How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blog.

Jesus Christ, it's been a month?

Anyway, I strolled into work today to discover that I wasn't scheduled because it's going to be slow as balls on Black Friday (which makes me suddenly and very acutely grateful that I don't work in a heavy retail setting). Given this gift of a surprise day off, and on such a sunny and beautiful day at that, it only makes sense that I should spend in sitting in my room and typing on a computer.

Ah, freedom.

I typically refrain from posting on the grounds that I have little or nothing terribly interesting to post about (an assumption which is probably not true, but I'm also sort of busy...ish), but it turns out on this particular week I have not one but two interesting things to post about: I visited a room full of corpses, and also I ate one!*

Bodies: The Exhibition

I missed this the first time it came to town, and upon finding out that Wendy did too, we became resolute in our determination to see it this time around. Because they were open on Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving was the only day I thought I had off this week, we did it in the morning yesterday.

I can't really stress enough how awesome this exhibit is and how much everyone needs to see it all the time. There's just something about the use of real human bodies for the displays that you just can't get with models or charts or diagrams. There were several disembodied parts in glass cases all around the exhibit, which were certainly interesting (and informative, with the aid of a small audio tour guide you can purchase), the real draw of the exhibit, for me at least, was the full body displays like our friend to the right there.

Standing in close proximity to actual, preserved human corpses was absolutely breathtaking. I was left completely dumbfounded at times by the realization that, holy shit, these were people once. Observing the individual pieces strewn about is easy enough to intellectualize and get your head around, even if they were actual bits of actual people, but something about seeing a complete set, being presented with a human being preserved in its entirety, was utterly fascinating, and hit me somewhere fundamental. I mean, I'm an organ donor and all, but when I die, I can only hope that my body is used for something even halfway as awesome.

Not to say that these displays are the only thing worth seeing there. Might I interest you in a disembodied circulatory system?

I choose this particular display not just because it's so visually stunning, but how they went about it was, simply put, totally awesome. What they did is inject a casing into the body, waited until it filled the vascular system and hardened, and then submerged the body in high strength acid that melted away everything else. So what you're seeing aren't actual veins, but rather the path that the blood takes throughout your body (which is, essentially, everywhere).

And I can assure you that the pictures I posted here (or others you can find online) don't do it proper justice. Go see it. You'll be glad you did.

Thanksgiving

After Bodies, I hopped a bus straight from downtown back up into Lynnwood to visit my parents for Thanksgiving dinner. This year was different, because it marked not only the first time I'd been back to my parents house in the past couple of months, but also this was my very first Thanksgiving there since I moved out, as a guest this time rather than a member of the household.

To be honest, I was a bit nervous that many of the things which frustrated me or caused contention while I was living with my parents would come to bear again (as they had the last time I visited, the weekend after I moved out), but I was pleasantly surprised. I showed up, dinner was ready, I ate while making (admittedly sort of small) talk with my parents and grandparents, and then played Wii sports against my little brother, who defeated me rather soundly in several rounds of digital sword fighting. We had pie, and then I managed to make off with a tupperware full of leftovers and completely avoid doing dishes.

Simply put, I had a good time. It was refreshing.

*The corpse in question was a turkey corpse. Turkey.