9-90

I should be an absolute expert on pregnancy.  My name is even part of the word, for gosh sakes. And I've been pregnant like a million times. But I learned something new today.  And the only reason I'm going to bring it up is because a friend of mine gave me a challenge to interpret and write about the phrase 9-90.  Here's what I came up with.  Caution, you are now entering my thought process.  It could get weird.  Who am I kidding?  It will get weird.
I immediately did what every intelligent, creative, self-thinking master of ideas does when faced with such an opportunity-I googled it.  The 9-90, I mean.  And there was really nothing useful.  Some abstract news stories giving numbers of possible wounded in violent crimes.  Not funny.  Not cool.  Not it.
So, I did the next best thing to finding online inspiration.  I began to think for myself.  Shocking, I know.  It was difficult at first, but after some practice I started to form an idea.  Then it crystallized and I knew exactly what to do!  Make more coffee! Which had nothing to do with my bloggity blog but was at least some direction for gosh sakes!
Back to the writing thingy.  A life.  A life could conceivably go from 9-90.  A ninety year old woman (easiest for me to imagine on account of I am one-a woman, that is, not a 90 year old) has probably reached about the end of it.  A nine year old girl has begun the personal decision making part of hers. One's cognitive, social, even spiritual life could conceivably be measured from nine-ISH to ninety-ISH.
Then I read about pregnancy.
(The thing I am not currently so don't go getting any ideas about why I'm writing about it for gosh sakes.  You know I'd post it on facebook before I'd put it here.  There's a social network protocol to follow after all.  But I ain't so we can just drop the subject of my personal pregnancy, which there isn't-and move on to the broader term which is what I'm trying to talk about anyway and oh forget it, just read on.)
This part gets a little human anatomical, so if the human body makes you squeamish, you might not want to read this part (or look in the mirror cause chances are you have one).  Also, it's a birds and bees kind of quote, so if you don't like nature, you'd better skip this next sentence altogether.  "At the time of implantation, the blastocyst is barely visible to the naked eye, probably smaller than the dot above the letter 'i'. Once implantation happens the blastocyst becomes the embryo." And of course, this happens at about 9 days after conception.  If you have questions on what conception means you can google it yourself.  On second thought, you'd better not.
So, there you have it- 9 days after conception to about 90 years, give or take 9 days on one end and who knows how many on the other.   The span of a life, if it's lucky, or blessed, or just really really stubborn for gosh sakes.