krista terminalis shout out!

*image sent to my by my friend Kathleen...can't remember its source.

Krista terminalis got a shout out in class last week. Ok, it wasn't my blog, but the actual anatomical landmark in your heart after which this little place is named. Which is probably fine, because it would've been all kinds of awkward if my blog had gotten a shout out in class. Especially after my med school confessions, admissions, and just general crazy I've been pumping (pun intended) out lately.

So I thought now that I had an official LOGO thanks to my supertalented cousin, Nathan, who by the way is posting a new design on his website everyday for the next year, check it out, I would (yes, I'm just continuing this already run-on sentence full o' tangents. It it what it is.) explain my blog title to anyone who hasn't taken human anatomy.

When I tell med school friends about my blog they don't ask me what 'krista terminalis' is, they ask "wait, which chamber is that in?" or "what was its function?" or "oh, that's the one in the heart? what's the one in the brain?" [Answer: Crista (Krista) Galli. That's right, I have not one but two anatomical landmarks with my name in them. Don't be jealous.] Oh the weird, conversations of med students. But that's fodder for many other blog posts...

So what is 'crista terminalis' (the official spelling, unless you learn anatomy in German...)?

I'll let Wikipedia tell you, because, well, that's where I get all the answers to my med school questions! (Don't worry guys, I'm gonna be a great doctor...promise...heh heh...)

"The crista terminalis is generally a smooth-surfaced, thick portion of heart muscle in a crescent shape at the opening into the right auricle. On the external aspect of the right atrium, corresponding to the crista terminalis is the sulcus terminalis. The Crista Terminalis provides the origin for the pectinate muscles."

I thought it was a perfect blog title for so many reasons:
1. It's a medical term.
2. It has my name in it...(I guess that should've been #1)
3. Terminalis reminds me of a terminal or station. Atlanta, where I'm from used to be called Terminus, because it was end of the railway line. I liked the idea of this blog being a station, a stop over, a place to get out and stretch your legs on your journey.
4. It's in everyone's heart. Mine, yours, everyone's, and I would like to add a little something to everyone's heart that comes through here.
5. It's my heart station.

So welcome.

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"Every man, from the highest to the lowest station, ought to warm his heart and animate his endeavours with the hopes of being useful to the world, by advancing the art which it is his lot to exercise"
-Samuel Johnson

"Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being's heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing child-like appetite of what's next, and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the infinite, so long are you young."
-Samuel Ullman