first cut is the deepest

so, i was requested to give more info about the lab. if you don't care to hear about what goes on in anatomy lab, please avert your eyes now.



ok, i know you all are still reading, because who can help their curiosity? it's like a special invitation when you know there might be something gross/scary/outrageous following....


but first, i realized i had a missing post, it got saved as a draft instead of being published. see below: "molecular foundations....". by the way, i got my grade back for that class, and i passed. thank goodness.

ok, back to lab. well, i chose this title because i was the first in my group to make a cut on our cadaver. they give us an altered version of the death certificate, so i know that i have a 76 year old male who died of metastatic melanoma in january. so when we can't identify something, we just say it's cancer. we're not doctors yet....

so lab is pretty cool. it smells gross, but in a formaldehyde-y sort of way. some of the bodies do smell a little grosser, in a rotten sort of way. our cadaver is actually pretty good. we were able to preserve lots of veins and arteries and nerves while dissecting, so that's good. i'm at table 13, of 20 something. we all wear scrubs, like cool people. but we're not allowed to wear them outside of lab (per new york state law). so we only look cool to each other. some people get more grossed out than others because of lab. i personally don't, except when a body smells really gross. but my roommate hasn't had meat for a week, and i know there's others like her. my friend arlin is really bothered by smells, in general, so he doesn't like too much time in there. case in point, he's bothered by the smell in the laundry room. the clean laundry smell! how weird is that. well, it's ok.

i think the cool thing about lab is it's so conducive to learning. i guess the set up of anatomy class in general. we have lecture, and then see what we're talking about, touch it, talk about it to others, and then can review all of that. there's not many things that are able to incorporate so many good ways of learning so easily. my teacher genes approve.

there's not much else going on in my life, except that there's some interesting fissures within the group now. one of my friends "like liked" my roommate, but she did not return the favor. it didn't get too bad, except that i think he's kinda depressed now and i don't know how to help. the other split is between another friend of ours, a girl, (i don't have a lot of girl friends, so it's worth noting) and most of the guys i hang out with. i don't really know the extent of it, but she's been kinda ignoring them/yelling at them, but acting like nothing's wrong to me. but the whole weekend got kinda soured by it. i feel very protective of my friends, and i want everyone else to as well! we have so much other stress in our lives, i hate there being extra stress from within the support system. not fair.

so i have an exam on tuesday on the thorax (lungs, heart, backbone, chest wall, associated nerves, arteries, veins). i think it'll be fine. tonight i made dinner with some of my friends, which was very nice. i like cooking, i should really do it more. just warming up frozen dinners does not count as cooking. but i don't like cooking alone...i think we can remedy that.

thanks for all the comments on the last post! it made me excited. i appreciated the sympathy on the albany business. i hope you guys are doing well, i miss seeing everybody!

ok, time for bed....