You'd think that a founder of a company called "GiftStarter" would be AWESOME at gifting.  I'm not.  Especially when it comes to husband.  Remember, I really dislike gifting for the sake of gifting.  I really dislike "junk" gifts.  Good gifts I think take a lot of time or a lot more budget.  ... Sigh.

Here are examples from my husband-gifting my track record so far.

1. 40th Birthday gift: a hand-written birthday card saying I'd be his and only his forever (we had just started dating for a few months at that point.  As an entrepreneur at that point, I was living on a very very tight budget.)  To this day, he says this is his favorite gift ever.
2. Christmas 2011: a cool RED Eddie Bauer down jacket.  He exchanged it for a down blanket.  I learned he's into name brands.  Eddie Bauer is not a cool name brand.  Really made me sad.
3. Christmas 2013: Slippers.  He still wears these, every day.  Funny.
4. Christmas 2014 + 2015 combined: A perfectly built-to-spec Macbook Pro. He loves this.  I've learned that he enjoys the dreaming of, finding the PERFECT specs and details, and then actually going and getting it.  The gift of an endorsement and support to indulge is what he really likes!
5. Christmas 2016: 1 year membership to the Shop, a coworking/hang out space for car-loving affectionado's.  We'll see how this went...  :)

He's my best life's decision I've ever made joining forces to live life together.  Forever.

--Arry  

I'm literally trying to breathe again.  Find that emotional and mental space to feel like a human being, not a machine.  I don't remember what it's like to be me anymore.  I've become a different person, again.  Each of these intense journeys reshape the person you are - and it takes a bit of mental/emotional "integration" time to bring yourself back into being a whole person again.

Doing an ICO, is not for the faint of heart.  It's not for the sensitive or the self-conscious.  It's not for those that do not have the stamina.

All I can say, is since May 2017, it's been a lot of back-breaking long hours.  Weeks on weeks away from family, away from husband, and away from my toddler.  It's wake up to sleep, nonstop work.  At the worst point, we were taking 1.5-3 hour naps at a time working around the clock for weeks on end.  

Oh yea, and the crazy schedule.  Greece, UK, Switzerland, Cayman Islands, United States, and all over.  

Trying to breathe again means forcing myself to not open the phone first thing in the morning.  It means giving myself permission to eat lunch (again).  It means giving myself permission to call a friend I haven't spoken to in over 8 months.  It means giving myself permission to cook dinner for my family.  It's been REALLY difficult getting back to a normal human life.  The past 8 months have taken a hard hard hard hit on my family, my husband, and my toddler - also my in-laws and my mother who've stepped in to help the family as I've been working so much.  

Thanks for being on this journey with me.
​Arry

Hello.

I have 21 days before the end of the year, and before 2017 is gone.  I have 21 days to retroactively, make my goal of a blog a week still a reality (though officially LATE).  Despite being late, and having only 21 days, I'm going to push to make it happen.

What happened where I disappeared literally for 6 months?  This.

Remember, I joined a startup as their COO in May, 2017?  

What happened is an ICO (Initial Coin Offering).  A STORM Token Crowdsale.  I can tell you that to do an ICO, is all consuming.  I'm officially beat.  Tired.  No weekends, no evenings.  My husband is beat, the single dad thing while wife works nonstop or is constantly traveling is super challenging.  

Questions, feedback, anything on this topic welcome.

-Arry

That's the title of so many messages I've received over the past 6 months, from all kinds of people.  People I know very well, people I'm acquainted with, people that haven't connected with me in over a decade, and lots of random folks.  

At first, (since I was feeling more like a helpful advising socialite between January and April 2017), it was really nice.  I tried to do at least one a day.  I felt like that was a good way to stay in touch and/or meet new people.

​But then...  it got out of hand really fast.  Coffee & Catch Up turns out to be code for, "I want something from you."  

And now, when I see various folks write those messages that say, "No, I don't check nor respond to LinkedIn messages." --> I get it.  I'm now officially, 62,003 messages UNread in my inbox.  How's that possible?  Did you know people will auto-subscribe people to all kinds of update emails?  I'm now asking my VA to manually unsubscribe me from anything that's not an actual email to me.

I sit down for a quick sync with an investor, and then you get question after question about, "what coins should I buy now?", "I think I want to do an ICO, too", "will you advise my friend's startup that wants to do an ICO?", or hey, "I think I deserve to get paid more, in ETH or STORM Tokens please".

Advice?  Be upfront and fast.  1) Hi, I want ____ from you, and 2) I can be valuable to you by ____.  Interested?  Coffee & Catch Up is just way too generic and passive.  I still believe people want to help each other, just don't make the person you're asking for help from think too much.  Make it easy to give.

​--Arry