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Mar. 19th, 2007 06:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhd323Alright. I guess it's been awhile since I've genuinely updated. Let's see if I have much to say . . .
Mom arrives on Tuesday. I am very much looking forward to her visit. My mood always improves dramatically while she's here and we never fail to have a great time. The downside, of course, is that I have a tendency to crash for a day or two after she leaves. But, such is the way of things.
My mood, generally, has improved over the last few weeks. Who knows if it's the higher dose of meds, the change in my vitamin intake, some bizarre placebo effect, a slightly greater amount of sunlight in my life . . . whatever it is, I haven't sat on my couch and sobbed again since the last time. I had the "my life has no purpose and I feel completely unfulfilled" evening on Saturday, but I figure I'm allowed those every now and again. I continue to fail at being productive, but I'm not contemplating drinking myself to sleep over it. So, I'll take what I can get.
I am usually at the Western Political Science conference for St. Patrick's Day, but this year the conference was a week earlier. So, we had big plans to celebrate. Went for brunch to Finn McCool's, had a hot chocolate with Bailey's, and then even our motivation for celebrating cooled. We eventually wound up downtown so Carolyn could shop for jeans.
On Friday, as I mentioned, we went to see Bodies, The Exhibition. Wow. I was a little concerned about how I would react, but I managed just fine. I was a bit nauseous at the beginning, but it soon faded. It was much more scientific (in terms of anatomy and such) than I expected it to be. At least half of my fascination with the exhibit was with the science associated with the dissection and preservation of the bodies. It's amazing to me how they managed to isolate some of the things they did. In one display case they had an entire nervous system - no tissue, no bones, no muscle, nothing but a nervous system. They had an entire room filled with arteries and veins. Nothing but. Each had been injected with red (arteries) and veins (blue). Again, simply amazing that they were somehow able to isolate the arteries and veins in, say, the arm or lungs - down to the tiniest, narrowest ones, without including any tissue or bone. They also had an entire body done. Each of the display cases in the room looked like pieces of art. There was an entire room dedicated to the fetus - at the entrance to the room they had a 'warning' sign that included the option to go through a different door, allowing a person to skip over the room entirely. An addition I thought was probably wise. We went in, of course. The displayed placentas grossed me out a bit, but all in all another interesting room.
Included in the exhibit were not only healthy bodies, but diseased/abnormal. Interesting to see an actual pair of lungs from an emphysema patient, a liver from someone with cirrhosis, arteries full of plaque, a brain with a tumor . . .
There were far too many children there, but that's something that can't be helped, obviously. I'm not sure children should be allowed to run around a place like that, but then again I don't really think kids should be allowed to run around most public places. (Well, okay, my bigger problem is with parents who allow their kid to run around and scream through an expensive exhibit like that.)
Coming home from the exhibit, I surfed the web a bit and found several other similar exhibits/institutions. Another one, Body Worlds, which appears to be located in Germany. They have nearly 7000 living donors. For a long time, I was set on donating my body to a body farm (where they train CSIs), but I'll have to add this to my list of possibilities. I downright loathe thinking about my own death, but for some reason I'm able to detach myself enough from the experience when thinking about those sorts of things. No point in letting the thing go to waste in the ground.
Oh, and I think this show is hysterical. Pure genius on the part of those two guys.
Mom arrives on Tuesday. I am very much looking forward to her visit. My mood always improves dramatically while she's here and we never fail to have a great time. The downside, of course, is that I have a tendency to crash for a day or two after she leaves. But, such is the way of things.
My mood, generally, has improved over the last few weeks. Who knows if it's the higher dose of meds, the change in my vitamin intake, some bizarre placebo effect, a slightly greater amount of sunlight in my life . . . whatever it is, I haven't sat on my couch and sobbed again since the last time. I had the "my life has no purpose and I feel completely unfulfilled" evening on Saturday, but I figure I'm allowed those every now and again. I continue to fail at being productive, but I'm not contemplating drinking myself to sleep over it. So, I'll take what I can get.
I am usually at the Western Political Science conference for St. Patrick's Day, but this year the conference was a week earlier. So, we had big plans to celebrate. Went for brunch to Finn McCool's, had a hot chocolate with Bailey's, and then even our motivation for celebrating cooled. We eventually wound up downtown so Carolyn could shop for jeans.
On Friday, as I mentioned, we went to see Bodies, The Exhibition. Wow. I was a little concerned about how I would react, but I managed just fine. I was a bit nauseous at the beginning, but it soon faded. It was much more scientific (in terms of anatomy and such) than I expected it to be. At least half of my fascination with the exhibit was with the science associated with the dissection and preservation of the bodies. It's amazing to me how they managed to isolate some of the things they did. In one display case they had an entire nervous system - no tissue, no bones, no muscle, nothing but a nervous system. They had an entire room filled with arteries and veins. Nothing but. Each had been injected with red (arteries) and veins (blue). Again, simply amazing that they were somehow able to isolate the arteries and veins in, say, the arm or lungs - down to the tiniest, narrowest ones, without including any tissue or bone. They also had an entire body done. Each of the display cases in the room looked like pieces of art. There was an entire room dedicated to the fetus - at the entrance to the room they had a 'warning' sign that included the option to go through a different door, allowing a person to skip over the room entirely. An addition I thought was probably wise. We went in, of course. The displayed placentas grossed me out a bit, but all in all another interesting room.
Included in the exhibit were not only healthy bodies, but diseased/abnormal. Interesting to see an actual pair of lungs from an emphysema patient, a liver from someone with cirrhosis, arteries full of plaque, a brain with a tumor . . .
There were far too many children there, but that's something that can't be helped, obviously. I'm not sure children should be allowed to run around a place like that, but then again I don't really think kids should be allowed to run around most public places. (Well, okay, my bigger problem is with parents who allow their kid to run around and scream through an expensive exhibit like that.)
Coming home from the exhibit, I surfed the web a bit and found several other similar exhibits/institutions. Another one, Body Worlds, which appears to be located in Germany. They have nearly 7000 living donors. For a long time, I was set on donating my body to a body farm (where they train CSIs), but I'll have to add this to my list of possibilities. I downright loathe thinking about my own death, but for some reason I'm able to detach myself enough from the experience when thinking about those sorts of things. No point in letting the thing go to waste in the ground.
Oh, and I think this show is hysterical. Pure genius on the part of those two guys.
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no subject
Date: 2007-03-20 03:04 am (UTC)Good news: "The Riches" is on in two hours. And the eps are available for download at itunes in case you miss it. There's already an LJ comm dedicated to the series -- of course I joined.
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Date: 2007-03-20 03:16 am (UTC)Woo! Off to find that community. :)
no subject
Date: 2007-03-20 03:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-20 08:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-21 05:12 am (UTC)