Mayim Bialik Talks to Us about Managing Life

As you may remember, I dressed up as Mayim Bialik's TV characters twice in life now--as Blossom in 1995 or '96, and as Amy Farrah Fowler in 2011. When I saw that she tweeted "Hi Milwaukee" earlier today, I kicked into fangirl mode and learned that she was going to be speaking at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as a guest of the Jewish organization and the Women's Resource Center.

I met up with a friend from my old job, and we got situated. I of course insisted we sit right in the front. We felt a little old and out of place and figured that it was very possible a lot of the kids were there for credit.

Since I'm neither Jewish nor a hardcore feminist, I figured I was in for an interesting lecture. I noticed a giant flier when I first walked into the Union that said the topic of the talk was "Managing Career, Family, and Spirituality."

I had nothing to worry about. Mayim was not all about pushing her agenda on anyone. Instead, she started out admitting she was a nervous speaker and dove right into telling us her professional and personal background. As she spoke, she found her stride and continued on to the meat of her presentation...hmmm awkward wording for a vegan speaker.

She listed seven values she lives by that help to keep her grounded, which included things like character, routine, family values, having a sense of "other," God (which she generalized by saying "realizing that I am not God"), homeland, and one more I'm forgetting. It was really refreshing to see how normal she is--you know, for being a ridiculously smart, disciplined mom, actor, and PhD.

Mayim peppered her presentation with mentions of Blossom and Big Bang Theory, which were fun. During the Q&A session, she said that she's closest to Melissa Rauch, who plays Bernadette on BBT. She loves working with Jim Parsons (Sheldon) the most. As for her Blossom family, she's seen Joey at a couple events recently, but she was not able to attend Jenna Von Oy's (Six) wedding two years ago.

Since she had to catch a flight back home to LA, Mayim was not able to stay and take pictures with people. Of course I was bummed, but I couldn't hold it against her since she was flying home to get back to her family.

Oh I s'pose since I'm running primarily a fashion blog here, I should mention her outfit, which I wanted to steal in my size. She was wearing a dark gray dress with a fitted bodice, what looked to be maybe a drop waist, and a knee-length circle skirt; rust-colored cardigan; brown wide belt and really tall platform stilettos; a stack of skinny gold bangles; gold hoop earrings; and a silver Star of David necklace.

In summary, I had fun, and I'm really glad I was able to spontaneously make it over there. Although I could tell Mayim had strong convictions about what she believes, she seemed like a really sweet, open-minded person. And after the initial nerves wore off, she was a really great speaker, too. Maybe she will come back to Milwaukee for a photo op someday, like she joked about doing. We can only hope!