Silliness overtook me...

yesterday afternoon.

I was talking with my cousin who lives in Ohio.  We talk about once every two weeks.  She's in her nineties, quick as a whip, smart, and funny...oh, so funny.

She was telling me how a Podiatrist had been to her facility, and that she had her toe nails trimmed, mentioning that he had injected some kind of pain reliever into her toes...apparently this is a painful procedure.  He told her not to wear her shoes the rest of the day.  She sighed, and there were a few seconds of silence.

Then she said she might have her toenails permanently removed.  I said "Ouch!"

Frankly, I was shocked at first as I didn't know that was a treatment...I had always seen nail removal as a torture bad guys did.  Then, I thought it might be a pretty good idea.  I, myself, am at the point I can no longer bend my legs into a tight pretzel position making my own toe nail clipping more difficult.

Suddenly I was overcome with laughter.  "Oh, Vivian, this is so funny," I manage to choke out.  "Picture this."

And I proceed to tell her how my body is donated to science, and I'm envisioning me on a slab up at the University Hospital.  Some young student throws off my blanket...and there, naked as a jaybird, is me...not only toe-nail-less but toothless, too. Add to that, I'm hoping I'm AT LEAST in my nineties, and that my tattoos are unrecognizable, down at my ankles.  Now imagine, that my blubber is gone, and there are wrinkles, rows and rows of them, like Venetian blinds down around my hips.  Oh, brother...if only I could afford a tummy tuck...

Somewhere in the room, I'm looking down at me, looking up at me and having the best laugh at the me I used to be and thinking, this poor, unsuspecting wanna' be doctor is wondering what the heck he/she as gotten him/herself into.  I know these wonderful young people treat donated bodies with great respect and I'm certainly glad I'm going to be part of the process to help them become physicians.  But, I also hope my young person has a sense of humor, and has a silent chuckle over the toothless, nail-less, wrinkled, tattooed   wonderful specimen he/she has received.

Work with me people...this is funny.