Holy crap, I’m 35. When did this happen? Oh right; today.

Me: 33 years ago. I need more green pants.

It’s 8:02 in the morning right now, and I woke up at 7:27, from a dream I’ve had several times in which Greg is saving me from a plane crash. In almost every dream, the way he saves the day is by telling the pilots something they need to know to land the plane safely. If he were wearing a superhero suit in these dreams, it would say AVIATION TECH SUPPORT across the chest.

I’m pretty sure these dreams are about anxiety (I know, right? It’s taken years to get this smart – 35 in fact), which makes sense considering we’re leaving in a few hours to drive to Portland, and anxiety girl (sorry: Anxiety Woman) does not like driving. Which brings me to this: I never though I’d be 35 years old, and my anxiety disorder would still be this bad. That’s the disappointing part of my birthday.

Thankfully, the disappointing part is small. The AWESOMENESS is pretty darn huge. And by awesomeness, I mean the people in my life, because they are what I treasure the most about taking up space on this earth.

My mom called me last night to tell me how much she loves me. My family in Portland is baking us pies to celebrate our birthdays, despite it also being my bonus-sister’s wedding rehearsal day. I’m getting birthday wishes left and right. Greg even wrote in his journal for the first time in over a year (whoa). Usually he lets me adopt a new kiddo from Plan USA for my birthday, but I already have six, and that’s enough for now. Jason let me pick out plants, and then gave me the geekiest gift a guy could give. And turning the poetic tables on me, one of my very bestest friends (the supremely amazing Sonja) wrote some birthday haiku for me:

day of birth haiku
silly cleverness for you
some about nature

dudette, thirty five!
another thirty five years
makes seventy years

the juice of the cow
creates havoc within you
but apples are good

you are haiku old
seven multiplied by five
equals thirty five

sing to celebrate
happy birthday to hollie
you are WoW goddess

thirty five reached
five times older than your son
the brightness of seven suns

your ass is so smart
amazing for one so flat
please don’t hit me dude

Bwahahahaaha! See what I mean? How can life not be amazing with people like this sharing it? And that’s what I hope for the next 35 years; my continuing run of good luck in finding incredibly good people to know and love and be related to – yeah, I realize you can’t pick who you’re related to, but in many ways, when all is said and done, after 35 years; you do get to pick each other. Again. Or you don’t. But I do. You keep your family because you love them. Know what I mean?

Let’s also hope I make more sense with age.

My wishes for the next year:

1. To have many, many things matter less.
2. To have a few things matter much more.
3. To be less vague.
4. To run a mile.
5. To be less anxious.

Sitting here writing, I thought how perfect it would be to take a picture with some people I love to commemorate this 35th morning, but everyone is either asleep or taking a shower. It’s just Miles and I, my miracle sonbeam (who was recently FASCINATED by the fact that his name is a homonym), but we managed to commemorate things just fine using my laptop camera:

I love the last one. Like, SERIOUSLY ARE YOU GOING TO KISS ME? PEOPLE WILL SEE THIS, RIGHT? Muhahahaha. It’s my blog. And it’s MY BIRHTHDAY. Go make me a sandwich!