is there a way to do this?

...without looking needy, I mean.

My birthday is on the 27th - a couple weeks away. I'd really like the people around me to know when my birthday is, so they have the option of wishing me a happy one, or maybe...getting me a card?

But I don't know how to tell the people I work with and hang out with "hey my birthday is coming up" without it looking like I'm cadging gifts (really, I'm not... I'd just like to be remembered on the day with maybe a good word). I'm not a very flamboyant person IRL so any kind of reference to my birthday would come off looking a little needy, I guess.

this is the tradeoff of living alone. In return for all that unencumbered time and the lack of entanglements, on the times when you really would like to be a little bit of the center of attention, there's no good way to do it.

Do adults still celebrate their birthdays? It looks like the people around me really don't, but most of them are married/attached and have families, so they probably do it as a family thing. Or maybe they don't celebrate and I'm just being childish wanting to be remembered on my birthday.