I've never been one to celebrate my birthday. They were always low key in my family, Dinner, a gathering, a gift. Easy.
When I met my ex she took the extreme opposite stance. She absolutely wanted to have people gush over her and go out of their way and when it didn't happen the way she wanted it to...we all know how that goes.
So after 6 years of me going out of my way to try to to make each one of her birthdays special (including her 30th which was a disaster) and her DEFINITELY not making the same effort for me (the one year I took us all to a fancy dinner show with knights n stuff and she took me to breakfast at a coffee shop for example.) I've developed a sort of birthday blues.
I have no desire to even have it be acknowledged by anyone. My new partner asked me for ideas on what I want to do and I'm stalling because I genuinely don't know what's appropriate to ask for anymore so I assume just have them pay for a cut of meat that I make for my own birthday dinner...seems non-invasive and non burdensome enough right?