I'm still a bad blogger.

I love reading other blogs - I check for updates daily. For whatever reason, I've been really bad at keeping up with my own blog, which is weird since I have written diaries/journals for the majority of my life! I am going to make a conscious effort to write and to let you in to the realities of veterinary school and the daily life of a veterinary student - as well as talking about the loves of life (my fiance - KJ, the animals, running, etc).

Anywho - summer is here! What a long and twisty road this past year was! I ended up with pretty great grades considering how difficult spring semester was. The funny thing is that for most of the classes, I had the lowest percentage possible to achieve the letter grade I wanted - but hey, I still did it!

This summer, I am working in the diagnostic lab at school (my regular school year job) and working at my fiance's mom's animal hospital just east of where we live and go to school. It was a large adjustment going from a sedentary student lifestyle to being on our feet all day at work but I'm getting in the groove now and really starting to enjoy it. There have been a number of interesting cases (rodenticide toxicity, possible Blasto case, and many moore) and KJ and I have been getting to "play doctor" and doing a lot of the pre-op bloodwork along anything else they let us do.

I'm starting marathon training in a couple weeks - it is a 16 week program and the goal is the Indianapolis marathon on October 16th. Side goal is to lose about 10 pounds before vacation in August :) KJ and I have been lifting/running in the mornings before work and its going pretty well so far, so I really hope that continues.

The animals are great as always. Still keeping an eye out for any lumps or bumps on Ben (our pti bull). He had a low grade 2 mast cell tumor removed from his scrotum late last year, so he doesn't have that lovely "flap" anymore!

That is life for right now. The dogs are whining at me so I guess its time for dinner!

Spring Break!

The week from hell is over! I should probably say weeks, but lets be honest - the exams are the worst part. We had our first Pathology of organ systems exam, Dermatology, Pharm, and a Clin Path quiz (which are worth 10% of the grade, so they shouldn't be blown off!). Good news - scored a B on the organ path exam and 10/10 on the clin path quiz. Brilliant (not really) - but I'm really happy about those grades. Unfortunately, I'm fairly certain that the other two exams didn't go nearly as well, but they may make us wait until break is over the release the exam scores. I hate when they do that! It is so hard to believe that there is only a month and a half left of second year. It feels like we haven't learned much in the time we've been here, but sometimes I surprise myself by what I've retained so far.

Today, fiancee and I have a wedding to go to and I'm treating myself to a hair cut/style for the wedding. It's been a long time since I dressed up and looked pretty, so I'm excited to relax and not worry about school! I need to get a short run in before the hair cut (I'm falling behind in half-marathon training) so I'm going to take the pups on this pretty day :) Happy Saturday!

Wasting Time

One rule: Bold the items that you have done in your life.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightening storm
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Received flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Got a tattoo
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

I'd love to do more of these, although there a few that (God willing) will not happen for years - *cough, having a baby, cough* I'd better be at least 30 before that biological clock begins ticking! I see friends having babies and while that is all well and good for them and I'm sure they are happy - that is the very last thing I want at this point in my life. I am more than content living in the zoo that is our house. I love when we come home and see all the animals in the living room cuddled together (yes, both cats and both dogs). I even think its hilarious when I don't get up right away to feed the animals and the cats have "kitty royal rumble" around the bedroom and the hallway. I believe that has to be some kind of lingering biological predator trait. I love sitting in our backyard, dreaming about the farm that we'll move into when we graduate and about the horses that we'll buy. I tell the dogs they are going to be "farm dogs" - but they only have to hear the word "farm" to get all excited anyways.

The life of a vet student is harder than most people can imagine. Eventually, I'll be able to do any and all of those things on that list if I choose to (I'd even like to go hunting) - but until then, I'm really happy in our little house with our little zoo (dog, dog, cat, cat, fish, fiancee) just making it one day at a time.

I'm a bad blogger.

It has been five months since my last post. It is crazy how time flies by! I've become addicted to reading other blogs - ranging from triathlon training to other vet school students to vets to... cake wrecks. Which is strange, but everytime I walk into a grocery store, I try to find cake wrecks to submit to the blogger. I really need more things to do in life... like update my own blog!

Second semester is hell. I'm not going to sugar coat it or answer the "How is vet school going?" question with "Great! I love it!" It sucks. But spring break two weeks away and then the semester is halfway over. In fact, I write this while sitting in one of my favorite libraries on campus, attempting to study virology. Virology is one of those -ologies that no one really cares about because it is taught poorly, the material is incredibly dry, and the faculty drive me crazy. I am the electronics notes representative of our class. Which means that at the beginning of the semester, I am in charge of uploading all of the notes submitted by the faculty for the upcoming semester. Usually this means that once the semester begins, I shouldn't have too much to do since everything should be done ahead of time. FALSE. Many of them don't follow deadlines or fail to submit ANYTHING before the semester begins. This makes me crabby - but I still do my job. The thing that makes me frustrated is when the class gets crabby with me for not having notes. Or for not having them in the right place. Or for not putting up audio files on iTunes (which is absolutely not my job and I have no idea who is actually in charge).

However, I did get a very nice thank you card from the class this past week - along with a gift card to the local coffee shop. Which makes me want to take back everything I just wrote... but people still get annoyed with notes and that gets passed on to me, so I know the complaining will never truly stop, but hopefully it subsides a bit.

Oh the trials and tribulations of second year. I haven't even begun to share the drama that involves our class on a daily basis... but that is for a later day.

Until then, viruses are bad. Vaccinate your pets. The end.

Wildlife goodies

For the first time in my life, I got to hold and help treat a red tailed hawk. Although I have no aspirations of ever working with wildlife, it was more exciting than I thought it would be. How often in daily life do you get to look straight in the eye of a bird that has the potential to rip your face off? She had pins placed in her left wing due to ulnar and radial fractures as a result of gunshot wounds. Yes, apparently someone shot her multiple times - ridiculous.

Our epidemiology exam is coming up in an hour. Apparently she doesn't believe in exams... so we get an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper (both sides) for notes. Mine is printed out in size 7 font and I wrote down everything she said we needed to know. It is color coded and bold and beautiful. At times like this I'm glad I am slightly OCD about organizing things. But the really scary thing is, I failed to actually study and am depending on my beautiful notes page. We'll see how this turns out.

Hell Week

Four exam next week. Pharm tomorrow, Bacti Wednesday, Parasit Thursday, Path Friday. I've been studying quite a bit and I am semi prepared for Path and Pharm... Parasit and Bacti will be interesting. At some point today I need to continue working on Bacti... but it is so dry and boring so far and it seems too simple. I can't wait for the week to be over... I plan on going out to KJ's parents' farm and playing with the ponies, running around with the dogs and drinking till I forget everything I've learned this week. It doesn't help that Mom sent me a care package of a wedding planner and wedding planner book and I can't wait to start reading them! We are also going to a take a little drive to a park that we are (possibly) interested in using for the ceremony and reception. There is a huge mansion on site and tons of gardens, which would be beautiful in October.

Until then, its memorizing drugs and parasites along with 10,000 other things while sitting in the library...

Going to the chapel!

I'm engaged! It is so weird to say that out loud... in cyberspace... I can hardly believe it. I keep looking down at my finger and seeing this gorgeous, sparkling ring and all I can think about is that I am so lucky. It made it really hard in class this morning when a handful of people were chatting with me on gmail and half the class was wishing us congratulations on facebook! We don't know when we are going to get married, as vet school makes things difficult to plan around. So it will most likely be October or November of next year... or sometime in 2012. Kind of a big difference!

Class is... going. I'm having difficult finding the motivation to study and get on top of things. We've been really good about working out and running and I would much rather keep doing that than devote any time to studying... but I should probably start. I made a list of things to do tonight to get a jump on things and hopefully can stick with the plan. However, I'm going to celebrate the rest of the week so if I don't get a lot of studying done, too bad!