here bacon, bacon, bacon

VIII.
I'd never thought of myself as stereotypically "girly", but I didn't realize just how wide the chasm was between myself and the rest of the double-X posse was until high school biology.

Lesson: the cardiovascular system. Project: dissection of fetal pigs. Is it weird that I was fascinated by dissection? I guess so, because when I got my paraffin tray and specimen, I promptly dubbed it 'Bacon' and started with step one: skinning the body midsection. I was so involved that it took me awhile to notice that all of the girls in the class were staring at their pigs in horror, asking if there were any thicker gloves available. For that matter, so were a lot of the boys.

Our biology teacher tried to convince everyone that once they got past this skinning step, the rest would be easy. No one was convinced.

Finally, my friend Rick Rhay, an enormous shot-putter, stood up and announced that he would help skin pigs. Me too, I said, and that's how the tallest guy and the shortest girl in school wound up standing together at the front of the class for the rest of the period; at makeshift desk stations, taking paraffin trays, cheerfully pulling the skin off of the fetal pigs, and returning them to their squeamish owners.

(I also eventually gave up a lunch hour to do the optional pig brain dissection, but that says more about my nerdiness than lack-of-squeamishness.)

Saturday 02 February, 07:51 AM