Eyes Wide Open!

They say that eyes are the windows to the soul and that if you look deep enough, you can see what someone is made of.  Well I can tell you that I have looked as "deep" into some one's eyes as is humanly possible and you'll never guess what I found....  The back of their eye (retina)!  I guess if the soul looks like a bunch of blood vessels fitted against a back drop of orange-ish red which all converge onto this yellow disc-like bunch of nervous tissue... then "they" are right!  I kind of imagined something a little more amazing than that, though. 

But then again, if you really stop and think about it...

Eyes are amazing!  These little gelatin filled spheres capture the visual world around us in full High Definition color, then turn it into a bunch of electrical impulses that etch-a-sketch it out in our minds.  Couple that with an ability to feel and emotionally respond rather than just "react" to what we are "seeing", and you've got something truly spectacular. We get to experience the world and all of its amazingly beautiful features through these two (well, one, if you're a pirate) perfectly engineered orbs.  The eye is not all gum drops and water falls, however.  Oh no.  It is hard to imagine that such an attractive and awe-inspiring facial organ could have a dark and disgustifying side as well.  I suppose that's true for all biological entities, but man can the eye have some nasty stuff go wrong with it.  I'm not talking casual nasty, like the stuff that accumulates on the bottom of your feet if you walk for a day in flip flops... but "I just threw up in my mouth a little" make you turn away-type nasty.  Just google pseudomonas keratitis or necrotizing scleritis and you will know what I am referring to.

We were practicing eye exams this week, if you couldn't tell by the above picture.  Well, maybe you couldn't, I guess it's really not that obvious.  I volunteered to have my right eye dilated, so as to allow for a larger viewing area for those who wished to venture a peak into my soul.  All they saw was my retina too...hmph.  I've never experienced blurry vision up until now, and I don't think I shall like to experience it again.  If you've ever had your pupil dilated, it's pretty wild.  I count myself as truly blessed to have 20/20 or better vision in both of my eyes and fully functioning light reflexes, but I digress.  I've had many experiences lately where I just kind of wake up and realize what it is I am actually doing and how amazing it is to be doing it.  Medical school is awesome!! (today. it may not be tomorrow...we have block exams coming up)

Update on my green jalapeno (truck).  It passed emissions finally!  It took me three attempts and 2 trips to the mechanic to get it to pass.  I felt like I had won an award or something because the people at the emissions testing facility applauded and congratulated me with such fanfare that I thought for sure I was going to get handed an Oscar... but alas, all I got was a bill and a crummy certificate that stated my truck was legal to operate in the state of California...wooopy.  I didn't even get to keep the certificate though. I had to send it off to AZ because that's where my car is registered.  Oh well.  Easy come easy go.  Ok, back to studying.