cysts and table manners.

i forgot how much i loooovve this song

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i have a cyst.  on my wrist.  a ganglion cyst, in fact.  because there are other types of cysts.  like ovarian cysts (which are not usually on the wrist), and sebaceous cysts (which are also not on the wrist, as they are in the small glands of the skin), and pancreatic cysts (again...).

and it has been hurting.  

and because i have recently purchased a pack of yoga sessions, i wanted to do something about it so that i could do yoga without Agonizing Pain in my wrist.  

so i went to the doctor today to have someone look at it.  and suddenly, before i even knew what was happening, we (because i agreed to it) were poking holes in my cystic pocket (a claire-style nursing term) and filling it full of steroids.  

and now it hurts.  

which brings us to the real story.  

tonight, after all the steroids, i was eating pasta with some chicken, which needed to be cut.  my wrist was feeling a little sensitive and sad, and hurt to move.  so i was wondering if i could maybe do it all with my left hand so i could baby my cystic hand.  and it reminded me of when i was in denmark learning table manners.

neils (my denmark tour guide, and distant family) was telling me that he could spot an america from 10 miles away because they cut their food right handed, and then they waste a lot of time and energy switching the fork to their right hand to eat their food.  this is also not appropriate table manners.  so i asked him what americans should be doing.  he told me that you hold the knife in the right hand and the fork in the left, and you just always keep them in their separate hands.  no switching.  it's hard, but your left hand will get used to it.  i was almost convinced, but not quite.  so i asked him "what about when you have pasta?  no cutting, and it is too technical for your left hand to handle!"  

i thought i cracked him.  but no. 

his reply:  "i just don't eat pasta."

this is neils and mereta.

summer break. ish.

for my 6 day summer break, arley came to visit.  we got sushi (totally texas, eh?), went to a rodeo, floated the river, went up the "tower of the americas," watched a 4-d movie (where i was screaming the whole time and arley was super duper embarrassed) went to the alamo, went to the beach (port aransas, near corpus christi), ate barbacoa, thought about going hiking, and watched a lot of movies.  i forgot that arley is a movie watcher!

it was really great.

when i first left for texas, i was so nervous, because everyone knows that long distance things don't work out.  and then we figured it out.  and then i was nervous, because what if we only knew how to have a long distance thing?!  but it all worked out.  we were only awkward and weird and shy for about 10 minutes.  or 20...

and everywhere we went, i forgot my camera.

here is the evidence that arley was ever here:

leaving port aransas.  we saw sea turtles and dolphins!

after the trauma of a 4-d movie

waiting to ride the squeaky, rusty elevator a billion feet up in the tower of the americas.  arley is doing his movie star face, i think.  i'm just trying to be supportive.

the miracle of life!

i have witnessed the miracle of life.  in fact, i witnessed it for 3 hours...!

i am in OB clinical and i got to see a baby get born!  and it was amazing and surreal and anticlimactic all at the same time.  after all, the girl, well, lady (woman?)...the deliverer just wanted a cheeseburger.

i did tear up though at the end, i have to admit.  and i got to inject a brand new baby with vitamin k, and give its eyes some goo and put its hat on.

while i was putting the baby's hat on, the instructor said, "you have kids don't you!" and when i looked at her like she was crazy:  "oh.  well you're good at that..."
sometimes i forget that i'm now at an age where it would not be insane insanity to be able to say i have babies.

anyways.  back to the miracle of life.  i was impressed.  i have even talked to a few midwifes (midwives?).  a potential career, perhaps?

hipstasaurus rex

i'm happy this little blog is back in business!!

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a while ago, i was talking to my mama.  ok, maybe two days ago.  and we were talking about the fact that i was making real live blogs again for a second (sort of) ((sort of, as in, we were sort of talking about that.  not that i was only sort of making blogs...)).  and this little guy came up in the conversation.

her:  i loved your disclosure.
me:  you did??
her:  i was cracking up.
me:  in case you were wondering, it's because all the facebook kids use this thing called instagram where it makes their pictures look all polaroidy, and they put them on facebook...
her:  i have seen them.  your cousin does it quite often.
me:  oh.  yep.  hipster...
her:  i remember you and mikah have done it for years.
me:  yay!! thank you!  at least one person knows!
her:  you are a pre-hipster.  a pripster?
me:  dinausaur hipster.
her:  haha
me:  hipstasaurus rex.
her:  ....

and it made me laugh a little bit.  so now we all know:  i'm a hipstasaurus rex.  hipster before hipster was cool.  hahahahaha

raw muffins

i like to eat raw muffins.  i really do.  i have this memory of going with my sissy to stay at our cousins' house and eating plastic cheese because we didn't have that at home (irrelevant), and making muffins in the morning.  our one cousin and i would basically eat half of the muffins before we even cooked them.  and my sister would be so grossed out by us.

well.  i have discovered that it's the eggs that makes eating raw things so great.  it must be the texture, or maybe even the taste.  who knows?

today i was making "just add milk" muffins.  i was super excited to snack on some raw muffins while i was filling up the muffin tin(s).

there was a problem.  or maybe two.

first of all, i had no muffin tin.  uh, what?  i had about 3 when i lived in my last apartment...

second of all, the batter tasted horrible.  i've never tasted such an awful raw muffin.  i couldn't even lick the bowl.

so here is what had to happen:

(don't mind the couscous box...that was from dinner last night....)

i had to chug some milk to get the taste of milk and flour out of my mouth.  and i had to use a cake pan to cook my muffins.  i'm still waiting on them, so i still don't know if muffin-cakes even work... hopefully they will be edible.... if not, i'll have to throw them in the grass for the wild cats to eat.


aaaaaaand, they're done.  but at first they weren't done enough, so i set my bird/egg timer again.  but it didn't go off.  for reals!  for really reals.  and now my muffin-cakes look like this:

black.  quite black.  

but that's ok.  i'll still try them.

oh dear...  forgot to spray the pan.

done.  these are some crunchy muffin-cakes.

i'll chalk that one up to a win.

ps.  i am holding my computer on my lap, and, sadly, i am attached to an internet cable.  oni just walked straight into the internet cable and clotheslined herself.  and just sat there and looked at me in a very "why would you do this to me??" tone of voice...  where is my camera when i really need it?