You can celebrate "yourself" every day though, be grateful you are alive and have fun any other day too. There is nothing wrong with celebrating birthdays but I am just concerned that it upsets you can't go out on that particular day. Trying to give you different perspective.

Maybe I just cannot relate. It's just how it is. We can't always celebrate the way we want to: work or no suitable company or health or what not. Many people work in fields where they can't choose when to be off. My husband will be working third Christmas in a row, they have shortage of nurses and he believes women with young children should be the ones to request it off, not grown man with grown kids. He also always works on his birthday, just because how schedule works out. We just kind of adapt I guess to circumstances.

Schedule your outing for a different day, and pamper yourself that day.