Today I'm orbing on...

People's grooming habits & youth fashions

Specific clothing signals which identifies them to a group of self-assessed peers.
Social class codes as signified in detailed accessories: shoes, clutches, purses, bags, backpacks, briefcases, designer messenger bags, computer bags, shopping bags.
Glasses, blings, rings.
Hairstyling. Makeup. Skin condition.
Hair.
Hair.

Women's shoes:
Amazing how many ladies wear the extreme pointy tipped stilettos. Always wonder how much paycheck is enough to wear those to a job.

Class issues about:
The falling off pants vs the tight beatle jeans for dudes with pointy bootlets
High heels, skirts, visibly uncomfortable bondage for everyday workwear vs comfy designer flats vs utility boots.
Fat vs thin and extra tight pegleg jeans.
Fashionable/tasteful fat chicks vs colorful/alternastyled character plumpettes.
College/student utiliwear, muted earth colors and beige, in expensive vintage-imitation 70s frocks kids vs personalitywear, vintage, unique and lowbrow arty.
Office workforce, dotcommer/student/eco-conscious vs. burner fringe semi-groomed.

Mostly, this boils down to my rant against the TASTEFUL. It's such a distasteful word. The end of creativity. Someone else's design to be hiding behind, such as in fashion - haute couture being the creative pitfall for anyone thinking they're arty.

Bleached hair. Artfag hair. Spiking.

In Tokyo all the young salarymen in identical trendy black suits - no tie! - pencil leg pants & pointy shoes, had spiked hair also. About 70% of them. Office guys.

Another Day, Another Dead 'un.

The schedule varies from being completely uneventful - and the word dead just seems to describe it appropriately - to definitely jumping: bodies to go pick up from all wards at the same time, tissue disposal to do in the back (we'll talk about that one later), relatives and funeral homes calling, and bodies and gurneys to get shuffled around.

Today two bodies weren't logged into the holding area logbook, so no idea where they came from, but I did log them out. New MEAs and nurses sometimes don't know procedures with deceased clients, and there's lots of them these days.

Hospital policy for naming unknown cases (dead ppl who are unidentified) is to give them a random animal name, plus an emergency room code with numbers, until they're identified by coroner or family. They come in to me as Zebra, Antelope, Elephant, Deer, Penguin, Tiger, Lion etc.

Kind of bizarre getting these body bags with critter named tags. Not sure where the idea comes from, to call ppl with animal names, instead of just a number. I'll have to ask.

People wander lost in the hospital underground tunnels. Proof is in the wall hieroglyphics. They are utterly lonely, and sometimes all they can do, besides giving haphazard directions to somebody who might or might not pass the same spot, is answer back desperately to any sign of human communication in these dark labyrinthine dungeons.

Never before have I felt like such a number.

I received my social security summary statement that says that when I'm 62 I will net over $1000 per month if I stop working.

$1000.

That may be enough for a nice dinner by that time I come of that age.

Amazing, how all the cool things I was going to do kind of evaporated.

Today

I extracted a kitty cat brain.

It was a red tabby stray who bit someone in Bernal Heights and was given dead to animal control.

3 weeks ago I did a coyote. I've done two dog heads, a red terrier and a pit.

Animal control doesn't have their own autopsy facilities so they bring the heads to us, we take out the brain, examine it for rabies, and let them know.

We also get skunk, bat, rat, rabbit, squirrel heads and any urban mammal that bites somebody - then dies.

Newbie blahgger

Never blogged before. It's... it's... exciting.