Dead Bodies, and the City of 10,000 Flatulents

My body is so sore today! Pretty much every muscle I looked at in the Body Worlds Exhibit hurts on me today. This is likely to be a long post. So I'm warning you in advance. The exhibit, I thought was very interesting. We were not able to take photos. We spent three hours examining the Plastinates in the exhibit. I was both intrigued and disappointed. I was disappointed that they didn't have more women. It would have been very interesting to me to see how a female body's parts fit into the body, and a comparison of man and woman side by side. I realize there are not many differences, but there definitely are some all the same. They did have uterus' under glass cases with different ailments, but that also is not the same as seeing what my body looks like all put together. I would have liked to see how everything goes together down there, and how it changes once a women gets pregnant and other things related to the life of a female. It was definitely Male dominant, something my husband didn't notice until I pointed it out. There are a lot of things I think they could do for improvement on that front. They did have a woman who died during childbirth, and embryo's in different weekly stages. The woman was very interesting. They posed her in a laying down position with an arm up so you could see how the baby pushes your organs upward to make room for itself. The baby also died, so the baby was still in place. After looking at that. I am definitely in favor of the traditional side of childbirth. The layer of flesh, and muscle a doctor has to cut too, is way to much to do to a body unnecessarily. The embryo's were also very interesting to me, it was definitely interesting to see the stages in a much more personal way than images from a book, or ultra sounds. Hands, faces, fingers, etc are so detailed so early on.

The most interesting to me, other than the embryo's, was the artery system. They had a family of 3 showing only the their arteries and blood vessels. NO bones, no organs, just bodies of arteries. It was crazy to see, and interesting to read about the process they used to accomplish this sort of preservation. They also had an arm that you could look at close up. I now know why my thumb has been throbbing constantly since I loped off the tip. There are a lot more vessels in that tiny little tip that a person would think. The most artistic Plastinate to me was a man and woman Ice Skater that was meant to show how the muscles act when the body is in balance, and how the weight shifts from point to point.

It was also interesting to note that most of the plastinates had black lungs. I'm curious to know if they were all indeed smokers, or if some of those black lungs were products of second hand smoke and/or the environments nasty chemicals. Maybe that would be another thing they could tackle next time around! I think I could discuss what I saw and didn't see for quite some time, so I better stop before this gets too long. If it comes to your city, it's definitely something worth seeing.

Dinner with Good Friends

After the museum, we met up with friends downtown for dinner. We usually do a girls night out, but since I had DJ, we invited our significant others. It was a good time. (I think anyway, maybe the men think differently.) I didn't get to talk to them much because the restaurant was loud, and there were nine of us, so we were all having different conversations that I was in and out of most of the time. The good thing is, I think we can involve our men more if we wanted to. They seem to be able to carry conversations with eachother. With acception to our single friend Jordan, who didn't have a man, but she is lucky, she gets to accessorize her man to her event. The rest of us on the other hand, have to bring the same accessory to every event. Plus, we can aways hook her up with our waiter. She likes a man in uniform... he he he. Just kidding.

Here's the part my girls asked me to report on in detail. Afterwards we went to the Lodge. It was a lot of fun. Started out slow because it was still early, but picked up soon enough. The band (If you want to call them that. Were two guys with guitars) was pretty good, and a lot of fun. They were giving out free shots, and had us sing along while the singer took drinks of his "vodka". I'm sure it was water. I noticed the other one, the one I thought was totally hot btw, wasn't drinking anything. Maybe he's the sensitive, responsible type. That's what I'm going to believe is true in my head anyway. He was hot. Anyway. This is where the story ends. Other than a lot of dancing, drinking and fun, that's all you get to hear. If you want to know details of our outings, then you should come with us. Nany nany boo boo to you.

insert smilie sticking tougue out here)

Shopping
Saturday we spent at least four hours at the museum on our feet. Sunday, we spend about seven hours walking around the Mall of America. This is why my body aches so much today. The mall wasn't as crazed as I was expecting it to be. Some stores were very hard to get in and around due to the combination of small spaces and overstock of inventory. (ie. The Discovery Store, and any electronic/gadget store.) Don't worry, I'm not going to give you a play by play of our seven hour journey. But I am going to tell you about the Worlds Largest Gingerbread House! It was totally awesome! Because of the mass of people, I wasn't able to get a full picture of the whole house, but I'll post my pictures anyway to try to give you an idea of the scale. Inside they have elves making giant ginger bread man cookies. It was great! I was happy. We started shopping on the 3rd floor, and went round and round until we hit the bottom floor where the ginger bread house was. When we passed it for the second time (we were on the second floor) I really just wanted to go down and tour it. But DJ was not planning on deviating from the original plan. So I decided to periodically whine that I wanted to see the gingerbread house for the remainder of our 2nd floor shopping. :o) Whenever I was ready to get out of a store, I'd whine about the GBH. he he he. Since we don't have kids, I thought it was only fitting. tee hee.

Click here to see my pictures

Now, I suppose you are wondering, "Why is the latter part of her Blog title City of 10,000 Flatulents?" Those of you that are educated on state history, or maybe you are just a license plate buff. Minnesota is known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Well, after this weekend I think it should also be known for 10,000 flatulents. All was well at the MOA until around 3:00. Then it seemed no matter where DJ and I went someone would bust ass, and all around would have to suffer. In a store, on the escalator, in the hallway, in another store, sitting in the food court. It was disgusting. So bad, that at one point, I looked at DJ and said, "I'm starting to wonder if you're really doing this to us." But I know he wasn't. Sadly. I know him so well, that I know what his farts smell like. This WAS not it. I would have WELCOMED his nasty ass farts after about the third tortured blow I had the misfortune to whiff. We were so high on gas, that DJ had some pretty witty jokes and incites about the subject while we sat on a bench eating our Peppermint Blizzards. After we got yet another whiff, he made this observation, "There are what? Thousands of people in this mall right now? And right now there are about 100 people farting at this very moment." I'm surprised the place didn't explode with the amount of gas it was emitting.

I'm making myself giggle hysterically in my office right now.

Ok, you might say, "Yeah, but that doesn't make the it Land of 10,000 Farts". That's just the mall. Well, I would like to also mention, that some hot chicks are very nasty while out on the town. After dinner with my friends, Jordan, DJ, and I all went out for a nightcap downtown. Once the dance floor was packed, someone or someones let loose a few doozies. It was terrible. DJ and I decided it was some of the hot chicks because by the third nasty stink he looked around and he was surrounded by drunken women. Now, I don't know what he's talking about because I have never busted ass, and if I were to bust ass, I'm sure that it would not smell. (Insert innocent smilie face here). So for these reasons, I have now dubbed Minneapolis/St Paul the Land of 10,0000 Flatulents.