On bumbling birthdays and being low maintenance

I celebrated the 17th anniversary of my 28th birthday on 8/8 while we were away in New Hampshire. I am not easy to shop for. I am not materialistic, hence no long list of "I wants" hanging around, heck not even a short list. I am more into getting rid of stuff cluttering up my house instead of bringing more in and lets face it, after 25 years together, you run out of ideas for each other though the last 2 gifts I gave Tim were a big, flat screen TV and a brand new truck so I guess I had a few tricks left up my sleeve. So Tim told me while driving to NH that he wracked his brains for weeks and couldn't come up with anything. I said, "don't worry." He said "buy whatever you want on vacation." How romantic. For about the past 10 years my answer for the "what do you want" question has always been, "I want my house finished." 15 years later, he never finished the renovations he started. Yeah, it's mostly just trim work that's left but I'd sure like to see this place completed. No such luck. So I get cards from him and Olivia on my birthday. I'm glad to be in gorgeous New Hampshire with them and my whole family calls me on
my cell while we're sight-seeing that day(I share this birthday with my younger sister by the way.)
And Tim's mother calls me a day later, sheepishly admitting she forgot, and said "we'll do cake when you guys get here"(we spent the 2nd leg of our vaca at their house in Vermont). Later during the day of my birthday, Tim does something that really ticked me off. He and Olivia have
a habit of never listening to me and then when something goes wrong, I am the one who has to
fix it or suffers the consequences along with them. This aggravates me. So I told Tim that what I should have asked for on my birthday was one day of them listening to me and not causing me grief. We get to Vermont a few days later. My mother-in-law and sis-in-law are there. I guess the cake thing just wasn't that important 'cause they blew it off. Then, my older sister and brother-in-law come up to their VT house which is 15 minutes away. They have become good friends with my in-laws. That day, the 13th, was my brother-in-law's birthday. My mother-in-law invites them over for dinner and decides a cake and candles and singing are in order for my sis's husband. I'm thinking now, "Hmmm should I tell her?" I've known my b-i-l since I was 13. He HATES his birthday. He REALLY HATES being the center of attention and being reminded of getting older. So I tell her. She says, "Oh OK I'll make him a chocolate cream pie 'cause he likes when I make them and nix the candles and singing." Note: No, I did not tell her this because of any shrugged off celebration of my birthday. My b-i-l would have cringed down to his very core if they did this. So they celebrate Rich's b-day with a bar-b-q and pie. Today is 8/18. I have yet to have a cake for
my birthday so I am making my own damn cake tomorrow. I did buy a piece of cheesecake to go from the restaurant we ate at on my b-day. It was good until I accidentally tipped it over on the rug in the hotel room. 5 second rules don't apply when it's a hotel room carpet. YUCK! BUT things could have been worse. I came home from vaca and called my younger sis the next day(we hadn't spoken since our b-day.) Her husband had no idea it was her birthday and completely forgot. Obviously, her 7 and 3 year olds then did not know either. Holy moley!!! I said "COOL". And she's like "Yep, howdaya like that?" I thought she was gonna tell me that she didn't let on and the whole day went by without them knowing but my mom called her to wish her a happy birthday and make arrangements to go out for dinner together and asked my little niece on the phone what they were doing for mommy's birthday.
So my niece then went in to wake up daddy (around noon) and tip him off. Pathetic really. I said to my sister, it doesn't pay to be low maintenance. If we were those type of women who expected SO much from people and got their feelings hurt at every little slight, real or imagined, this stuff would never happen to us. So despite the fact that my arse does not need birthday cake, tomorrow I am baking one up anyway. Cake anyone?

P.S. Since I always kvetch that nobody listens to me, I saw a man wearing a t-shirt in Delaware last month I just have to find for Tim. It said. " My wife complains I never listen to her....
or something like that." Perfect!!!!!!