Gross-out Alert!

After a long day in Olympia this week, I came home and made some salsa and nachos (and by "made" I mean "opened the salsa jar and poured some into a bowl"), and decided to watch a bit of TV to unwind.  Channel surfing didn't yield much that was interesting until the University of Washington channel caught my eye.  I guess the med school there does video lectures, and the orthpaedic surgery department was presenting a seminar on shoulder reconstruction.  The professor spoke (rather blandly) about the surgery itself (I guess a video lecture is still a lecture, and therefore, can be quite dry), but then indicated a that a video would be shown of the procedure being done on an actual patient.  Sweet!  So of course I watched it.

It was really cool.  They showed all the incisions and explained what they were doing and why.  There was a lot more drilling than I thought there would be, and also more, um, gushing, for lack of a better word.  But it was still very cool.  I saw the bones in the shoulder joint and how they fit together and rotate.  I saw the layers of muscle carefully separated and later sewed back together such that the proper function and movement was retained (though I imagine the patient will be sore for a little while!).  Definitely interesting stuff, and I couldn't help but be a in bit of awe of the precision and complexity of the surgery.  It was kind of... elegant.  I know that's a bit of a weird word to use here, but it was really neat to see.

At one point, I also realized that I was eating while watching surgery (and its inherent, um, mess), and that it didn't faze me.  Part of thought that maybe that's weird, that you shouldn't be able to watch people be cut open while munching away on dinner.

It was then that I looked at my bowl of salsa and realized that it kind of looked like...

Never mind.

At least it wasn't spaghetti and meatballs.

May already? How did that happen? (I know, I know, the earth kept rotating. But I swear it's speeding up!)

First off, I apologize for my month-long hiatus from the blog. In my defense, I was running around the country having way too much fun to think about writing. Ok, actually, I just haven’t had much internet access, and the few minutes I have had I thought were better spent with emails. Anyway, now that I have found the public library near work that has Wi-fi, it appears that problem has been solved.

I’m hoping to write about my trip, but I need to organize things (pictures, etc) before that can really happen, so it will probably come in installments. In the meantime, enjoy the following random story:

Sometimes when I go through the checkout line at a grocery store or drugstore, I like to look at what people are buying and try to figure out what they’re up to that day. A stressed-out looking mom buying plastic forks and paper plates at a drugstore for twice the price at a grocery store is probably in a big rush and took the closest thing she could. Child’s birthday party, perhaps?
Anyway, it’s a fun way to people watch.

I had to laugh at myself yesterday as I picked up a couple things at the store before heading home after work. I had been in town either feeding the fish or running errands since 8:30, and it was then about 7:00 at night. I wear clothes I don’t care about at work, so I was wearing a t-shirt and black sweatpants. My hair was a bit of a mess from running around all day and not bothering to fix it (I don’t think the fish really care what I look like). I looked, and was, tired.
I realized that if there are any other people out there who like to people watch like I do, and if they saw me with my purchases, it wouldn’t be very hard to figure out what I was up to for the evening.

The three things I bought?

Leg wax, Disney’s Enchanted (I’ve wanted it for a little while, and I rationalized it as an early birthday present), and a Toblerone bar. I’m not sure you can say “Girl’s night in” any better than that.

And yes, I did watch the movie while waxing my legs and munching some tasty chocolate. A Saturday night well spent. And my legs are so smooth.... :)