A bit of context. Every time someone has a birthday in the office, we all gather in the kitchen to sing happy birthday and eat a dessert of the birthday person’s choice. This year was my golden birthday, which means that the age I turned (31) is equal to the day of the month of my birthday (March 31). Now, we didn’t celebrate my actual birthday at work since I took the week off (I wouldn’t normally take the whole week off, but you only get one golden birthday).
With my half-birthday coming up, I decided to ask my boss if we could celebrate given that it was my golden birthday year and we never celebrated my actual birthday. She said no because, “If we celebrate your half-birthday, we’d have to celebrate everyone’s half-birthday.” Well maybe we should celebrate everyone’s half birthday if it’s their golden birthday year! Anyway, my boss sent me an email this morning finally agreeing that, since I was out for my birthday this year, we could celebrate my half-birthday. The catch? It would be an add-on to someone else’s birthday celebration. So, not only am I not getting my own birthday celebration (in my golden birthday year no less), now this poor girl has to share her birthday celebration with me! And I'm not even allowed to pick a dessert. When I requested cupcakes, my boss told me that the girl who I’m sharing the birthday with already asked for donuts, which are fine I guess but they aren't really a birthday dessert. The absolute worst part though, is that I knew I had to pretend I was gracious to my boss for letting us “celebrate” my half-birthday. Yep, because of the power dynamics inherent to the employer-employee relationship, I had to thank my boss.
Happy golden half-birthday to me I guess.