Alright, its been a while since I've posted but school has been absolute madness. And now I'm finally on spring break and ALL I want to do is sleep. I will just take un-planned naps every time I sit down, its nuts. It doesn't help that I've been eating a lot of junk food...candy bars...so I'm blaming it on the sugar crashes and the fact that I don't really have anything to do otherwise. (Even though I do have a page long to do list-which I am ignoring successfully) Whatevs, I'm trying not to feel guilty about it, apparently my body needs a lot of sleep and it sure as hell wasn't getting it the last 2 months. So I can now finally sit down and bang out a post, if my hypothalamus will let me stay awake long enough (sorry, just had a neuro test right before spring break so I've still got the brain on my brain, ugh bad joke- sorry again). So there were a few things I wanted to write about but I wasn't sure how to tie them together so is just gonna be a willy nilly random one.
First off, I got to witness my first birthing experience a few weeks, maybe even over a month ago, not sure the weeks have started to blend like a fast carousel ride. I actually stuck my hands and arms up a cow's vagina and got to help push out the baby; I would've helped pull too but the Dr and 4th yr resident were both he-men and were straining with it; hopefully I wont be expected to turn into hulk to help pull a calf if/when I get into this stuff on my own. They put chains (smaller links but yes actual chains) around the 2 front feet and attach those to hand holds and just grit down and pull. It was nuts. I thought they were joking at first when the Dr. said go get the chains. Apparently it doesn't cause much damage to the calf and they recover pretty fast. Not a way I would chose to come into this world but hey, gotta get them out of there somehow I guess. The whole thing was awesome but pretty brutal; its not an easy process for momma or baby. Didn't make me in any kind of hurry to be pushing anything out of me in a while. They do perform c-sections-out of the side of the cow when the natural path isn't working well, I am excited to see one of those.
SO after that, I was on a pretty decent high and went to check in with the horse ICU, where we learned 2 newly born (2 hour old) foals-yes plural, twins!!! were coming in. In all my years in the horse world (like 16?) I have never heard of twins being born and everyone surviving; its pretty much a miracle. Horses aren't made to carry twins, not enough room and birthing is difficult, not to mention the twins usually have development disabilities from not getting enough nutrients each, so if a vet discovers twins they usually try to abort one for the safety of mom and the other baby. Apparently their vet wasn't so great at palpations or ultrasound because no one had any idea until 3 front legs were trying to come out at the same time. The stable owner who was trying to help mom had no clue what was going on so he just picked a leg and shoved it back and shooting out came 2 foals. They were hypothermic and super weak but they were alive and fighters. I had never seen such a baby horse, their hooves were still soft for gods sake. We got to try to warm them up, bottle feed and give fluids. They weren't strong enough to stand and nurse so we had to put a tube to their bellies in and left a jugular cath in to give fluids if they got dehydrated. These were thoroughbred horses, so they were even more legs than normal foals. Unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures for the clients privacy sake but I did manage some kisses when no one was looking and I will always remember cuddling with them to "keep them warm" when really it was fulfilling my dream from when I was 5 years old to cuddle with a newborn horse. Turns out the owner was a total jackass and he was running a breeding operation for race horses and since these girls were twins, they were much smaller than normal and would continue to stay small so they weren't going to be good racers. He took the mom away 2 days after and was ready to euthanize these miracle babies but the bleeding hearts of the vets, students and everyone else who saw these girls fight for their lives got involved and that day a 4th yr student stepped up and took them home. One of the vets kept asking me to do it, he could tell I had fallen in love, and I was just picturing our little trailer with Aggie the pit bull, Bart and Marley the fat cats, Norman the bird and 2 foals running around. It would've been quite an experience. Reality won out and I'm sure they are in a good place now. :) I was so pleased to see a happy ending. And it made me realize, no matter what kind of vet I become, I will never get away from the assholes who only care about money. They own every species of animal and are in every town in America. Just something I am going to have to get used to dealing with.
Sorry for the novel, it was just one of the coolest nights of my life and I want to remember it forever. It was one of those moments when you realize that it doesn't matter how hard the rest of the work is, you absolutely love what you are doing and would NOT trade it for anything else. A feeling I would like to hold on to when I'm up at 3 am studying for an exam or cleaning up poop after a long day of taking orders from other people. I know I am in the right place and there are few better feelings than that.
Also, something that deserves mentioning, no doubt, is my friend Ashley and her recent brain aneurysm. I was kind of waiting to post anything to sort out my feelings and see how she was doing and after a short time in the hospital and a quick brain surgery; she is in rehab and working her right side limbs like no other. I can't even begin to explain how scared I was when I first heard, and now it is hard to explain how amazed I am by her strength and progress. Its not everyday that you get to see and hear about absolute astonishing things and I get to write about 2 in one blog post! I love all my friends and of course, respect and look up to them; but she is truly an inspiration of strength, resiliency, positive energy, and persistence. I have no doubt in my mind she will be able to get back to where she was snowboarding, soft-balling and being all around amazing with whatever she decides to do. Seriously, sometimes the english language just fails us with words, and expressing my pride and happiness in her recovery is one of these times. Love you with all of my heart Ashee, can't wait to hug you in person and rub that bald beautiful head of yours :)
Also, I just turned 24 not so long ago. I realize it's not that old so I'll save the-my life is passing me by panic attack- for myself but its not so young either. I was able to go to Phoenix the weekend before my b-day for a swine conference and get money for traveling and interviewing a Dr. there so it was basically a free trip home and happened to have pretty sweet timing too. Also, pretty much the only reason I joined the club was for this trip and I think it was worth it :) I was a good student and went to a 11 hours of lectures and took notes so I feel like I wasn't totally cheating the system, but the more I heard about swine vets and their jobs, the less it appealed to me. I will probably continue to stay in the club though, there is a lot of money in swine and they are throwing it at students to get us interested, plus they pick cool places for the convention...Denver next year and I think Cali after that. Anyways, I got to stay with 2 of my besties, Bina and Jo, and see Chels all the time since she conveniently lives about 1/2 a block down the road. They were nice enough to cart me back and forth to the convention and hang out with me at night and threw a nice little surprise party with my fav ice cream, icing turtle, birthday banner, wine, bananagrams and all around awesome times of hanging out with them! And their boy halves who I adore as well-but not like the creepy kind of "I adore you" Ginger was talking about. Thanks girls, it was one of the better b-day celebrations I have had, and its some tough competition-I've had some awesome parties in my 24 years. I also got to do dinner with my parents, brother and grandma who drove up from Tucson to meet me, which was sweet and nice, and had some actual good Mexican food.
Once I got back we had two tests that week-including my least fav-histology- so my actual birthday wasn't the best time I've ever had since it consisted of a lot of studying but my friends up here did make it special with an awesomely decorated brownie cake (pic on fb), cupcakes, funny cards and a harry potter balloon. I definitely felt the love that day so thanks! We did go out for some yummy Thai food after the histo test on Thurs and they sang to me again (3rd time) :) so I definitely got to have like a birthday week. 4 yr old Savannah would be so proud-she stretched the day out to a month if she could manage it. It was awesome.
Alright I'll wrap this novel up, I just can't believe how blessed a person can truly be. The next month and half left of school is going to be ridiculously difficult but I'm going to try to carry the love and support and good feelings I have from revisiting all these great things through with me. Still no clue what I'm going to do for summer but I'm sure I'll figure something out, if not, maybe I'll jut be a bum and soak up vit D to battle the frigid yellow ball they call a sun out here. :)
Happy St. Patty's day!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
BOHICA
They have a saying here about finals- "bend over here it comes again" which just kinda made me uncomfortable because I'm not a big fan of people using rape or anal as a joke since it can be pretty serious stuff to people. But looking at this semester...if I were to use expressions like that...it would definitely apply.
Just finished my first test of the semester and have to gear up for the next one this week and the next week for that test etc...we have a test every week this semester from now on besides during spring break (yay!) and one week mid April. Which pretty much means I can never actually relax. Well thats the idea-but knowing me, I'll be able to fit in plenty of procrastination. I'm doing pretty well at that so far! I dont want to complain about school too much so I'll just say: it is ridiculous how fast you can get behind, like 1-2 days of not listing intently or studying when I get home and BAM! Suddenly I'm a week behind in 3 classes and have to study for a big ol test. Besides the weekly tests though, classes are seeming to get better and more interesting and for that I am thankful. I still absolutely love it and couldn't think of anything I'd rather be doing.
Some highlights I've done since last time:
SNOWBOARDING?! I honestly did NOT think Iowa had big enough hills-but it does! They are in the next town over and totally adorable and short but since I kinda(totally) suck, it was pretty much perfect. And some of my friends are new to it too so we were able to fall together and compare sweet colorful bruises. And I learned about why our bruises are the colors they are and why they change colors today in pathology-pretty cool!
"Sincerest form of flattery party" Sharon and I came up with the idea to dress as our classmates/professors while we were in Missouri a few weeks ago and we made it happen. It was a total success with people being hilarious but not really mean about their impressions. Although it took over an hour of hardcore cleaning the next day to make the trailer livable and I had to deal with a puddle of urine on my bed/floor (from a friend who passed out in my bed I think-there was too much pee for just a cat), it was totally worth it and really fun.
Tie-back procedure: I went to a wet-lab on Sunday at school and got to learn about actual horse-racing cases from a vet and do a tie-back procedure on a cadaver horse larynx (it is the start of the trachea) where you suture back a cartilage chunk that has been paraylzed. It was pretty awesome and made me really excited for our surgery class during the third year!
Not so fun but definitely different-my car got stuck in snow, trying to pull back into my parking space! They do clear the roads/parking areas of snow but since I'm usually parked in the same space all the time, the snow just builds up around me and I definitely had to spend 10 minutes shoveling the snow around and out from underneath my little car to get it to move. Sometimes I miss my Jeep :(
I think thats about it for recent exciting things, I should probably get back to studying.... :/
Just finished my first test of the semester and have to gear up for the next one this week and the next week for that test etc...we have a test every week this semester from now on besides during spring break (yay!) and one week mid April. Which pretty much means I can never actually relax. Well thats the idea-but knowing me, I'll be able to fit in plenty of procrastination. I'm doing pretty well at that so far! I dont want to complain about school too much so I'll just say: it is ridiculous how fast you can get behind, like 1-2 days of not listing intently or studying when I get home and BAM! Suddenly I'm a week behind in 3 classes and have to study for a big ol test. Besides the weekly tests though, classes are seeming to get better and more interesting and for that I am thankful. I still absolutely love it and couldn't think of anything I'd rather be doing.
Some highlights I've done since last time:
SNOWBOARDING?! I honestly did NOT think Iowa had big enough hills-but it does! They are in the next town over and totally adorable and short but since I kinda(totally) suck, it was pretty much perfect. And some of my friends are new to it too so we were able to fall together and compare sweet colorful bruises. And I learned about why our bruises are the colors they are and why they change colors today in pathology-pretty cool!
"Sincerest form of flattery party" Sharon and I came up with the idea to dress as our classmates/professors while we were in Missouri a few weeks ago and we made it happen. It was a total success with people being hilarious but not really mean about their impressions. Although it took over an hour of hardcore cleaning the next day to make the trailer livable and I had to deal with a puddle of urine on my bed/floor (from a friend who passed out in my bed I think-there was too much pee for just a cat), it was totally worth it and really fun.
Tie-back procedure: I went to a wet-lab on Sunday at school and got to learn about actual horse-racing cases from a vet and do a tie-back procedure on a cadaver horse larynx (it is the start of the trachea) where you suture back a cartilage chunk that has been paraylzed. It was pretty awesome and made me really excited for our surgery class during the third year!
Not so fun but definitely different-my car got stuck in snow, trying to pull back into my parking space! They do clear the roads/parking areas of snow but since I'm usually parked in the same space all the time, the snow just builds up around me and I definitely had to spend 10 minutes shoveling the snow around and out from underneath my little car to get it to move. Sometimes I miss my Jeep :(
I think thats about it for recent exciting things, I should probably get back to studying.... :/
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
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!
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!
Friday, December 17, 2010
First Semester-success!
I can't believe I am done with my first semester of Vet School! It is so crazy to me that I've been living in Iowa for 4 months and am 1/8 a veterinarian! I was a bit worried going into finals since its been a long time (~2 years) since I actually had to study hardcore but even with my short attention span I made my way through it and actually kinda rocked it. Not to toot my own horn or anything but I am actually pretty proud of myself....Im ending up with almost a 4.0! I just made the cutoff for As in some classes but its still pretty freaking fantastic and I never would have thought I would be doing so well. Granted this was probably my easiest semester but its nice to start off on a good foot :) At about 3 am on the last night of studying for finals I realized how all my classes were overlapping, it was such an awesome feeling to finally have them all coming together. Most of the time I just study to do well on the test but now I am studying to learn, and with them all overlapping I feel like the stuff will actually stick with me, which is great! Hopefully it will continue this way...I just have no idea how I'm going to continue to shove the incredible amount of information in my brain for the next 4 years...
Also, its all snowy here! It hasn't been too terrible so far, we had one night of a blizzard warning which was mostly because of the insane wind that caused the snow to fall sideways but we didn't get a lot of snow. Apparently the winter here is a lot worse in January and February so I'm gonna try not to jinx myself yet, but I've been handling it better than I thought. I was walking to school the other day and it was sunny and I said Oh its so nice today! and it was like 30-somthing degrees! Which is a big improvement on the few days of less than 10 degree highs but still. Didn't expect to ever hear that out of my mouth-guess I am adapting??
I am sosososososososososososososososososososososososososoosososososoososososo excited to go back home to AZ. It doesn't really equal the universally huge excitement and relief I had when coming home from Europe but its pretty close. I have a feeling it is going to be kinda strange since most friends dont live there anymore, I wont have my car which is going to be frustrating and my cats are staying in Iowa. And my room is no longer my room (my Dad's office now) which is going to be REALLY strange. Speaking of strange...I was kinda forced to stay at home today waiting for the petsitter to come by to pick up keys etc (she hasn't showed up yet ugh!) and it was so weird to not have anything (important)to do. Even when I was avoiding school and being lazy over the semester, I was still worrying about it constantly. It feels like there is something missing haha...where has my stress gone? Its been my buddy for these past months. Not complaining
Life is great. :)
Also, its all snowy here! It hasn't been too terrible so far, we had one night of a blizzard warning which was mostly because of the insane wind that caused the snow to fall sideways but we didn't get a lot of snow. Apparently the winter here is a lot worse in January and February so I'm gonna try not to jinx myself yet, but I've been handling it better than I thought. I was walking to school the other day and it was sunny and I said Oh its so nice today! and it was like 30-somthing degrees! Which is a big improvement on the few days of less than 10 degree highs but still. Didn't expect to ever hear that out of my mouth-guess I am adapting??
I am sosososososososososososososososososososososososososoosososososoososososo excited to go back home to AZ. It doesn't really equal the universally huge excitement and relief I had when coming home from Europe but its pretty close. I have a feeling it is going to be kinda strange since most friends dont live there anymore, I wont have my car which is going to be frustrating and my cats are staying in Iowa. And my room is no longer my room (my Dad's office now) which is going to be REALLY strange. Speaking of strange...I was kinda forced to stay at home today waiting for the petsitter to come by to pick up keys etc (she hasn't showed up yet ugh!) and it was so weird to not have anything (important)to do. Even when I was avoiding school and being lazy over the semester, I was still worrying about it constantly. It feels like there is something missing haha...where has my stress gone? Its been my buddy for these past months. Not complaining
Life is great. :)
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Highlights of my Thanksgiving week off!
I did it! I ran 7 miles in the obstacle race known as Living History Farms Race!
Ok my team "This isn't a 5k?!" walked a lot of it. It was (literally) freezing temperatures. And we had to wade through 6 creeks. And dodge deer. Unfortunately no scrambling over monstrous hay bales as I was hoping but it lived up to my expectations pretty well. People had some fantastic costumes so we are doing it next year and dressing up, but having warm costumes because seriously it took a full 1/2 hr for my hands to even begin to get feeling back in them. I can't imagine how the people who had bathing suits on (or less) felt. Crazies! There were some dudes who had camelbacks full of some kind of alcohol...they didn' t wade through the creeks-they did face-plants and back-falls into them-not on purpose. Soaking from head to toe in muddy (FREEZING!) water. We saw one of the guys at the end...he seriously looked like death.
My ankle held up really well considering the uneven terrain we were running through-aka dead cornfields and streams- and the only injuries I sustained were some bruised shins from scrambling up banks on my hands and knees and a nice scalp wound from a thorny bush I did a headbutt into. Scabs in your hair feel really weird. Not bad for someone as un-graceful as me.
Pics are on Facebook, I didn't bring my camera with me for good reason, it would've been broken within 10 minutes. My fav costumes included the hoard of zombies, 2 diff pacmen, and one guy had a shirt that said I have to poop and he had rolls of toilet paper all over him.
My friend Morgan came to visit for a few days which was totally awesome! I was a bit worried about trying to keep her entertained here in Iowa since I know most people don't think of it as a super exciting place. Highlights: bowling, Harry Potter, Des Moines: free art museum, ice skating outside (!!) where we were the oldest people by like 10 years who didnt have little children, yummy food and of course HANGING OUT WITH ME! :) One day I planned out a 10 hour roadtrip (I cut it down from 49 hours) around mid east portion of Iowa seeing all sorts of beautiful roadside attractions like the tallest double railroad bridge, a 80 ft tall rusty wheel structure built by a 90 yr old, largest frying pan, lg metal corn cob, dark angel in a cemetary which has a death curse when you kiss her (still waiting), big cow, 2/3 of a bridge, community of flags, and replica of a star trek ship. Ames itself has 3: world's largest gnome, largest pitchfork, and large metal woman's head (creepy). Pictures are once again on fb-I am too lazy to put them on here too :)
Doesn't that make you wanna visit me?! If you do, theres still a TON of roadside jems I want to discover!! Most of them were really in the middle of NOWHERE and it got a little worrisome sometimes and Iowa really is kinda ugly in the winter before the snow and once all the corn is dead/chopped down but we still had a lot of fun. We weren't huge fans of the "freezing rain"-seriously if its gonna be cold and wet just snow already! I can't believe the Pac NW got snow before us!
This is my second year in a row spending Thanksgiving with strangers although this one and the last weren't even in the same universe as far as fun times go. I guess I can't even call them strangers...it was full of my new friends and fantastic food and a loooong awesome game of cranium. I am so thankful to be where I am with people here and around the world I can call my friends. And also a little less than a month til I am home, which I am really excited about! Also my cat's deserve a thank you for not pissing on anything recently and being good cuddlers when I'm missing home/company. I am starting to feel super guilty about leaving them for 3 wks during the break. :/
Hope everybody had a great fun and food filled thanksgiving too! Thanks for reading and acting interested in my life and thoughts :)
Ok my team "This isn't a 5k?!" walked a lot of it. It was (literally) freezing temperatures. And we had to wade through 6 creeks. And dodge deer. Unfortunately no scrambling over monstrous hay bales as I was hoping but it lived up to my expectations pretty well. People had some fantastic costumes so we are doing it next year and dressing up, but having warm costumes because seriously it took a full 1/2 hr for my hands to even begin to get feeling back in them. I can't imagine how the people who had bathing suits on (or less) felt. Crazies! There were some dudes who had camelbacks full of some kind of alcohol...they didn' t wade through the creeks-they did face-plants and back-falls into them-not on purpose. Soaking from head to toe in muddy (FREEZING!) water. We saw one of the guys at the end...he seriously looked like death.
My ankle held up really well considering the uneven terrain we were running through-aka dead cornfields and streams- and the only injuries I sustained were some bruised shins from scrambling up banks on my hands and knees and a nice scalp wound from a thorny bush I did a headbutt into. Scabs in your hair feel really weird. Not bad for someone as un-graceful as me.
Pics are on Facebook, I didn't bring my camera with me for good reason, it would've been broken within 10 minutes. My fav costumes included the hoard of zombies, 2 diff pacmen, and one guy had a shirt that said I have to poop and he had rolls of toilet paper all over him.
My friend Morgan came to visit for a few days which was totally awesome! I was a bit worried about trying to keep her entertained here in Iowa since I know most people don't think of it as a super exciting place. Highlights: bowling, Harry Potter, Des Moines: free art museum, ice skating outside (!!) where we were the oldest people by like 10 years who didnt have little children, yummy food and of course HANGING OUT WITH ME! :) One day I planned out a 10 hour roadtrip (I cut it down from 49 hours) around mid east portion of Iowa seeing all sorts of beautiful roadside attractions like the tallest double railroad bridge, a 80 ft tall rusty wheel structure built by a 90 yr old, largest frying pan, lg metal corn cob, dark angel in a cemetary which has a death curse when you kiss her (still waiting), big cow, 2/3 of a bridge, community of flags, and replica of a star trek ship. Ames itself has 3: world's largest gnome, largest pitchfork, and large metal woman's head (creepy). Pictures are once again on fb-I am too lazy to put them on here too :)
Doesn't that make you wanna visit me?! If you do, theres still a TON of roadside jems I want to discover!! Most of them were really in the middle of NOWHERE and it got a little worrisome sometimes and Iowa really is kinda ugly in the winter before the snow and once all the corn is dead/chopped down but we still had a lot of fun. We weren't huge fans of the "freezing rain"-seriously if its gonna be cold and wet just snow already! I can't believe the Pac NW got snow before us!
This is my second year in a row spending Thanksgiving with strangers although this one and the last weren't even in the same universe as far as fun times go. I guess I can't even call them strangers...it was full of my new friends and fantastic food and a loooong awesome game of cranium. I am so thankful to be where I am with people here and around the world I can call my friends. And also a little less than a month til I am home, which I am really excited about! Also my cat's deserve a thank you for not pissing on anything recently and being good cuddlers when I'm missing home/company. I am starting to feel super guilty about leaving them for 3 wks during the break. :/
Hope everybody had a great fun and food filled thanksgiving too! Thanks for reading and acting interested in my life and thoughts :)
Thursday, November 4, 2010
November?!
It's been a while...October was an intense month but with the beginning of November I am looking at 4 glorious weeks without a single test!!! We've been a bit slammed and it culminated Thurs night-I was up til 4:30 am to get up at 6:30-I didn't have it in me to pull an all-niter studying for respiratory histology. Hopefully I did alright, but at this point I can't generate enough energy to care :)
My favorite holiday, Halloween, is technically over :( but I get to dress up one last time today for a "Be Green" party put on by 2 clubs-they are renting out a floor in a dance club and want people to recycle old costumes. Unfortunately, my old costume parts did not make the cross-country trek with me and I don't know if I feel like being a zombie again (more on that in a bit). So my friends and I have decided to go as things we have learned about in class-I love being surrounded by people as nerdy as me!! I'm going as brush-border which is the epithelium (lining) of the intestines- basically cells with little fringes, interspersed with goblet cells which excrete mucous for protection (water guns!!) I'll make sure to put up pics, but I am pretty excited about it! :)
Last weekend a group of friends and I went as zombies-it was awesome. I loved getting all gory...totally beat out the cute costumes in my book. and I am SOOOOOOOOOOO sick of all the slutty costumes...no creativity and chosen based on how much skin they show. Gross. And it goes for boys too, I dont need to see all your junk either. Plus its really cold here! So heres the best pictures of us I think...
Yea we rocked those costumes! As we got out of the car some group of guys walked by and where like "Good LORD!" so thats when I knew we were good. The pirate was supposed to be a zombie too but backed out earlier...she did dance with a lot more boys than we did...zombie outfit/makeup isn't the best way to pick up boys... ahah big surprise I know. We had some drunk boy convinced it was real blood too which was awesome.
I was pretty disappointed I missed Dia de los Muertos since that is my favorite part of fall in Tucson but ...someday I will be back and do it again.
I got really excited the other day because I found some cheap pomegranates and remembered last year at about this time I got to pick them fresh of trees on my 6 mile hike to and from the town and my wildlife sanctuary on the top of the Greek Island. Life was pretty simple while I was there and sometimes I miss being there, it was a really beautiful place (the island, not the wildlife place) but I wouldn't trade my life right now for anything. Its just funny to think of my state of mind a year ago, there is no way I would've imagined I'd be living in a trailer next to the vet school I am going to in IOWA. NO WAY. Life can be so strange sometimes. :) Hope all of you had a great Halloween/dia de los muertos and have a great weekend!
My favorite holiday, Halloween, is technically over :( but I get to dress up one last time today for a "Be Green" party put on by 2 clubs-they are renting out a floor in a dance club and want people to recycle old costumes. Unfortunately, my old costume parts did not make the cross-country trek with me and I don't know if I feel like being a zombie again (more on that in a bit). So my friends and I have decided to go as things we have learned about in class-I love being surrounded by people as nerdy as me!! I'm going as brush-border which is the epithelium (lining) of the intestines- basically cells with little fringes, interspersed with goblet cells which excrete mucous for protection (water guns!!) I'll make sure to put up pics, but I am pretty excited about it! :)
Last weekend a group of friends and I went as zombies-it was awesome. I loved getting all gory...totally beat out the cute costumes in my book. and I am SOOOOOOOOOOO sick of all the slutty costumes...no creativity and chosen based on how much skin they show. Gross. And it goes for boys too, I dont need to see all your junk either. Plus its really cold here! So heres the best pictures of us I think...
Yea we rocked those costumes! As we got out of the car some group of guys walked by and where like "Good LORD!" so thats when I knew we were good. The pirate was supposed to be a zombie too but backed out earlier...she did dance with a lot more boys than we did...zombie outfit/makeup isn't the best way to pick up boys... ahah big surprise I know. We had some drunk boy convinced it was real blood too which was awesome.
I was pretty disappointed I missed Dia de los Muertos since that is my favorite part of fall in Tucson but ...someday I will be back and do it again.
I got really excited the other day because I found some cheap pomegranates and remembered last year at about this time I got to pick them fresh of trees on my 6 mile hike to and from the town and my wildlife sanctuary on the top of the Greek Island. Life was pretty simple while I was there and sometimes I miss being there, it was a really beautiful place (the island, not the wildlife place) but I wouldn't trade my life right now for anything. Its just funny to think of my state of mind a year ago, there is no way I would've imagined I'd be living in a trailer next to the vet school I am going to in IOWA. NO WAY. Life can be so strange sometimes. :) Hope all of you had a great Halloween/dia de los muertos and have a great weekend!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Midwestern adventures
Theres a tradition here at school that the Beef club puts on...the hayrack ride. At 4 on Friday Vet students all grab some pudding, jump on a hay rack pulled by a tractor and eat the pudding on the hour and half ride to a professors house where there is more pudding and other food and a nice big bonfire. Then they get a ride home on a van by midnight.
Before you embarrass yourself like I did....pudding = booze. apparently.
So thats mostly what I did. And it was awesome! We had 3 tractors pulling us but the hourish ride turned into 3 when our tire blew out on the hayrack. It was cool though because we were in the middle of nowhere(seriously I still have no idea where we went or how we got there) surrounded by corn fields, which people used as bathrooms like its the most normal thing to do, plenty of dried corn kernels still left on the stalks to use as ammo for pelting each other and good company. And a gorgeous sunset. Once we got to the professor's farm-also NO idea where it is or who the professor is-there was indeed lots of "pudding" and a decent sized bonfire. I don't really know how it happened but the hours went by fast-mostly dancing and belting it out to the awesome playlist. I only had to walk away twice-once for a country song and the other for Miley Cyrus...I will NOT put my hands up or move my hips like yea...and I have a problem with 30 year old farmer boys singing along to that crap, its creepy. and ok, maybe slightly amusing. but only slightly.
Some 10 hours later, yes I just said 10, I found myself and a few friends waiting for the last van at 2 am. Definite time warp, but a totally awesome one :) Also I woke up the next morning with incredibly sore pointer fingers on both hands. No idea why :)
Saturday was another gorgeously warm and sunny day so I ditched my studying for the histology test and instead spent the day walking around town and the nearby school gardens taking pictures of the changing colors of the leaves. I never understood the big deal about fall but it truly is really nice :) I would post pictures but I'm lazy and only want to post them once so check out fb-I'll eventually put them up there.
Sunday I woke up at 5 am and drove over the the vet school to pick up some friends who are part of the ZEW club( zoonotics, exotics, and wildlife) and I drove us to the Minnesota Zoo about 3 1/2 hours away. We got to see the prettiest sunrise over the corn fields (like postcard pretty/stereotypical midwest) and studied a bit of histology but mostly just hung out. We also passed a big wind farm which I didn't know where out here and some girls had never seen one before. Passed some funny places like "Manly forest" and "the sexiest casino of the midwest" in what else? An old barn. I don't think they get much competition out here. We met up with the rest of our club and got a hospital tour by a vet who might have been the least enthusiastic person I have ever met. I was so close to falling asleep standing up. The one interesting thing about him was he could seriously be Emery from the future, I could NOT get over how similar they looked-super tall, SUUUPER skinny, skinny jeans, big glasses. He was missing the mountain man/hobo beard but I'm hoping Em grows out of that by the time he hits middle age.
We then went into the actual zoo which was a good size and pretty nice, as far as zoos go. I wasn't super depressed walking around so thats always a good sign. They had river and sea otters which are always my favorites. And we got a backstage tour by the keepers for the bears, tigers, and camels. I have never seen a camel as big as the bull was, he weighed a ton! Literally, a ton-2,000+ lbs. His head was like the size of a washer. Seeing the tigers close up totally rocked and the bears have a sweet set-up there. Drove back with the sun setting on our other side. Again, pics will be on fb, I'm lazy.
So this past weekend rocked. And I just took my 2nd histo test (after our 2nd anatomy last week) and was looking through my calender-I have at least one test (usually 2) for the next month. But I refuse to be beaten down, especially with my favorite holiday coming right up, Halloween!! School can suck it, I am having way too much fun here! :D
Before you embarrass yourself like I did....pudding = booze. apparently.
So thats mostly what I did. And it was awesome! We had 3 tractors pulling us but the hourish ride turned into 3 when our tire blew out on the hayrack. It was cool though because we were in the middle of nowhere(seriously I still have no idea where we went or how we got there) surrounded by corn fields, which people used as bathrooms like its the most normal thing to do, plenty of dried corn kernels still left on the stalks to use as ammo for pelting each other and good company. And a gorgeous sunset. Once we got to the professor's farm-also NO idea where it is or who the professor is-there was indeed lots of "pudding" and a decent sized bonfire. I don't really know how it happened but the hours went by fast-mostly dancing and belting it out to the awesome playlist. I only had to walk away twice-once for a country song and the other for Miley Cyrus...I will NOT put my hands up or move my hips like yea...and I have a problem with 30 year old farmer boys singing along to that crap, its creepy. and ok, maybe slightly amusing. but only slightly.
Some 10 hours later, yes I just said 10, I found myself and a few friends waiting for the last van at 2 am. Definite time warp, but a totally awesome one :) Also I woke up the next morning with incredibly sore pointer fingers on both hands. No idea why :)
Saturday was another gorgeously warm and sunny day so I ditched my studying for the histology test and instead spent the day walking around town and the nearby school gardens taking pictures of the changing colors of the leaves. I never understood the big deal about fall but it truly is really nice :) I would post pictures but I'm lazy and only want to post them once so check out fb-I'll eventually put them up there.
Sunday I woke up at 5 am and drove over the the vet school to pick up some friends who are part of the ZEW club( zoonotics, exotics, and wildlife) and I drove us to the Minnesota Zoo about 3 1/2 hours away. We got to see the prettiest sunrise over the corn fields (like postcard pretty/stereotypical midwest) and studied a bit of histology but mostly just hung out. We also passed a big wind farm which I didn't know where out here and some girls had never seen one before. Passed some funny places like "Manly forest" and "the sexiest casino of the midwest" in what else? An old barn. I don't think they get much competition out here. We met up with the rest of our club and got a hospital tour by a vet who might have been the least enthusiastic person I have ever met. I was so close to falling asleep standing up. The one interesting thing about him was he could seriously be Emery from the future, I could NOT get over how similar they looked-super tall, SUUUPER skinny, skinny jeans, big glasses. He was missing the mountain man/hobo beard but I'm hoping Em grows out of that by the time he hits middle age.
We then went into the actual zoo which was a good size and pretty nice, as far as zoos go. I wasn't super depressed walking around so thats always a good sign. They had river and sea otters which are always my favorites. And we got a backstage tour by the keepers for the bears, tigers, and camels. I have never seen a camel as big as the bull was, he weighed a ton! Literally, a ton-2,000+ lbs. His head was like the size of a washer. Seeing the tigers close up totally rocked and the bears have a sweet set-up there. Drove back with the sun setting on our other side. Again, pics will be on fb, I'm lazy.
So this past weekend rocked. And I just took my 2nd histo test (after our 2nd anatomy last week) and was looking through my calender-I have at least one test (usually 2) for the next month. But I refuse to be beaten down, especially with my favorite holiday coming right up, Halloween!! School can suck it, I am having way too much fun here! :D
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