In the past few days, with whom do you most identify? Oh, that's a easy one. Laura Ingalls Wilder. Yes, you heard me right, Laura f-in Ingalls Wilder! I can honestly say I thought that I would never say that (and I have said a lot of crazy shit in my time). Here, let me explain...
So for the last few weeks my apartment has had issues with hot water. And by issues, I mean instead of hot water coming out of my shower, remnants of the last remaining glaciers on Earth would come out, and I swear I saw an small Inuit man with a pack of sled dogs fly past my toilet. It has been "tolerable" for the past few weeks but this weekend, I reached my breaking point with this subzero shower. On Saturday, I went to shower before meeting my dearest Bucknell DC friends at JMS's Law Revue (by the way, great show despite being mildly disturbed by the number of songs related to wanting to make lots of money and willing to do anything to do it --- hmmm wonder why they went into law school? To help their fellow man perhaps?). Unfortunately the water never got warm and only got colder and colder until I am pretty sure had I had some cherry flavoring, I could have made a snow cone with the shaved ice coming out of the shower head. Thus fearing for the safety of my own flesh, I decided I must forgo the shower, and go to the show relatively unkempt. Thus my apologizes for DK and PP who were sitting next to me if I was exuding any body odor.
So I awoke Sunday morning thinking obviously the hot water must be fixed by now. However, it was even WORSE, so much so that I almost decided to skip church for fear of getting looks from the fellow parishioners. Yet, my prayers went answered and St. Steamy McSoapy (just in case you don't belive me, he was 18th century Monk from Scotland who helped clean the poor) intervened and I got one shot at hot water.
Now you may be asking, where the hell does Little House on the Prarie fit in with this rant? Well, odds are you aren't thinking about that, but rather just happy you aren't working right now and reading this instead. So, Monday morning when I had to go to work, push came to straw and I broke. I awoke. Cold water. Lots of swearing. Angry call to my building manager. Then panic about how I am going to have to get ready for work. Suddenly, my pioneer ancestors' ingenuity came to mind on how to solve my dilemma. Boil the water! That's right, I filled up my biggest pot and put it on the stove. I then preceded to pour the water into the basin that was my bathroom sink and then used a washcloth to give myself a pseudo-sponge bath.
Now I must admit it must have been a funny site, well funny but sexy because it is ME (why are you silently laughing to yourself??). However, that has been the way I have been cleaning myself for the last 2 days and most likely will have to tomorrow as well.
Praise the Lord, they are "apparently" coming to fix the hot water tomorrow afternoon, but honestly I won't be surprised if it is another week of boiled water and desheveled appearances (which I am sure doesn't make my patients question trusting me with their lives at all). So, Laura Ingalls Wilder, I salute you, and I realize if I lived in late 19th century America I would have shot myself with a musket.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
Randomness Vol. 1
First off, I am apparently not doing well with my own promise to update this more than once per week. And trust me, it is definitely not because I have been doing work all this time (as will be evident below). Nonetheless, threats of my friends being overcome by boredom at work if I don't update this have twisted my arm into updating more often (which honestly makes me question the productivity of our nation's workforce as well as our children's future considering one of the most vocal readers is an elementary school teacher who does this at work!).
So, this week I decided to take a break from medical stories for a little bit of random observations that have been swirling around my head for the last week or so.
1) I've decided my newest ambition is to end up on Best Week Ever within the next 3 years (or at least on "I Love the '00s" whenever that comes out). Think of it -- Michael Ian Black, Hal Sparks and the like comment on what's going on in pop culture and cut down famous people. I do that now and don't even get paid for it! Plus I feel my ability to exploit the misfortunes of my closest friends for my own personal enjoyment is pretty good practice. Furthermore, most of the people on these shows started out with a popular website as a launching pad. So, do your part to help me by spreading my blog and if possible, pass it along to the execs at VH1 (which by the way has relegated music videos to 1 countdown show a week -- how did VH1 become a pop culture showcase and MTV become soft-core porn for high school students?)
2) MAE's "The Everglow" is officially one of my favorite albums of all time (much thanks to JMS and KK for introducing me to it). Do yourself a favor and download it, steal it, rip it, and love it. And if you don't like it, welcome to the "dead to me" list.
3) In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I'm pretty sure everyone I know is currently in a relationship train wreck. And like all accidents, you don't want to look, but you just can't help yourself. They range from trying to clean a slate of old weird hook-ups, enlisting your friends in group stalking in the hopes of dating someone, being the third corner of a love triangle that rivals most soap stories, dating someone who is slowly drinving you insane, or just being completely alone (and don't even try to kid yourselves, you all know exactly who you are too!). The best part about all these mini-relationship-Katrinas is despite each person's shortcomings, we give each other relationship advice -- AND actually listen to it! Thus we are ensuring ourselves many countless years of blissful disaster. (I would say we need to stop listening to each other, but then you don't get the enjoyment of the ensuing emotional scarring).
4) On the lines of relationships, today not only did I suggest but also I totally made inappropriate jokes about using the morning after pill with one of my friends. Now I'm debating about whether I will actually be going to hell for telling this person that she should "definitely" use it or where and how to get it. Ah, Catholic guilt mixed with advanced medical science knowledge -- its the best way to go. By the way for my promiscuous readers out there, in case you are in need of Plan B but don't want to go to CVS only to have the 45-year old, heavy-set, ultra-Christian employee silently judging you as a whore with her eyes, you can simply take 2 birth control pills, wait 12 hours, and take 2 again. Happy aborting!
5) This weekend I realized that my life has officially reached a new low of boredom/completely nerdiness/procrasinaton. I watched 5 straight hours of an 8 hour documentary on the Presidents on the History Channel. While this may seem bad to start out with, I've actually seen this documentary not once, but yes, twice before. That's right, for a total of about roughly 20 hours of Presidential trivia. Yes, mock at liberty, but I bet I know more about Washington through FDR than you do (yes, my life is very very sad).
6) I've recognized that I spend approximately 60% of my waking hours on Facebook. If you update something on Facebook, I know about it even before it makes the "News Feed." While this is a crippling and quite possibly grade-affecting addiction, I will probably not be stopping anytime soon, for it is the most supreme advancement in stalking technology to date. Fortunately today I realized I am not alone on this one when I noticed while at the med school library, 5 out of 5 future doctors sitting around me were on Facebook as well. Thus setting up 10 years from now having patients wait in the waiting room while your physician checks out that "its complicated" with someone you are seeing and that "Braveheart" was one of your favorite movies.
That's about all I got for now. I definitely feel like there were a few more things I wanted to say, but I can save that for Vol. 2.
So, this week I decided to take a break from medical stories for a little bit of random observations that have been swirling around my head for the last week or so.
1) I've decided my newest ambition is to end up on Best Week Ever within the next 3 years (or at least on "I Love the '00s" whenever that comes out). Think of it -- Michael Ian Black, Hal Sparks and the like comment on what's going on in pop culture and cut down famous people. I do that now and don't even get paid for it! Plus I feel my ability to exploit the misfortunes of my closest friends for my own personal enjoyment is pretty good practice. Furthermore, most of the people on these shows started out with a popular website as a launching pad. So, do your part to help me by spreading my blog and if possible, pass it along to the execs at VH1 (which by the way has relegated music videos to 1 countdown show a week -- how did VH1 become a pop culture showcase and MTV become soft-core porn for high school students?)
2) MAE's "The Everglow" is officially one of my favorite albums of all time (much thanks to JMS and KK for introducing me to it). Do yourself a favor and download it, steal it, rip it, and love it. And if you don't like it, welcome to the "dead to me" list.
3) In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I'm pretty sure everyone I know is currently in a relationship train wreck. And like all accidents, you don't want to look, but you just can't help yourself. They range from trying to clean a slate of old weird hook-ups, enlisting your friends in group stalking in the hopes of dating someone, being the third corner of a love triangle that rivals most soap stories, dating someone who is slowly drinving you insane, or just being completely alone (and don't even try to kid yourselves, you all know exactly who you are too!). The best part about all these mini-relationship-Katrinas is despite each person's shortcomings, we give each other relationship advice -- AND actually listen to it! Thus we are ensuring ourselves many countless years of blissful disaster. (I would say we need to stop listening to each other, but then you don't get the enjoyment of the ensuing emotional scarring).
4) On the lines of relationships, today not only did I suggest but also I totally made inappropriate jokes about using the morning after pill with one of my friends. Now I'm debating about whether I will actually be going to hell for telling this person that she should "definitely" use it or where and how to get it. Ah, Catholic guilt mixed with advanced medical science knowledge -- its the best way to go. By the way for my promiscuous readers out there, in case you are in need of Plan B but don't want to go to CVS only to have the 45-year old, heavy-set, ultra-Christian employee silently judging you as a whore with her eyes, you can simply take 2 birth control pills, wait 12 hours, and take 2 again. Happy aborting!
5) This weekend I realized that my life has officially reached a new low of boredom/completely nerdiness/procrasinaton. I watched 5 straight hours of an 8 hour documentary on the Presidents on the History Channel. While this may seem bad to start out with, I've actually seen this documentary not once, but yes, twice before. That's right, for a total of about roughly 20 hours of Presidential trivia. Yes, mock at liberty, but I bet I know more about Washington through FDR than you do (yes, my life is very very sad).
6) I've recognized that I spend approximately 60% of my waking hours on Facebook. If you update something on Facebook, I know about it even before it makes the "News Feed." While this is a crippling and quite possibly grade-affecting addiction, I will probably not be stopping anytime soon, for it is the most supreme advancement in stalking technology to date. Fortunately today I realized I am not alone on this one when I noticed while at the med school library, 5 out of 5 future doctors sitting around me were on Facebook as well. Thus setting up 10 years from now having patients wait in the waiting room while your physician checks out that "its complicated" with someone you are seeing and that "Braveheart" was one of your favorite movies.
That's about all I got for now. I definitely feel like there were a few more things I wanted to say, but I can save that for Vol. 2.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Adventures in Sigmoidoscopy
So, let me first start off by apologizing for being away for a week. I honestly had no idea that my blog became such a key part of people's everyday procrastination. I was thinking of making it up to you by giving you like 2 posts at once, but then I realized that if I made them 2 separate posts on different days, that will give you twice the procrastination (I dont' know if that made sense when I explained it, but it certainly did in my head). Plus I realized I actually have to study occassionally.
Just to update you, I have been working for the last 2 weeks with a gastroenterologist (digestive system doctor) at his private practice. He is a real nice guy and is ALL about the teaching. In fact, there have been numerous times where he has handed patients several week-old People magazines (currently the ones featuring the late Anna Nicole Smith when she had her baby and Jessica Simpson when she started dating John Mayer, which I think is hilarous that he recommends these) and left the patients in the room for like 15 minutes at a time so he can show me other patient's charts who are not even alive! Also, I feel I should mention he is a small Filipino man who laughs like Pai Mei from Kill Bill Vol.2 (if you have yet to see this movie, do yourself a favor and rent it NOW).
Anyways, being a GI doc (abbreviation for gastroenterologist), my doc performs all kinds of colonoscopies (up the butt), endoscopies (down the mouth), and flexible sigmoidoscopies (like a colonoscopy but can be done in the office). So the other day we had a patient come in who need a flex sig; however, she had no insurance and was low income so it was designated a "charity case" to be done free of charge. Evidently, "charity case" is equivalent in my doctor's mind to "great teaching opportunity with high potential for disaster but low potential for a lawsuit." Thus about 30 seconds before the patient walks in the door my doctor told me that I would be doing this whole flex sig MYSELF.
Okay, lets just stop a moment and see what this really entails. I, a third year med student (NOT a certified doctor), will be placing about 2 feet of 1 inch diameter electronic tubing up a complete strangers ass unassisted while the patient is completely conscious. Obviously, only good can come of this situaton. And best of all, we are apparently not going to inform the patient of this fact until after we have started.
Well, once we have the patient facing the wall (so she can convienently not see who is actually doing the work), I lube up the flex sig and was instructed to "go for it." It is pretty much a video game with little knobs that let you see in all directions, but instead of being Link looking for the triforce in the Legend of Zelda, you are a medical student looking for a crazy mass in a colon -- same diff. For the first five minutes I blindly fed this tubing into this patient's lower GI tract pretending to know what I was doing all the while talking confidently like I have done this a million times. I should mention that I have become unbelieveably good at convincing patient's into trusting me even though I am the LAST person they should.
Suddenly, as I made a corner with a turn of the knob, everything came into view like one of those Magic Eye posters where you stare at it forever and finally see that damn rocketship. I was then able to guide the flex sig down to the transverse colon with the accuracy and speed of one of Legolas's arrows into an orc (come on, when you saw that in LOTR, you tell me you didn't want to take up archery....or am I alone on this one?). I must say I was quite proud of myself because 1) I did it and 2) my patient did not scream in horrible pain (always a good thing when practicing the art of medicine).
Anyways, my doctor was thoroughly impressed with my work -- seriously, he went on about if for the rest of the day. I think he thinks I have a real gift while meanwhile it was a whole crap load of luck. In fact, I got a pretty "delicious" reward for my good work....but we will leave that interesting adventure until the next blog (hopefully tomorrow).
So, class what did we learn today.....
1. When a doctor leaves you in the room in your underwear because "he has another patient to see" or "has some results to check out" be highly suspect -- most likely it has nothing to do with that and he is exploiting your ignorance.
2. When getting a procedure peformed, ask EVERY question you can think of and take NOTHING for granted, even the doctor doing the procedure (oh, there have been times when I was in surgery and the "surgeon" was not even in the room for the procedure!).
3. When you see a medical student in the room, be afraid, be very very afraid because at that point you turn from "patient" to "test dummy A."
4. While medical students wear the white coat and know the lingo, they are in fact NOT doctors -- remember that fact especially when they come near you with something that may look uncomfortable if it was jabbed in an oriface.
Just to update you, I have been working for the last 2 weeks with a gastroenterologist (digestive system doctor) at his private practice. He is a real nice guy and is ALL about the teaching. In fact, there have been numerous times where he has handed patients several week-old People magazines (currently the ones featuring the late Anna Nicole Smith when she had her baby and Jessica Simpson when she started dating John Mayer, which I think is hilarous that he recommends these) and left the patients in the room for like 15 minutes at a time so he can show me other patient's charts who are not even alive! Also, I feel I should mention he is a small Filipino man who laughs like Pai Mei from Kill Bill Vol.2 (if you have yet to see this movie, do yourself a favor and rent it NOW).
Anyways, being a GI doc (abbreviation for gastroenterologist), my doc performs all kinds of colonoscopies (up the butt), endoscopies (down the mouth), and flexible sigmoidoscopies (like a colonoscopy but can be done in the office). So the other day we had a patient come in who need a flex sig; however, she had no insurance and was low income so it was designated a "charity case" to be done free of charge. Evidently, "charity case" is equivalent in my doctor's mind to "great teaching opportunity with high potential for disaster but low potential for a lawsuit." Thus about 30 seconds before the patient walks in the door my doctor told me that I would be doing this whole flex sig MYSELF.
Okay, lets just stop a moment and see what this really entails. I, a third year med student (NOT a certified doctor), will be placing about 2 feet of 1 inch diameter electronic tubing up a complete strangers ass unassisted while the patient is completely conscious. Obviously, only good can come of this situaton. And best of all, we are apparently not going to inform the patient of this fact until after we have started.
Well, once we have the patient facing the wall (so she can convienently not see who is actually doing the work), I lube up the flex sig and was instructed to "go for it." It is pretty much a video game with little knobs that let you see in all directions, but instead of being Link looking for the triforce in the Legend of Zelda, you are a medical student looking for a crazy mass in a colon -- same diff. For the first five minutes I blindly fed this tubing into this patient's lower GI tract pretending to know what I was doing all the while talking confidently like I have done this a million times. I should mention that I have become unbelieveably good at convincing patient's into trusting me even though I am the LAST person they should.
Suddenly, as I made a corner with a turn of the knob, everything came into view like one of those Magic Eye posters where you stare at it forever and finally see that damn rocketship. I was then able to guide the flex sig down to the transverse colon with the accuracy and speed of one of Legolas's arrows into an orc (come on, when you saw that in LOTR, you tell me you didn't want to take up archery....or am I alone on this one?). I must say I was quite proud of myself because 1) I did it and 2) my patient did not scream in horrible pain (always a good thing when practicing the art of medicine).
Anyways, my doctor was thoroughly impressed with my work -- seriously, he went on about if for the rest of the day. I think he thinks I have a real gift while meanwhile it was a whole crap load of luck. In fact, I got a pretty "delicious" reward for my good work....but we will leave that interesting adventure until the next blog (hopefully tomorrow).
So, class what did we learn today.....
1. When a doctor leaves you in the room in your underwear because "he has another patient to see" or "has some results to check out" be highly suspect -- most likely it has nothing to do with that and he is exploiting your ignorance.
2. When getting a procedure peformed, ask EVERY question you can think of and take NOTHING for granted, even the doctor doing the procedure (oh, there have been times when I was in surgery and the "surgeon" was not even in the room for the procedure!).
3. When you see a medical student in the room, be afraid, be very very afraid because at that point you turn from "patient" to "test dummy A."
4. While medical students wear the white coat and know the lingo, they are in fact NOT doctors -- remember that fact especially when they come near you with something that may look uncomfortable if it was jabbed in an oriface.
Monday, February 5, 2007
Medical Student Hypochondria
For those of you who don't know, there is an actual medical term called "Medical Student Hypochondria" (personally one of my favorite psych terms right up there with "word salad"). The stats say that anywhere from 75 to 90% of medical students are afflicted with this condition at one point or another during their medical careers. And of course, being the worrier that I am, am of no exception.
Losely defined, a medical student hears about a disease, convinces themselves that they have it no matter how rare it may be (ie "Why yes, I do feel like I may be getting Dengue Fever despite the fact that I haven't been hanging out with mosquitos in Southeast Asia."), until another disease comes along to take the place of that one (ie "What was I thinking? Of course it is not that, my leg pain is obviously due to some kind of osteosarcoma"). Some of my personal "favorites" that I have diagnosed myself with thus far are TB, spontaneous pneumothorax (okay, read about this one and you'll see how absurd it is -- and I have actually tried to listen to my own chest with my own stethoscope to rule it out), and pretty much every lymphoma/leukemia out there ("obviously its a cancer and not the 4.5 hours of sleep I got last night that is making me so tired").
So anyways, back to my point. So this morning as I was nursing my ginger ale (somehow still dehydrated and nauseous from this past weekend's activities), I felt like everything on which the doctor lecturing was somehow directed at me. We were talking of all things after a weekend of Super Bowl food and alcohol consumption -- nutrition and hyperlipidemia (facey word for high cholesterol). As we rattled off the risk factors including lack of exercise (check), binge drinking (check), and fatty foods (check), I swear I felt to start get an unusual pain in my heart that seemed to be radiating down my left arm.
Now mind you, I am only 24, and 24 year olds dont' get heart attacks, right?........well, that's what I thought until we got to the next lecture. Then our resident started talking about a form of hyperlipidemia that gives people heart attacks in their early 20s. That was pretty much the go ahead to place a major crack in the dam holding back all of the crazies in my head....
When was the last time I had my cholesterol checked? Have I ever had my cholesterol checked?? Okay, no one in my family has high cholesterol, but what if somehow it went unnoticed until it strikes me??? Oh lord, what if this is the big one?? Jesus, Mr. Rogers, and the Croc Hunter, what are you all doing here ?!?!?
Okay, needless to say I did not bite the big one, and somehow my heart pain magically disappeared by the time lecture had ended -- but it was a scary 5 minutes nonethless for your average paraonid med student. Following my "ordeal" of the day, I realized i obviously need to take some "drastic" measures. So, I went to Subway, and got a delicious sub with 6 grams of fat or less --- because after all, I am apparently high risk. ;-)
P.S. I was informed over the weekend that my blog is spreading around and has surpassed my expected readership of 1 person. Thanks, and I hope not to disappoint too much..ha.
Losely defined, a medical student hears about a disease, convinces themselves that they have it no matter how rare it may be (ie "Why yes, I do feel like I may be getting Dengue Fever despite the fact that I haven't been hanging out with mosquitos in Southeast Asia."), until another disease comes along to take the place of that one (ie "What was I thinking? Of course it is not that, my leg pain is obviously due to some kind of osteosarcoma"). Some of my personal "favorites" that I have diagnosed myself with thus far are TB, spontaneous pneumothorax (okay, read about this one and you'll see how absurd it is -- and I have actually tried to listen to my own chest with my own stethoscope to rule it out), and pretty much every lymphoma/leukemia out there ("obviously its a cancer and not the 4.5 hours of sleep I got last night that is making me so tired").
So anyways, back to my point. So this morning as I was nursing my ginger ale (somehow still dehydrated and nauseous from this past weekend's activities), I felt like everything on which the doctor lecturing was somehow directed at me. We were talking of all things after a weekend of Super Bowl food and alcohol consumption -- nutrition and hyperlipidemia (facey word for high cholesterol). As we rattled off the risk factors including lack of exercise (check), binge drinking (check), and fatty foods (check), I swear I felt to start get an unusual pain in my heart that seemed to be radiating down my left arm.
Now mind you, I am only 24, and 24 year olds dont' get heart attacks, right?........well, that's what I thought until we got to the next lecture. Then our resident started talking about a form of hyperlipidemia that gives people heart attacks in their early 20s. That was pretty much the go ahead to place a major crack in the dam holding back all of the crazies in my head....
When was the last time I had my cholesterol checked? Have I ever had my cholesterol checked?? Okay, no one in my family has high cholesterol, but what if somehow it went unnoticed until it strikes me??? Oh lord, what if this is the big one?? Jesus, Mr. Rogers, and the Croc Hunter, what are you all doing here ?!?!?
Okay, needless to say I did not bite the big one, and somehow my heart pain magically disappeared by the time lecture had ended -- but it was a scary 5 minutes nonethless for your average paraonid med student. Following my "ordeal" of the day, I realized i obviously need to take some "drastic" measures. So, I went to Subway, and got a delicious sub with 6 grams of fat or less --- because after all, I am apparently high risk. ;-)
P.S. I was informed over the weekend that my blog is spreading around and has surpassed my expected readership of 1 person. Thanks, and I hope not to disappoint too much..ha.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
It's Groundhog Day! (well, almost)
So, tomorrow is February 2nd better known as Groundhog's Day. As you may know, I am from Punxsutawney, PA the thriving metropolis of 6000 people were this holiday takes place. And, if you don't know this about me either you never spoke to me before or are possibly dead to me. I figured I would impart some wisdom upon you about Punxsutawney and this holiday of holidays upon which my entire town's economy survives (and I'm by NO means making an exaggeration here). So, take these fun facts and impress (or in most cases horrify) your co-workers and fellow students tomorrow....
-Punxsutawney is a Native American word for "Town of the Sandflies" -- yes, it is built on swampy land around a creek.
-If you want to blend in with the locals (and for god sakes, who doesn't??), don't call it Punxsutawney but rather Punxs'y (pronounced Punks-ee).
-The holiday actually began in Germany as "Candlemas Day" on which they looked for a badger to predict the weather. Having found no badgers in Western PA when the immigrated here, they used the next best thing, a groundhog (ah, the Germans, just another thing for which you can thank these fun loving people)
-When the holiday was "revived" by some "businessmen" in the late 1800s, they actually took the day to hunt and EAT the groundhog (apparently it tastes like chicken). Luckily, they soon realized that it would maybe be a better holiday if it didn't center around eating a large squirrel.
-The guy that pulls Phil out of his stump is named Bill and he is a mortician (no, really I'm serious).
-Phil tells his forcast by speaking in "Groundhog-ese". I would tell you what this sounds like however, I am not fluent in this melodic language.
-The only way to become a member of the Inner Circle (the guys with the top hats) is to have someone die or retire. Its pretty much like the Supreme Court except the Supreme Court has had 2 more woman on it than in the history of the Inner Circle.
-The place where Phil's stump is known as "Gobbler's Knob" and is about 1/2 mile from my house (you can actually hear the festivities from my front lawn at 4:45 am). So, funny story side bar.... My senior year of high school I hosted a foreign exchange student for one day (yes, one day) for Groundhog's Day. Essentially we ship them in from all around the area to show them the great American festivity of Groundhog Day (what a great way to taint their view of the USA). Anyways, when I told him about "Gobbler's Knob" there was an awkward conversation that followed regarding how it has nothing to do with the sexual euphanisms both of those words imply. Ah, the beauty of American slang gone horribly wrong.
-The other 364 days of the year, Phil lives with his wife Phyllis in the Groundhog Zoo located conveniently in the public library. For some reason I am the only one who doesn't find this horribly strange.
-Every summer there is a Groundhog Picnic where they give Phil a "Groundhog Punch" to make him live longer. Essentially, they get the groundhog drunk. Shhh, don't tell PETA!
-On a personal note, I actually had a pet groundhog as a child. They gave one to each family of the Inner Circle members (of whom my dad used to be one). Ah, this is a great idea, children and wild animals -- rabies anyone??? Anyways, his name was Buddy but unfortunately we had to give him back because he was not eating well. My sisters actually cried on this day.
-The movie was filmed in Woodstock, Illinois NOT Punxs'y. So NOTHING looks like it does in the move, so GET OVER IT! Funny side bar #2....They had a special premiere for the movie for our town. However, our town did not have a movie theater to show it so we had to have it at the closest theater -- 20 miles away!
-The same way NYC had those cows all over the place and DC had the pandas/elephants/donkeys, we have giant groundhogs. Most actually look pretty nice and when we get a new one it literally makes the front page of the newspaper.
-Incidently Groundhog's Day is about 6 weeks from the first day of Spring. So don't go ruining this scam for us!
That's all I can come up with for now, but there are probably countless other stories. I hope this gives you more insight into both Groundhog Day and me. Now can you see how I turned out coming from a town where there is an image of a groundhog every 5 feet, where you get your groceries at the Groundhog Plaza, where the high school mascot is the Punxs'y Chuck (short for woodchuck), and where I have attended this event every year from 5th to 12th grade and then once in college.
-Punxsutawney is a Native American word for "Town of the Sandflies" -- yes, it is built on swampy land around a creek.
-If you want to blend in with the locals (and for god sakes, who doesn't??), don't call it Punxsutawney but rather Punxs'y (pronounced Punks-ee).
-The holiday actually began in Germany as "Candlemas Day" on which they looked for a badger to predict the weather. Having found no badgers in Western PA when the immigrated here, they used the next best thing, a groundhog (ah, the Germans, just another thing for which you can thank these fun loving people)
-When the holiday was "revived" by some "businessmen" in the late 1800s, they actually took the day to hunt and EAT the groundhog (apparently it tastes like chicken). Luckily, they soon realized that it would maybe be a better holiday if it didn't center around eating a large squirrel.
-The guy that pulls Phil out of his stump is named Bill and he is a mortician (no, really I'm serious).
-Phil tells his forcast by speaking in "Groundhog-ese". I would tell you what this sounds like however, I am not fluent in this melodic language.
-The only way to become a member of the Inner Circle (the guys with the top hats) is to have someone die or retire. Its pretty much like the Supreme Court except the Supreme Court has had 2 more woman on it than in the history of the Inner Circle.
-The place where Phil's stump is known as "Gobbler's Knob" and is about 1/2 mile from my house (you can actually hear the festivities from my front lawn at 4:45 am). So, funny story side bar.... My senior year of high school I hosted a foreign exchange student for one day (yes, one day) for Groundhog's Day. Essentially we ship them in from all around the area to show them the great American festivity of Groundhog Day (what a great way to taint their view of the USA). Anyways, when I told him about "Gobbler's Knob" there was an awkward conversation that followed regarding how it has nothing to do with the sexual euphanisms both of those words imply. Ah, the beauty of American slang gone horribly wrong.
-The other 364 days of the year, Phil lives with his wife Phyllis in the Groundhog Zoo located conveniently in the public library. For some reason I am the only one who doesn't find this horribly strange.
-Every summer there is a Groundhog Picnic where they give Phil a "Groundhog Punch" to make him live longer. Essentially, they get the groundhog drunk. Shhh, don't tell PETA!
-On a personal note, I actually had a pet groundhog as a child. They gave one to each family of the Inner Circle members (of whom my dad used to be one). Ah, this is a great idea, children and wild animals -- rabies anyone??? Anyways, his name was Buddy but unfortunately we had to give him back because he was not eating well. My sisters actually cried on this day.
-The movie was filmed in Woodstock, Illinois NOT Punxs'y. So NOTHING looks like it does in the move, so GET OVER IT! Funny side bar #2....They had a special premiere for the movie for our town. However, our town did not have a movie theater to show it so we had to have it at the closest theater -- 20 miles away!
-The same way NYC had those cows all over the place and DC had the pandas/elephants/donkeys, we have giant groundhogs. Most actually look pretty nice and when we get a new one it literally makes the front page of the newspaper.
-Incidently Groundhog's Day is about 6 weeks from the first day of Spring. So don't go ruining this scam for us!
That's all I can come up with for now, but there are probably countless other stories. I hope this gives you more insight into both Groundhog Day and me. Now can you see how I turned out coming from a town where there is an image of a groundhog every 5 feet, where you get your groceries at the Groundhog Plaza, where the high school mascot is the Punxs'y Chuck (short for woodchuck), and where I have attended this event every year from 5th to 12th grade and then once in college.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
