Antibodies and H-Mart

November 22, 2015

Antibodies and H-Mart

Thankful for:

Twenty-one: Antibodies

Tis the season for holly, jolly and people sneezing on you. Repeatedly sneezing. Oops there goes the lady behind you honking her nose. Is she done yet? Nope. Wow, is she choking or doing that gross gargle throat noise on purpose? I hear rustling in her purse, she must be looking for a clean kleenex. Hopefully that will fix her. Oh boy, there she goes with another five minutes of juicy moist nose-pounding blowing....please don't touch my back. Please, please don't touch my back. Darn it, she touched my back.

That is how mass went this morning. We sat in front of the church honker. She snorted, she snoted, and she almost blew the church down with each exhilarating sneeze. She seemed very proud of herself to boot. With each mammoth sneeze the tension around her mounted. With each burst of wind from her sneezes, I was grateful to goodness for antibodies.

Antibodies are the best, let me tell you. They track down boogers, literally, and kill them dead. Ok, for a more informative definition:

Antibodies: are part of the army in your body that fights for a good immune system

1. Are "Y" shaped, sort of like a peace sign.

2. They are incredibly intelligent. They identify what type of virus or bad guy exists and sends just the right type of antibody to eat it.

3. If they don't eat the bad invading cells then they can bind them, really wrapping themselves around it.

What would life be like without these incredible systems our bodies have to protect us against viruses and illness? Crummy, that's what! Today I was so thankful for my antibodies.

Twenty-two: H-Mart

Wal-Mart, and K-Mart thought they were the only Martys in town but they had no idea that there is a marvelous H-Mart! Today, I am thankful for the local cultural diversity and especially thankful for H-Mart! H-Mart is a great Korean grocery store. Where we live, thanks to so many embassies around, there is such a rich mix of cultures, from Cambodian to Ukrainian to you name it.

One gigantic benefit of these cultures is food! My appetite loves some good seafood and our local Giant has only sad frozen stuff. Whole Foods charges you just for looking at their food. But, like museums, Whole Foods is free to look at on the first Saturday of the month. Just kidding. There are actually rare rare rare deals at Whole Foods from time to time. Usually blended green juice. Ok, enough.

I was therefore very optimistic when my hairstylist, Horn, told me where to go for good fruit and seafood. And with a name like Horn I knew she had to be right! Today we went to discover this illusive H-Mart and were not disappointed!