Ruff Day

I saw a lady vacuuming her dog tonight. They were standing in the parking lot of a gas station and oddly enough, the dog seemed to be enjoying it. I just wondered if the dog went through the car wash as well.

Are You Calling Me Fat?

While at a market today, I saw some skirts I liked. When I picked one up, I realized that it was rather small and asked the clerk if it was a kid's size. He told me that in fact it was adult size, and "one size fits all". I figured I may as well check, so I tried the skirt on over the skirt I was already wearing. I managed to pull the skirt up but it was most definitely too tight, as an old man passing me was quick to point out. Now, I know I'm not tiny, but I'm also not huge.. and as I handed the skirt back to the clerk, he just shrugged. Clearly... it was more of a "one size fits some" and clearly, he was calling me fat. Good thing I'm not a teenage girl.

Forever Young

I got stopped on the street yesterday by a random guy who knew my name. Then it turned out he wasn't a completely random guy - turns out he was in my grade 9 music class, I think. Now, I'm not surprised if people I haven't seen since high school recognize me (I may be surprised if they say hello, but that's another story). Minor changes aside, it's fair to say that I look pretty much the same as I did in grade 9. What did surprise me was when my kindergarten teacher recognized me recently at a wedding. Either she must have an incredible memory and/or I must have been one holy terror to have stuck in her memory some 18 years later. And since I bare enough resemblance to my 5-year-old self, I guess I should anticipate being carded for some years to come.

Word of the Day (2)

I came across this word on a word-list generation task, where all of the words had to start with the letter A. Having never heard of it, I wasn't sure it was a real word. So I looked it up and was delighted by the definition accompanying it.

ADDLEPATED
adj. 1 : being mixed up : CONFUSED 2 : ECCENTRIC

You're Sticking it Where??

While chatting with someone I know about her new physician placement in women's health, she mentioned that she needed to put an IV into a patient that day. Thinking back to my recent doctor-shadowing, I said "oh, is that done in the same way as drawing blood?" She gave me a strange look and a moment later I understood why when she said "um.. Rachel... IUDs get inserted through the vagina.. not the arm".. and I realized I had misheard "IUD" as "IV". Whoops.

(I then told her that, for the record, I had learned about IUDs back in grade 9 health class since I attended a public school and received a broad education..)

No (Permanent) Fixed Address

My parents called me tonight. They've sold their house. My house. The dwelling I've called home since I was a little kid... home to countless birthday parties and slumber parties, family celebrations, childhood milestones and the like. They're leaving somewhere where we have friends and family as neighbours and moving elsewhere. Away from the playgrounds where I've played on every single swing in every single park.

I've been mostly out of the house since I graduated from high school, but it was always reassuring to fill out that same permanent address, knowing that it was home regardless of where I might be physically living at any given point in time.

I don't fault my parents for moving. They've been empty nesters for a while, the house is too big and needing more and more repairs as time goes on. They're going to move a little bit closer to the city, something they've talked about doing for years.

I congratulate them on the sale of their home... but the little kid inside of me wants to whine in my little girl voice that this is MY house and strangers should not be living in it!

And as I used to always say as my family left on vacation... bye-bye house, don't get too lonely without us.

Career Choices

While shadowing a GP last month, I was introduced to an educational apparatus affectionately referred to as the "box of boxes". The "box" was a blue leather briefcase and the "boxes" were 6 plastic/rubber models of vaginas. The goal of the teaching tool was to give the learner as sense of determining how dilated and effaced a woman's cervix is, measuring only by touch. The back of each model displayed the correct response (e.g. 3 cm dilated, 50% effaced) and while I figured there was no way I would be able to feel anything, I thought I would at least humour the doctor and make an attempt. On went the examining glove and to the sound of Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get it On" coming from the waiting room, I proceeded. The first 2 models turned out to be relatively straightforward (as I discovered that 1 fingertip ~= 1cm) but I quickly realized that on some of the plastic models, no matter how far I shoved my hand in, I still couldn't feel anything. Puzzled, the doctor walked over, placed his hand against mine and said, "yup, just as I suspected... you have short hands... perhaps you want to rule out a career in obstetrics". After having a kept a straight face up until this moment, I couldn't help but laugh.