So, THAT's what it looks like!!

I just got home from seeing an exhibit at the Science Centre called Bodyworlds 2. It's an exhibit of human bodies, body parts and organs that have been preserved through plasticization.

It was a fascinating exhibit and interesting to see all the muscles, tendons and nerves that I am oh so aware of during a long run or bike ride. Damned piriformis!! There you are, you devil, you! How the heck am I supposed to stretch out something that's so far inside my freaking butt?? Oh, sciatic nerve... you're a nasty little bugger! Don't laugh, hamstrings & iliotibial band! I saw you both, too!

I tried not to look at their faces as that kind of freaked me out a bit - made me realize that these are real human bodies - people! - who had been preserved. I'm not being very eloquent in my description of this exhibit because the word fascinating is the only one I can come up with.

As an athlete, I found it quite helpful to be able to "see" the parts of my body that give me trouble. Being able to visualize my problem areas makes it a bit easier to deal with them.

***

I talked with my friend LT on the phone for almost 90 minutes today. This is the friend from my run club that I've gotten to know a bit better recently. I'm still not sure if I have any kind of romantic feelings toward him, but we had a good conversation. Most of it was superficial talk about Olympics and such, but the reason he actually called me was because of something I had said to him in an e-mail on Friday that worried him.

I shared with him a parable about a frog. Apparently, if you boil water and throw a frog in it will leap out on instinct of self-preservation. But if you put a frog in cold water and then turn up the heat, the frog won't ever jump out and eventually boil to death. I told him that I am like the frog. He got a little freaked out about this story because he's quite sensitive, especially where animals are concerned. All he could think about was this poor frog, boiled to death.

I reassured him that it was a parable and that it was meant to be read symbolically, not literally. Anyway, what I was trying to tell him is that if he (or anyone) pushes me too far or turns up the heat too quickly, I will jump out of the pot and hide under a rock.

AND, I'm still not even sure if he is someone I even want to get into hot water with!