Quote:
go for it.
Right... So I had a crush on her in 2003 when I was a grad student in biomedical sciences. I decided to go to school for that field because I had a medical problem and wanted to see if I could do something in researching it.
I had ulcerative colitis. It was so bad that I didn't go out on some weekends. I felt totally and utterly alone. I felt like I had seriously low sexual market value.
I talked to this girl on occasion but never really got to know her deeply. She was friendly enough. I lacked confidence, in part, because of my condition.
I went into biomedical sciences, coming from computer science, and so I didn't know crap about biology going in..
I was totally overwhelmed on my first exam.. I sat next to her and copied as much as I could off of her paper.. She was drawing amino acid molecules like a true artist.. All 19 of them.. Applying the Henderson-Hasselbach equation. Fill in the blanks ... "epigenetic".... I copied that one off her.. I sat in awe, just trying to get the contents of her paper onto mine.
I got like 50% on the exam :/ Ha.. lucky I didn't get 0. Still, by the end of the semester I actually got my grade up to a B, with my own efforts... So it was good that I hung in there..
One day I was at the health foods store trying to buy some stuff to mix up an Indian Ayurvedic concoction to treat my disease, after reading a paper on the subject... I saw her there. She was buying some stuff too... some bottles of herbs.. I smiled, and she smiled back, but I didn't approach her to ask her what she was buying or why... Seems kind of personal.. Thought maybe it was a feminine issue..
I never talked to her much after that. I assumed she finished her PhD and went off to work at some big pharma research company.
Flash forward to 2015. I see a flyer for acupuncture at my work with her photo on it. I'm thinking... "What the fuck?! Why did this biomedical genius girl become an acupuncturist? I thought for sure acupuncture was bullshit." I couldn't understand how someone with a brilliant scientific mind would go into Chinese medicine. I figured she had either lost her flipping mind or there was actually something to it that was real....
Aside from my colitis, I also had chronic pain in my left arm from a car accident so I figured I would write her email and see if I could get some info about it.. I didn't mention the colitis.. too embarassing!! She writes back and says she tried it for an "issue she was having" and "fell in love" with it.. I thought... "well, that's vague enough. I wonder if it's related to those herbs she was buying way back when."
So, in the past I had put her on a pedestal in my mind, and as you can tell, I still do.. But then I was thinking..."Who left this damn flyer out at my work?" ... Hmm... friends? a family member? I searched the company directory and lo-and-behold the guy who had been sitting next to me for a year had the same last name!! Duh! I never noticed him because he was such a damned dork... very polite and nice guy, though... a COBOL programmer...I work as a software developer, FYI... So I go over and look in his cube and he's got photos of her plastered everywhere. ... It's his daughter.. Haha.. In my mind this took her down from a 9 to a 7... I'm like "Haha. This girl I had a crush on is no better than me. We're both from dork families!"
I'm conflicted in my mind because I don't want to spend money on acupuncture ($90/session) because I think it's not even real, but I want a chance to finally see this girl and see what she's about.
I finally made a decision to pay to try acupuncture. So, I get there, and there's a form to fill out... A medical questionnaire asking me what conditions I have .. I figure I'll just stick to the story of my left arm hurting (which it really does) and not mention the colitis. But... I'm paying for this, and there's no guarantee of anything except medical SPAM.. so "why not be honest?", I decide... I write down ulcerative colitis...
So she comes in with my form on a clipboard and she's like "Well... I remember you mentioned something about your arm in your email, but I see you have colitis written down here." I'm thinking "oh God, how embarassing"...
She continues "My mom had Crohn's disease and I've had similar symptoms my whole life, and that's why I tried acupuncture and eventually decided to go into Chinese medicine"
Does that seem at all serendipitous? Having a crush on a girl and being instinctively attracted to someone with the same diarrhea problems?! Haha... Seems really funny now, but I'm kicking myself for not getting to know her 10 years ago, escecially it actually works...
It's not like we had a good reason to open a conversation about our bowels.. Weird, huh?