Although I know that we humans are often readily adaptable to many changing circumstances, I am still surprised by how quickly I can become accustomed to a completely new schedule.
Here's my basic schedule last semester:
-- Class Monday through Friday, starting generally at 9 am on Monday/Wednesday, 10 am on Thursday, and 11 am on Tuesday/Friday; class over at 3 pm every day except Tuesday (4 pm)
-- Got up early to run on Monday/Tuesday/Thursday/Friday, usually up 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours before class started
-- Slept in as much as I wanted most Saturdays
-- Up between 6 and 6:45 on Sunday mornings to drive to Denver for church
Okay, yes, that was a pretty sweet schedule.
Here's my basic schedule over winter break, at least the last 2-2.5 weeks:
-- No responsibilities any day of the week except Sundays
-- Sleep in till anywhere between 8 am and noon, Monday through Saturday
-- Up between 6 and 6:45 on Sunday mornings for church
Definitely an even awesomer schedule than last fall.
Here's my new and current schedule:
-- Monday: up at 5-5:15 am to run and get to class by 8 am, class every hour until 3 pm
-- Tuesday: up at 6 am to run and get to class by 9 am, break from 11 am to 1 pm, class from 1-4
-- Wednesday: up at 6:15 am (no running!), class at 8 am and class every hour until 3 pm (attempt to exercise after school, assuming I have the time and the motivation)
-- Thursday: up at 5-5:15 am to run (assuming no time/motivation on Wednesday afternoon), class at 8 am, break from 10 am to noon, class from noon to 3 pm
-- Friday: up at 6:15 am (no running!), class at 8 am and class every hour until 3 pm; try to get home with enough energy and enthusiasm to hop on the treadmill and get in my fourth run of the week
During some of my previous transitions from a long break (winter break or summer break) to being back in school, I've tried to ease myself out of the slacker schedule and into the more rigorous (or at least not sleeping past 8 am) schedule.
I quit cold turkey this time. But I don't really regret it. With a week and a half of school under my belt, I'm not yet sleep-deprived enough where I'm bothered by only getting 7 hours of sleep a couple nights a week, provided I can get my solid 8 hours the other nights.
My big fear with this spring's schedule was when I would be able to find time to exercise. I really, really love running in the morning, before I go to class.
For one thing, I feel more awake and more alert and more able to stay focused when I've exercised in the morning. I also feel less like I'm wasting time that I should be using to study or do something else worthwhile. That's especially true since I got out of the habit of studying on the treadmill last semester, and into the habit of reading my "fun" books.
If I run in the morning, I'm less likely to do 60-75 minutes and more likely to leave it at 45-50 minutes, which is adequate to get my "buzz." I like to do the longer stretch at least once or twice a week, out of my four exercise days, but I push myself too hard if I let myself have time to run that long every time I get o nthe treadmill.
So last semester, with my cushy schedule, it was easy to get an adequate amount of sleep AND a good amount of a.m. exercise. During my freshman year, I was in the habit of getting up at 5:15-5:30 several times a week to run, because my classes started earlier. But I really didn't think I could make myself do that again.
So, I'm surprised that the schedule I proposed above seems to be working out pretty well. I'm planning two definite days of running before school, with a possible third, and the fourth being definitely in the afternoon or on the weekend. If need be, I can always transition back into reading my notes while I run instead of reading awesome Windsor Library books like Michael Connelly's "The Scarecrow" (finished yesterday).
Here's hoping there's a chance for me to maintain my mostly comfortable sense of balance when I start getting into clinics next fall... sleep, exercise, school, and family, oh my!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Two years from now
When I have the time, I sporadically read several blogs I've encountered that are written by other veterinary students around the country.
It's really interesting to see other vet students' perspectives on life in vet school, and to learn the differences in curriculums, tracking, clinical rotations, etc.
One of the blogs I read is called "My Vet School Days." It's written by a vet student at a different school who is two years ahead of me - now a senior.
For the last 6 months, I've been following this student along their senior clinical rotations, studying for boards, taking boards, and, finally, passing national boards in this recent post.
I've never met or talked to this blog's author, but her post has me thinking ahead toward my future. I find it both really exhilarating and mildly terrifying to think that merely two years from now I will (I hope) have passed national board exams and be ready to be licensed as a DVM in just a few short months.
I love my vet school. I think it's a great school. I think we students get exposed to a lot of material. I think courses are generally well-planned and well-organized. I think students get a lot of support in their learning and help monitoring their progress. I think the school does its best to help us integrate material and develop solid clinical reasoning skills.
But I still can't imagine, two or three years from now, actually feeling competent to go into an exam room and diagnose an animal.
I feel a little bit like I have these few brilliant moments of insight, like "Aha! I immediately understand this problem, its etiology and pathogenesis, and how all of the clinical signs are interrelated and caused by the underlying disease."
At this point, those brilliant moments aren't happening all that often. But I know that I'm really only 3 semesters into an 8-semester program, and I haven't even started the clinical portion of my veterinary education yet. So I've got time to get it figured out.
Two years just seems like a really short time!
It's really interesting to see other vet students' perspectives on life in vet school, and to learn the differences in curriculums, tracking, clinical rotations, etc.
One of the blogs I read is called "My Vet School Days." It's written by a vet student at a different school who is two years ahead of me - now a senior.
For the last 6 months, I've been following this student along their senior clinical rotations, studying for boards, taking boards, and, finally, passing national boards in this recent post.
I've never met or talked to this blog's author, but her post has me thinking ahead toward my future. I find it both really exhilarating and mildly terrifying to think that merely two years from now I will (I hope) have passed national board exams and be ready to be licensed as a DVM in just a few short months.
I love my vet school. I think it's a great school. I think we students get exposed to a lot of material. I think courses are generally well-planned and well-organized. I think students get a lot of support in their learning and help monitoring their progress. I think the school does its best to help us integrate material and develop solid clinical reasoning skills.
But I still can't imagine, two or three years from now, actually feeling competent to go into an exam room and diagnose an animal.
I feel a little bit like I have these few brilliant moments of insight, like "Aha! I immediately understand this problem, its etiology and pathogenesis, and how all of the clinical signs are interrelated and caused by the underlying disease."
At this point, those brilliant moments aren't happening all that often. But I know that I'm really only 3 semesters into an 8-semester program, and I haven't even started the clinical portion of my veterinary education yet. So I've got time to get it figured out.
Two years just seems like a really short time!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Fifteen weeks to go...
That's probably not a good method with which to view the rest of the semester at this point, eh?
Week 1 of Semester 4 went okay. It was nice to be back in school, at least on some levels, and we all know that I love to be on a regular schedule. However, I think I prefer a regular schedule that doesn't begin at 6 am every day.
Let's take a preliminary look at this semester's courses:
Theriogenology:
Meets: Tuesday 1-3 pm (lab), Wednesday 2-3 (lecture), Friday 2-3 (lecture)
Credits: 3
Length: All semester
Theriogenology is the study of reproduction. Since we have an entire semester-long course all about reproduction, that means that all but the most fundamental topics in reproduction have been removed from the curriculum prior to this point (i.e. in Anatomy last year: "This is a testicle.").
So we are starting Therio with pretty much no prior knowledge about reproduction. Which, unfortunately, the instructors don't seem to entirely understand. The first lab and first lecture were reasonable, but yesterday afternoon (last class on the last day of the first week of the semester = everybody is WAY ready to go home), we had one of the most confusing lectures I've had during vet school.
The topic was "Male Endocrinology," i.e. all the hormones that are produced in the male reproductive system, how they affect each other, how they affect different organs and tissues, and how they work in feedback loops. The instructor proudly stated that he doesn't like to use PowerPoint (generally fine with me) but we also had no notes relevant to this topic in our course guide, and no textbook for the class. So, this lecture was it.
After about a half hour of rambling briskly through various convoluted hormone names and creating an absolutely unintelligible drawing on the whiteboard, the professor stopped and asked the class, "Did all of that make sense?" Awkward pause, then everybody laughed....
So we'll see how this class goes! The other main instructor fortunately seemed to be a little clearer in the other lecture we had this week.
Clinical Sciences I:
Meets: Monday 10-11 and 1-3, Wednesday 9-11 and 1-2, Thursday 1-3, Friday 10-12
Credits: 5
Length: Half the semester (ends before spring break)
ClinSci will be our "big course" this semester (like Anatomy during Sem 1, Neuro during Sem 2, Clin Path & Pharm during Sem 3).
It is all about learning to integrate the various things we have learned in the first three semesters of vet school, plus additional information like how to diagnose and treat specific problems.
It's very intensive, with tons of homework assignments, case studies, exams, and quizzes (not to mention the 10 hours of lecture every week).
Seems like it will be a challenging course, but is really focused on everything we need to know to be great vets.
We started with 5 hours of lecture and discussion about "clinical reasoning," something the vet school and the AVMA want to have play a bigger role in the curriculum. What that meant for us was that we sat through three hours or so of clinicians from the VTH walking us through cases they've had where they made mistakes and, generally, the patients died. Humbling to hear, but awkward and uncomfortable to listen to.
Yesterday, we started the GI problem section - with a thrilling discussion of salivation and drooling, followed by an introduction to regurgitation. The GI instructor, who we had in pharmacology last semester, was one that I used to like. That is, until yesterday when he pulled out the class roster and started randomly calling on people to answer spontaneous questions. Not cool! Fortunately he stopped doing that for his 2nd hour of lecture, and I liked him again.
Biology of Disease III:
Meets: Monday 8-9 am (lecture), Thursday 8-9 am (lecture), Thursday 9-10 am (lab)
Credits: 3
Length: All semester
BoD III is basically a continuation of BoD I & II that we've taken in the two previous semesters. We have fewer hours of lecture this semester, and a shorter lab (50 minutes instead of 70). I'm okay with both of those changes.
We have four main sections (four body systems to cover), with a different instructor for each. We've had all 4 instructors before, so I am glad that I know what to expect, because two of them are people that I could not learn well from last semester. Big Blue Pathology Textbook, here I come!
Diagnostic Imaging Interpretation:
Meets: Monday 11-12, Wednesday 11-12
Credits: 2
Length: All semester
Mixed feelings about this class (and not sure what I will call it: Imaging? DI? Xray? Radiology? Stay tuned to find out). It's basically learning how to interpret normal and abnormal x-rays, with a few ultrasound lectures thrown in.
Most of the instructors were people who taught us during "Principles of Diagnostic Imaging" first semester freshman year, and I liked some of them and disliked others. However, that class was long ago enough that I don't really remember which were the ones I disliked, so I'm trying to approach everybody with an open mind.
I've heard from upperclassmen in the past that my vet school does not have a very strong emphasis on imaging interpretation in our curriculum, which is why I joined Radiology Club as a freshman and continued to participate in it this year. It's really a nice club - unlike most clubs, it has regularly scheduled meetings - "rounds" every week where student members take turns presenting cases and walking the rest of the club through the findings. I think it has helped me a lot, if not to be particularly good at interpreting x-rays, then to at least stay familiar with radiographic anatomy while my non-club-member classmates forgot it during the one-year gap between classes.
So, as long as this course is well-taught, I'm looking forward to it.
We do have some technological issues - the x-rays we are using as examples in class are in a PowerPoint presentation that is projected onto the big screen in the front of the lecture hall. Normally my class prefers to have all of the lights on because we stay awake better that way. However, you can't get good contrast and see the important details in the x-rays unless at least some of the lights are down. There is a medium lighting setting for our lecture hall, where the room is mostly dark but there are a few lights that make it bright enough for us to take notes. However, those few lights are accompanied by an irritating buzzing noise, which my radiology instructor evidently cannot stand, so she just turned off all the lights in the lecture hall so it was pitch-black. Good for seeing the x-rays, good for not going insane from the buzzing, but no good if you actually wanted to take any notes or write anything down on your copy of the x-ray PowerPoint slides... hope they can find a compromise in this regard so we can learn something!
Principles of Surgery:
Meets: Tuesday 10-11 (lab/recitation), Wednesday 8-9 (lecture), Friday 8-10 (lecture)
Credits: 2
Length: Half the semester (ends before spring break)
This class is going to save me during the second half of the semester, mostly because I won't have it during the second half of the semester. That means that instead of having class at 8 am every day except Tuesday (9 am), after spring break I will have class at 8 on Mon & Thurs, 9 on Tues & Wed, and 10 on Fri. After just four days of my current schedule, I am already looking forward to more sleep.
Principles of Surgery seems like it will cover a lot of information that is really important yet not necessarily very fun or entertaining and not easy to make more interesting: things like details about different kinds of suture material, how to maintain aseptic technique during surgeries, memorizing different kinds of surgical instruments, etc.
We will have some hands-on lab/recitation periods where we get to practice stuff relevant to surgery and the surgery labs we will start next year. I think a lot of those are led by the VTH's surgery techs, who are pretty cool people.
Principles of Anesthesia:
Meets: Monday 9-10 (lecture), Tuesday 9-10 (lab/recitation), Friday 1-2 (lecture)
Credits: 3
Length: All semester
I haven't really had enough of this course to decide anything about it. Our first academic event this week, back from winter break, was an anesthesia recitation, which was a little weird since we were broken into smaller groups and we hadn't had any course introduction yet (had that yesterday). We watched videos of how to place intravenous catheters and induce anesthesia in dogs and horses. The dog video was really boring for me because I've seen that a lot of times, but everybody does things slightly differently so it was good to see how exactly they do it at the VTH.
The horse video was cooler. I hadn't seen a catheter placed in a horse before. They usually use the jugular vein since it's in a location that's easy to access without getting kicked in the face. I didn't realize that you place the catheter with the lumen aimed down toward the ground and the base of the catheter pointed up toward the horse's head. They also mentioned super-gluing (super-glueing?) the catheter to the horse's neck since you can't exactly secure it in place with tape. Awesome!
Watching an anesthetic induction in a horse was neat too. I have seen photos of anesthesia in large animals, but never in person or on video, so it was interesting to see it all put together. Way different proportions to think about than just knocking out a Beagle and carrying it into surgery!
Principles of Shelter Medicine:
Meets: Tuesday 3-4
Credits: 1
Length: All semester
Shelter Medicine is one of my three electives this semester, and I think it will be a really interesting class for me, since I have always been interested in that sort of thing since I decided to enter this field.
We have a bunch of guest lecturers who are "big" in the field of shelter medicine - some of them will be remote lectures, i.e. we look at their PowerPoint slides while their disembodied voice floats down through the PA system via a phone line. That will be a little weird.
We have two exams and one project that's worth half our grade - we don't get to find out anything about the project until next week but I expect it will be awesome.
Problem-Based Learning:
Meets: Thursday 12-1
Credits: 1
Length: All semester
PBL is my second elective - and although I guess it still qualifies as an "elective," about 80% of the class is taking it.
We are divided into small groups - about 5-7 students in a group - and each group has a facilitator, who is one of the vet school faculty, generally people who are DVMs but are not directly involved in clinical medicine and do not work in the VTH. My facilitator is one of the admissions people who is mildly intimidating but also seems really nice.
Each small group decides on their own when they want to meet every week. I was glad that my group decided on the Thursday lunch hour because that works really well with my schedule. That is, until a few hours later, when I realized that all of our free lunches this semester will be held on Thursdays over the lunch hour... bummer.
In PBL we are presented with cases (i.e. "This is Fluffy. She is a three year old spayed cat. She has been vomiting for a week.") and we have to, as a group, work our way through them. So we get to decide what questions we want to ask the "owner" (played by the group facilitator), what diagnostics to do, do research on our own to come up with differentials, etc. If we mess up, Fluffy "dies" and we have to pursue a different course of action. Sort of like those old Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books. It's another course that I think will be personally challenging but a great experience for me.
Business Law:
Meets: Monday 12-1, Wednesday 12-1, Friday 12-1
Credits: 3
Length: All semester
Simply because of scheduling issues, I fear this course will impinge mildly on my sanity this semester. On Mon/Wed/Fri, I will have a class every hour from 8 am to 3 pm. It's only on Tues/Thurs that I have a few breaks and time to actually eat lunch. Sigh.
But scheduling aside, I'm not sure what to think of this course. It's the next course in the Business Certificate program, and the 4th of 6 steps in completing that program. I sort of feel like, I've come this far, why give up now?
I had good feelings about Business Law after our first class on Wednesday. The instructor seemed organized. Class started on time. People participated. True, it was a large class (over 100), in a terrible classroom (steeply sloping floor so your feet [well, MY feet] never touch the ground, no matter where you sit), and at least a 10-minute walk from my vet school classes. But I thought to myself, this seems like stuff that will be good to know for life in general, even if I can't relate it to vet med.
So, like a good little student and as instructed, I printed out the PowerPoint slides that the professor indicated would be oh-so-necessary to keeping up and succeeding in class. I arrived to Friday's lecture open-minded and ready to learn.
Much to our surprise, 2/3 of the PowerPoint slides the professor used were not actually ones that were in the set of slides he told us to print (which came from the textbook publisher). Instead, he mostly used a set of slides he had made up himself.
So we frantically scrambled to copy down his slides as he lectured, not by explaining the material spontaneously, but by reading verbatim and in somewhat of a monotone from his own typed notes. Gaaahhhh!
Here's hoping the course improves next week....
Week 1 of Semester 4 went okay. It was nice to be back in school, at least on some levels, and we all know that I love to be on a regular schedule. However, I think I prefer a regular schedule that doesn't begin at 6 am every day.
Let's take a preliminary look at this semester's courses:
Theriogenology:
Meets: Tuesday 1-3 pm (lab), Wednesday 2-3 (lecture), Friday 2-3 (lecture)
Credits: 3
Length: All semester
Theriogenology is the study of reproduction. Since we have an entire semester-long course all about reproduction, that means that all but the most fundamental topics in reproduction have been removed from the curriculum prior to this point (i.e. in Anatomy last year: "This is a testicle.").
So we are starting Therio with pretty much no prior knowledge about reproduction. Which, unfortunately, the instructors don't seem to entirely understand. The first lab and first lecture were reasonable, but yesterday afternoon (last class on the last day of the first week of the semester = everybody is WAY ready to go home), we had one of the most confusing lectures I've had during vet school.
The topic was "Male Endocrinology," i.e. all the hormones that are produced in the male reproductive system, how they affect each other, how they affect different organs and tissues, and how they work in feedback loops. The instructor proudly stated that he doesn't like to use PowerPoint (generally fine with me) but we also had no notes relevant to this topic in our course guide, and no textbook for the class. So, this lecture was it.
After about a half hour of rambling briskly through various convoluted hormone names and creating an absolutely unintelligible drawing on the whiteboard, the professor stopped and asked the class, "Did all of that make sense?" Awkward pause, then everybody laughed....
So we'll see how this class goes! The other main instructor fortunately seemed to be a little clearer in the other lecture we had this week.
Clinical Sciences I:
Meets: Monday 10-11 and 1-3, Wednesday 9-11 and 1-2, Thursday 1-3, Friday 10-12
Credits: 5
Length: Half the semester (ends before spring break)
ClinSci will be our "big course" this semester (like Anatomy during Sem 1, Neuro during Sem 2, Clin Path & Pharm during Sem 3).
It is all about learning to integrate the various things we have learned in the first three semesters of vet school, plus additional information like how to diagnose and treat specific problems.
It's very intensive, with tons of homework assignments, case studies, exams, and quizzes (not to mention the 10 hours of lecture every week).
Seems like it will be a challenging course, but is really focused on everything we need to know to be great vets.
We started with 5 hours of lecture and discussion about "clinical reasoning," something the vet school and the AVMA want to have play a bigger role in the curriculum. What that meant for us was that we sat through three hours or so of clinicians from the VTH walking us through cases they've had where they made mistakes and, generally, the patients died. Humbling to hear, but awkward and uncomfortable to listen to.
Yesterday, we started the GI problem section - with a thrilling discussion of salivation and drooling, followed by an introduction to regurgitation. The GI instructor, who we had in pharmacology last semester, was one that I used to like. That is, until yesterday when he pulled out the class roster and started randomly calling on people to answer spontaneous questions. Not cool! Fortunately he stopped doing that for his 2nd hour of lecture, and I liked him again.
Biology of Disease III:
Meets: Monday 8-9 am (lecture), Thursday 8-9 am (lecture), Thursday 9-10 am (lab)
Credits: 3
Length: All semester
BoD III is basically a continuation of BoD I & II that we've taken in the two previous semesters. We have fewer hours of lecture this semester, and a shorter lab (50 minutes instead of 70). I'm okay with both of those changes.
We have four main sections (four body systems to cover), with a different instructor for each. We've had all 4 instructors before, so I am glad that I know what to expect, because two of them are people that I could not learn well from last semester. Big Blue Pathology Textbook, here I come!
Diagnostic Imaging Interpretation:
Meets: Monday 11-12, Wednesday 11-12
Credits: 2
Length: All semester
Mixed feelings about this class (and not sure what I will call it: Imaging? DI? Xray? Radiology? Stay tuned to find out). It's basically learning how to interpret normal and abnormal x-rays, with a few ultrasound lectures thrown in.
Most of the instructors were people who taught us during "Principles of Diagnostic Imaging" first semester freshman year, and I liked some of them and disliked others. However, that class was long ago enough that I don't really remember which were the ones I disliked, so I'm trying to approach everybody with an open mind.
I've heard from upperclassmen in the past that my vet school does not have a very strong emphasis on imaging interpretation in our curriculum, which is why I joined Radiology Club as a freshman and continued to participate in it this year. It's really a nice club - unlike most clubs, it has regularly scheduled meetings - "rounds" every week where student members take turns presenting cases and walking the rest of the club through the findings. I think it has helped me a lot, if not to be particularly good at interpreting x-rays, then to at least stay familiar with radiographic anatomy while my non-club-member classmates forgot it during the one-year gap between classes.
So, as long as this course is well-taught, I'm looking forward to it.
We do have some technological issues - the x-rays we are using as examples in class are in a PowerPoint presentation that is projected onto the big screen in the front of the lecture hall. Normally my class prefers to have all of the lights on because we stay awake better that way. However, you can't get good contrast and see the important details in the x-rays unless at least some of the lights are down. There is a medium lighting setting for our lecture hall, where the room is mostly dark but there are a few lights that make it bright enough for us to take notes. However, those few lights are accompanied by an irritating buzzing noise, which my radiology instructor evidently cannot stand, so she just turned off all the lights in the lecture hall so it was pitch-black. Good for seeing the x-rays, good for not going insane from the buzzing, but no good if you actually wanted to take any notes or write anything down on your copy of the x-ray PowerPoint slides... hope they can find a compromise in this regard so we can learn something!
Principles of Surgery:
Meets: Tuesday 10-11 (lab/recitation), Wednesday 8-9 (lecture), Friday 8-10 (lecture)
Credits: 2
Length: Half the semester (ends before spring break)
This class is going to save me during the second half of the semester, mostly because I won't have it during the second half of the semester. That means that instead of having class at 8 am every day except Tuesday (9 am), after spring break I will have class at 8 on Mon & Thurs, 9 on Tues & Wed, and 10 on Fri. After just four days of my current schedule, I am already looking forward to more sleep.
Principles of Surgery seems like it will cover a lot of information that is really important yet not necessarily very fun or entertaining and not easy to make more interesting: things like details about different kinds of suture material, how to maintain aseptic technique during surgeries, memorizing different kinds of surgical instruments, etc.
We will have some hands-on lab/recitation periods where we get to practice stuff relevant to surgery and the surgery labs we will start next year. I think a lot of those are led by the VTH's surgery techs, who are pretty cool people.
Principles of Anesthesia:
Meets: Monday 9-10 (lecture), Tuesday 9-10 (lab/recitation), Friday 1-2 (lecture)
Credits: 3
Length: All semester
I haven't really had enough of this course to decide anything about it. Our first academic event this week, back from winter break, was an anesthesia recitation, which was a little weird since we were broken into smaller groups and we hadn't had any course introduction yet (had that yesterday). We watched videos of how to place intravenous catheters and induce anesthesia in dogs and horses. The dog video was really boring for me because I've seen that a lot of times, but everybody does things slightly differently so it was good to see how exactly they do it at the VTH.
The horse video was cooler. I hadn't seen a catheter placed in a horse before. They usually use the jugular vein since it's in a location that's easy to access without getting kicked in the face. I didn't realize that you place the catheter with the lumen aimed down toward the ground and the base of the catheter pointed up toward the horse's head. They also mentioned super-gluing (super-glueing?) the catheter to the horse's neck since you can't exactly secure it in place with tape. Awesome!
Watching an anesthetic induction in a horse was neat too. I have seen photos of anesthesia in large animals, but never in person or on video, so it was interesting to see it all put together. Way different proportions to think about than just knocking out a Beagle and carrying it into surgery!
Principles of Shelter Medicine:
Meets: Tuesday 3-4
Credits: 1
Length: All semester
Shelter Medicine is one of my three electives this semester, and I think it will be a really interesting class for me, since I have always been interested in that sort of thing since I decided to enter this field.
We have a bunch of guest lecturers who are "big" in the field of shelter medicine - some of them will be remote lectures, i.e. we look at their PowerPoint slides while their disembodied voice floats down through the PA system via a phone line. That will be a little weird.
We have two exams and one project that's worth half our grade - we don't get to find out anything about the project until next week but I expect it will be awesome.
Problem-Based Learning:
Meets: Thursday 12-1
Credits: 1
Length: All semester
PBL is my second elective - and although I guess it still qualifies as an "elective," about 80% of the class is taking it.
We are divided into small groups - about 5-7 students in a group - and each group has a facilitator, who is one of the vet school faculty, generally people who are DVMs but are not directly involved in clinical medicine and do not work in the VTH. My facilitator is one of the admissions people who is mildly intimidating but also seems really nice.
Each small group decides on their own when they want to meet every week. I was glad that my group decided on the Thursday lunch hour because that works really well with my schedule. That is, until a few hours later, when I realized that all of our free lunches this semester will be held on Thursdays over the lunch hour... bummer.
In PBL we are presented with cases (i.e. "This is Fluffy. She is a three year old spayed cat. She has been vomiting for a week.") and we have to, as a group, work our way through them. So we get to decide what questions we want to ask the "owner" (played by the group facilitator), what diagnostics to do, do research on our own to come up with differentials, etc. If we mess up, Fluffy "dies" and we have to pursue a different course of action. Sort of like those old Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books. It's another course that I think will be personally challenging but a great experience for me.
Business Law:
Meets: Monday 12-1, Wednesday 12-1, Friday 12-1
Credits: 3
Length: All semester
Simply because of scheduling issues, I fear this course will impinge mildly on my sanity this semester. On Mon/Wed/Fri, I will have a class every hour from 8 am to 3 pm. It's only on Tues/Thurs that I have a few breaks and time to actually eat lunch. Sigh.
But scheduling aside, I'm not sure what to think of this course. It's the next course in the Business Certificate program, and the 4th of 6 steps in completing that program. I sort of feel like, I've come this far, why give up now?
I had good feelings about Business Law after our first class on Wednesday. The instructor seemed organized. Class started on time. People participated. True, it was a large class (over 100), in a terrible classroom (steeply sloping floor so your feet [well, MY feet] never touch the ground, no matter where you sit), and at least a 10-minute walk from my vet school classes. But I thought to myself, this seems like stuff that will be good to know for life in general, even if I can't relate it to vet med.
So, like a good little student and as instructed, I printed out the PowerPoint slides that the professor indicated would be oh-so-necessary to keeping up and succeeding in class. I arrived to Friday's lecture open-minded and ready to learn.
Much to our surprise, 2/3 of the PowerPoint slides the professor used were not actually ones that were in the set of slides he told us to print (which came from the textbook publisher). Instead, he mostly used a set of slides he had made up himself.
So we frantically scrambled to copy down his slides as he lectured, not by explaining the material spontaneously, but by reading verbatim and in somewhat of a monotone from his own typed notes. Gaaahhhh!
Here's hoping the course improves next week....
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Two days
Two days into this semester, and all is well so far. I don't have time to write much just yet, but it is both nice and a little annoying to be back in school, though I hope that will improve once my classes pick up a bit and we get beyond the basics.
Mixed feelings about having 8 am classes every day except Tuesday... I'm going to try getting up at 5:20 tomorrow to run, so we'll see how that works out!
Mixed feelings about having 8 am classes every day except Tuesday... I'm going to try getting up at 5:20 tomorrow to run, so we'll see how that works out!
Monday, January 18, 2010
Reflections on 2009 (Part 3)
(Yes, I am leaving out some of the posts. I know, hard to believe.)
3/2/09: After whining about having such a mild winter last year, we are certainly making up for it currently.
3/3/09: While we unfortunately won't have a Square Root Day this year (indeed not for 6 more years), don't forget to celebrate these other fun March days.
3/5/09: Whoa, I bet I was really pleasant to be around during this week last March. You all are certainly a patient bunch for putting up with my rants!
3/9/09: Pleased to report I still feel healthy this year (barring the minor cold that hit me a couple weeks ago). Took 3 weeks off from exercising (yes I am lazy) in Dec/Jan but am now back on the treadmill with regularity. And once I'm back on a daily schedule, I will take my vitamins again!
3/18/09: Whoa, To-Do List FAIL! I did study and get Johnny vaccinated by the end of the month. I did not get a stethoscope or Colorado car registration until last month, and although the photos have now been framed, none of them are on the walls yet...
3/19/09: Haha, I get the point of what they are trying to accomplish with the freshman-year "breeds exams," but I can say with certainty that I remember <5% of what I "learned" for these tests last year.
3/25/09: See earlier comment about our garbage problems being solved. I knew we would be smarter than our cats, in the end!
3/26/09: Snow days rock. Unfortunately, we don't get many of them - none this year, although we did have one day when we got out an hour early in the afternoon. But February and March are still up ahead, with promises of severe winter weather!
3/26/09: Word of the Day blog! Which reminds me, I should actually update that sometime...
3/27/09: Oh, snap, Me-of-the-Past - I can now run THREE miles! (Though I never did do a 5K....)
3/28/09: Still glad writing assignments are kept to a minimum in vet school. Although I must brag that I composed a rockin' scholarship essay this week.
3/31/09: Wow. The bane of last semester's existence: Professional Writing class. Here's hoping this year's freshmen are experiencing a much-improved version.
3/2/09: After whining about having such a mild winter last year, we are certainly making up for it currently.
3/3/09: While we unfortunately won't have a Square Root Day this year (indeed not for 6 more years), don't forget to celebrate these other fun March days.
3/5/09: Whoa, I bet I was really pleasant to be around during this week last March. You all are certainly a patient bunch for putting up with my rants!
3/9/09: Pleased to report I still feel healthy this year (barring the minor cold that hit me a couple weeks ago). Took 3 weeks off from exercising (yes I am lazy) in Dec/Jan but am now back on the treadmill with regularity. And once I'm back on a daily schedule, I will take my vitamins again!
3/18/09: Whoa, To-Do List FAIL! I did study and get Johnny vaccinated by the end of the month. I did not get a stethoscope or Colorado car registration until last month, and although the photos have now been framed, none of them are on the walls yet...
3/19/09: Haha, I get the point of what they are trying to accomplish with the freshman-year "breeds exams," but I can say with certainty that I remember <5% of what I "learned" for these tests last year.
3/25/09: See earlier comment about our garbage problems being solved. I knew we would be smarter than our cats, in the end!
3/26/09: Snow days rock. Unfortunately, we don't get many of them - none this year, although we did have one day when we got out an hour early in the afternoon. But February and March are still up ahead, with promises of severe winter weather!
3/26/09: Word of the Day blog! Which reminds me, I should actually update that sometime...
3/27/09: Oh, snap, Me-of-the-Past - I can now run THREE miles! (Though I never did do a 5K....)
3/28/09: Still glad writing assignments are kept to a minimum in vet school. Although I must brag that I composed a rockin' scholarship essay this week.
3/31/09: Wow. The bane of last semester's existence: Professional Writing class. Here's hoping this year's freshmen are experiencing a much-improved version.
Reflections on 2009 (Part 2)
2/4/09: Ah, parasitology. Ah, tenesmus. Ah, hilarity provided by my classmates. Good times.
2/4/09: Had forgotten about this awesome hymn sung at last year's Congregational church. Sadly, this year's Episcopal church just doesn't seem to enjoy hymns with quite the same lyrics.
2/4/09: The unfortunate yet inevitable realization that parasitology is terrible. Pity it took me two whole weeks to reach that conclusion.
2/5/09: Man, the treasure trove of jokes I am rediscovering with this reflection!
2/5/09: Cuterebra nightmare! So vivid...
2/5/09: Who knew how awesome our refrigerator situation was last year: a full-size fridge to share among the class, plus mini-fridges in each of the cubes - now just reduced to a single full-size fridge for all the sophomore vet students and anybody else in the pathology building who wants to use it
2/9/09: Ah, "caseopurulent." To think how far I've come since then.
2/9/09: Maybe the reason people think sophomore year is depressing is that we don't get to do randomly fun things like write haiku anymore.
2/9/09: This post about the cats is still totally accurate.
2/10/09: Well, it's now been almost FOUR years and I still like CLH!
2/10/09: Most of these still apply. Still love NPR. Still like to get up and exercise before class (though not at 5:30 am anymore, hopefully). Still go to the grocery store with CLH, and haven't thought about American Idol in forever!
2/11/09: This post is apparently still accurate for the third semester of vet school.
2/11/09: The further I get in the curriculum, the more I wish I knew more Latin.
2/16/09: Oh, Dr. Parasitology Professor. The crazy things you put us through. So glad you are all gone from our future curriculum (mostly).
2/18/09: A rare moment of insight among a smattering of random posts! Another post that is still true this year.
2/18/09: Let's evaluate the cats' progress in the last 11 months: Now they are shut out of the bedroom every night. They still shred toilet paper like crazy but haven't had an opportunity to shred paper towels in recent memory. They drag stuff around with regularity but are getting better about staying off the counters. Due to an ingenious booby trap consisting of a half-full giant pot of water sitting atop the kitchen garbage can, and a gallon of paint weighting down the bottom of the can, we rarely have trash mishaps.
2/21/09: My only comment about this post is that chocolate chip raspberry walnut muffins are AWESOME.
2/23/09: Happy with my grades. While applying for a scholarship during the last couple weeks, I discovered that my class ranks have been steadily improving each semester. Go me!
2/25/09: Aw, I haven't seen any mice in this year's pathology building. Hope my little buddies in the cubes are having a good 09-10 year.
2/25/09: "Low-grade but annoyingly persistent level of stress" - that pretty much sums up vet school as I understand it.
2/27/09: Have now learned to shut the bedroom door completely behind me when I get up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.
2/4/09: Had forgotten about this awesome hymn sung at last year's Congregational church. Sadly, this year's Episcopal church just doesn't seem to enjoy hymns with quite the same lyrics.
2/4/09: The unfortunate yet inevitable realization that parasitology is terrible. Pity it took me two whole weeks to reach that conclusion.
2/5/09: Man, the treasure trove of jokes I am rediscovering with this reflection!
2/5/09: Cuterebra nightmare! So vivid...
2/5/09: Who knew how awesome our refrigerator situation was last year: a full-size fridge to share among the class, plus mini-fridges in each of the cubes - now just reduced to a single full-size fridge for all the sophomore vet students and anybody else in the pathology building who wants to use it
2/9/09: Ah, "caseopurulent." To think how far I've come since then.
2/9/09: Maybe the reason people think sophomore year is depressing is that we don't get to do randomly fun things like write haiku anymore.
2/9/09: This post about the cats is still totally accurate.
2/10/09: Well, it's now been almost FOUR years and I still like CLH!
2/10/09: Most of these still apply. Still love NPR. Still like to get up and exercise before class (though not at 5:30 am anymore, hopefully). Still go to the grocery store with CLH, and haven't thought about American Idol in forever!
2/11/09: This post is apparently still accurate for the third semester of vet school.
2/11/09: The further I get in the curriculum, the more I wish I knew more Latin.
2/16/09: Oh, Dr. Parasitology Professor. The crazy things you put us through. So glad you are all gone from our future curriculum (mostly).
2/18/09: A rare moment of insight among a smattering of random posts! Another post that is still true this year.
2/18/09: Let's evaluate the cats' progress in the last 11 months: Now they are shut out of the bedroom every night. They still shred toilet paper like crazy but haven't had an opportunity to shred paper towels in recent memory. They drag stuff around with regularity but are getting better about staying off the counters. Due to an ingenious booby trap consisting of a half-full giant pot of water sitting atop the kitchen garbage can, and a gallon of paint weighting down the bottom of the can, we rarely have trash mishaps.
2/21/09: My only comment about this post is that chocolate chip raspberry walnut muffins are AWESOME.
2/23/09: Happy with my grades. While applying for a scholarship during the last couple weeks, I discovered that my class ranks have been steadily improving each semester. Go me!
2/25/09: Aw, I haven't seen any mice in this year's pathology building. Hope my little buddies in the cubes are having a good 09-10 year.
2/25/09: "Low-grade but annoyingly persistent level of stress" - that pretty much sums up vet school as I understand it.
2/27/09: Have now learned to shut the bedroom door completely behind me when I get up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Got a stethoscope!
After at least a year of having "get a stethoscope" on my to-do list, I finally got a stethoscope!
AllHeart.com was having a sale on Littmans, so after some research and asking around among classmates and colleagues, I decided on the "Littman Classic II" in black.
(Use your imagination here, because I tried to insert a picture and failed.)
It came yesterday, and although I haven't had much time to play around with it yet, I am excited to finally have it.
Simon didn't feel like cooperating at all when I tried to listen to his insides - all I heard was a deafening purr.
More practice in the future!
AllHeart.com was having a sale on Littmans, so after some research and asking around among classmates and colleagues, I decided on the "Littman Classic II" in black.
(Use your imagination here, because I tried to insert a picture and failed.)
It came yesterday, and although I haven't had much time to play around with it yet, I am excited to finally have it.
Simon didn't feel like cooperating at all when I tried to listen to his insides - all I heard was a deafening purr.
More practice in the future!
Friday, January 15, 2010
Reflections on blogging in 2009 (Part 1)
(And a few weeks in 2008.)
If you find yourself with oodles of extra time to fill, please join me in reflecting on my first year of blogging (which, conveniently, almost coincides with the calendar year 2009).
We begin with my first post, on December 12, 2008. Little did I know then how much I would enjoy blogging. But I soon found out, based on the fact that I published three other posts that same day.
I discovered Jeweled Nut Bars, a recipe so good I just had to share. Thankfully, the day after starting this blog, I realized my recipes needed a blog of their own.
I am really glad Johnny got over his diarrhea.
I remember having mixed feelings about finishing my first semester of vet school. It seems like I have become somewhat less enthusiastic about school since then, though I am still glad I'm here and I love what I'm doing and learning.
12/13/08: We have the first of many posts about final exams. Fortunately, I now only have 3 semesters of finals left!
12/15/08: This particular LolCat still holds a special place in my part, and accurately conveys my personal sentiments more often than I'd like to admit.
12/15/08: I had almost forgotten about Hashi! I did lose interest in that particular website fairly quickly, although I developed an addiction to ConceptisPuzzles.com. (That is, until they started making you pay to do the puzzles.)
12/15/08: Another post about finals! I remember the feeling of being so glad I had managed to muddle my way through my first attempt at vet school courses. Looking back now, the material covered during that first semester seems so basic. It's neat to think how far I've come.
12/16/08: Silly dress-up days! We stopped doing these this year (actually, enthusiasm for them ebbed even last spring), and it's a shame. I am currently wearing the awesome booties mentioned in this post. They are still awesome.
12/17/08: Stress about the anatomy final exam... the most difficult class of that first semester. So glad it's over, and now I understand how the upper-class students could chuckle at us and say, "Wait till you see how much of it you will have forgotten a year from now." Sadly, true.
12/19/08: Happy to be done with one semester! Pleased and proud of myself and my accomplishments. Still am. (Ah yes, and preparing for the loooong drive to MN with two cats in the car. Not my brightest idea.)
And... on to 2009!
1/1/09: Getting a jump-start on blogging in the New Year. I vaguely remember the point in time where it still seemed weird to only have pass/fail grades... now I'm glad that's the case, and I'm entirely used to it.
1/1/09: Ah, things I learned over the holidays... #1-1c: So glad the cats have not joined us on any road trips in the last 12 months. #4: Still true. #5: I now have my 85-year-old grandma's car! Guess Magic 8-Ball was more ambiguous than necessary. #9: I didn't get a stocking this year! No sponges, no citrus fruit, and no Ring Pop! Sad face :(. #11: Ditto again this year.
1/4/09: Enjoying life, and break.
1/5/09: The first in a series of (questionably funny) jokes.
1/6/09: This year, I find I am still not a good housewife. But at least I haven't caved in and started studying during break! (Yet.)
1/7/09: Ah, painting the bedroom. What an.... interesting idea that was. At least the bedroom still looks great. And now I know to make sure Mom is around next time I try painting. :-)
1/7/09: It's a year later, but paint colors are still funny!
1/8/09: During our current winter, I've discovered that last year's Colorado winter was actually unusually mild. Bummer.
1/18/09: Whoa, a whole 10-day gap in blogging! Check that out. But as with last winter's break, I am excited to get back to class again this year.
1/18/09: Hmmm, the cats are still annoying... whoops, I mean "helpful." They sure do still love to help make up the bed with clean sheets, and bring us all manner of "surprising" outside the bedroom door in the morning.
1/18/09: Free lunches are less frequent this year! So sad.
1/20/09: Oh, little did I fathom the doom and gloom portended by this ever-so-insightful post about Professional Writing class...
1/21/09: My class schedule last spring did end up being pretty awesome... but I'm not sure it was more awesome than my no-class-before-9am schedule this past fall. Admittedly, it was nice to have Friday afternoons free last spring.
1/25/09: Heh heh.
1/25/09: Neurobiology was such a great class. This post reminds me that I do actually know how to liven up my blog by doing fun things like including photos of brains.
1/25/09: A poor attempt to convince myself to be interested in large animal medicine. Although I do love this line: "For the fairly significant number of kids in our class who were apparently born on a farm with their arm already up a cow's rectum...."
1/26/09: Yes, the early days of semi-enjoying and being almost interested in parasitology, before the instructor destroyed my happiness.
1/26/09: Again, questionably funny.
1/29/09: Oh, yuck. I had forgotten about this email problem. Boy, was that ever a huge mess. Thankfully it finally got fixed.
1/29/09: Ew, I had also forgotten about the sweaty vet students in the anatomy lecture hall. I much prefer this year's sophomore lecture hall, with spacious tables instead of desks, a high ceiling, and lots of leg room.
1/29/09: Here's a relatively more philosophical post (well, for me) discussing genetic engineering.
1/30/09: More complaints about the frozen cubes. Although, after my first sophomore semester, I'd have to say I'd rather have icy cubes than no cubes. No cubes = sad face.
1/30/09: A job as a tour guide! Was I correct about the (terrible) pay? You bet. Was I correct about the psychological benefit? Sort of, though not as much as I'd hoped. I still feel like all I'm doing is getting CLH and myself deeper and deeper into debt, with my meager tour guide salary being not even a drop in the bucket. But I like giving tours!
1/30/09: Still don't get why some people care more about their lawns than their pets...
And now, fine readers, it's time for Still-On-Break-But-Lots-To-Do me to get busy with some chores. Stay tuned for further reflections!
If you find yourself with oodles of extra time to fill, please join me in reflecting on my first year of blogging (which, conveniently, almost coincides with the calendar year 2009).
We begin with my first post, on December 12, 2008. Little did I know then how much I would enjoy blogging. But I soon found out, based on the fact that I published three other posts that same day.
I discovered Jeweled Nut Bars, a recipe so good I just had to share. Thankfully, the day after starting this blog, I realized my recipes needed a blog of their own.
I am really glad Johnny got over his diarrhea.
I remember having mixed feelings about finishing my first semester of vet school. It seems like I have become somewhat less enthusiastic about school since then, though I am still glad I'm here and I love what I'm doing and learning.
12/13/08: We have the first of many posts about final exams. Fortunately, I now only have 3 semesters of finals left!
12/15/08: This particular LolCat still holds a special place in my part, and accurately conveys my personal sentiments more often than I'd like to admit.
12/15/08: I had almost forgotten about Hashi! I did lose interest in that particular website fairly quickly, although I developed an addiction to ConceptisPuzzles.com. (That is, until they started making you pay to do the puzzles.)
12/15/08: Another post about finals! I remember the feeling of being so glad I had managed to muddle my way through my first attempt at vet school courses. Looking back now, the material covered during that first semester seems so basic. It's neat to think how far I've come.
12/16/08: Silly dress-up days! We stopped doing these this year (actually, enthusiasm for them ebbed even last spring), and it's a shame. I am currently wearing the awesome booties mentioned in this post. They are still awesome.
12/17/08: Stress about the anatomy final exam... the most difficult class of that first semester. So glad it's over, and now I understand how the upper-class students could chuckle at us and say, "Wait till you see how much of it you will have forgotten a year from now." Sadly, true.
12/19/08: Happy to be done with one semester! Pleased and proud of myself and my accomplishments. Still am. (Ah yes, and preparing for the loooong drive to MN with two cats in the car. Not my brightest idea.)
And... on to 2009!
1/1/09: Getting a jump-start on blogging in the New Year. I vaguely remember the point in time where it still seemed weird to only have pass/fail grades... now I'm glad that's the case, and I'm entirely used to it.
1/1/09: Ah, things I learned over the holidays... #1-1c: So glad the cats have not joined us on any road trips in the last 12 months. #4: Still true. #5: I now have my 85-year-old grandma's car! Guess Magic 8-Ball was more ambiguous than necessary. #9: I didn't get a stocking this year! No sponges, no citrus fruit, and no Ring Pop! Sad face :(. #11: Ditto again this year.
1/4/09: Enjoying life, and break.
1/5/09: The first in a series of (questionably funny) jokes.
1/6/09: This year, I find I am still not a good housewife. But at least I haven't caved in and started studying during break! (Yet.)
1/7/09: Ah, painting the bedroom. What an.... interesting idea that was. At least the bedroom still looks great. And now I know to make sure Mom is around next time I try painting. :-)
1/7/09: It's a year later, but paint colors are still funny!
1/8/09: During our current winter, I've discovered that last year's Colorado winter was actually unusually mild. Bummer.
1/18/09: Whoa, a whole 10-day gap in blogging! Check that out. But as with last winter's break, I am excited to get back to class again this year.
1/18/09: Hmmm, the cats are still annoying... whoops, I mean "helpful." They sure do still love to help make up the bed with clean sheets, and bring us all manner of "surprising" outside the bedroom door in the morning.
1/18/09: Free lunches are less frequent this year! So sad.
1/20/09: Oh, little did I fathom the doom and gloom portended by this ever-so-insightful post about Professional Writing class...
1/21/09: My class schedule last spring did end up being pretty awesome... but I'm not sure it was more awesome than my no-class-before-9am schedule this past fall. Admittedly, it was nice to have Friday afternoons free last spring.
1/25/09: Heh heh.
1/25/09: Neurobiology was such a great class. This post reminds me that I do actually know how to liven up my blog by doing fun things like including photos of brains.
1/25/09: A poor attempt to convince myself to be interested in large animal medicine. Although I do love this line: "For the fairly significant number of kids in our class who were apparently born on a farm with their arm already up a cow's rectum...."
1/26/09: Yes, the early days of semi-enjoying and being almost interested in parasitology, before the instructor destroyed my happiness.
1/26/09: Again, questionably funny.
1/29/09: Oh, yuck. I had forgotten about this email problem. Boy, was that ever a huge mess. Thankfully it finally got fixed.
1/29/09: Ew, I had also forgotten about the sweaty vet students in the anatomy lecture hall. I much prefer this year's sophomore lecture hall, with spacious tables instead of desks, a high ceiling, and lots of leg room.
1/29/09: Here's a relatively more philosophical post (well, for me) discussing genetic engineering.
1/30/09: More complaints about the frozen cubes. Although, after my first sophomore semester, I'd have to say I'd rather have icy cubes than no cubes. No cubes = sad face.
1/30/09: A job as a tour guide! Was I correct about the (terrible) pay? You bet. Was I correct about the psychological benefit? Sort of, though not as much as I'd hoped. I still feel like all I'm doing is getting CLH and myself deeper and deeper into debt, with my meager tour guide salary being not even a drop in the bucket. But I like giving tours!
1/30/09: Still don't get why some people care more about their lawns than their pets...
And now, fine readers, it's time for Still-On-Break-But-Lots-To-Do me to get busy with some chores. Stay tuned for further reflections!
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
One more week
I find myself immensely glad that I still have one week left of winter break. You'd think that with 4.5 weeks off in total, I'd have done everything I intended to accomplish during my vacation. You'd think wrong!
It's been a good break. First was a half-week off with few responsibilities other than church stuff and getting the house cleaned in preparation for company.
Then CLH's mom, dad, and brother stayed with us for 4-5 days over Christmas.
They left on Dec 27, and CLH and I packed up the Buick that evening and set out at 7 am on Dec 28 to make the long trek to Minnesota.
We lucked out with weather and driving conditions. Combining that with the brilliant idea of packing lunch to eat in the car, we made the drive in 13 hours flat, both there and back.
We had a few quick days in MN then headed back to Colorado on New Year's Day (again, nice driving).
CLH had to go back to work on Jan 4 (poor him) but I have been hanging around, relaxing, sleeping, watching TV on Hulu, playing FarmVille, and gradually (very gradually) working my way through my to-do list.
It's been really nice to sleep for 9 to 11 hours a night (except for Saturday nights - always have to be up for church!). If only the extra sleep would carry forward for my upcoming hectic semester...
My teeth have visited the dentist, my poor left tricep has received an H1N1 vaccine, my Buick has had the oil and transmission fluid changed. A bookcase has been assembled. Numerous trips have been made to the library to check out books, return books, and pick up reserve books (I am working on this strategy called: Check out fewer books than you are returning - yet there is still a substantial stack next to the bed). Several DVDs have been checked out from Redbox. Today I bought some shoes. I am sporting 4 new pairs of jeans plus a pair of cords - thank goodness.
The house could still a little cleaning (pine needles left in the living room from the Christmas tree and wreath). I've been slaving away to complete a scholarship application (the PEO Scholar Award) - that one still has a ways to go, but I've got another 10 days. I intend to clean up the computer desk and reorganize the attic, where Christmas decorations got strewn willy-nilly when we packed them up. I need to order a new phone from Sprint. A bit more shopping wouldn't hurt (more sweaters/T-shirts). Gotta put some pictures up on the walls, since I finaly got them all framed. Etc.
At times it seems a little ridiculous to have a break from school that is over a month long (excluding summer break). But this one seems to have filled up pretty evenly with family time, travel, CLH time, and relaxation. I think it'll be just about the right amount of time to make me really ready to get back to school again (though I'll regret saying that by, oh, probably next Thursday or so).
Sorry to all of you poor people back at school and work already! I'll sleep a little extra for you. :-)
It's been a good break. First was a half-week off with few responsibilities other than church stuff and getting the house cleaned in preparation for company.
Then CLH's mom, dad, and brother stayed with us for 4-5 days over Christmas.
They left on Dec 27, and CLH and I packed up the Buick that evening and set out at 7 am on Dec 28 to make the long trek to Minnesota.
We lucked out with weather and driving conditions. Combining that with the brilliant idea of packing lunch to eat in the car, we made the drive in 13 hours flat, both there and back.
We had a few quick days in MN then headed back to Colorado on New Year's Day (again, nice driving).
CLH had to go back to work on Jan 4 (poor him) but I have been hanging around, relaxing, sleeping, watching TV on Hulu, playing FarmVille, and gradually (very gradually) working my way through my to-do list.
It's been really nice to sleep for 9 to 11 hours a night (except for Saturday nights - always have to be up for church!). If only the extra sleep would carry forward for my upcoming hectic semester...
My teeth have visited the dentist, my poor left tricep has received an H1N1 vaccine, my Buick has had the oil and transmission fluid changed. A bookcase has been assembled. Numerous trips have been made to the library to check out books, return books, and pick up reserve books (I am working on this strategy called: Check out fewer books than you are returning - yet there is still a substantial stack next to the bed). Several DVDs have been checked out from Redbox. Today I bought some shoes. I am sporting 4 new pairs of jeans plus a pair of cords - thank goodness.
The house could still a little cleaning (pine needles left in the living room from the Christmas tree and wreath). I've been slaving away to complete a scholarship application (the PEO Scholar Award) - that one still has a ways to go, but I've got another 10 days. I intend to clean up the computer desk and reorganize the attic, where Christmas decorations got strewn willy-nilly when we packed them up. I need to order a new phone from Sprint. A bit more shopping wouldn't hurt (more sweaters/T-shirts). Gotta put some pictures up on the walls, since I finaly got them all framed. Etc.
At times it seems a little ridiculous to have a break from school that is over a month long (excluding summer break). But this one seems to have filled up pretty evenly with family time, travel, CLH time, and relaxation. I think it'll be just about the right amount of time to make me really ready to get back to school again (though I'll regret saying that by, oh, probably next Thursday or so).
Sorry to all of you poor people back at school and work already! I'll sleep a little extra for you. :-)
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