Thanksgiving week was fun. I loved the time off. I packed some school things in my bag and brought them to Phoenix and never looked at them once.
But the sad truth is, the semester ain't over yet! A nine-day-long break is great, but we still have two weeks of classes with finals looming about 17 days away.
It sure is hard to get back into academic, study mode after having a week of family, friends, food, and fun. (I didn't go on Farmville once for 4.5 days, ha, aren't you pround of me?!)
I'm somewhat dreading the time, tomorrow or Sunday, when I will have to dig into my stack of notes and textbooks and get back down to business. I've got several quizzes due on 12/11, one due 12/1, an online exam between 11/30 and 12/2 (actually do need to study for that one). Ethics readings. Preventive Medicine discussion board to catch up on. Some serious renal pathology to review. Need to find my Clin Path notes from the beginning of the semester. I'm planning on 6 finals, two of which will be comprehensive (and a semester-long cumulative Pharmacology exam is a scary proposition). An Ethics final is still up in the air.
Mostly I just want to get the next 3 weeks over with, so I can settle into a month of relaxation and rejuvenation and get nice and eager to start learning and studying again in January!
Friday, November 27, 2009
Thanksgiving: Success
We are home safe and sound, and glad to be back in Colorado after a few fun-filled days in sunny Arizona.
We left the house at a reasonable morning hour on Monday and drove down to Denver, where we met the choir director from our church, who had offered to drive us to DIA.
The choir director was also taking two relatives to the airport at the same time to catch two other flights, and the earliest flight left quite a bit sooner than ours, so we arrived at DIA with 3+ hours to spare until boarding.
The flight to Phoenix was bumpy but uneventful (thank you, Frontier) - although I was mildly distracted and a bit unnerved by the passenger on my other side, who crossed himself about a dozen times during the 90 minute flight.
CLH's dad had "enjoyed" Monday morning by having a root canal, so he had the day off and was able to pick us up at Sky Harbor. We then drove to Tempe, to CLH's grandma's house where CLH's dad and brother are currently living and where we stayed for the week.
We got settled in, played some cards, had a nice steak dinner (the first of many enormous meals this week), and got out some board games.
Tuesday morning started with a jogging/walking session around the neighborhood for CLH and me, in preparation for the week's upcoming gluttony. Beautiful weather - it was probably in the 60s, and not a cloud in the sky.
We met my cousins B&C for brunch/lunch at 11:30 at a place called Crackers Cafe, which has evidently been around for awhile but has recently expanded and now has a location in Tempe. It was great to see them, and we spent quite awhile catching up on news from the last 12 months. (By the way, if you ever get to Crackers, I highly recommend the granolacakes with blueberries, strawberries, and whipped cream. No dessert necessary.)
We spent Tuesday afternoon playing some games with CLH's family (parcheesi on the patio = excellent), reading our books, etc. I dropped CLH off at our old church at 5 pm so he could run through some of his organ pieces. His grandma, dad, brother, and I came back at 6 to hear him play the pieces.
Then we headed out for another gigantic meal: good Arizona Mexican food at Garcia's. After splitting a sampler plate with CLH (including a beef taco, cheese enchilada, beef chimichanga, and chicken burrito, plus rice and beans), I was ready to head home and maybe rest my eyes a bit, but I was then reminded that we were off to see a movie.
We drove over to Arizona Mills, the closest mall to the apartment complex where CLH and I lived for 2 years.
Somewhat to my chagrin, the decided-upon movie was "New Moon," the group vote having rejected "2012" and "Julie and Julia." I saw the first Twilight movie with CLH when it was in the theaters, and I can kindly say I would not give it a rave review. Whoever described it as "soft porn for teenage girls" was right on. Robert Pattinson does not appeal to me. (What's up with the hair, dude?) (And the totally sleazy mannerisms?) (And the creepy stare?)
So the movie was okay, but I wouldn't jump at the chance to watch it again.
--> Warning: Off-topic rant approaching. <--
There is this scene in the movie where Bella, the female lead, who is not a vampire, goes with her vampire boyfriend Edward back to his house where he lives with like 6 other vampires. They are all "good" vampires and they don't kill humans, but some of them have been "vegetarian" for longer than others. It's Bella's birthday and she is unwrapping a present when she gets a paper cut and her finger bleeds, like, a tiny little bit. This one vampire smells her blood and goes all crazy and tries to kill her, and then all the other vampires get wound up and have to leave too, except for the "dad" vampire who fixes her up.
So my thought is: Is Bella never going to menstruate? Seriously? In the whole two movies (and in all 4 of the books, according to CLH), there is never any mention of a feminine cycle or anything like that. Is Edward the vampire boyfriend thinking about these things? Will Bella not be visiting him or his family for 1 out of every 4 weeks? Or is that supposedly not an issue for the vampires, but they can go nuts over an itty bitty paper cut? Come on!
--> End of rant. <--
--> I'm sorry, I have one more Twilight-related thing to rant about after all. <--
The most hilarious scene in the movie, to me, was this part where Bella and Edward and one of the other "good" vampires are in Italy. There is this council of like boss/police/chief/leader vampires who are in charge of punishing vampires who break laws. There are three of these dudes, but one of them is clearly the head honcho. He has some special power where he can read other vampires' thoughts if he holds their hand. So he holds Edward's sister's hand, sees her thoughts. He holds Edward's hand, sees his thoughts. Then he gets all curious and wonders if he would be able to read Bella's thoughts, since she is human and not a vampire. So he takes her hand, and then says something dramatic like, "Alas, I see nothing!"
All I was thinking was, you know, that doesn't necessarily mean your powers don't work on her! May not be much of anything going on in that pretty little head....
--> Here ends the Twilight rant. For real. <--
So that was Tuesday night. CLH's dad, usually an early-to-bed, early-riser kind of guy like my dad (but more extreme!), kindly came to pick us up from the theater at 10:30.
On Wednesday morning, CLH got up and jogged for awhile (good for him!) but I was lazy and stayed in. Turns out that jogging on a sidewalk hurts your joints and muscles a lot more than jogging on a treadmill. Go figure.
Danishes and fresh citrus for breakfast, then reading, playing cards, playing board games, playing Beatles Rock Band (with wooden kitchen spoons as drumsticks, awesome!), and listening to piano lessons for the rest of the morning and afternoon. We also got out some piano/piano and piano/organ duet books and played Christmas duets on CLH's grandma's two pianos for awhile.
CLH's grandma made lasagna in the crock pot (who knew you could do such a thing?) for an early dinner. CLH and I then drove back over to our old church, which was hosting Tempe's annual interfaith Thanksgiving Eve service this year. A bunch of different religious groups participate - Episcopal, Catholic, Presbyterian, Congregational, and Methodist churches, the local Jewish synagogue, the Mormon temple, the Salvation Army, and an intercultural/interfaith dialogue group that usually has some Muslim representatives. A different congregation hosts the service every year, on a rotating basis.
We arrived at 5:45 for choir warmup and rehearsal. They have a community choir composed of choir members from all the different churches. They usually just sing one fairly straightforward anthem during the services, and help lead hymns, etc.
Since our old church was hosting it, we got to see lots of our old friends from that congregation. The service went from 7 till about 8:15, then we stayed out on the patio for almost an hour after that catching up with people we hadn't gotten to see for 12-18 months. It was really a great time.
On Thursday, we woke up and opted to prepare our bellies for massive intake ("Get me mah stretchy pants!") by jogging/walking again. This time, CLH's dad's dog Dusty got to come along for part of the workout. He wasn't too great for walking (weaving all over the place) but was a good jogging buddy since he had to try to keep up (on little short cocker spaniel legs). We dropped him off at the house after a block or so, but I think he had a good time.
Later in the morning, CLH's 9- and 11-year-old cousins came over for a visit. Their parents are recently divorced and they were going to spend Thanksgiving with their mom instead of with CLH's uncle, so that was our only chance to see them. They've grown up quite a bit since I last saw them, and it was neat to see that they seemed to be getting along a lot better with each other.
At 11:30 we headed over to my cousins B&C's house for our first of two Thanksgiving dinners. We were joined by about 20 extended family members, plus a couple close friends from church. All the "little" kids are now between 6 and 11 years old and have also grown up a lot. I had a great time catching up with family. And, of course, we managed to eat probably more food than we intended - including ham, mashed potatoes, fresh fruit, giant green olives, and of course pumpkin pie and chocolate fudge for dessert.
By 3 pm we were back at CLH's grandma's house for Thanksgiving dinner with that side of the family. We were joined by one of CLH's uncles and his family, plus some other family friends. CLH's mom stayed out on the east coast, and it was weird to have a big family gathering without her. Our second dinner included turkey, mashed potatoes, two kinds of sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, and your choice of mince and/or pumpkin and/or chocolate pie for dessert. (I only had chocolate pie. But I did have two pieces.)
The gathering wound down around 6 pm. CLH's dad, grandma, and I chatted in the living room for awhile while CLH practiced "Bye Bye Birdie" on the piano. Then we opted for leftover turkey sandwiches and a late game of parcheesi before bed. (Make no mistake, CLH's family may seem mild and kind, but they play a vicious game of parcheesi. Show no mercy.)
We were up at 7:30 this morning to get packed, have a quick breakfast, make a couple more sandwiches, and hitch a ride with CLH's dad back over to Sky Harbor. Upon arrival, we found that our flight had been rescheduled to leave 15 minutes earlier than we expected, so we made a timely arrival in Denver around 12:30 pm.
Our choir director picked us up again, brought us back to our car parked at her house, and we stopped by our church so CLH could spend a little time running through Sunday's hymns and service music on the organ. I used that time to stop by Target and gas up the car. Then it was back up I-25 to wonderful Windsor.
It really feels good to be home, although I am very glad we decided to take the quick trip to Arizona. Four days was just about the right amount of time and I think we were able to do everything and see almost everybody that we wanted to see. Now: just need to get back into academic mode for 3 weeks, then some serious Christmas time!
We left the house at a reasonable morning hour on Monday and drove down to Denver, where we met the choir director from our church, who had offered to drive us to DIA.
The choir director was also taking two relatives to the airport at the same time to catch two other flights, and the earliest flight left quite a bit sooner than ours, so we arrived at DIA with 3+ hours to spare until boarding.
The flight to Phoenix was bumpy but uneventful (thank you, Frontier) - although I was mildly distracted and a bit unnerved by the passenger on my other side, who crossed himself about a dozen times during the 90 minute flight.
CLH's dad had "enjoyed" Monday morning by having a root canal, so he had the day off and was able to pick us up at Sky Harbor. We then drove to Tempe, to CLH's grandma's house where CLH's dad and brother are currently living and where we stayed for the week.
We got settled in, played some cards, had a nice steak dinner (the first of many enormous meals this week), and got out some board games.
Tuesday morning started with a jogging/walking session around the neighborhood for CLH and me, in preparation for the week's upcoming gluttony. Beautiful weather - it was probably in the 60s, and not a cloud in the sky.
We met my cousins B&C for brunch/lunch at 11:30 at a place called Crackers Cafe, which has evidently been around for awhile but has recently expanded and now has a location in Tempe. It was great to see them, and we spent quite awhile catching up on news from the last 12 months. (By the way, if you ever get to Crackers, I highly recommend the granolacakes with blueberries, strawberries, and whipped cream. No dessert necessary.)
We spent Tuesday afternoon playing some games with CLH's family (parcheesi on the patio = excellent), reading our books, etc. I dropped CLH off at our old church at 5 pm so he could run through some of his organ pieces. His grandma, dad, brother, and I came back at 6 to hear him play the pieces.
Then we headed out for another gigantic meal: good Arizona Mexican food at Garcia's. After splitting a sampler plate with CLH (including a beef taco, cheese enchilada, beef chimichanga, and chicken burrito, plus rice and beans), I was ready to head home and maybe rest my eyes a bit, but I was then reminded that we were off to see a movie.
We drove over to Arizona Mills, the closest mall to the apartment complex where CLH and I lived for 2 years.
Somewhat to my chagrin, the decided-upon movie was "New Moon," the group vote having rejected "2012" and "Julie and Julia." I saw the first Twilight movie with CLH when it was in the theaters, and I can kindly say I would not give it a rave review. Whoever described it as "soft porn for teenage girls" was right on. Robert Pattinson does not appeal to me. (What's up with the hair, dude?) (And the totally sleazy mannerisms?) (And the creepy stare?)
So the movie was okay, but I wouldn't jump at the chance to watch it again.
--> Warning: Off-topic rant approaching. <--
There is this scene in the movie where Bella, the female lead, who is not a vampire, goes with her vampire boyfriend Edward back to his house where he lives with like 6 other vampires. They are all "good" vampires and they don't kill humans, but some of them have been "vegetarian" for longer than others. It's Bella's birthday and she is unwrapping a present when she gets a paper cut and her finger bleeds, like, a tiny little bit. This one vampire smells her blood and goes all crazy and tries to kill her, and then all the other vampires get wound up and have to leave too, except for the "dad" vampire who fixes her up.
So my thought is: Is Bella never going to menstruate? Seriously? In the whole two movies (and in all 4 of the books, according to CLH), there is never any mention of a feminine cycle or anything like that. Is Edward the vampire boyfriend thinking about these things? Will Bella not be visiting him or his family for 1 out of every 4 weeks? Or is that supposedly not an issue for the vampires, but they can go nuts over an itty bitty paper cut? Come on!
--> End of rant. <--
--> I'm sorry, I have one more Twilight-related thing to rant about after all. <--
The most hilarious scene in the movie, to me, was this part where Bella and Edward and one of the other "good" vampires are in Italy. There is this council of like boss/police/chief/leader vampires who are in charge of punishing vampires who break laws. There are three of these dudes, but one of them is clearly the head honcho. He has some special power where he can read other vampires' thoughts if he holds their hand. So he holds Edward's sister's hand, sees her thoughts. He holds Edward's hand, sees his thoughts. Then he gets all curious and wonders if he would be able to read Bella's thoughts, since she is human and not a vampire. So he takes her hand, and then says something dramatic like, "Alas, I see nothing!"
All I was thinking was, you know, that doesn't necessarily mean your powers don't work on her! May not be much of anything going on in that pretty little head....
--> Here ends the Twilight rant. For real. <--
So that was Tuesday night. CLH's dad, usually an early-to-bed, early-riser kind of guy like my dad (but more extreme!), kindly came to pick us up from the theater at 10:30.
On Wednesday morning, CLH got up and jogged for awhile (good for him!) but I was lazy and stayed in. Turns out that jogging on a sidewalk hurts your joints and muscles a lot more than jogging on a treadmill. Go figure.
Danishes and fresh citrus for breakfast, then reading, playing cards, playing board games, playing Beatles Rock Band (with wooden kitchen spoons as drumsticks, awesome!), and listening to piano lessons for the rest of the morning and afternoon. We also got out some piano/piano and piano/organ duet books and played Christmas duets on CLH's grandma's two pianos for awhile.
CLH's grandma made lasagna in the crock pot (who knew you could do such a thing?) for an early dinner. CLH and I then drove back over to our old church, which was hosting Tempe's annual interfaith Thanksgiving Eve service this year. A bunch of different religious groups participate - Episcopal, Catholic, Presbyterian, Congregational, and Methodist churches, the local Jewish synagogue, the Mormon temple, the Salvation Army, and an intercultural/interfaith dialogue group that usually has some Muslim representatives. A different congregation hosts the service every year, on a rotating basis.
We arrived at 5:45 for choir warmup and rehearsal. They have a community choir composed of choir members from all the different churches. They usually just sing one fairly straightforward anthem during the services, and help lead hymns, etc.
Since our old church was hosting it, we got to see lots of our old friends from that congregation. The service went from 7 till about 8:15, then we stayed out on the patio for almost an hour after that catching up with people we hadn't gotten to see for 12-18 months. It was really a great time.
On Thursday, we woke up and opted to prepare our bellies for massive intake ("Get me mah stretchy pants!") by jogging/walking again. This time, CLH's dad's dog Dusty got to come along for part of the workout. He wasn't too great for walking (weaving all over the place) but was a good jogging buddy since he had to try to keep up (on little short cocker spaniel legs). We dropped him off at the house after a block or so, but I think he had a good time.
Later in the morning, CLH's 9- and 11-year-old cousins came over for a visit. Their parents are recently divorced and they were going to spend Thanksgiving with their mom instead of with CLH's uncle, so that was our only chance to see them. They've grown up quite a bit since I last saw them, and it was neat to see that they seemed to be getting along a lot better with each other.
At 11:30 we headed over to my cousins B&C's house for our first of two Thanksgiving dinners. We were joined by about 20 extended family members, plus a couple close friends from church. All the "little" kids are now between 6 and 11 years old and have also grown up a lot. I had a great time catching up with family. And, of course, we managed to eat probably more food than we intended - including ham, mashed potatoes, fresh fruit, giant green olives, and of course pumpkin pie and chocolate fudge for dessert.
By 3 pm we were back at CLH's grandma's house for Thanksgiving dinner with that side of the family. We were joined by one of CLH's uncles and his family, plus some other family friends. CLH's mom stayed out on the east coast, and it was weird to have a big family gathering without her. Our second dinner included turkey, mashed potatoes, two kinds of sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, and your choice of mince and/or pumpkin and/or chocolate pie for dessert. (I only had chocolate pie. But I did have two pieces.)
The gathering wound down around 6 pm. CLH's dad, grandma, and I chatted in the living room for awhile while CLH practiced "Bye Bye Birdie" on the piano. Then we opted for leftover turkey sandwiches and a late game of parcheesi before bed. (Make no mistake, CLH's family may seem mild and kind, but they play a vicious game of parcheesi. Show no mercy.)
We were up at 7:30 this morning to get packed, have a quick breakfast, make a couple more sandwiches, and hitch a ride with CLH's dad back over to Sky Harbor. Upon arrival, we found that our flight had been rescheduled to leave 15 minutes earlier than we expected, so we made a timely arrival in Denver around 12:30 pm.
Our choir director picked us up again, brought us back to our car parked at her house, and we stopped by our church so CLH could spend a little time running through Sunday's hymns and service music on the organ. I used that time to stop by Target and gas up the car. Then it was back up I-25 to wonderful Windsor.
It really feels good to be home, although I am very glad we decided to take the quick trip to Arizona. Four days was just about the right amount of time and I think we were able to do everything and see almost everybody that we wanted to see. Now: just need to get back into academic mode for 3 weeks, then some serious Christmas time!
Friday, November 20, 2009
It's break, baby!
The first thing I need to say is: It's about time!
Over the last 7-10 days I have been stressed, hormonal, weepy, irritable, and probably generally unpleasant to be around at several times. CLH deserves a lot of credit for patience.
But finally, this semester's hard work has paid off: Thanksgiving break!
I really cannot understand why, unlike many universities, my school has no form of a fall break. We get Labor Day off, then nothing till Thanksgiving. How about Columbus Day? Veteran's Day? A 4-day weekend in October?
Nope, just 13 basically uninterrupted weeks of non-stop classes, homework, studying, quizzes, and exams.
So I feel justified in saying that this break has been well-earned.
Luckily, both of this afternoon's lectures were cancelled, resulting in my academic responsibilities today being limited to 70 minutes of BoD lab this morning. Hooray for professors having some common sense about when to have (or not to have) class.
I'm currently at home, with a full belly of Spiderman macaroni and cheese, listening to NPR (Science Friday!), watching the cats wrestle, playing FarmVille and Bejeweled, with a stack of new library books waiting for me.
I greatly look forward to having minimal academic tasks to complete over the next 10 days.
(I do need to remember to finish the vet school scholarship application. Forgetting that would be bad.)
CLH and I will have the weekend to ourselves, then we'll fly to Arizona on Monday afternoon, and fly back to CO on Friday. The cats have a babysitter, and we have plans to see all sorts of Southwestern family members and old friends during those 5 days.
Happy Thanksgiving to all, and may you have a peaceful, relaxing week too!
Over the last 7-10 days I have been stressed, hormonal, weepy, irritable, and probably generally unpleasant to be around at several times. CLH deserves a lot of credit for patience.
But finally, this semester's hard work has paid off: Thanksgiving break!
I really cannot understand why, unlike many universities, my school has no form of a fall break. We get Labor Day off, then nothing till Thanksgiving. How about Columbus Day? Veteran's Day? A 4-day weekend in October?
Nope, just 13 basically uninterrupted weeks of non-stop classes, homework, studying, quizzes, and exams.
So I feel justified in saying that this break has been well-earned.
Luckily, both of this afternoon's lectures were cancelled, resulting in my academic responsibilities today being limited to 70 minutes of BoD lab this morning. Hooray for professors having some common sense about when to have (or not to have) class.
I'm currently at home, with a full belly of Spiderman macaroni and cheese, listening to NPR (Science Friday!), watching the cats wrestle, playing FarmVille and Bejeweled, with a stack of new library books waiting for me.
I greatly look forward to having minimal academic tasks to complete over the next 10 days.
(I do need to remember to finish the vet school scholarship application. Forgetting that would be bad.)
CLH and I will have the weekend to ourselves, then we'll fly to Arizona on Monday afternoon, and fly back to CO on Friday. The cats have a babysitter, and we have plans to see all sorts of Southwestern family members and old friends during those 5 days.
Happy Thanksgiving to all, and may you have a peaceful, relaxing week too!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Monday for a vet student
In the style of one of my recent posts, I present to you the oh-so-exciting story of my yesterday:
6:05 am: First alarm goes off. Ignore.
6:15 am: Second alarm goes off. Attempt to ignore.
6:20 am: Second alarm still going off. Drag myself out of bed. Feed cats, check Farmville, put in contacts, brush teeth, put on running clothes.
6:35 am: Walk/run on treadmill. I'm up to 25 straight minutes of jogging, with a 8-10 minute walking warmup and 10-40 minutes of walking afterward.
7:20 am: Stretch; shower.
7:40 am: Get dressed; make bed.
7:50 am: Breakfast (peanut butter toast + OJ + vitamin). Check email.
8:00 am: Make lunch (Caesar salad + a carrot + an apple + string cheese + yogurt + peanut butter cup).
8:10 am: Leave for school.
8:15 am: Stop by post office and learn that they don't open till 8:30. Bummer.
8:45 am: Arrive at school. Pick up a newspaper. Get my usual seat in class.
9:00 am: 50-minute Preventive Medicine lecture given by one of the exotics clinicians at the VTH. Topic: disease prevention in birds and reptiles. Funny/amusing professor, mildly interesting subject matter.
10:00 am: 50-minute Clinical Pathology lecture. Topic: acid-base analysis on biochemistry and blood gas panels. Not so difficult once you wrap your head around it.
11:00 am: 50-minute Clinical Pathology lecture. Topic: more acid-base analysis. Finish the lecture material and start going through actual cases, which are always more difficult to figure out than the textbook-type stuff. Lecture runs a bit late because the professor was nice and let us have the last hour of class off last Friday afternoon.
11:55 am: Grab lunch and hurry over to the Clark building for Management.
12:00 pm: Management is scheduled to begin. I start in on my lunch.
12:05 pm: Management professor actually enters the classroom.
12:20 pm: We start actually discussing management-related material in Management.
12:30 pm: The lecture degenerates into a discussion of how to build a house.
12:50 pm: Still talking about how to build a house (and guessing that the contractors who worked on the professor's house really hated him). He is still talking despite class being over, so we vet students leave.
1:00 pm: Pharmacology exam! Topics include pain pathways, NSAIDs, opioids, phenothiazines, alpha-2 agonists and antagonists, benzodiazepines, anticonvulsants, barbiturates, injectable/inhalant/local anesthetics, and antiparasitics. Exam is not too tough and the amount of studying I did seems adequate.
1:25 pm: Stop by the computer lab for a little email and Farmville.
2:00 pm: 50-minute toxicology lecture. Topic: heavy metal toxicity. Professor is decent but keeps mixing up calcium and copper when he's talking (very distracting). Put my head down for a quick nap when he says, "Oh, there's 10 minutes left, lemme try and rush through sulfur." I have no regrets about missing sulfur.
2:50 pm: Back to the computer lab. Check Farmville, check email. Apply for a scholarship which I'm unlikely to get since it's mostly aimed at food-animal people. But I'm not above spending an hour to do a 2-page application with the possibility of $2500.
4:00 pm: Head over to the lunch room to review some Clinical Pathology. Finish studying the kidney and start in on the liver. Thankful that the professor provided review questions to answer as I go through the notes.
4:35 pm: Walk to my car and head over to the VTH.
4:45 pm: Stop at King Soopers for some M&Ms (for baking purposes!).
4:55 pm: Arrive at VTH for radiology rounds (technically Diagnostic Imaging club rounds).
5:05 pm: Rad rounds start. One of my classmates presents two thoracic radiograph cases (both cases of canine influenza). A freshman presents two barium contrast study cases (a foreign body and an awesome case of persistent right aortic arch with resulting megaesophagus).
6:00 pm: Leave VTH and head home.
6:30 pm: Home! Time for dinner!
6:45 pm: Dinner = leftovers and quesadillas for me, some weird pasta thing involving seafood for CLH.
7:00 pm: Make some Chocolate Pretzel Candies. Easy and tasty. Nom nom nom!
7:20 pm: Play a couple games of Sorry with CLH; win one, lose one.
7:50 pm: Make more Chocolate Pretzel Candies!
8:15 pm: Watch an episode of the "Dead Zone" on DVD with CLH.
9:00 pm: Facebook/Farmville/email. Contemplate studying; decide against it.
9:45 pm: Head upstairs to get ready for bed. Realize I planted raspberries by accident on Farmville so I can't get in bed yet. Brush teeth, brush hair, take out contacts, feed cats, water cats, scoop litterbox, put on pajamas. Consider how lazy to be on Tuesday (no class till 11) and decide to get up around 7:15 am to run.
10:05 pm: Harvest raspberries on Farmville. Get in bed and read.
10:35 pm: Lights out!
6:05 am: First alarm goes off. Ignore.
6:15 am: Second alarm goes off. Attempt to ignore.
6:20 am: Second alarm still going off. Drag myself out of bed. Feed cats, check Farmville, put in contacts, brush teeth, put on running clothes.
6:35 am: Walk/run on treadmill. I'm up to 25 straight minutes of jogging, with a 8-10 minute walking warmup and 10-40 minutes of walking afterward.
7:20 am: Stretch; shower.
7:40 am: Get dressed; make bed.
7:50 am: Breakfast (peanut butter toast + OJ + vitamin). Check email.
8:00 am: Make lunch (Caesar salad + a carrot + an apple + string cheese + yogurt + peanut butter cup).
8:10 am: Leave for school.
8:15 am: Stop by post office and learn that they don't open till 8:30. Bummer.
8:45 am: Arrive at school. Pick up a newspaper. Get my usual seat in class.
9:00 am: 50-minute Preventive Medicine lecture given by one of the exotics clinicians at the VTH. Topic: disease prevention in birds and reptiles. Funny/amusing professor, mildly interesting subject matter.
10:00 am: 50-minute Clinical Pathology lecture. Topic: acid-base analysis on biochemistry and blood gas panels. Not so difficult once you wrap your head around it.
11:00 am: 50-minute Clinical Pathology lecture. Topic: more acid-base analysis. Finish the lecture material and start going through actual cases, which are always more difficult to figure out than the textbook-type stuff. Lecture runs a bit late because the professor was nice and let us have the last hour of class off last Friday afternoon.
11:55 am: Grab lunch and hurry over to the Clark building for Management.
12:00 pm: Management is scheduled to begin. I start in on my lunch.
12:05 pm: Management professor actually enters the classroom.
12:20 pm: We start actually discussing management-related material in Management.
12:30 pm: The lecture degenerates into a discussion of how to build a house.
12:50 pm: Still talking about how to build a house (and guessing that the contractors who worked on the professor's house really hated him). He is still talking despite class being over, so we vet students leave.
1:00 pm: Pharmacology exam! Topics include pain pathways, NSAIDs, opioids, phenothiazines, alpha-2 agonists and antagonists, benzodiazepines, anticonvulsants, barbiturates, injectable/inhalant/local anesthetics, and antiparasitics. Exam is not too tough and the amount of studying I did seems adequate.
1:25 pm: Stop by the computer lab for a little email and Farmville.
2:00 pm: 50-minute toxicology lecture. Topic: heavy metal toxicity. Professor is decent but keeps mixing up calcium and copper when he's talking (very distracting). Put my head down for a quick nap when he says, "Oh, there's 10 minutes left, lemme try and rush through sulfur." I have no regrets about missing sulfur.
2:50 pm: Back to the computer lab. Check Farmville, check email. Apply for a scholarship which I'm unlikely to get since it's mostly aimed at food-animal people. But I'm not above spending an hour to do a 2-page application with the possibility of $2500.
4:00 pm: Head over to the lunch room to review some Clinical Pathology. Finish studying the kidney and start in on the liver. Thankful that the professor provided review questions to answer as I go through the notes.
4:35 pm: Walk to my car and head over to the VTH.
4:45 pm: Stop at King Soopers for some M&Ms (for baking purposes!).
4:55 pm: Arrive at VTH for radiology rounds (technically Diagnostic Imaging club rounds).
5:05 pm: Rad rounds start. One of my classmates presents two thoracic radiograph cases (both cases of canine influenza). A freshman presents two barium contrast study cases (a foreign body and an awesome case of persistent right aortic arch with resulting megaesophagus).
6:00 pm: Leave VTH and head home.
6:30 pm: Home! Time for dinner!
6:45 pm: Dinner = leftovers and quesadillas for me, some weird pasta thing involving seafood for CLH.
7:00 pm: Make some Chocolate Pretzel Candies. Easy and tasty. Nom nom nom!
7:20 pm: Play a couple games of Sorry with CLH; win one, lose one.
7:50 pm: Make more Chocolate Pretzel Candies!
8:15 pm: Watch an episode of the "Dead Zone" on DVD with CLH.
9:00 pm: Facebook/Farmville/email. Contemplate studying; decide against it.
9:45 pm: Head upstairs to get ready for bed. Realize I planted raspberries by accident on Farmville so I can't get in bed yet. Brush teeth, brush hair, take out contacts, feed cats, water cats, scoop litterbox, put on pajamas. Consider how lazy to be on Tuesday (no class till 11) and decide to get up around 7:15 am to run.
10:05 pm: Harvest raspberries on Farmville. Get in bed and read.
10:35 pm: Lights out!
You might be a vet student if....
...you're driving home from class, and upon seeing a little foo-foo dog running along the sidewalk in front of its owner, your first thought is, "Ooooh, what a cute doggie!" followed immediately by, "Oooooohhh, luxating patellas, ouch!"
Friday, November 6, 2009
Humans are icky
This afternoon in Biology of Disease (pathology), we were talking about diseases of the gastrointestinal tract - mostly the stomach and intestines. The lecture was accompanied by a Power Point showing us photos of histological and gross specimens.
We looked at intestinal cancers, ruptured stomachs, congested and hemorrhagic intestines, GDV, etc. etc. etc.
Then the instructor showed a photo of a colon polyp.
When the class read the caption on the slide that said "human colon polyp," there was a collective gasp of disgust followed by many variations of "Ewwwwww!"
Yep, we have no problem looking at any kind of broken, bloody, degenerated, rotting, cancerous, disgusting animal specimen, whether or not we're trying to eat our lunch, but show us something from a human and we are immediately grossed out. Go figure.
We looked at intestinal cancers, ruptured stomachs, congested and hemorrhagic intestines, GDV, etc. etc. etc.
Then the instructor showed a photo of a colon polyp.
When the class read the caption on the slide that said "human colon polyp," there was a collective gasp of disgust followed by many variations of "Ewwwwww!"
Yep, we have no problem looking at any kind of broken, bloody, degenerated, rotting, cancerous, disgusting animal specimen, whether or not we're trying to eat our lunch, but show us something from a human and we are immediately grossed out. Go figure.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Delivering pizza = rocket science?
Today we had a free lunch, hosted by AVMA.
Our last morning class ended at 11:50 am. The intent was to have the meal (pizza) delivered at 11:50 so that the freshmen and sophomores in attendance could get their food and be seated by noon, when the lunch lecture would start. This is how things usually work with free lunches.
By 11:50 am, a long line of hungry students was growing outside the lecture hall.
By 12:15 pm, there was still no food in sight. We were ushered in, asked to take our seats, and assured that lunch was on its way.
At 12:20 pm, the pizza arrived! Actually, I should say that half the pizza arrived. As the speaker continued to talk, all students' focus shifted onto the task of frantically reaching for a slice of pizza from one of the several boxes that were being passed around the room.
At 12:45 pm, the other half of the pizza arrived.
At 12:50 pm, the lecture ended and we all headed back to class.
Now, really, is it too much to ask to have a bunch of pizza delivered to feed a multitude of people, on time? I know that it can be done, because it has been done at least a dozen times since I've been in vet school.
Someone said the trick is to tell them to bring the pizza by 11:30 am, NO LATER, and then you can be certain it will be there by 12. I guess the organizers of this particular luncheon will live and learn...
Our last morning class ended at 11:50 am. The intent was to have the meal (pizza) delivered at 11:50 so that the freshmen and sophomores in attendance could get their food and be seated by noon, when the lunch lecture would start. This is how things usually work with free lunches.
By 11:50 am, a long line of hungry students was growing outside the lecture hall.
By 12:15 pm, there was still no food in sight. We were ushered in, asked to take our seats, and assured that lunch was on its way.
At 12:20 pm, the pizza arrived! Actually, I should say that half the pizza arrived. As the speaker continued to talk, all students' focus shifted onto the task of frantically reaching for a slice of pizza from one of the several boxes that were being passed around the room.
At 12:45 pm, the other half of the pizza arrived.
At 12:50 pm, the lecture ended and we all headed back to class.
Now, really, is it too much to ask to have a bunch of pizza delivered to feed a multitude of people, on time? I know that it can be done, because it has been done at least a dozen times since I've been in vet school.
Someone said the trick is to tell them to bring the pizza by 11:30 am, NO LATER, and then you can be certain it will be there by 12. I guess the organizers of this particular luncheon will live and learn...
Weather, make up your mind
Last week, we had a blizzard.
Today, the high temperatures were in the mid-70s.
Tomorrow, who knows???
(Honestly, I'm not complaining about either the blizzard or the bizarre beautiful day we had today. I just wish sometimes that the weather would make a slightly greater attempt to be consistent and predictable.)
Today, the high temperatures were in the mid-70s.
Tomorrow, who knows???
(Honestly, I'm not complaining about either the blizzard or the bizarre beautiful day we had today. I just wish sometimes that the weather would make a slightly greater attempt to be consistent and predictable.)
Breaking news: School newspaper ruins vet student's morning
As is my custom, I arrived at school a few minutes early this morning, grabbed a copy of the school newspaper, and sat down to skim the articles before getting a head-start on the Sudoku and crossword prior to the beginning of class.
Imagine my dismay when, while minding my own business, I stumbled across the following quotation, printed in large type below a front-page headline:
"This is reactive. It's not a proactive measure; it's affects are limited."
It pained me greatly just to type that sentence for you.
How have I wronged the universe, that I should have to endure two of my most hated grammatical pet peeves in a single sentence -- nay, merely one clause of a single sentence?
Do we not have editors for this sort of thing?
Are we not college students ourselves?
Are we really going to be the future of our country?
(stepping off my soapbox)
Admittedly, today's grammatical errors were indeed a minor offense compared to Tuesday's misreporting, which necessitated a front-page correction. You see, on Tuesday the newspaper ran a story about a Colorado high school counselor accused of sexual assault and child molestation. On Wednesday, the paper rather sheepishly included an apology and a correction indicating that on Tuesday they had included the wrong man's picture, with a caption naming him as the molester. Whoops!
Imagine my dismay when, while minding my own business, I stumbled across the following quotation, printed in large type below a front-page headline:
"This is reactive. It's not a proactive measure; it's affects are limited."
It pained me greatly just to type that sentence for you.
How have I wronged the universe, that I should have to endure two of my most hated grammatical pet peeves in a single sentence -- nay, merely one clause of a single sentence?
Do we not have editors for this sort of thing?
Are we not college students ourselves?
Are we really going to be the future of our country?
(stepping off my soapbox)
Admittedly, today's grammatical errors were indeed a minor offense compared to Tuesday's misreporting, which necessitated a front-page correction. You see, on Tuesday the newspaper ran a story about a Colorado high school counselor accused of sexual assault and child molestation. On Wednesday, the paper rather sheepishly included an apology and a correction indicating that on Tuesday they had included the wrong man's picture, with a caption naming him as the molester. Whoops!
Monday, November 2, 2009
In other news
PVM 2012 had a bake sale today - it looked to be pretty successful, judging by the amount of food they started with and how much they had remaining after an hour. I made Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownie Bars and also brought in the leftover chocolate covered cookie dough.
We got out early of most of our classes today. Score! We had two hours of Clin Path back to back this morning, but the prof thought we only had 1 hour, so she rushed through all the material then suddenly realized she had a whole 'nother hour to fill.
It was CLH's b-day yesterday. I think he had a good birthday - I know I had fun. I made an ice cream cake and we did a treasure hunt around the house to find all of his 22 presents (15 of which were ties). Then we played the hilarious game of matching new ties to his existing dress shirts. Fun times.
Simon gets to go in next Wednesday to donate blood again. And the hair on his neck has finally just grown back in all the way! He is due for his rabies shot on 11/24 and I'm debating when to make his appt for that - don't want to bring him in too close to the blood donation and put more stress on his system.
Three weeks of class until Thanksgiving break! SO looking forward to that. Flying down to AZ, which should be a good time.
Our new mortgage company (since Taylor Bean went under) wants to raise our mortgage payment again, so that we will be putting more $$ in escrow. Bummer, since we just raised it in August after we'd been paying it for a year and knew more accurately what our expenses would be.
My new favorite, and addicting, game is Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook. (Yes, I still love FarmVille.) Whoever came up with the idea of 60-second games is a genius.
My wrist is still sore. Can't quite tell if it's better from the 6 days of wearing a splint 24/7, or if it's just sore in different ways. I have an appt with the hand doctor at student health for Nov 11, so I'll have to see how things go and maybe cancel that appt if all is well.
We didn't get all that many trick-or-treaters this weekend. Last year we had maybe 50 pieces of candy that were gone in 20 minutes. So, we have a bunch of leftover Reese's PB cups, orange colored Kit Kats, Take 5 bars, and mini Hershey's bars. Gee, bummer!
I went to Target this afternoon and managed to leave without buying more than a single bag of on-sale Halloween candy (which I plan to use for baking). Good for me!
All of our snow from last week's blizzard has melted, leaving the ground muddy and gross and covered with rotting leaves. Lovely. At least it's slightly warmer now (40s today, up in the 50s for a few more days this week), and we don't have to watch the snow stick around and turn grey and yucky from all the dirt.
This blog is awesome. Although, the writer clearly tends to put some thought into her posts, as opposed to this blog.
Not sure I'm a fan of daylight savings time (or regular time, or whichever time we're on right now - I never can figure that out). It's nice that it's lighter in the morning, but frankly I don't care about that all that much. I'm never out of the house before 8 anyway (except on Sundays). I am bummed, though, that it's now dark at 5:15 pm. Would rather have that extra hour of sunshine in the evening rather than the morning!
CLH starts musical practice at his school next week. They are doing "Bye Bye Birdie." Should be awesome, as all high school musicals are!
Sort of having an urge to put up the Christmas tree and decorations, but making myself wait until after Thanksgiving (at which point the cats will only have a month or so of opportunities to destroy the tree and get GI foreign bodies).
That's probably enough random thoughts for one dreary Monday...
We got out early of most of our classes today. Score! We had two hours of Clin Path back to back this morning, but the prof thought we only had 1 hour, so she rushed through all the material then suddenly realized she had a whole 'nother hour to fill.
It was CLH's b-day yesterday. I think he had a good birthday - I know I had fun. I made an ice cream cake and we did a treasure hunt around the house to find all of his 22 presents (15 of which were ties). Then we played the hilarious game of matching new ties to his existing dress shirts. Fun times.
Simon gets to go in next Wednesday to donate blood again. And the hair on his neck has finally just grown back in all the way! He is due for his rabies shot on 11/24 and I'm debating when to make his appt for that - don't want to bring him in too close to the blood donation and put more stress on his system.
Three weeks of class until Thanksgiving break! SO looking forward to that. Flying down to AZ, which should be a good time.
Our new mortgage company (since Taylor Bean went under) wants to raise our mortgage payment again, so that we will be putting more $$ in escrow. Bummer, since we just raised it in August after we'd been paying it for a year and knew more accurately what our expenses would be.
My new favorite, and addicting, game is Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook. (Yes, I still love FarmVille.) Whoever came up with the idea of 60-second games is a genius.
My wrist is still sore. Can't quite tell if it's better from the 6 days of wearing a splint 24/7, or if it's just sore in different ways. I have an appt with the hand doctor at student health for Nov 11, so I'll have to see how things go and maybe cancel that appt if all is well.
We didn't get all that many trick-or-treaters this weekend. Last year we had maybe 50 pieces of candy that were gone in 20 minutes. So, we have a bunch of leftover Reese's PB cups, orange colored Kit Kats, Take 5 bars, and mini Hershey's bars. Gee, bummer!
I went to Target this afternoon and managed to leave without buying more than a single bag of on-sale Halloween candy (which I plan to use for baking). Good for me!
All of our snow from last week's blizzard has melted, leaving the ground muddy and gross and covered with rotting leaves. Lovely. At least it's slightly warmer now (40s today, up in the 50s for a few more days this week), and we don't have to watch the snow stick around and turn grey and yucky from all the dirt.
This blog is awesome. Although, the writer clearly tends to put some thought into her posts, as opposed to this blog.
Not sure I'm a fan of daylight savings time (or regular time, or whichever time we're on right now - I never can figure that out). It's nice that it's lighter in the morning, but frankly I don't care about that all that much. I'm never out of the house before 8 anyway (except on Sundays). I am bummed, though, that it's now dark at 5:15 pm. Would rather have that extra hour of sunshine in the evening rather than the morning!
CLH starts musical practice at his school next week. They are doing "Bye Bye Birdie." Should be awesome, as all high school musicals are!
Sort of having an urge to put up the Christmas tree and decorations, but making myself wait until after Thanksgiving (at which point the cats will only have a month or so of opportunities to destroy the tree and get GI foreign bodies).
That's probably enough random thoughts for one dreary Monday...
Let's get serious
(Okay, bad blog title. Now I have "Let's Get Physical" stuck in my head. 'Let's get serious, ser-i-ous, I wanna get serious, let's get into serious...')
Terrible Exams, Round 2 (Round 3?) starts a week from today. We have Pharmacology (3rd exam) next Monday, BoD (5th exam) opening online next Monday, a Clin Path quiz next Monday, Tox homework next Tuesday, and Management (3rd exam) next Friday.
The following week (the week before Thanksgiving), we have Clin Path (2nd exam) on Monday and Prev Med (3rd exam) on Thursday. (Yeah, let's just agree right now that nothing productive is going to get done on the Friday before Thanksgiving. Except for the awesome sophomore potluck lunch that day.)
So these looming exams means that I have to buckle down and actually start studying again. Bummer.
Honestly, it was pretty awesome to spend this whole last weekend doing everything possible except studying. Didn't even open my backpack.
But, predictably, after a few days or a couple weeks without studying, I am inevitably ready to get back into it. Lord knows I work better under deadlines, stress, and the fear of flunking out of vet school...
Terrible Exams, Round 2 (Round 3?) starts a week from today. We have Pharmacology (3rd exam) next Monday, BoD (5th exam) opening online next Monday, a Clin Path quiz next Monday, Tox homework next Tuesday, and Management (3rd exam) next Friday.
The following week (the week before Thanksgiving), we have Clin Path (2nd exam) on Monday and Prev Med (3rd exam) on Thursday. (Yeah, let's just agree right now that nothing productive is going to get done on the Friday before Thanksgiving. Except for the awesome sophomore potluck lunch that day.)
So these looming exams means that I have to buckle down and actually start studying again. Bummer.
Honestly, it was pretty awesome to spend this whole last weekend doing everything possible except studying. Didn't even open my backpack.
But, predictably, after a few days or a couple weeks without studying, I am inevitably ready to get back into it. Lord knows I work better under deadlines, stress, and the fear of flunking out of vet school...
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Blizzards: the gift that just keeps giving
Thanks to last week's blizzard, Thursday night choir rehearsal was postponed. Hence, we are now leaving the house at 6:45 am today in order to get down to Denver for extra practice...
(Although, kudos to whoever decided to have daylight savings time today. Excellent timing.)
(Although, kudos to whoever decided to have daylight savings time today. Excellent timing.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
