Blade II, MRI, and Sushi
3/22/2
I�m feeling better today. It�s an up day in general, though I do still feel like crap. And, I�ve decided, I�ll not mention how much I feel like crap anymore since I don�t want to be some whiney whiner.
Today is a good day. Why you say? Because the sun is shining and the birds are chirping, but when the rain went it also took our 60 degree days. Now, it�s around 40. It�s pullover weather. And I might wear my leather jacket to the second cool thing today...Blade II.
Ooh, I�ve been listening to the Crystal Method album, Tweekend, which has Name of the Game. In fact, this is probably the third time I�ve mentioned it. Hey, good song. It�s the one they are advertising Blade II with.
So, how about that MRI?
I get there and fill out the paperwork. Everyone is 900 years old except me in the waiting room, they call me, and I go back.
They say my rings are fine, but I have to empty my pockets and take off my watch. I had worn my bright orange pullover just in case it was cold in the MRI room. It wasn�t when I first walked it so I took that off too.
They strapped my head in and pushed me into the machine. I felt a tugging at by belt, and assumed the lady had just taken the liberty, however inappropriate, of pushing me into the machine by my belt. Hey, I�m not going to complain, but still, it would be inappropriate.
Halfway into the machine the pull isn�t upward, toward my face, but upward toward the ceiling. It was my belt buckle and that was one serious magnet. I told the lady about it and they pulled me back out. I started taking off my belt and the lady said, �Don�t let go of it!� and grabbed it out of my hand and finished pulling my belt through its loops.
I have a feeling if I had set it down it would have smacked my chin on the way to trashing the machine�s innards. It was exerting about 40 lbs of pull when I was in the machine.
Back into the machine for me. They told me my silver rings were fine, but they buzzed and vibrated like crazy. I think this is the reason that Aisai thinks the machine is so horribly loud. She has silver fillings. I only have that one tooth-colored, non-silver filling which I got, not by every having a cavity, but because I let Dr. Quackalot put one in because I had a developmental defect. Heck, I had that since I was 11 years old and never got a cavity.
Grrr.
So, the MRI makes some great sounds. It was like really confident minimalist dronology. I particularly liked the repeated sequence where it would do six long bzurrs, six short bzts, six more long bzurrs, and then five bzts. That five bzts, ooh, it just left me hanging.
After about 40 minutes, they pulled me out. Before they put me in, they were all concerned that I�d get claustrophobic. Nope, I was enjoying the music.
I asked the lady giving me the dye injection in my arm how many people comment that the sounds of the machine are like �bad electronic music.� Not that I thought it was bad, mind you, but I do also deal with people who are of the real world and know they don�t appreciate electronic music.
She said none, that no one had ever compared the MRI sounds to music. I didn�t go into the dronology thing with her. But I do plan on trying to find MRI sounds on the internet. And I MUST find my digital recorder so I can make lousy tracks and conclude, yet again, that I have no talent.
Dye in the veins, and back into the hole. I didn�t describe the machine yet. It�s a big white box from Star Trek: Voyager. It�s about 12 feet wide and ten feet deep and maybe seven feet tall. There�s a hole that a fat man wouldn�t fit in and a tray you lie on and they slide you in. Very neat. I think I could handle staying in one of those Japanese �coffin� hotels.
After I got the dye, they started telling me how long the sets were. �This is only going to be three minutes.� I didn�t understand why, until the last set. It was around eight minutes long and all the talk they made earlier about the dye making me sick came true. I didn�t show it, but I was miserable. I was grating my teeth and my lousy lunch of Campbell�s Bean and Bacon soup was rumbling around in my gut.
Ooh, I just realized that I have money today, so no more lame lunches. I�m gettin� sushi.
I really wish I could go to a real sushi place, though I�ve heard the stuff that I get at Publix is actually very good. The man who makes it is very nice and will take the time to tell me about stuff if I linger for a while. Sometimes he�ll be speaking in Japanese to another client. I think the women who are newly from Japan in the area like to go by and talk to him since he�s a captive audience and many don�t know English well.
English is a bear of a language to learn. In fact, that sentence would probably mess up many ESLers.
On the way out of the MRI place, I got to see a cross section of my head on a monitor. Man, I need that blown up into a poster. But the only way I�ll ever see a printout is if they find a mass in there.
If I do have a mass in my head, I want it to be in a funny shape. I�d prefer that of the profile of a rubber duck. That would make a good poster.
I�ll stop now. That last bit probably made Aisai upset.
Oh, and ESL means English as a Second Language.