down sides to being single and/or in a long distance relationship. It'd be nice to have someone to go out to dinner with or share a bottle of wine with.
However, my ex did create drama on my birthday at least 4 out of the 8 years we were together, so I'll look on the bright side and be happy that I won't have to deal with any drama on my birthday even if I will be alone
19 was bad for me. I was a freshmen in college. Most of my friends had gone away for school and I was going to school in my hometown. I didn't know anyone. I felt really alone and pathetic. I've had several birthdays since thing that haven't been great (I'm 33) but I just felt so alone an unimportant that year. It sucked. My birthday is in less than a month, I'm happy that I'm at a point were even if it just me and my husband and kids I'm happy with them.
Post by rootbeerfloat on Aug 31, 2014 22:17:17 GMT -5
24 wasn't awesome. None of my friends or family were around that day to celebrate with me that day, and I got food poisoning from the lunch my coworkers treated me to.