Hunterian Museum and Waiting for Godot

Once again, today was a very good day.  Professional Development was not nearly as boring as usual...I'm starting to sense a pattern: the first half is a snooze-fest, but if you show up again after the break, you are rewarded with interesting info.  (More than half of the people did not show up again after the break, so I had some grumbling to do, of course...)  One of the activities was a values survey to help us gage the type of organization that would best suit us, which was pretty enlightening.  Maybe I'll take it again in six months and see what has changed...

I spent the rest of the afternoon at the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons.  It was really interesting and a bit gross at times.  The collection is one of the oldest medical collections in the world (many specimens were collected in the 1700s), and the preservation is amazing.  (There were actually some bone structures that were preserved through tanning, similar to leather...)  Some of the specimens on display reminded me of the Body Worlds/Body Works exhibits that have been touring (I've seen two such exhibits, one in Indy and one in Chicago), but there were so many different animal examples as well.  As usual, the most fascinating yet sad specimens to see (in my opinion, at least) were fetuses.  I was particularly taken by a set of quintuplets that were preserved soon after birth (two were stillborn and the other three died soon after birth...they were so tiny!) in the mid 1700s.  One of the museum volunteers (a retired ear, nose, and throat doctor) led a brief talk involving some of the specimens, entitled "An Evening with Venus; A Lifetime with Mercury" which dealt primarily with the effects of syphilis.  I certainly felt my midwestern pride since Indianapolis was the Syphilis Capital of the United States in the mid-nineties!  :)  The particular specimens that we examined were mainly skulls which had been eaten away, which was pretty disgusting...and the treatments were not much better.  (When you cannot tell if the madness is caused by the disease or the mercury used to treat it, I would consider that a serious problem...)  And, while we're on the subject of Georgian nether-regions, I must mention one of my other favorite artifacts: a condom from the 1750s made of sheep gut, designed to be washed and reused.  Just another day of culture in London!  :)

The utter highlight of my day (for which I expect many a comment after this is posted) was my evening at the theatre.  I went to the Theatre Royal Haymarket to see "Waiting for Godot."  Let me preface this by saying that I'm not the biggest Becket fan...just throwing that out there.  I have to be in the mood for him, which strikes pretty rarely.  That being said, the show was incredible...but then again, when your leading men are Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, it's pretty hard to go wrong, right?  The set was so stark and grey, and yet so incredibly detailed that you could imagine what else might be lurking behind the wings in this desolate wasteland.  And I have never seen such beautiful use of gobos for lighting texture before...I was actually glad to be in the upper balcony so that I could fully appreciate the effects (textured gobos in intels are amazing!).  The cast also featured Simon Callow and Ronald Pickup, as well as a child actor who is far cooler at the age of 11 than most of us will ever aspire to be.  (Where do you go at the age of 11 after working with this cast?  Seriously, you have to keep climbing...)  The cast was so energetic and full of life, and I could feel all of that energy from my spot up in the cheap seats.  The two people next to me actually left at intermission, which I cannot understand...even if you don't understand the show, when will you get to see a cast like this again?  After seeing "Catastrophe," it was pretty exciting to notice some of the various "Becketisms" within the text, as well.  (I purposefully avoid reading shows that I plan to see, this one included.)  After the show, the excitement continued.  I ran around the block to the back door of the theatre, where there were about fifteen other people waiting for the cast as well.  I probably waited for an hour total (but hey, after watching a segment of eternity spent waiting for Godot, I could deal with an hour of waiting for the cast), but it was completely worth it because my program is now signed by all of the cast sans Patrick Stewart.  I also hugged Sir Ian McKellen, then practically danced back to the Tube station (all the while thinking "Oh my God, I just hugged Macbeth and Gandalf...oh God!" and other such incoherent thoughts...nerds, consider ye warned, for I am now your Queen!).  :)  Sir Ian is such a gracious, kind man, and was cordial and warm to everyone who was waiting for autographs.  Tonight felt like another reminder that I'm doing the right thing by choosing to spend my life in this industry.  I've had several moments like that since I arrived here, and that is definitely an affirmation that we all need every now and then.