Fish Tales

Caught a bug.

And I am not talking about the kind I like to suck up with the dust buster when they invade my home. No, I caught the “sore throat wreck my body” kind of bug which is a bummer because it is not like I have time to rest and recover.

But just between you and I: I did sleep until 9:30 a.m. this morning. A luxury I cannot necessarily afford, but it did make me feel better. Now, I have to study for a Fundamentals quiz for the next four hours until I rush off to see my new acupuncturist who will hopefully give me some stinky herbs to sooth my throat.

Bless me. I just sneezed on my keyboard.

Ocean Beach residents have much to say and their public commentary tends to run on the indelible side. Debate frequently rages over whether what these folks have to say is sage or silly. I will leave it to the reader to decide.

As I have mentioned, I just spent the last three days studying the axil skeleton which is composed of the skull, vertebral column, and bony thorax or thoracic cage (the ribs, the thoracic vertebrae, the sternum). So, I am intimately familiar with the structure of each subdivision and its functions.

This afternoon, while jogging a three mile loop around the neighborhood, I got to the thinking about the bones, muscles, and cartilage in the thoracic cage as I attempted to deepen my breath. Then I began to picture my thoracic cage rising and falling, expanding and contracting as I labored to take in as much oxygen as possible. In my brain, I could see the first ten of my twelve ribs expanding laterally and contracting medially with each inhale. I could picture my sternum angling anteriorly at the sternal angle just below the manubrium. I could imagine the nucleus pulposus of the internal portion of my vertebrae absorbing the shock of my footfalls. In my head, I could see the real thing… the slime, the colors, the horror-film version of it all. And all I could think was…

EW!

So…

I’m alive. We’re both alive, actually. It’s just that the Fish Bowl has been turned upside down now that school has started. I’ve spent the last three days studying during every waking moment in which I was not seated in a classroom. Literally. I have never study so hard in my life. And this is just the first quiz of many quizzes to come.

Tomorrow, I am looking forward to doing the laundry because, for me, it means I’ll be doing something other than memorizing the 80 bones in the axil skeleton. Hell, maybe I’ll cook a meal instead of eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner out of a Wheat Thins box.