Alternative Routes to Medicine: Korean Acupuncture

I clench my jaw at night. Clench, grind, chew, you name it. I’m going to take a wild guess and say it’s probably from stress. And I carry all my stress in my shoulders. Physically, it’s just really painful. I’ve tried massages, but no matter how hard they press, I couldn’t seem to get rid of the knots there.

So I thought I’d try acupuncture. There’s a great Korean acupuncturist in Salt Lake City named Dr. Sool who does all kinds of acupuncture. It’s kind of cool to get pricked with needles. But the kind of procedures he does that I liked best was Damp Cupping.

The practice of cupping was conceived during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) in China, though ancient medical transcriptions suggest its existence in Egypt as well. In its original application, cupping was prescribed for the treatment of conditions such as pulmonary tuberculosis and rheumatoid pain. In ancient times, animal horns were used to facilitate the practice, primarily to drain snakebites and lesions. The remedial application of cupping has evolved concurrent to the refinement of the cup itself, and now cups are primarily fabricated out of glass or bamboo.

Damp cupping is actually blood letting. He cups my shoulders for 15 minutes and then pricks them with something to let out blood. Bad blood, apparently. It was so detoxifying that I felt kind of sick afterwards – like a quart of toxins had been released from my shoulders. But that went away when I drank a good amount of water.

I can’t even tell you the difference it made, even the first time. It was like 10 pounds had been lifted off my shoulders. Plus I was left with some pretty awesome round bruises that looked like hickies.

What types of alternative (to Western) medicine have you used? What has worked for you?

Fresh Basil Pesto

Basil is one of my favorite things growing in my garden. I’ve made bruschetta, strawberry-basil salad, spaghetti sauce, and mozzarella sandwiches with basil on top. Basil is so fragrant and delicious.

Last night I made pesto with my parents. They have a ridiculous amount of basil and can’t seem to use it fast enough.

Fresh Basil

Pesto is so easy. All you need is:

2 cups packed fresh basil

1/3 cup pine nuts

3 cloves garlic

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup grated Romano cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

I like the mixture of these two cheeses because Romano has a nice bite, but you can use 1/2 cup of one or the other. Also, I’ve heard you can use Walnuts (which are far less expensive) instead of pine-nuts, but my little H. is allergic so we used the traditional pine-nuts.

Just put the basil and nuts in a food processor until chopped down, add garlic and pulse until combined. And then add the olive oil and cheese.

Pesto

We put it on little baguette breads with mozzarella and it was SO good. But there’s a lot of things you can do with pesto besides as a dip – add a tablespoon to your mashed potatoes, make pesto the base of pizzas, use it as the sauce for any pasta or gnocchi, and I really like it best mixed with cream cheese and milk for a creamy pesto.

One thing my sister-in-law does is freeze individual servings of pesto in ice cube trays so they last longer – and then she just pops a few out when she wants to add it to something. What other ways do you like your pesto? Any good recipe ideas?

Bad Teen Songs I Can’t Get Out of My Head

For the last few months I’ve been trying to figure out what the hell Britney Spears is singing about with her random Amy song. And today I found out. Oh my gosh. I’m either super stupid or super naiive, but I’ve been singing along with it in total oblivion to what “If You Seek Amy” sounds like phonetically. If you can’t figure it out either, look at the lyrics and then say that line out loud really fast. And if you still can’t figure it out, Google it and you’ll sure find out quickly.

Here I was, actually thinking that Britney Spears has come out of her manic, downward mental spiral and surfacing as a steady, somewhat stable mom of 2. Apparently that’s much too hard to ask of a super star.

Moving on, stations are playing far too much Taylor Swift. I’m talking not just pop stations, but all the country stations (of which we have 3 in SLC),  all the Hot AC stations, and Top 40 are playing her as well. She’s everywhere. Every time I turn on the radio, I am reminded of ridiculous high school scenarios and romances that never were. Taylor Swift plunges you back to a time when the biggest trial of life was not making Dance Company or getting asked to prom. Not to minimize these high schooler’s pain but seriously – I’ve got bigger fish to fry now and I can’t seem to escape her no matter what station I listen to.

Is it just me or does it seem like she records the same song over and over again and dresses it up with a few new lyrics. She needs to grow up and go to college so she has something a little more interesting to sing about.

Last, but not lease, Miley Cyrus. She has confused me for 3 years. Is she Hannah Montana? Is she Miley Cyrus? Is she really blonde with a brown wig or brown with a really bad blonde wig? Is she done with Hannah Montana? Have they broken up? I think I liked Hannah better…because in this new song The Climb, she sounds EXACTLY like the Hanson brothers in their mmmbop song. You won’t even believe how alike they sound until you listen. I’ve posted their YouTube links above.

She sounds just like a boy teenager going through puberty. Hannah Montana never sounded like that! I think she should bring Hannah back…

Or maybe I just need to get a Zune or an Ipod like normal people and listen to grown-up music. Or tune in to NPR more often….

The Weight and Pull of Words

As a copywriter and marketer, my life is filled with words. I love words. I love the effect they have. Words woven perfectly together can do powerful things. Words start wars. Words persuade people to do things they shouldn’t. And things they should. Words can heal. Words can cut deeper than any knife. Words begin romances.

I fell in love with my husband on our first date over a night of words. We talked through two movies at a drive-in over cold pizza and candy. I remember thinking the whole time “he understands everything I say.” Understanding words is crucial to allowing their power to reach you. I can hear or read something in French, and think it’s beautiful, but because it’s not my first language, the effect is not as strong.

I wish I were better at speaking words. I feel more comfortable writing them. It’s not until I write that I know what I’m really trying to say. People who are gifted at oral rhetoric amaze me, even if I don’t like what they’re saying. President Bill Clinton was a good rhetorician. He could throw and spin words like darts until you couldn’t remember what question he was answering, and you didn’t care anymore – you just liked the way he sounded.

Shakespeare, of course, was the greatest word artist in history. He took a language that was course, choppy, and Germanic and lifted it to a level that near reached heaven. He even created words in his plays and then defined them so we’d know what they were. I learned to love Shakespeare most during a summer stint at Cambridge in UK. The class was taught by a teaching fellow named Simon, that all the girls loved and the boys envied. He wore sandals and loose fitting shirts that hung low on his chest, and I don’t even think he was that good-looking. But he spoke so romantically that he bewitched us so well that I’m still spellbound.

Wes was the first guy I dated in several years that loved language as much as I do. Hence our little toddler is blessed (or we’re just cursed) with our love of words. He talks constantly, and only some of it is jibberish. He emphasizes most of his words so well that you can’t ignore what he’s saying, even if you’d like to. Yesterday we were driving by a park and he calls out “Sssllliiiiiiiieeeeedddd! Shlliiiiiiiededd!, with more enthusiasm than you’d think possible, so that I had no other option but to turn around and let him play on the slide for an hour.

Life is One Big Neverending Project

When life is busy, the blogging stops. Especially when I’m doing a lot of copy writing – it’s impossible to get my brain to want to write anything longer than 5 word zingers. Plus I started a blog for my client Volkswagen SouthTowne. So I’m kind of blogged out. But, enough whining.

Here’s what’s been going on. We started a backsplash in the kitchen. The majority of our kitchen is white. White cabinets, white tile flooring, some white walls. So we’re doing a black and white theme with fun blue walls. We get started on Friday and buy all the tile.

Our half-finished by awesome kitchen tile backsplash

As soon as we get home with the tile, My husband’s friend  calls us and tells us he can do our curbing on our lawn that day. He works for this awesome curbing company called ____ well I can’t remember____ and gave us a great deal. But we probably wouldn’t have started the backsplash if we knew that we were going to be knee deep in sod removal too.

What will be a beautiful flower garden

We’re also in the midst of a new print campaign for a new client project. They’re not actually our client per se, it’s just a project they’re hiring us (White Rabbit Advertising) for. I think they have some big PR agency out of Los Angeles, but anyway, I have an ex-co-worker friend from 3 agencies ago who is fantastic and she works there. So she hired us to create some print campaigns for their home automation systems and billboards too.  So our life is one big never-ending project. But it’s the coolest company ever, so it’s been fun to come up with some ideas for them.

I got up early on Saturday and planned on spending my 4th of July removing the sod from where they lay the curbing; but seriously, it was the hardest physical labor I’ve ever done. Giving birth is a cinch compared to sod removal. So I woke My Husband up and asked him to start doing it. But then he had to get started on the tile since his dad was coming to help. So I went back to sod work. But it didn’t last long. Thank goodness a neighbor I had never met came by and said he could remove it for us for a minimal fee. He said his landscaping business went under and he could use the work.  He did that last night and it looks awesome!

A tiny portion of all the sod that had to be removed

And the backsplash is looking awesome too. Hopefully we’ll finish it tonight.

Tile's looking A-OK

So here we are half-finished with everything and taking on new projects daily.