Another Dark Cloud

My birthday is coming up, but when it comes to parties, I have some of the worst luck. I've already touched on my tendency to get sacked at a time that amounts to right before my birthday, but fortunately, the party side has been really good in recent years. When I was younger, I could never get anyone to come to my birthday parties because people tended to go on vacation immediately after school got out...which fell right on my birthday. My parents' church does church camp, which also tends to fall right around my birthday, and they've missed it because they've left for it before.

This year? Oh, I figured having it early combined with it being an all day, come when you like, Star Wars movie marathon lasting from 7am to nearly midnight would help some of the complications people have with showing up (at all). No, this year, a new kink gets thrown into the mix. Like any bloke who needs money, I like lapping up as much overtime as I can muster, and Optimus Prime is much the same way. Occasionally, my workplace will schedule a weekend work day to catch up on tickets. Guess when they decided to schedule a mandatory workday...

Yup... right on my marathon day. Now, we've both been forgiven that day for having a prior commitment, but you know, I kinda coulda used the $150 it would have been worth to come in that day. It would have been nice. I know he would feel the same way, so rather than a total day of freedom, we are freed for the day, with the idea hanging over us that if only I hadn't scheduled my day of fun, we would have worked. It's one freakin' crappy feeling.

I wish that just one year everything would go so perfectly in every regard that I could enjoy the day 100%. Even this year, my parents' church adjusted their church camp schedule and The Engineer is leaving town on the 31st for church camp. I thought for sure I had that missed, but instead, they did it earlier. Seriously, what do I have to do?

It's an annual frustration, and maybe this is why some people give up on parties after awhile. It's not even a matter of being important enough for people to show up. I'm a perennial victim of unlucky scheduling. It's not The Engineer's fault that the camp schedule is early...or really anytime they schedule it. It's not anyone's fault but my own I get sacked. And no one at work asked if anyone had conflicts with the 31st, but assumed most could make it.

I'll get over it, sure, but I'll always remember that fate threatened my party for one more year. Maybe next year will be better.