A Mind-Opener

As some of you know, I recently started my own company and was on a project in NY this week. It was a great week! It felt great facilitating and brainstorming innovation platforms.

I still can't get out of my head one of the "experiences" for the workshop a pulse reading by a Chinese medicine doctor. I have always been a big fan of Western medicine, big hospitals, and the ability of pharmaceuticals to solve my medical problems. Perhaps that is why i am shocked by how fascinating I found the Chinese medicine approach. I know some folks from the office have successfully used acupuncture to help with fertility issues, so I have had a very rudimentary exposure to non-Western medicine. So, when they asked if anyone wanted a pulse reading, i thought, why not. He explained he was using three fingers to evaluate the blood, heart, and liver (if memory serves me). So, he did the reading. He seemed a bit puzzled and then asked me if I had children. i indicated that I had 2. He then decided to feel the pulse on my other wrist. He asked me the date of my last period. Since I did not have my chart with me I said 3-4 weeks ago and that I should be menstrual in the next few days or so. He asked if I could be pregnant. I said that was impossible (yea, welcome to my world!). He wasn't so sure he believed me but I reinforced that i definitely was not. He sensed that I had a lot of heat in my core/low. He then asked if my hands/feet got cold. I indicated that this happened to me all the time. He asked me what I ate-i said chicken, pork, some fast food. He said I need to drink warmer beverages, eat beef, and wear socks when I am menstrual to release the "blockage". I was absolutely fascinated when I got my period an hour later (3 days early). I was also befuddled about the hold hands/feet comment since the venue was so hot and my hands/feet were definitely not cold at the moment. This of course got me thinking whether there was something to it. A 10 min reading can only get one so far. So then I was thinking, should I go see a Chinese medicine doctor? Would that make me an official nut? What else should I change about my diet? What is this blockage? Or is this just another step on my current midlife crisis???

1988

I was just reading a friend's blog who was reminiscing about what she was doing 20 years ago. So, I started thinking about what I was doing 20 years ago. I just finished my freshman year at Miami. It was a great year. I realized I was not going to be a math major but did realize history or poli sci would be just fine. I decided to join student govt and student union board. I really enjoyed living on my own. I learned that I liked Blue Hawaiians and wine cooler bongs (I didn't like beer bongs). I really liked crashing at Mark's :)

Since I had no money, I had 3 jobs when I got back to the valley for the summer-lifeguard, swim teacher, and bakery girl. I HATED being a bakery girl. 1st, I was called bakery girl. I realized how rude ppl were. Noone ever spoke up when they ordered their pastries and I could never hear them. People were also very impatient. Of course, the fact I was incompetent probably didn't help. While I like donuts and cookies, that's about it for pastries. i had no idea what was in 90% of the bakery case. I also hated working off the clock. Why shouldn't I get paid overtime since I was making $5/hr? Just thinking about it makes me shake!

What's most interesting is thinking about what I thought life would be like in 2008. I never actually thought about it. Now, I am a planner so of course I thought about post-college. I expected that Mark (my high school sweetheart who I followed to Miami) and I would get engaged his senior year and we would get married after I graduated. i figured we would wait a few years and have 2 children (Alexandra and Andrew). I wasn't sure where we were going to live. I figured somewhere in Ohio-maybe columbus-or DC since I was interested in govt. Definitely not in our hometown. I thought Mark was too much of a momma's boy for us to live to close to home anyways.

I would have never guessed that I would wait to have kids until my 30s, have an MBA, and would be living in an 80 year old house! Obviously Alan wasn't even a thought in my head. Alan and Mark are so very different so I don't even know where to start on that one. I should have realized when Mark went to Miami that it was not going to work out. i should have realized my close friendship with Mike in my senior year of high school was a sign of something missing. But, what can i say? Stability has always been a virtue for me. I do wonder what might have happened if Mark and I would have broken up and I would have gone to OSU with Mike. Would it have ended in a fiery crash? Now that i think about it, I think i did think about this question 20 years ago...Obviously I wouldn't change the path that brought me & Alan together. If it wasn't for Mark, Mike, and Alan S, I wouldn't have realized how incredible Alan was when we first met and then started dating, and then lived together. It all happens for a reason...