Today is the day I have been waiting for for oh, I don’t know, approximately 20 months. Because today, as you may have heard, is Emily’s 30th birthday!! And though I realize I will always be older, it gives me a sick pleasure that we now BOTH have a “3″ in front of our ages. In fact as I am writing this I can’t help but giggle with glee!

In honor of Emily’s birthday, I have composed a poem:
{clears throat loudly}

Isn’t that beautiful? I think I missed my calling.

Well as you may recall, last year on Emily’s 29th birthday, I gave her a list of five things to do before she turned 30. You see, because I love her, I wanted to make sure she lived a little. The five things were: Take pole-dancing lessons (because, and I quote myself, “it’s never too late to get in touch with your inner hoochie”), go skydiving, go partying at MTV’s Spring Break, try out for American Idol, and lastly, buy a Harley. I am sad and extremely disappointed to say that Emily did not complete ANY of these things that I tasked her with.

Booooorrrring.

Nevertheless, I must say I am proud of her anyways! Because despite not doing what I had planned for her, Emily did a lot of great things this year. Things that I would never find myself brave enough to do, like start grad school and the Shred. And take her infant to an amusement park.

Emily mentioned in her post yesterday that she’s made some new friends this decade. Many of these friends she made this year and are of the bloggy variety but have become friends of the “real life” variety. That is because when you meet Emily, you want to be permanently attached to her. She is that great, people. And even if I weren’t her cousin, I know I would love her dearly.

But I am her cousin. And I count myself more than blessed to have gotten to be here for the whole shebang. To have memories of the New Year’s Eve’s spent at Grandma’s, the times she beat me at rummy, or when we rode the Skylab at Kings Island as many times as a row as were humanly possible, when she hit a deer, asked me (once I think) for boyfriend advice, when we visited each other at college, were bridesmaids in each others’ weddings, worked (and suffered) together, emailed each other from the next office over, shared our first pregnancies, held our first babies and posed for a REALLY fugly picture, planned and started this blog together, talked on the cell phone on her drives home from work, IMed all flippin’ day long, and had playdates at the mall…

is priceless.

Happy 30th cousin! I love you & am so proud of you and I hope to embarrass you for many more years to come.