It is a blogoshpere tradition on your birthday to make a list with a number of items matching the number of your years, i.e. "[Enter age here] things you never knew about me."

But if you're reading this (strange, random, pointless, self-indulgent) blog then, what don't you know?

So here is a list of things you already know, things you probably could have guessed or things I otherwise just want to get off my chest on my birthday:

1. I have a lot of anxiety. I was an anxious child. I am an anxious adult. I will be anxious ghost haunting the dreams of my progeny with whispers to please, please consider installing a carbon monoxide detector.

2. I am blessed beyond what I deserve.

3. I don't ever actually want to get what I deserve.

4. Tell me, what's better than cake?

5. Nothing. Nothing is better than cake.

6. I think the Doctrine & Covenants contains some of the most beautiful writing to ever grace this earth. I guess that's what happens when God is the author.

7. I like my job.

8. Seriously, why is cake so good?

9. It's the frosting.

10. But it's also the cake!

11. When I was a teenager I loved Star Hits. It was all pop culture... funny, quirky, totally mainstream but a little left of center at the same time. Did you read it too?

12. On regrets: I regret the times I have not shown empathy or compassion more than just about anything. And I have made many mistakes both related and unrelated to empathy and compassion.

13. Do you think Tina Fey would be my friend?

14. I will never get over my issues with food. You should read both exasperation and defiance into this sentence.

15. I love Gilmore Girls. The writing was brilliant. The Palladinos could work Shakespeare and Gwen Stefani into the same sentence and manage to treat each of them with equal measures of reverence and irreverence. It wasn't always a perfect show... but now that it's gone, it's kind of like a beloved departed. In death, I've idealized it and I miss it all the time.

16. I am a believer. Really, I am.

17. The Beatles are worthy of every bit of hype expressed over them for the last half century.

18. That said, John Lennon probably wasn't a very good man.

19. If Paul McCartney isn't a very good man, I don't want to know about it.

20. Cake!

21. I love my family so much. I think they're smart and funny and I just want to hang out with them, talk, laugh and eat with them.

22. Families are complicated in ways that we can't always talk about.

23. Should we talk about it?

24. Or is better not to talk about it?

25. Why are you not watching Overboard? It's on right now.

26. "We're at sea, and I'm a GOD at sea!"

27. Sometimes I think talking about things with the right spirit can foster empathy and understanding.

28. Sometimes I think talking about things can be the biggest mistake we could ever make.

29. It's on TBS. Right now.

30. In my life I've seen friends and roommates make crucial decisions about whom to date/marry/break-up-with based on a person's taste in music. I've judged those people for what I considered the lack of logic and the frivolity in using music as a benchmark.

31. There was one thing I wasn't considering, though...

32. Family road trips.

33. If you missed Overboard today, you can catch it again tomorrow. Luckily.

34. I don't really believe in soul mates. I'm pretty sure the best way to know if you should marry someone is common sense and prayer. And maybe half a dozen bands that you can both agree that you really, really like? Because, you know...

35. Road trips.

36. I'd really like to thank my parents for sending me to college and on a mission. If I said this every day for the rest of my life, it wouldn't be enough.

37. I would like to say that Garett is perfect for me... but it's more that Garett is just perfect. Is that wrong to say on my blog? That he's perfect? I'm not saying it to make you feel bad about your own husband. I hope yours is perfect too.

38. Cupcakes!

39. My testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ is hard won and constantly in flux. I used to think that this was a weakness, that the fact that I'm constantly asking my God for confirmation of truth is wrong and that if I had enough faith I would never have to ask the questions in the first place. I'm 40 years old today and I finally appreciate the beauty and purpose in all those humble moments of pleading for answers, all the hours on my knees, all the questioning and wondering why, and even for all my (glorious) ignorance. In the most brilliant application of Mr.-Miyagi-style tutoring ever, my Heavenly Father has allowed me to practice the art and skill of personal revelation over and over again. Well, duh: All you have to do is ask.

40. Coming up with this last one was the hardest.