Christmas cookies and Boogers

So tonight I'm headed to a class that I have to take in order to make up my "I" from last semester when I had to back out of school to have Emily. I am less than thrilled to be in this class. I liken it to being a senior in college and someone realizing that woops! you didn't take Freshman Introduction to College Life and you'll have to sit through the course to graduate. While the professor is very good and seems quite knowledgeable. . . you're still in a class with freshmen!


I'm in class last week, minding my own business, taking notes, etc. We started talking about food safety (the course is Environmental Health) and food additives. Turns out, before there was an FDA, people used coal dust and alum to color foods. Not a good idea.


So the professor asks this question: "What other foods do we eat every day that are dyed?"


Without missing a beat, the lady behind me answers, "Christmas cookies?!"


I had to duck behind my computer screen so that the teacher didn't see me giggling. Honestly? Christmas cookies? How'd you get into a graduate program?


Later that same night, we were discussing foodborne illnesses and the professor mentions that there is one strain of staphylococcus that is probably present in everyone's body. He said that if he swabbed the inside of all our noses, he'd probably find it.

SAME LADY: "So do we need to be concerned about people who pick their nose and eat it?"


Wow. I mean . . . Wow.

The professor, who breezed right past the Christmas cookie comment without response, was then sucked into a discussion which ended when he, a PhD level professor at one of the best colleges of Public Health in the country said "Yes, it's okay to eat your boogers."

Honestly . . . I pay tuition for this. . . I miss out on time with my family for THIS. . .

And I'm going back again tonight. If nothing else, it's fodder for the blog!