6.29.2004

 

Today is a memorable day. Today I went outside in a tank top for the first time in...well, since I was too young to realize that tank tops just did NOT flatter my big-girl figure. And I wasn't just hanging out on the front steps smoking a cigarette, either. I was walking. Like two miles. The upper parts of my arms and my newly found collarbones out there for the whole world to see. My walk only took thirty-five minutes, but I got a lot of thinking done in that short period of time. I began with, "Karen, you can do this. You've worked hard (okay, well not REALLY hard, but WAY harder than you ever have before, anyway...) to feel better about the way you look. You're not naked. You're fine," and ended with, "Karen, you're still fat, actually. What were you thinking coming out here like this?" It's disgusting to me that one year in a house full of girls that, by and large, meant me no harm could trigger a self-destructiveness in me that I never thought I'd possess. Not that I expected to be the kind of self-destroyer I used to be, either (chop, chop--remember?), but...this is different. This is something I always swore I'd never succomb to. Kinda like smoking, as my parents remind me about every now and then. It's really disappointing, or maybe it's more than disappointing, but I don't think I wanna really categorize it any further...cuz then I'd feel even worse.

Okay, but let's end this on an upbeat note, shall we? This week my clinicals find me at the Minnesota Department of Health. It's been REALLY fun, I've rediscovered my interest in epidemiology, blah blah blah, but here's the funny part: The Enterics Laboratory deals in stool cultures, which all the lab workers call, simply, "the poops." "When we get the poops from the hospitals," "we store the poops in here," etc. MN's "poops" specialist, it turns out, is a tiny little Filipino lady named Fe. And her accent is what hits this hilarity right outta the ballpark...cuz she calls it "dee poops." In my day-and-a-half with her, I've heard "Thees ees ow wee doo dee poops" an innumerable amount of times, and you just can't beat that kind of comedy when you're a Broman.

That's what I thought, at least, until this morning's meeting with the epidemiology staff who investigate outbreaks of enteric pathogens. Their workgroup is called "Team Diarrhea." Need I say more? Life is good.

9:04 PM

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