Seriously cool and oh, geez.

seriously cool: got to hold a heart today during a bypass surgery. amazing. so efficient and they make it look so matter-of-fact. but they stop the heart and lungs for over 30 minutes, sew pieces of vein from the leg to bad (crunchy atherosclerotic plaque-filled) coronary arteries (bypassing the plaque section), and then start heart/lungs back up and sew 'em up, shock the heart, and all is well. insane and incredible. so freaking cool.

oh, geez: the cardiothoracic surgeon i was working w/ was kind of drilling me about myself/my life the whole time during the procedure (because these open heart surgeries are so old hat to them that more interesting than savings lives is harassing the FNG at her most terrified moment) and by the end he'd concluded that i am a paul-mccartney hating vegetarian hippy comedian. paul mccartney hating because we were listening to the most recent album and it (kind of sucks) wasn't my thing and vegetarian because while he was reading me the riot act on potential heart risky behaviors i divulged that i eat healthy and mostly vegetarian. but i never claim to be a true vegetarian- i'm a pescovegetarian (figure that one out). hippy just because of the way i am. and comedian- i told him (oh, geez) that once upon a time millions of years ago i had done improv comedy (why did i say that? why? why?), so he asked me to do my "routine" for him. ummmm.....improv. so under immense pressure and against my better judgment i told him an off-colored joke to kind of test the waters. and then he told a much raunchier one and we were off and running. it was fun. but i was HOLDING A HUMAN HEART, so my hands were shaking and i was kind of all a twitter the rest of the day.

note to self: no matter how much you want to impress a surgeon, never admit to a history as any kind of performer or you will be asked to on the spot give evidence to your claim. i am a quick learner, though, since when he asked if i sang, i said absolutely not. i was not about to be the student everyone remembers with the story, "it was a normal afternoon in the cardiovascular OR when all of a sudden we heard a shrill voice echo through the halls, TOMORROW, TOMORROW, I LOVE YA, TOMORROW....and that was the last time we allowed PA students in this hospital"