Wednesday, August 2, 2006 | Chelsea Bottinelli I AM NOT one to get sentimental about birthdays. But for the past four years I've experienced a young woman named Chelsea Bottinelli as a co-worker and friend, and today she turns 30. If you subscribe to Planet Waves, you know Chelsea because she is the eminently friendly, helpful, get-it-done person who picks up the phone, takes care of what you need, and talks to you for a while. In the years that Chelsea has been part of Planet Waves, she's got married, bought a house, been in a world-record 93 wedding parties of her friends, learned, grown and lived in a way that, I have to say, bowls me over: in short, true to herself, and true to the people around her. Besides her utmost kindness, positive attitude and devotion to cooperation, what amazes me most about Chelsea is how well she understands herself. The first day she arrived at work, I was practically sobbing from the pressure and exhaustion of it all. My immediately prior assistant had become a crystal meth addict two months earlier (it's a Vashon Island thing), and to put it mildly, things were in a bit of less-than-mild chaos. Chelsea just sat there calmly and told me she could handle it -- at her last job, she said, she was responsible for scheduling three bosses. In her current job, she schedules appointments and handles the phones and a shit-ton of email for the Mad Publisher, chases down my paychecks from companies with sprawling bureaucracies, and juggles knives and torches while typing on her iMac. She's changed a lot of fish tank water and done the dishes a few times, too. Mind you, she has not learned to handle so much responsibility from having an easy life, but I don't think I've ever seen someone turn that into a resource better than she has. One year later, we had a grip, we had the place organized, Planet Waves was in the black, and soon after, we went to Olympia and filed Planet Waves, Inc.'s incorporation papers. We got on the Tahlequah Ferry and drove down in her old red Subaru with the "Feminism is the radical notion that women are people" bumper sticker on the back, which gave me a laugh every time I saw it. That was a fun day. We both marveled over the fact that they filed our papers at the time we requested, to the minute (we were going for the Aries Point), but without ever asking either of us for identification. Perhaps they were expecting us. Chelsea is someone I trust with the most intimate details of my life and professional life, who signs her own pay checks, and who sets an example for me of what it means to take care of herself. So, Chelsea, Major General Bottinelli, Queen of Wands and my favorite Red Dragon Leo from the past 1,976 lifetimes: I'm feeling all kinds of soppy, sentimental, grateful, beautiful, appreciative feelings -- admiration, love and friendship. Happy birthday, Chelsea.