Windows to our soul

Hey all! Far too long since I've posted anything of substance, as usual. The block is winding down, thank goodness, but along with that comes studying galore. Well, in theory. I'm trying.

(tim walker photo via lolita's)

Quite a lab the other day. The orbit. Orbit is a fancy word for eyeball and its surrounding structures (of which there are depressingly many), and I can't say that I was really looking forward to lab. We've been with our body for three months now, and I avoid the eyes. It's not that eyes in general creep me out--I've never had a problem putting in drops, or digging out a stray lash. I'd probably be fine with contacts if I needed them. But the eyes of our cadaver are another story. His lids are (were) stiff and closed, but I would occasionally lift one up a fraction of an inch to see what they were hiding. I would just glimpse a sliver of milky, sunken tissue before closing them back up and looking away. Eyes are so personal! They're not like the arm or the leg or even our abdominal organs, which are almost more like tools. Eyes are expressive, they communicate.

(via)

The eyes always scare me the most in monster movies. It's the worst when the zombie opens its eyes suddenly, and even though you're ready for it, you still jumb because they're oozy and dead and bloody. Ugh, makes me shiver.

Anyway, the dissection focused mostly on the optic nerves and all that goodness, and let me tell you, they're bitchy. Luckily my lab mate Brad took the helm on most of those, working from behind the eye in the skull, and he did a fabulous job. He even found the ciliary ganglion, which is a tiny little structure that's wicked hard to locate (Dr. Jerrett said he'd only seen one in four years teaching gross, so he came over and shook Brad's hand). We're very proud.

My job was to work on the eye that Brad wasn't busy with, finding the muscles and structures from the front. I wasted time for a while separating teeny muscles that make us wink and squint--lots of those too. I finally got down to business and started digging, and after quite a while, I cut the optic nerve from behind and pulled out...an eyeball.

So strange. I'd almost forgotten what I was doing while I was working, because I kind of forget what I'm dissecting and just focus on not cutting too many things that I shouldn't. Everything looks the same from so close up anyway. But now I was holding a human eyeball in my blue-gloved hand. It certainly didn't look like the one above, and it barely looked like an eyeball at all, really. It was sunken, like someone had sucked most of the juice out with a straw (although I know for a fact that there was still plenty of liquid in these bad boys--one of our classmates stopped by halfway through the lab looking a bit disshevelled. He'd gotten squirted in the face by eye juice while doing the exact thing I'd been working on all hour. Someone was looking out for me that day). The sad thing was covered with a thick, milky layer of tissue, like a huge cataract. We could just make out the iris underneath. Brown eyes.

And now our body is one eye down. It's in a ziploc with his brain, nestled on the towel between his legs. Piece by piece, we're taking him apart, and there isn't much left to do now. He's lucky though. Most of the other bodies had their pelvis bisected or their abdominal organs completely removed. He's stayed more or less intact while everyone else is almost unrecognizable as even a human body. What a strange class.

Off to try to study (or maybe just play with the kitten, take a bath, and go to bed. Whatev). Nighty night, folks.

Another Ramen soup night

My fridge died yesterday! Well, probably sometime Tuesday evening really. Terrible, huh? Most of my perishables perished, which is a real bummer, and the freezer also peed all over the kitchen floor as is defrosted overnight. But my wonderful landlady and her boyfriend showed up tonight with a bright new shiny Frigidaire!


Sweet, huh? Although I feel like Edward Norton from Fight Club--a fridge full of condiments. How embarrassing. At least I have lots of beer! Anyway, the black matches the tiles pretty nicely I think. Unlike my big black faux-leather couch, which just makes me look like a drug dealer.

So I'm off for another non-perishable dinner of ramen soup and beer--grocery shopping tomorrow, I hope. Hope y'all are eating a more nutritious dinner than I am tonight!

At least I'm not in Russia

My feet are freezing right now. A good friend of mine (who lives in Idaho, where it's actually cold, not New Orleans "cold") reminded me that at least I don't live in Siberia (or Idaho, really). True! But look at the neat hats they get to wear in the military.



Also, baby elephants.



Thank you, New York Times.

Wagon Wheel

Seriously, people. Prop 8? Really? Come on California (and Arizona and Florida). The gays aren't going to take over the world. The children will be fine. There will still be plenty of happy boy and girl marriages, plenty of divorces and broken homes, plenty plenty plenty.

Blech. Anyway, I thought I'd share something with you that my sister shared with me. It's a lovely music video, and I've listened to it about fifteen times in a row to cheer myself up. Enjoy!

B is for

(via)

Believe it or not, this isn't even a Halloween post! It's two days late anyway. But it is related to zombies, kind of. More importantly, zombie food: BRAINS!!!!

Ok, so that was a loose tie in. But brains are super cool, and last week, I got to play with them! That's right folks, the big day came. Brain day.

It's been a rough couple of weeks, and not just for totally lonely, down-in-the-dumps, please-stop-bitching-about-it little me. Our biochem class ended on Friday, which meant a big test, lots of studying, and lots of putting off anatomy. I don't think any of us were paying attention to which anatomy classes we were going to until the professor started lecturing. We've all been on auto pilot. As such, it came as a big surprise to all of us when Dr. Lindsey casually mentioned in lecture that we would be opening up our skulls that day. There we were, paying vague attention to the anterior neck, and BAM! Brain day.

So we all trooped up to lab after lecture, a little perkier than we had been earlier. We had taken off the skin of the face a few days before. Very strange, by the way. Our man was all lips and eyebrows--no more wispy gray hair or wrinkles. He looks really....cadavery.

(via)

Anyway, we took the rest of the skin and hair off the top of the skull, and then it was bone saw time. That was rough! It's very awkward trying to maneuver a saw around someone's head when they can't flip over and get into a better position for you. Um. Well, you know what I mean.

We eventually were able to pop off the top of the skull (the calvaria), just like a little bowl (we're usuing it to keep our tools in now). The brain itself was a little harder to get out, because we had to be careful to cut all the right things in the right places. I was working with the scalpal while Brad held the brain out of my way, and once I snipped the brain stem, it kind of just...plopped out. It was very anticlimatic actually. Doesn't it seem that there should be a little more to taking a brain out of a skull? Fifteen minutes, and we were holding this lumpy thing in our hands. It felt like very firm jello, just a few pounds, kind of lumpy and pale and unremarkable. The center of so much activity, our body's computer, and it's sitting in a ziploc in our humidor right now. Lots of deep thoughts in this, but I'll save them for another night.

(via)

And that was it! It wasn't even a very long lab. It was one of the more satisfying, although I ended up covered in bone dust and more than a little brain juice.

Anyway, I wanted to share that with y'all, because I think we're on to eyeballs and other fun stuff like that this week. Lots of good stories for you I hope. Have a lovely evening!

In honor of Tuesday!

As if anyone needs yet another reason not to vote for McCain, check this out. Obama totally kicks his ass in this dance off.


Oh yeah folks, it's for realsies.

And because none of us can get enough Sarah Palin, get your giggles out here (my favorite is the poster of baby names, and keep clicking on the office door).

Chestnuts

Ok, so I know that I swore off all Mark Bittman recipes, but doesn't this one look delicious? I've never roasted chestnuts before, but I think I might try. It might make things a little toastier in this chilly house. Leave a comment if you have any roasted chestnut experience! I don't have an open fire, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

Hiding

Hi all. I have been in such a big funk lately! And so much has been happening that I can't believe I haven't been writing about it all along--I'll never catch up. But I'm trying to pull myself out of whatever this is that I'm stuck in.

Andrew drove away on Friday--almost a whole week ago now. I was dismally depressed at first, of course, and while I'm still just as sad, it's faded to a dull kind of crappiness now. Seriously guys, it's now 4:30, and I've been in bed since noon. Noon. I only got up to go pee and check the mail. But I'm not completely gloomy and out of it--I've gotten a lot done! Ate lunch, studied biochem, watched Heroes, played with the kitten, read.

There are a few great reasons to stay in bed these days. One, Andrew's gone, and not only am I sad, but I don't feel guilty for being completely lazy and immobile! Two, it's flippin' freezing out of my warm blankets. Yes, actually cold! Well, cold for New Orleans (don't laugh at me). Three, I get to cuddle with my adorable new kitten, Stokely! Yep, I finally took the plunge. I couldn't find an old cat that was right for me, so instead I adopted this tiny, sad, scruffy black kitten and am completely enamored. He sleeps on my neck. It's love.





It's so hard to leave the house in the morning and go to class! Wouldn't you want to stay in and cuddle too? When he's not trying to tear your bare feet to shreds, that is.

More later folks. I'm going to try and drag myself out of my nest and rustle up some grub. Or a g&t. Or whatever.

Lala land

Hey all. I know I've been out of touch lately, and I promise that I'm hard at work dragging myself back into the land of the living! Been a rough week, let me tell you. But I promise something substantial soon, so don't touch that dial! Until then, a little vintage loveliness from swissmiss.

Apples

(via faces in places)

In my birthday box from my dad was a boat load of my favorite kind of apples, these tiny little tart things from one of the trees in his orchard. I love apple season! Does anyone know of a place to go apple picking in Louisiana?

I promise a more substantive post later. I just love Fall! Anyone want to carve pumpkins?

Happy holidays!

People, today's my BIRTHDAY! Woohoo! That's not me in the picture above, but it's a cute picture of my sister with her birthday cake a couple of years ago. And here's one of my dad holding a flaming cake:


After the exam, I think Andrew and some friends and I are heading up to Northern Louisiana for the Washington Parish Free Fair--should be a hoot. So wish me biochem luck!

Practical practicals

(found via a cup of jo)

My friend Jeff asked a question about anatomy exams, and I was trying to find some amusing picture of lab practicals or something to post. Instead, I found the above. Friggin' adorable. From James' Year in Pictures blog--awesome photos, and I promise, most of them aren't as cutesy as this one.

Anyway, I checked my answers this morning and it looks like I did well! Woohoo! Our gross anatomy exams are in two parts: written and practical. Each section is a little less than two hours. The written is in the same format as the board exams, which means primarily clinical cases with multiple choice answers--and yesterday's written portion was miserably hard, so I'm thrilled that I passed! When we finish that, we all trudge upstairs to the anatomy labs for the practical portion, which consists of 70 tagged structures throughout the six labs. We all have clip boards and we're herded from lab to lab by a buzzer (15 minutes per lab or so). I saw Dr. Jerret this morning as I checked my answers at the bulletin board, and he said that he was thrilled with how well we'd all done on the practical. Gave me a nice warm fuzzy feeling, because I know that it doesn't really matter what scores we all get, but I do live for praise and to make my superiors happy. It's a little pathetic.

Anyway, I'm now sitting in the library, trying very hard to study biochem. Wish me luck!

(PS--Thanks for commenting, Jeff!)

Bed time yet?

Doesn't this look like the most comfortable bed ever? I love white rooms, and the blankets look so fluffy. All I want to do is crawl into bed right now. My anatomy exam went pretty well, but it's time to study for Wednesday's biochem. Ugh. Hope everyone else is having a relaxing night!

Test time

Block II anatomy exam today! Ahhh! Wish me luck.

One of my favorite anatomy professors posts the above picture at the beginning of every lecture (click on the image for a bigger view--totally cool). I found it at this great website full of antique anatomical art. More about it later, so I won't post the link yet. You know, that way you'll come back for more. Ooooo...

PS: Cats

I haven't mentioned that Andrew landed himself a wonderful job with the Associated Press as a technology reporter! It's a great position with honest to goodness benefits. The downside: it's in Manhattan! So he'll be moving back up North in a couple of weeks, and although I'm beyond bummed that he has to leave, I'm trying to stay positive (more closet space, cheaper food bill, etc). And now that I'm going to be all lonely, I'm back to wanting to adopt a cat. The Louisiana SPCA (which is only two minutes from my house) has this great website with pictures of their current adoptable animals, and I think I want this one:


Doesn't he (she?) look fantastically old and grumpy? And fluffy to boot. I think I'll go meet him tomorrow. Thoughts?

Fun in the perineum

Yesterday one of my dear dear friends (you know who you are) reminded me that it's been far too long since I wrote anything of substance in this silly blog. Ok, so that's not exactly what he said, but the intent was clear. And he's right! Things have been a bit busy lately, and it's time for some lab updates. All I can say is that you asked for it!

I said I'd tell y'all about my day in the abdomen, and I will, but first I'll discuss what I've been studying all day:

(thank you, frank netter, for everything you've done for me)

Oh yes, yes indeed. The day finally came to dissect down there. The day that Andrew's been snickering about every since he learned I have a male cadaver. We've been working with our body for two months now, and we're very respectful. When we're not working on a specific region, we cover it up with the towel. Until now, that's meant keeping his nether regions discreetly hidden. We all knew it was down there, we knew that we'd have to get to know it eventually, but until that time, we were perfectly happy to ignore it. We try to let the man keep his dignity while desperately clinging to our own, enjoying our time with his arms and heart and colon.

But it couldn't last forever, could it? The day came when we had to remove the towel. It was an ominous act; we set it aside and stood staring for a few moments, not saying a word. Then the three men in the group quietly stepped back out of the circle. You see, each table had been assigned a different dissection to do, because they're all tedious and intricate and take several hours. For better or worse, we'd been assigned the money dissection: male urogenital triangle. Us gals were a little apprehensive, but the fellas were having nothing to do with using scalpels, probes, and scissors in that most tender of areas. Especially not if the end result was going to look something like this:


We waffled for a little while, putting off the inevitable. We moved him into position, which was unsettlingly similar to the one women assume at the gynecologist: legs bent and spread, feet in the stirrups, scoot down a bit please, a little further, there we go... Now we were ready, and I had somehow ended up in the dissection position. It felt a little like in the cartoons, when they ask for volunteers and everybody steps back except for the one unlucky sap. I was that sap.

But I'm not afraid! I crouched down and started skinning, the feet hovering somewhere near my ears and my relieved lab mates grouped around the end of the humidor. It was strange at first, holding his abnormally hardened you-know-what (I'm trying to avoid those creeps that google dirty words and stumble upon well-meaning blogs) and peeling away skin and fascia. But eventually it was just another body part, and skinning can be very soothing (as far as dissections go)--you don't really have to think about much, you're not searching for annoying nerves and vessels, you can watch the progress you're making minute by minute.

After a while we started to draw a crowd, and everyone stood around watching me dissect. I earned a reputation as a man-hater pretty quickly--completely undeserved of course! But I'm afraid it's going to stick with me for a while, and all because no one else would step up to the plate! To be fair, (almost) everyone did their part eventually.

The dissection itself went well. We found lots of little structures and ended up with a pretty nice perineum, which, by the way, has SO much fat! We didn't find anything too unusual, although he had a bunch of benign fatty lipomas in his spermatic cord. Weird! One of the bodies a few labs down the hall found a surgically implanted penile pump--totally cool!

(a little gray's anatomy from bartleby.com)

As much flak as I took for dissecting a penis (oh no! I said it!) and testis, I feel like our table was pretty lucky. We could've gotten stuck with the anal triangle--no fun at all, let me tell you.

That's all for now, folks. The weather down here is finally cooling down. Today was the most lovely, breezy day. Thanks to my block II exams next week, I spent the whole thing inside studying, but I enjoyed it on the walk to breakfast. Hope all is well out there, and ta ta!

Nevermind

This flow chart describes my current "study" session so perfectly that I want to cry a little. Instead, I'll just talk to you people (Laurel).


Andrew's parents are coming to visit this weekend and I'm excited! We're going to make dinner for them on Friday and in addition to the red beans and rice that I experimented with last week (fantastic), I think I'll try out this delicious looking apple cake. It's from smitten kitchen (big surprise!), so I'm sure it will be mouth-wateringly fabulous.


We'll probably be going out to eat for the rest of the weekend, so I'm trying to brainstorm great places to take them. A few definites for the list: Cochon, Crescent City Brewhouse, The Gumbo Shop, and Irene's Cuisine. If any of you are from NO or have spent some time here, any other suggestions?

Robotic Sheep

PS--Andrew REFUSED to mow the lawn today (some silly excuse about "I had to go to work so that I can pay rent and buy you pretty things"). I think I might get this instead:

(also via swissmiss)

Feeling funky

(via frank chimero, found at fantastic swissmiss)

Light on the posts these days, I know! Busy busy busy...As Dr. Jerret likes to keep reminding us, gross anatomy is in hyperdrive now, and we need to study accordingly. I'm trying, I'm trying! But the above illustration describes how I'm feeling lately, especially the past couple of days. I just can't seem to keep things straight! Ugh, I need to get my mind right.

Anyway, I'm in need of a bubble bath and a g&t, or something of the sort, so I'll sign off. But boy oh boy, do I have a lab to describe to you! Gorey details soon, I promise.

Cookin' tonight

Check out what my man is making for dinner tonight! He tried this recipe last week with salmon (freakin' delicious), but this weekend we found the right kind of fish at Hong Kong Market! I love that place--the best produce, plus those little lychee flavored jelly things that I adore. Anyway, he's making me dinner, and I'm so excited. Andrew doesn't think he's a very good cook, but anytime he tries a new recipe, it's unbelievably scrumptious.

I'll try to write something later about my adventures in the abdomen today. It was quite something, let me tell ya.

Empty buildings

It's been a great day. A great weekend really. Fabulous dinner out on Friday with the man, wonderful wine, estate sales on Saturday (they deserve a whole post to themselves), naps, poker with friends, shopping, even some studying thrown in there. Tonight we had fondue and watched most of The Fall, which is an amazing movie so far (Andrew got sleepy, but it was probably just a ploy to get me into bed).

Despite all the fun and everything going perfectly this weekend, I'm feeling melancholy tonight. The reasons why are probably silly and wouldn't be very interesting to write (or read) about, so I'll deal with my neuroses on my own for now. But I thought I'd share something great.


This is the work of David Kohrman, who keeps a blog dedicated mostly to decrepit, abandoned buildings. Aren't they beautifully eerie? He says that his favorite buildings are hotels, and he does have some amazing photos of crumbling hotels. But the most intriguing to me are abandoned hospitals. I see the defunct Charity hospital every day and I'm so curious to know what it looks like inside. From below, it's hulking and monstrous, with abandoned ac units sticking out of broken windows. It must be so spooky inside.

I was alerted to Kohrman's stuff through bohemian hellhole, a bad ass blog about broken buildings and other beautiful things. Check it out.

I'll sign off and stop overthinking things. New week tomorrow.

Rock N' Bowl

I'm so excited for St. Louis Slim at Rock N' Bowl tomorrow night! Finally a little swing in this city! I'm having so much fun here in New Orleans--amazing food, great booze, fun people, very very strange sights on a daily basis, and oh, the AMAZING food. But the one thing I've definitely been missing is a swing scene, and maybe I'll find one tomorrow! I'm an awful bowler (really really terrible), but it should be a great night.

Off to make Deb's kefta and zucchini kebabs (yum...). Later kids!

I know I shouldn't but

Ok, so I know I have an anatomy exam on Monday and I should be spending every single waking moment with my nose buried in Snell, but I mean really. A girl needs a break.


So I finally watched the premiere of America's Next Top Model (no cable=waiting until cwtv posts episodes online=lame-o). I promise not to turn this blog into an SGM wannabee (even though man oh man that blog makes me laugh), but GOOD GOD! The drama! The bitchiness! The fabulosity! I love and hate them all already! Let's see, we've got stuck-up and bitchy, antisocial and super shy french girl, vegan animal rights bi-girl, Alaskan moose-huntress (to borrow a phrase), mixed-martial arts fighter, and even a transgendered woman! Oh yes, it should be an exciting season (not that I'll be watching that trash...ahem). And oh man, how fantastic and over the top is Sheena? Don't you just want to be her friend?

Ok, fine, back to it. Later, you lovely people.

Chest cavity

I'm back! I'm so sorry to all two of you (three? sure, I'll be optimistic) that check my blog daily for these little vacations that I keep taking. Silly med school. But the good news is that I did really well on my first exam! Biochem, baby. As always, I had psyched myself out way too much and did a lot better than I thought I would. Wait, as always? I never do better than I think I did! I usually do worse, which makes me think that I'm actually starting to get this med school thang! Go me.

(from here)

I had a traumatic gross anatomy experience yesterday. Traumatic might be a bit of an overstatement (I'll tell you a truly traumatic lab experience in a mo'), but it was certainly less than ideal. We were dissecting the chest cavity, and as always, Dr. Levy gave us some words of wisdom beforehand. His first and most ringing words were "Don't cut your phrenic nerve!", and he then went on to describe in detail how to avoid such a terrible, med-school-career-ending mistake. And what did my lab group do? Right after taking the lungs out, we just chopped right on through the nerve. And not just on one side--nope, both phrenic nerves! The worst part was that we didn't even know that we'd done it until Dr. Levy came over and KICKED OUR ASSES. I mean really, I wanted to climb into the humidor with out body just so that I could hide from him. Scary stuff. He had that "I'm so dissappointed in you" tone of voice, and I swear, I had to keep the tears in. Sniff. The only way I held them is was knowing that it was our last day with Constable Levy, and Tuesday we'll be switching lab directors. Dr. Levy would never let us live it down otherwise.

Other than that, the lab itself was just yucky (by the way, if you're not into cadaver descriptions and general ew-ness, read no further!). I mean, I'm basically over the yuck-factor of spending hours and hours with our less-than-properly-preserved body, which is looking and smelling worse and worse as the days go by. By now it's pretty routine. But as I was elbow-deep in that chest cavity, wrestling with the left lung (bitch didn't want to come out), I was experiencing new and truly awe-inspiring stenches that I had previously only imagined. And oh, the coagulated pulmonary fluid! Hand fulls of it that had to be removed, all of it a sickly redish-brownish-yuckyish color and the consistency of runny rice pudding.

So! That brings me to the truly traumatic lung dissection story that I mentioned earlier. A friend of one of my classmates was doing a lung dissection in gross anatomy at a med school somewhere (stories like this transcend space and time anyway), and while she was leaning over, she accidently pierced something that spurted directly upward. Into her mouth. Oh. My. God. Like any sane person with a normal sense of what should NOT be in your mouth, she vomited, into her cadaver. This started a chain reaction around her lab table, and they all ended up vomiting more or less into their humidor, all over their cadaver. I can't even imagine anything more disgusting than a vomit-covered cadaver, especially since it's not like they could just get a new one. Nope, they were probably stuck with it for the duration of the lab. And I thought I had problems.

Sorry about that folks. I promise, that's all of the gross for today. Other than that, there's just so freaking much to know about that general area (nerves and the like) that it was a bit stressful. Especially because this is block 2 material, and we're all frantically trying to study our block 1 stuff for our Monday exam without absorbing anything unnessesary. Arg!

It's going to be a long weekend folks, full of my good friends Rohen and Snell, plus a lovely Sunday trip to the lab (who needs church?). Hurricane Ike is brushing past us right now, so it's pretty windy out there. I feel awful for Galveston! They're getting the shit beat out of them at the moment, and it looks like it's only going to get worse. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you, Texas!

Oh my goodness yum

Hey all. Thought I'd share a mouth-watering dish with y'all.


Stuffed tomatoes, from the Wednesday Chef! Check them out--delicious! I'm dying to try them out, maybe with some of the tasty Creole tomatoes that you can get around here. I can't imagine a better way to spend an end-of-summer afternoon on the back porch!

By the by, I found a link to this recipe via smitten kitchen, one of my favorite food blogs EVER. I've made a few of her things and they always turn out splendidly, not to mention the fact that she fills her recipes with gorgeous food photos. It took me a while to branch out to online cooks again after the end of my love affair with Mark Bittman (the Minimalist) of New York Times fame. But after four or five complete failures, I had to admit that he and I were just headed in different directions as far as the kitchen is concerned. Some of you may have heard about the Octopus Incident:


There was also an unfortunate experiment involving granola. Ugh. But even though I was traumatized, I decided to jump back in the water, and I'm thrilled that I did. Seriously, try her chicken marsala. Fantastic.

Anyway, even though it's soggy outside and all mosquito-y, I'm itching to sit on the porch, sip some wine, and stuff myself with bruschetta. Hope everyone's having a lovely evening!

Waiting

The hurricane's over, and now that the panic and general hullabaloo are over, everyone's settled in to wait. Waiting for the power to come back on, the grocery stores to open up, waiting for help to get that damn tree off your car. The big wait for the next few days will be for the go-ahead to come back home from wherever people evacuated to. Then, after it comes, everyone will wait in traffic on parking lot I-10.

Tonight, I'm waiting for Andrew to come home. He spent the night, thank goodness, but had to take off again to Belle Chase early this morning. He had some amazing stories about tornadoes, big trucks, and walking on top of levees that were just about to be overtopped. And he's back to it today, and I haven't heard a word. I'm not complaining; I know how intensely busy he is and how shoddy cell phone reception is these days. But it's getting late, and we were hoping he would be able to come home for dinner, and I'm lonely.

Even though I've jumped off the flickr bandwagon for my personal photo needs, I do love it so. This post was going to center around my flickr favorites with a waiting theme, but I'm having image upload issues. But I love typing a random word or date into flickr and seeing what pops up, so I would recommend trying it out. Sorry, this was supposed to be a lot more visually pleasing! Here's a nice pictures of the bridges over the Mississippi, near my house, just for a little color:


Nighty night!

Travolta power

(taken by yours truly at the audubon zoo here in NO town)

I am feeling like a BUMP on a LOG! It's 4:02 pm and I have studied my way through exactly ONE biochem lecture. Only one! I wish I could say that I spent the rest of the day deeply immersed in gross anatomy, but I cannot tell a lie. Well, yes I can, but I'm choosing not to. Instead, I:

1) Ate two bowls of fruit loops (actually 1.5)

2) Played with the cat

3) Took a three hour nap

4) Spent a silly amount of time looking at nothing in particular on the internet

5) Ate more cajun sausage and one of Maria's delicious white chocolate chip cookies

6) Watched an episode of Dexter

Productive, eh? Oh yeah:

7) Finished the first Twilight book. Yep, in a day and a half.

There, my humiliation is complete.

Because I'm obviously having an uninspiring day, I wanted to share with you a reliable source of motivation. Whenever I feel like getting off my lazy ass and doing something useful with my life, this is where I turn:


That's right folks! Staying Fit with John Travolta, a guide to reshaping your body through weight resistance and modern dance! Some highlights:



And my personal favorite:

Ah, if only I had a black spandex workout jumper! And such fine tone in my buttocks! John Travolta circa 1984 really knew how to shake his groove thang, something that I think we've lost in these jaded days of pilates and hot yoga. Tragic.

Ok, study time. Hey, I'm serious this time! Stop laughing!

(john travolta pictures via atouchofvintage, unfortunately sold out (sorry ladies). found via a cup of jo, quite a lovely blog)

Back online

Okay folks, we're back on the air! Power, internet, refrigeration--you name it, we got it.

I'll tell you, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, or as bad as everybody else thought it would be. I usually think of myself as a pretty tough cookie, but after hearing everyone's horror stories about how scary hurricanes are, I was a little worried that I would be spending the day hiding under the covers. But after the first couple of hours of wind and rain, I got used to it. The power went off around 9 am, hence the lack of updates all day, but even that wasn't too bad. I studied as much as I could stomach (I'm embarrassed to admit how little that was), and spent most of the rest of the day reading Twilight (I'm also pretty embarrassed to admit that, but it turned out to be the perfect storm book).

Biggest surprise of the day: Andrew stopped by! I heard voices out front around 10 and looked outside, and there was an emergency guy in a big white truck talking to my neighbor Todd. I waved, and he said, "He went around to the back door!" I said, "Uh, who did?" "Your boyfriend!" And there was Andrew! He could only stay for five minutes or so, but it was so great to see him and know that everything was ok!

Deciding that the lack of refrigeration warranted a huge lunch of perishable food items, I cooked up a massive amount of cajun sausage and settled down to stuff myself, washing it all down with a nice cold beer (beer isn't technically perishable, but warm beer is not an option). Let me tell you, one big difference between storms back home and storms down south is that in Louisiana, when the power goes out, the lack of a/c is pretty damn debilitating. Now again, like I said, tough cookie. I didn't mind the heat too much, but an icy beer went a long way.

I decided I'd take a nap around 3 (it was a very taxing day, you know), and when I woke up a couple of hours later, the power was back on! I hung out on the porch a while longer with my NOPD friend Bob from yesterday, who told me that it had been a totally quiet, peaceful twenty-four hours (relative to Katrina). I'm hoping that the aftermath is quiet as well.

Conrad also had a very taxing day inside:

Someone else that I feed:Skip just stopped by to check on me and picked up chocolate cake making supplies--I think he's trying to wheedle Maria into making cake, so I might have to stop by and visit. I'll keep updating, but it looks like the worst is past. The rest of the city fared pretty well too, except for some flooding on the west bank, and it looks like one of the levees in Plaquemines Parish is being overtopped. Wish us luck!

A bit of wind

All of pictures I take out the back door are pretty crappy--stupid little digital camera. Maybe I'll bust out the film and try to take a real picture. But this is the photo I wish I'd taken:

(ted jackson/times-picayune)

This is a picture of St. Louis Cathedral in the quarter, via a daring photographer at the Times-Picayune. Got a text message from Andrew this morning saying that they're all hanging in there down in Belle Chasse, but he hasn't been able to make a phone call yet. If you want to stay updated on the storm, check out the NOLA website. Scroll past the panic-inducing headline at the top and check out the "Real-Time News" section to the left. Great stuff! Keep and eye out for Andrew's stories!

Mr. W

In honor of the weather, check out this brilliant and touching commercial!



Get it?

The daring cat rescue

After much worry and calling at the back door, I saved the cat! Conrad wouldn't stay in the house last night, so I thought it was best to let him out. But it started getting bad around 6:30, and I was so worried! I figured he was hiding under the house, but no matter how much I called, there was nothin' doin'. Finally I heard a pathetic little meowing and rushed outside, and there he was, trying to balance his way along the fence to me! So now we're both inside, and he's much more agitated than I am. I think Katrina (bad name) is next door with Todd.

Gotta run because the power's flickering, but the storm has definitely started! I'll try to post again later, and hopefully with pictures. Bye kids!