New year here we go!

Alright so I'm in my second week of semester #2 and it kind of feels like I never left. Which I guess is a good and bad thing. I loved being home for break, it was sooooo fantastic to get to see my friends and family and pets (although the cats were left behind) and I did a lot of things I had been meaning to. Which mainly involved eating at my fav places and hiking and being outside AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. Some drama with Danny on my last night gave me a little bit of a bitter taste as I was leaving but some space and time have washed that out and I can't wait to be back in 2 months for a swine conference (1st weekend) and spring break(3rd week). Highlights were: Secret Santa #8, mom and daughter quilting reunion, meeting Mr. Rowan Lamoreaux in person for the 1st time, driving up to phnx with my bro, and pretty much anytime I hung out with my friends for dinners/lunch/breakfast etc!

I left right before the horrible tragedy happened. I am so thankful that no one I know personally was injured but the huge hole it ripped in Tucson's heart is going to take a while to heal. I am proud to be part of such a strong community which seems to be doing a pretty good job of supporting each other. Although it pains me to not be there, I know I'm not the only person grieving from afar and I am really hoping that positive changes will be made as a result of the suffering it caused. The public funeral and Obama's speech were beautiful and healing and I'm thankful that I was able to watch it and still feel a strong connection with my home. This is the second time my community has been ripped apart by a young man/men with a gun-I lived nearby Columbine when that tragedy happened, and I am really hoping this is the last time. I realize people around the world deal with this almost daily and so I am grateful that I can live mostly without fear and don't have a constant worry about guns and bombs and war, but still...it sucks.

On another note....I did not realize my schedule this semester was going to be quite so crazy! Histology (2nd semester), lg animal anatomy, pathology, immunology, animal welfare, neurology, case studies, production animal informatics, beef records (2nd semester), animal behavior, and aquatic medicine.
Whew! The last 4 are electives I am taking and I don't want to drop any because I like them all and I want room in my schedule later to take even more awesome ones. So I'm going to be busy :) Still loving it though and wouldn't change a thing. Well I might make it about 20 degrees warmer, staying around freezing would be nice, as opposed to the single digits. But what can you do?

I also attended an exotics symposium this past weekend in Missouri. I listened to a lot of very interesting Vets about their experiences and jobs and got to see some awesome pictures of wild animals being worked on-including removing huge chunks of dying flesh from inside a tigers rib cage. AWESOME! btw their skin is striped too, not just the fur. I have always been kind of interested in exotics and such but since there aren't many jobs in that area compared to mixed or large animal medicine I just kind of pushed that aside. But hearing about all those adventures made me all excited about it again. I don't know where I'll end up but I like the fact that I have a hard time narrowing down my interests as opposed to not having anything interesting to look forward to. Despite the fact that I was/am sick and my voice alternates between squeaking, whispers and a man thanks to my golf-ball sized tonsils, the conference was a really good time and I am going to try to attend it again.

New years this year did not suck! Which is kind of a surprise since it is usually a let down. I spent it with some of my favorite people and had a really good time! I don't really like making resolutions since I usually don't stick with them for a whole year and my to-do lists are always nuts but I feel like I want to have some broad-sweeping goals to work towards that do not have a specific start or end time. So here goes my guilt-free I'll try to list:

Not be afraid to go new places and try radically different things- even if it means looking like an idiot
Be able to get up and run for a few miles without wanting to die
Try one thing out of my cookbooks once a month-definitely includes desserts
Find a good place to volunteer in Ames outside of school
Slim Bart down to a reasonable weight (he is off to a good start!)
Don't let money stop me from doing awesome things but also don't dig myself into a large hole of dept
Be grateful for things/opportunities/people I have in my life and not let them slip away from laziness or procrastination or equally stupid reasons

Love you all and I hope 2011 is going to be totally fantastic!