New Cereal Idea

I just had a brilliant idea. Why do cereal manufacturers maintain such a dichotomy in cereal choices? When you're a kid and don't care about nutritional content, cereals such as Cocoa Pebbles, Trix, Cookie Crisp, and Lucky Charms completely count as a good breakfast. [Side note: my mom only let me have "sugary" cereals every other week. I had to have "healthy" stuff like Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Life on odd weeks.]

Anyway, I would love to sponsor a contest where such "responsible" cereal manufacturers, such as Kashi, Quaker, and whomever makes Fiber One battle to create a healthy Lucky Charms. I need a Lucky Charms with high nutritional value and decent fiber content! Can they please cross Total with Lucky Charms? Total Charms? Totally Lucky?!

Yes, that's what we'll call it: Totally Lucky.

Which is exactly the attitude I've chosen to have these last two days. I've been so stressed out and completely swamped that my body is threatening to break down. Not sick-wise (well, maybe that, too), but the muscles in my body are a wreck. I have knots the size of tennis balls. Maybe this provides a business case for the in-house masseuse position I'm creating in my Chicagoland pad?

Just kidding, Jack!

Anyway, I decided I'm Totally Lucky. I was asked to attend a corporate Muppet Lean/Six Sigma meeting at St. Piggy's. St. Piggy's is a scant 2.5 hours away and required 5 hours on the road. I spent all of Thursday afternoon working in Business Development (the finance and revenue numbers that must be compiled and organized before hospital-wide decisions are made...after five hours of this, my eyes were bleeding and I wanted to fall on a letter opener so I could escape that office). So Friday morning, I was one tired pup and I was so sad I had to travel the Interstates for 5 hours.

On the way to St. Piggy's, I watched the sun rise over the snow-covered flatlands and had a sudden change of heart. Maybe it was the Vitamin D I absorbed from the sun, maybe it was the realization that, a year or so ago, I couldn't even fathom receiving invites to corporate meetings. Thinking about how far I've come, I felt lighter....more in-control....and happier.

The meeting was phenomenal. We actually had to play a Pictionary game accented with Charades (to make a couple of communication-related concepts real) and we all received Mr. Potato Head dolls after a simulation on the importance of correct and tight processes. I actually had fun and I asked a lot of questions. This was the first corporate meeting where I didn't feel braindead and raw after the meeting's conclusion!

Either the subject matter was much easier to grasp, I wasn't so worried about the other execs' perceptions of me, or I'm just getting used to these forums. I'm not sure what's going on, but I loved it. I had enough energy left on the ride home to make an hour-long call to Business Development. Then my brain was mush! Still, though, I'm totally lucky.