Googly Eyes Part 2

googly eyes

Googly Eyes

GoOgLy EyEs

GOOgly EYes

GOOGLY EYES!

As you may recall, last week I spent many an hour proctoring the Anatomy Lab midterm. I like to refer to that experience as having my googly eyes on the students. Today, the googly eyes were reversed, and I had the distinct pleasure of having 220 googly eyes on my as I taught the Anatomy Lecture. I was a bit concerned going into the lecture this morning, as I was to present 2 chapters in about 50 minutes, while the professor usually presents about 1/2-2/3 of a chapter in 50 minutes! So it was quite the task! I think it went pretty well, I covered the material I wanted to cover in about 35 minutes! Unfortunately there is not a clock in the classroom, so I didn't know I was speed-demoning my way through until the end when I finished and everyone looked overjoyed that they had gotten out early! Reports are in that I did not speak too quickly, even though I finished so quickly, so that's nice to hear! Most importantly, people seemed involved and actually engaged when I asked questions, so that was pretty great! And they laughed at my joke! E came in sat in to enforce some discipline and everyone was very well behaved! I was talking to E about the lecture as he kindly gave me a ride to my next class and he asked what my joke was that everyone had laughed at. Ummmmm, I'm not really sure...probably wasn't really a joke, probably more like the class just laughing (at me), but I feel that controlled, non-malicious, laughter mid-lecture is always a good sign!

My lecture was about muscle tissue and types, so I gathered some pretty cool graphics. If you have questions about muscle tissue, feel free to ask, I'm all brushed up and ready to share my knowledge!!!! And my lecture ppt if you want to see the cool pictures :)

Skateboarding muscle man

Chess playing muscle man

Tuesday Morning

This morning I made my weekly trip to the Cresent City Farmer's Market. Miss Taylor had kept a dozen eggs on the side for me, which was lucky because the market was crowded this morning! I would have imagined that the market would be less crowded as we progressed into later Fall, but apparently I was wrong-the cooler and more crisp the air, the greater turnout at the market!


Today also marked my introduction to satsumas. Satsumas are a type of Louisiana citrus, its kind of like a cross between a clementine and a mandrin orange (yes, I mean the ones in the can-delish!).


Having yummy citrus always reminds me of my favorite childhood place: Grandma and Grandpa's house in LaQuinta. LaQuinta was lovely and magical for many reasons, most of all the company and love that was shared and enjoyed there. Additionally, right outside the patio doors were citrus trees: grapefruit, orange, and lemon. I'm pretty sure that my two main food groups when at Grandma and Grandpa's were grapefruits and oranges. In the morning, we would run outside, pull a few oranges and grapefruits off of the trees, and have a grapefruit and orange juice for breakfast. And again for a mid-morning snack, and then maybe for our afternoon snack we might get fancy and have an orange with grapefruit juice. So divine. This citrus was way different from the kind you get in the store-these jems were a) enormous compared to the grocery store variety, and b) so naturally sweet no sugar was necessary. Mmmm, mmm, mmm!

Welcome to Lizard Land

So quite a few years ago, upon returning from a vacation, one of my besties, L, gifted me with a metal lizard similar to the one above, but much brighter, and generally way more awesome (this picture is just to give you an idea, as the original is at the Huckleberry House!). So I really like the gift lizard and keep it on my dresser, which I think concerns my mama a wee bit. But I love it so it stays!

Previous to living in NOLA, the gift metal lizard was about the extent of my involvement with the species. Then, 333 sometimes had a bit of a lizard invasion, so I had done some lizard removal there, where we discovered that really the quickest, most humane, and effective method of removal of the creatures was to vacuum them up in the hand-held vacuum, run outside, open the vacuum and corresponding bag, and the lizard would happily go along its way in the big outside world. Interestingly, the preferred escape route from the bag to the outside world generally involved some part of the lizard rescuers body, usually a hand or arm, but on one specific occasion I recall, a face was involved! So it was a bit traumatic every time we had to remove a lizard, but we had a pretty good method worked out and were practically professional lizard removers.


So this lovely Sunday morning I awoke feeling a bit poorly: stuffy head, stuffy nose, raspy throat, achy throat, itchy eyes...you know the feeling :( I had been noticing people around campus feeling poorly, but I'm pretty sure my current ailment is a little treat from one of my tutorees, B, who definitely had my current symptoms when I saw her last, sitting in my lap as I read to her... Anyways, no matter the cause, I am feeling a bit down on the health front, so I decided to stay home from church and hopefully magically recover! My sistah got her gorgeous self ready and out the door and I returned to sleep. I awoke a bit later having a feeling. You know the feeling you get when you can feel eyes resting upon you? I immediately dismissed this notion, my sistah was gone, so there was nobody else who could be looking at me, and so decided it was a relic of yesterday's events, rolled over to return to sleep. Upon the rollover, this is what I gazed upon.


On my pillow


Next to my head


I'm pretty sure I screamed about then. I must have done something because suddenly, my visitor was ON THE MOVE!!! Oh no, this is the key action you want to avoid when trying to catch a lizard. Movement by the creature bodes very poorly for the human attempting to capture. Oh gosh, not how I thought today would begin! I chased it off of the bed and then called in reinforcements. As soon as said reinforcement arrived, I realized I probably had called the incorrect reinforcer. After the reinforcer arrived, I experienced a sense of deja vu, to another lizard, at 333, and the same reinforcer, refusing to use the vacuum method, preferring instead a "more humane" way of dealing with the creature, which basically just lasted all day while the vacuum could have caught and released it in about 5 minutes. But it was too late at that point, the reinforcer had arrived. And really, at times like these, the most important aspect of reinforcement is the moral support in your mutual efforts to capture the creature.


Today's lizard was a pretty slick one, and for being pretty big (about 7 inches including tail length!) he sure could hunker down and hide out! After exploring pretty much every area in the apartment, the visitor decided to pause for a break. Luckily for us silly humans trying to catch him, the lizard chose to take his break on the broom, so we were able to lift the broom out of the apartment and outside, only losing him once in the entryway!

So it was a pretty eventful morning! But you know, I do feel a little better, so maybe all of the lizard excitement was just what I needed-perhaps I have discovered the cure for the common cold!

She Won!!!!!

Yay! Tonight, my favorite designer from the whole season of Project Runway WON!!!!! This is super exciting, as my season favorite has never won! And her collection was AMAZING! She totally deserved to win! I also really loved the runner-up, and her collection, but there was no stopping the winner!


Ah, the ripples, the khaki and white.

Oh, the khaki and white and blue. And the shapes and forms!


That blue. Amazing. The shape. Amazing. The flow...perfection!!!!

CONGRATS LEANNE-you totally blew me away tonight!!!! I really think she has the best chance of any of the Project Runway designers to make it in the fashion world. I can't wait for her collection to hit the stores!!!

I have my googly eyes on you

This week is the anatomy lab midterm. Which for me means that over the past week and weekend I have spent pretty much all of my open time in the lab running review sessions and this week I will be proctoring exams. People seem to think that anatomy lab is an okay time to have wandering eyes. Not true! So I have my googly eyes peeled for any signs of dishonorable behavior. As do my trusty deputies, who are also equipped with technological anti-cheating devices. Over the summer our lab had a very cool TV, video/still camera system installed, where now you can mount the camera above the dissection table and stream the images to the tv. Which in exam proctoring terms, means that you can basically create a closed-circuit monitoring system. There is also a remote to the system, so from across the room you can zoom in and out, as well as take still shots if you want to capture wandering eyes in print. It's pretty awesome as a dissection/teaching aid, and a pretty neat anti-cheating mechanism too. The only problem with this system is that the male members of our anatomy team are obsessed with it (must be something about there being a remote, and buttons to push, and technology) and never let anyone else use the system. Which means that when said male members of the anatomy team are not in the lab, nobody knows how to work the system. It's kind of a problem. I'm working on getting camera/tv system lessons. So far I've gotten a laugh and a "don't worry about it, I've got it under control" in response to my request to be taught. Hmmmm.


I also discovered that the male members of the anatomy team are OBSESSED with pipe cleaners. NOt lagging far behind in the marvel over the pipe cleaners is the rest of my team. After seeing all of their amazement and wonder at the pipe cleaners, I was reminded yet again how lucky I am that my mama stayed home with me during my formative pre-aged 16 years and we had many adventures in pipe cleaners, paint, ceramics, and all other sorts of wonder. IN case you were wondering, there were some comendable pieces of pipe cleaner artwork created, including: headset complete with ear phones, handcuffs, a lollipop, and my personal favorite, a quite well formed flower. Now if we just had a few more packs of pipe cleaners, we could have a full bouquet!


PS-if you are wondering where I got the great googly-eyed skull photo, visit skulladay.blogspot.com-they created a different skull every day for a year! It's a pretty cool site!

Dinner on the Park

This past Saturday my sistah and I went out for a lovely dinner. We met E and A at Ralph's on the Park and it was divine-the company, the cuisine, and the atmosphere. Every aspect was sublime, but the company was especially wonderful. E and A are two of the most lovely people I know and I love and admire them both very much. They have made my New Orleans experience truly remarkable. Above all that they have done for me, I will always be especially grateful for Saturday night. On Saturday night I saw a return of my sparkly and witty and delightful and open sistah, whom I love very much and always adore. I am so proud of her, and I was so glad to see her shine.

Happy Friday!

Today is Friday, which means that at 5pm tonight...its the weekend!!!! If that is not a reason for fireworks I'm not sure what is! This weekend is shaping up to be a good one, The Duchess tonight with my sistah, golf cart tour tomorrow for a few of the 500+ visitors at Tulane this weekend for our first Campus Preview Day of the semester, anatomy review in the afternoon, dinner with E and A, and church on Sunday! All in all, should be a good weekend!

Dem Bones, Dem Bones

Bones are utterly amazing to me. As has been stressed to me many times throughout my anatomy experiences, form follows function. Within the bones, this creates some astounding structures. The 3 bones pictured above are the bones of the inner ear. Generally considered the smallest bones of the body, they also have some of the largest impact on our life! Imagine living your life without hearing laughter, communicating without sound, or just orienting yourself to daily life and your surroundings without sound to guide you. These three little bones fit together like this:


And they are the critical component of transmitting the sound waves that reach them into the cochlea as mechanical signals, which are then sent on to the brain as electrical signals. Pretty cool, the human body is! If you want to see the bones in action, follow this link. This semester I have also learned that the inner ear bones evolutionarily originated as gills in our primordial ancestors, then became a part of the jaw, then migrated further to become our ear bones, which allow more evolutionarily advanced animals (such as ourselves) to have the hearing and balance (which is also a major function of the ear) capabilities we have. Like I said, pretty cool stuff!


Like I said, the cochlea changes its input (mechanical, from the incus, stapes, and malleus) into a very different output (electrical, going to the brain), and it does this with its very particular anatomy and form, its many hair cells. As it is Thursday today, I went to Rayne/the Bright School for my service learning assignment. As today is also Yom Kippur (a Jewish holiday), and I attend a school that is 30+% Jewish, today was a university declared academic holiday, so we had no classes! This allowed me to spend the morning and afternoon at the school today with B and C. I knew that in the mornings there is more of a class atmosphere and was interested in how this worked. I met B and C's other Bright School classmates, blond B, M, G, and W. All have some sort of speech difficulty, from delayed speech to down's syndrome. I actually really enjoyed working with the students this morning, as it is much more structured and focused. I felt accomplished when W declared to me, out of the blue, in a complete, sensical sentence, that he had 3 pockets and there was money in 1 of them-we had been working on stringing words together in a cohesive manner and he was able to put it into use! I also discovered my inner play-doh master and the girls and I made all sorts of butterflies and hearts, which they counted and named, big steps for them. Perhaps the biggest thrill of the day came later, when I was playing with B this afternoon and she pulled me over to a table, promptly threw her foot up onto the table, demanded I tie her shoe following the steps in the book (ps-if you are ever planning on working with 3-5 year olds, brushup on your bunny-ear shoe-tying skills!). I did it once with her following along in the book and directing me. Then she shoved my hands away and correctly counted, ALOUD, the laceholes in her sneakers, which numbered greater than 5, which until that morning had been her counting threshold, and then proceeded to, brow furrowed, follow the directions and tie her own shoe! It was pretty exciting stuff! Now I'm not sure if she actually knows how to tie her shoes, but I do know that last week I tied them about 75 times for her to practice, so it is at the very least a new skill, if not a brand-new skill! C and I had a pretty exciting afternoon too, we colored and she said the color and shape of each item as I drew it. Both B and C have physical hearing impairments, which makes them less inclined to speak aloud, as they cannot "hear themselves" when they speak. So most of my work has been to get them to verbalize their speech-I am uniquely qualified for this in that I don't sign at all, so to communicate with me they have to speak! It was a long and exhausting day, but it was nice too.


This evening I held a review session for my anatomy labs. They have their first tag exam next week, and are all freaking out about it. It was a pretty rough week with the lab sections, one in particular, please see previous post, so I was not really looking forward to today's review session. In general I think it went pretty well, I heard a few students on their way out say "I don't feel so overwhelmed now," which is the whole goal. I also had a pair of students from said difficult lab come up to me at the end of tonight's session and tell me that they had talked about their behavior in lab earlier in the week and felt like they owed me an apology. So it was nice to have them recognize their behavior and acknowledge that to me. I spent much of the time tonight reviewing the skull, specifically the skull's foramina. The picture above includes all of the foramina they need to know, and even includes a handy guide of which cranial nerve runs through which foramen. All of the anatomy students are (not so secretly) thinking I am a bit mean for making all of the above foramina their responsibility to know. I think I am being pretty generous, considering the below picture is the image from one of the reference books I have (and it's not even from Gray's-that book has about 100 foramina to know on the skull!) and that could have been the list they had to know!

Mmm, Mmmm, Mmmm, so good!

So for her birthday my sistah received a crockpot from our parents. Can yummy Sunday pot roasts be far behind? Hopefully not, because nothing is good like a potato slow-cooked with a roast.


At the beginning of my post, you will find a photo of a current model of a crock-pot. Above, you will find a photo of a crock-pot much like the one that I grew up with and still resides at our house in the O-H. Much loved, and much used. Although these days at home, we actually go way old-school to make our pot-roast and use Grandma's cast iron roaster.It's been through multiple generations and roasts like a demon (fyi-ours is aged in appearance, but looks much better than the one pictured!). And it's even more delish.


As my title says, Mmmm, Mmmm, Mmmm, good!

Kind Words

This week teaching my Anatomy labs was a little trying, particularly in the lab that has almost all graduate students. Now, this lab is always a little bit different because the grad students are a bit (read: overall, a lot!) more confident in thier anatomy knowledge, whether they really should be or not. Now to give them credit-most of them do mre advanced work for lab, so they do generally walk into the lab each week with a bit more anatomy knowledge than the other sections. To hear them talk though, you would think that each of them is the heir to the Gray's legacy. This lab is also my most difficult because I generally teach it almost entirely on my own, as opposed to just teaching bits of the other lab sections, and, perhaps complicating matters most, these are my peers, and my classmates in my other courses this semester-so it's a little challenging each week to get them into the "I may be a classmate in some classes, but in this lab I am the instructor," frame of mind. So this is an overwhelming week in anatomy lab, no question about it. When the student's walk in, they are confronted with a new addition to their word list that doubles the material they need to know, by next week, for the midterm exam. However, I do not come up with the lab schedule, nor do I create the list of structures we need to go over. But, I am the messenger. So the generally more difficult lab of the week turned into a pretty trying lab. As in, there was more complaining and "witty" comment-making than ever before. And I, lucky me, was the one standing at the front of the room dealing with it. But my whole issue with the behavior, is that if they had spent less time complianing and chit-chattering about how impossible I and the class was, they would have noticed that they were not difficult structures we were going over. And there really weren't that many new words, they were just really repetitive. And that maybe it wasn't my fault that this was all happening, and that I was there to help them. And that I will be spending 6 hours of my weekend in the lab so they can review! So needless to say, it was a bit difficult. It did, however, remind me of what teachers go through, and what my amazing mama does every day. It is a very underapprecaited thing, teaching is!

So I was in a bit of a mini-funk when I got home last night, not because the comments and remarks had personally hurt my feelings, but because I had not been able to get the class around the the realization that this wasn't an impossible task, and that they could definitely do it! As I was about to go to bed, I checked my email and I had a new message from a student in that lab section. It went like this:

I just wanted to say "thank you" for all of your help in the lab. I think everyone is overwhelmed, at times, and we forget how much work you invest, so I just wanted to let you know that you are appreciated!

So simple, so kind, so thoughtful, and so totally made my night better. Thank you, to the one who sent it to me-it really does mean a lot. Isn't it so nice to be acknowledged for your efforts in life? So today, my goal is to give someone else the kindness and thought that was given to me last night. I always try to be nice, but I think that we all have our moments when we can be a bit more considerate of others if we just focus on it. So please join me in spreading a little kindness and consideration of all of mankind today!

Happy Birthday!

H-A-P-P-Y B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y EMILY!

Yesterday was my sistah Emily's birthday! So how did we celebrate? Well, we went to brunch at Melange, the restaurant at the Ritz here in New Orleans. While they did not have the amazing stuffed pain perdu that I love them for, they did have a lovely brunch buffet, with a wonderful omelet station and the most amazing desserts!


At brunch I gave Emily her birthday present...tickets to the Saints game, for the night of her birthday!

So last night we ventured downtown to the 'Dome for the game! Getting into the dome was quite the adventure, as I'm pretty sure the entire population of Louisiana was either driving around or walking over about a 3 block circle around the Superdome, trying to find parking, or their way into the game! Once we found a spot and made our way through the sea of people into the Dome, we climbed up, up, up to our seats!


That is the view of the field from our seats-it looks really blurry (probably because it was so loud inside you were permanently vibrating with the echoes!) but we could actually see everything perfectly-and you could totally see everyone on the field. The noise level in the Dome reminded me of another time I was there for a football game: the 2006 season opener against Atlanta. I was on the field as a part of the crowd for the pre-show, where U2 and Green Day performed "The Saints are Coming"-it was the most electric and thrilling experience, as well as the loudest (from all of the screaming) and brightest (from all of the camera flashes) experience ever. It was really Louisiana and New Orleans' way of showing that we were back, stronger and more united than ever, following the horror and devastation of Katrina, both in the Dome and throughout the city and region. Below is a photo of the crowd outside the Dome for that game. The banners were hung all over the Dome, and the city.


I loved New Orleans from my first moment here when I visited Tulane with my mama, but after Katrina there is something even more magnetic about the city. This is a place that pulls on you-it needs you to survive, and will help you grow and develop in ways unlike any other city can.

Catch the Wave Homecoming 2008

This past week was Homecoming at Tulane University. As you may know, I was crowned Tulane University's 2007-2008 Homecoming Queen, which was an amazing honor. So this past week Taylor (my King) and I had our last hurrah as reigning Homecoming royalty. In honor of our passing of the crown, I am going to have a quick trip down memory lane to last year's Homecoming.


The Court at the Alumni Emeritus event at Scottie C's house. It was a pretty big deal. The funniest part about this event was that I had a lab immediately before we were to be at the President's House for the party, so I wore my dress and heels, with a lab coat covering my outfit, was performing brain surgery on rats, and then ran to the party!


During the Pep Rally, with the Cheerleaders, Football Team, and President of the University. Followed by green, blue and white fireworks!


Practicing on the field of the Superdome before the game. It was so huge and dark and still. It was amazing to think of all of the excitement and joy that has happened within its walls, as well as the horrors and terrors that occurred within its walls during Katrina. An amazing building, with many, many stories.


Were those our names they just called?!?!? Wow-so unexpected, so exciting!


We recovered a bit of composure for our walk to be crowned.


Our first walk as King and Queen along the sideline. Taylor was a little jealous he did not get a crown, so he improvised. But he did get an official "King" medal.


I discovered last year, and this year, that drunken people really like the crown. And really want to have pictures taken with you wearing the crown. Funny story about these men-I totally saw one of them this past weekend at the Homecoming tailgate! And he is dating a friend of mine! He did have the decency to look a bit uncomfortable during the conversation-perhaps a bit of regret over last year asking me to "stroke his chest" for the above photo?


This year's parade attendee's from our court: Shubo, myself, Taylor, and Harlan. We threw out candy this year, and I think we were a pretty big hit. The new court was throwing out Homecoming beads-cool to catch, but not candy!

On the field just before half-time with the new court, Grand Marshall, and Scottie C.


Our last photo as Homecoming King and Queen! The Grand Marshall this year was actually Rex, King of Carnival this past Mardi Gras, so he and his wife are royalty too! And Scottie C is Scottie C, he spray painted his hair green for the day!