Americans shake hands

Today, like many days I had multiple meetings. It was the first time for a long time that I wished that I wasn't an American.

Last Wednesday when exiting a client meeting I missed a step and fell flat on my face – or rather, flat on my hand. My shoe came off, my computer went one way, my purse the other and as I put my hand out to stop my fall my right side hit the pavement. I didn't know if my wrist was broken or not but after getting into a cab and talking with my colleagues I wound up going to the emergency room. It was the same place where I had the knee incident a few months ago – and I am much more familiar with the procedure now. Register, pay, see doctor who says get an X-Ray, pay for X Ray, get X-Ray, see doctor again, have him say it's not broken and I should take two weeks off work.

Right…

I took one day off work and have been typing with one hand for the last week. It slows down my speed considerably. Silly things like turning a door knob are difficult, which leads to my dilemma today. We had a meeting with a German client who stood up when he saw me and before I realized it grasped my hand with an incredibly firm grip. I nearly screamed in pain, but managed to choke it back and say, “How nice to meet you!” After finishing that meeting I had another, but this one was with a Chinese company (which normally means an exchange of business cards, but no handshakes). Lucky me, they all wanted to shake my hand. It was one of the limpest handshakes I have ever given. My father would not be proud.

Getting injured changes your point of view. Hurting my knee I learned that I typically put on my pants with my right leg first. Hurting my wrist I realized I typically put on shirts with my left arm in first. Who knew? It does feel much better over the last week, but I think I'm going to skip our team bowling outing this Friday. Just don't want to push it.

Hope you all are well. Those of you who know my mom please send her a safe travel shout out. She will be coming to visit me beginning April 1st and I am very excited.

Cheers!