DIGEST THIS, CUBICLE PUPPETS

Alrighty then ladies and gentlemen, since I awoke this morning with Bile on the Brain - (see previous blog, Boys and Girls, Bile Can Be Fun) - and since a member of the office team at my Cubicle Job made the unfortunate choice of asking me the polite question, "How are classes going?" (in the lunch room, the silly silly fool)- I felt it necessary to talk about my experimenting with Bile just as the Human Resources Director put a big forkful of food in her mouth. Well, they asked. I answered. That's the polite thing to do when someone asks you a question. Now it may have been a bit passive aggressive on my part to time my answer to the HRD's lunch bites, but people are frequently passive aggressive with Human Resource Directors in my experience. I think the term "Human Resource" is what brings it out in me (though people that willingly and cheerfully accept that job title are of questionable integrity and may very well have it coming.) I just don't like the term. Construction Paper, Glitter, Glue and Elbow Macaroni are resources. I am not a resource. I am much too fabulous to be a mere resource. And since I don't think of dogs, kitties, otters, kingdom animalia or plantae members, asparagus ferns, etc (okay, I guess some livestock or plant matter might be considered a resource if broken down into recipe ingredients, but then they are actually ingredients, not resources) I hardly think humans make the cut. Auntie H., who was present in the lunch room, THANKFULLY picked up the gauntlet of discussing the disgusting whilst people were enjoying their unpaid half-hour lunch break and ran with it. Now in these situations, I find the people who know how to live a little, will generally get into the spirit of the discussion. They might even contribute a tidbit here and there. The uptight people with morally ambiguous job titles will generally beat a hasty retreat into the dark corners of their cubicles where they belong, which is the general intention.

Which brings me to the word of the day. It came up during the melee that was to be our unpaid half-hour lunch break.

Biliruben.

Bilirubin is the main bile pigment that is formed from the breakdown of heme in red blood cells, and a word not contained in Chapter 5: Enzymes, in my Biology for Non-Biology majors textbook. I found, upon further investigation, that Bilirubin is NOT just for adding a spiffy color to bile (God forbid it should be clear), but it is apparently a Viennese Jazz Trio and an adult Film Star. Who knew something I'd never heard of until today, was not only responsible for the color puke-yellow, but versatile enough to play jazz and do the nasty on camera and get paid for it. That's just... neat.