Pot Roast

Walking past a co-worker today, I was reminded of a promise that I had forgotten. He said nothing, but he was eating pot roast.

I said before that I would let you know how, by quoting a movie line, I kept a friend from getting sick. Here it is.

J and I were going up to Madison to check into prices for some tattoos that we were going to get done. We decided to make a day of it, and brought his fiancee and her mother along.

When we got to the tat shop, the artist that we wanted to talk to had a family emergency, and had to bolt. C, J's fiancee, suggested that we go over to where she had been working, and check out what they had been working on... meet some co-workers.

She and her mother were all excited as we pulled up. (C is involved with bio-medical crap, and her mother is a nurse). We followed C through hallways until we came to the room that she had been working in.

As we entered the room, we were greeted with a strong chemical smell, and three long stainless steel tubs... her co-workers. Yes, if you haven't guessed by now, CADAVERS.

She popped the covers off, and started explaining about each one, and some of what they were working on. J and I watched as she and her mother held up organs, and poked and prodded the bodies. I can't say that I was totally thrilled, but it was interesting.

She noticed that we were just hanging back in silent fascination, so she asked if we wanted to handle one. You know how guys are... so half-heartedly, we agreed. J made himself touch a deltoid, and he was done. I touched the deltoid (felt kinda cool), and as C started talking about the tendons in the hand, I played with them. Creepy, but very cool when you think of how it all works.

About this time, J was starting to look a little pale... sweating. He reminded me of Haley Joel Osment in "The Sixth Sense." So I looked up from the cadaver to him, and whispered, "I see dead people." It got us both to laughing, and got our minds off of the residents of the tubs. A good thing, too, since the reality of them being ex-humans was starting to set in.

Anyways, for the rest of our time there, whenever things got creepy, one of us would toss that out, and get us laughing again. Worked even at the restaurant afterwards. I was okay after the first bite of shredded beef, but that first bite was a little rough. See, the deltoid that we were checkin' out, had a section cut out of it. The way the muscle was layered, and looked, closely resembled pot roast. As I pondered my shredded deltoid beef, J says, "I eat dead people." I'm not sure that really helped, but it was funny. Later. Much later.

I'm sure I know of at least one who has, but anyone else ever had the opportunity to check out a gift to science?