Tales of Biology

But first, a brief filling-in of my weekend.
Last night was tons of fun. We finally figured out how to entertain ourselves without a car. And with only 2 weeks of school left. Good grief.
At 10:00 (or was it 10:30?) last night, Annette, Sarah, Mary, Janelle and I went for a leisurely walk. The park closes at sunset, so we walked to the intersection where the park is and sat down on the curb. We discussed various things before Janelle and Annette decided they would do the jump-into-the-other's-arms thing. No one got hurt, but poor Janelle got tired of half-holding Annette while Sarah tried to figure out the camera on her new phone. Annette and Janelle soon spotted a cat across the street and decided to go catch it. We wished them luck, and they darted across the intersection. It was hilarious to watch them. "Here, kitty, kitty! Come here, kitty. OH! Don't run away!" It ran into the bushes, with Annette close behind. She swore she saw the cat's glowing eyes, but Janelle didn't see anything. The cat was not caught, but apparently the two girls had fun trying. The rest of us sure had fun watching.
Because it was getting late, we decided to head back. Janelle suggested we leap frog. So we did. Except Janelle and Sarah CHEATED! They would run by our huddled forms on the ground, not really leap-frogging. Annette, Mary, and I actually leap-frogged. We figured it out eventually. We also did follow the leader and other random things on they way back. I haven't done anything that crazy for a long time. =)
We went back and watched a movie (surprise, surprise). I went to bed around 2am. So I took a 3-hour nap today (nap ahoy!!), which was lovely. I haven't taken a nap in quite awhile. I could have easily slept the whole day, but then I wouldn't have slept tonight.
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So biology. Pam (the prof) uses the best verbs in her lab manual. "Toddle over to the sink where you will find preserved crawfish in a tub. Pop one into your dissecting tray and scurry back to your lab bench." Beck will probably have a heart attack if she thought Apologia was relaxed in their teaching. But do not fear, Beck! I am learning a lot!! Pam is so great. I'm taking human bio with her next semester, so if you ever want to see how she teaches...

We started dissecting stuff two weeks ago. We did a crawfish, an unsegmented round worm (Nematoda), a segmented round worm (Annelida), and a crawfish two weeks ago. The worms made me feel a bit nauseous, but the crawfish wasn't too bad.
The rat dissection is over two weeks. Our rat was pretty juicy. Pam was helping Sarah and me to cut it open, and it started gushing blue juice everywhere (the veins had been filled with blue latex). We both jerked back in our seats and gasped loudly. The whole room looked at us and laughed. But we weren't the first. Another table was heard to shout, "Oh YUCK!!! It SQUIRTED!!!" One guy who never talks to us decided to be "friendly" while we were starting to cut ours. "Yup, yours looks like a squirter." Thanks a lot, man. You never talk to us until you have an opportunity to gross us out. Boys.

In determining the sex of our rat, "Note that female rats have 6 pairs of nipples...Why do rats have 6 pairs, and humans have 1? Why do human males have nipples, even of they are never used?" Please note that this last question was in our lab manual. We did not think of this question. Pam did. Being curious, Sarah asked about it while we were all grouped around the table displaying bones. "So why do men have nipples?" Everyone got really quiet and stared at her like she was some sicko or something. For Pete's sake, it was in the manual!! If we don't know the answer to a question she asks, we inquire about the answer. Sarah told me later that she was thinking, "Don't turn red, don't turn red. It is a logical question that is in the manual." It was so hilarious though. You probably had to be there, but oh man! It was great!!

In lecture, it's 2 for 2 against The Stephanator. In 1 week, too. Pam either loves me or hates me. The first time, she was discussing mutations, and how UV rays can cause them. "Freckles is damaged pigment. It's damage to your skin." Of course, everyone is looking at me. And then she continues!! She went off about how bad light skin is. By now, everyone is looking at me and laughing. I finally said, "I'm going to die! I'm doomed!!"
The next class time, she was discussing phenotypes. She was defining how she was going to use the word "normal." "Though redheads would consider themselves normal, we would not." !!!! Jenn, who sits behind me, leaned over and said, "Man, two for two!!"

And here concludes Biology Tales. If anything exciting happens next week, when we continue dissecting our rats which have been sitting in a plastic bag for a week, I will let you know. We're doing the urinary, circulatory, and reproductive systems.
I'm sure you now know much more than you ever wanted to about my biology class. Hope I didn't bore you.

Goodnight!!
(Wow, this took me exactly an hour to write- down to the minute!!)