Hi there; Birdie here!
Today's post title is a reference to the song from Treasure Planet, which has been in my head for the past hour or so. It's also about what I'm feeling regarding vet school right now--however difficult it continues to be, I've gotten this far and I can get through it.
I've currently got a cookie sheet of snickerdoodles cooling, and I'm pretty sure it's the first time I've baked since the semester started. It's been a while! It helps that I've got people to share the baked goods with; I'm going to a potluck tonight (it's the first one of those in a while, too, huh?). We had our cardio final today, and it wasn't too bad. There were a few I wasn't sure on, but especially with how well I did on the first exam, I'm not too worried about it. The farm animal exam earlier this week is a different story--for that one, I'm hoping I guessed well and relying on the fact that it's less than half the points of our last exam, plus we still have 2 more exams to go. Luckily one of my classmates recorded the audio for the lectures I missed so I at least heard everything on this week's exams, but I still have two hours of lecture to catch up on in exotics (hopefully tonight). Then I can go on and miss two MORE days of class that I'll have to catch up on next week.
This week we also had our first surgery lab (my group went on Monday), and it was kind of incredibly intimidating. Now that I've caught up on the first two lectures for that class, I realize I was pretty unprepared for lab. I didn't wear my lab coat because I didn't see why we should when we're just changing into a gown--turns out it's because in real life we're supposed to wear a coat over our scrubs when we leave the surgery suite to reduce contamination. I also didn't get the memo about not wearing nail polish (the reason for that is because where it's chipped can create reservoirs for bacteria that you can't reach with your scrub) and blatantly had on nail polish. She didn't notice (probably because it was still the pink I had for DC), but I could easily have taken it off that morning and replaced it at night if I'd known. Still kicking myself for that. And that's not even mentioning the intimidation factor from the lab itself. Our first lab was all about how to create the sterile field: scrubbing, gowning and gloving, and draping the patient. The first thing we learned is that it's critical to fold your gown the right way when you wrap it so that you can put it on without contaminating anything but the inside. Then we learned both open (normal, with just your hands, like for a castration or something where you're not fully gowned) and closed (with your fingers tucked inside the cuffs of your gown the whole time) gloving, and how to scrub, and how to drape the patient. Said "patient" was actually a pillow with a xyphoid, pubis, and mammary chains drawn on it. It is surprisingly difficult to towel clamp drapes to a pillow. Like, incredibly difficult, actually. I managed to do everything, but it's so precise I'm really anxious about messing it up. At least I had the right type of cap. The caps in our packs are all guys' caps (which is a terrible idea on the bookstore's part--they don't give us a choice in buying them, but well over half of us can't use them), so some of the girls had to wear bouffant caps underneath. Luckily, I have a cute purple one with gold fleur de lis that I got from a feline club fundraiser. Over the summer I'm planning to find some cute material and make one or two more.
On Tuesday we had a small animal abdominal ultrasound for Diagnostic Imaging Club. It was pretty cool, except that we split the big group into two hour-long sessions--but as an officer, I had to stay the whole time. The dogs at my station both hours had some interesting issues: a thickened intestinal submucosa (potentially Heterobilharzia) in one and some bladder sediment in the other. I got to do the ultrasound myself once, naturally. I even got the right kidney on the first try, and found the duodenum! After we flipped the dog into left lateral, but still. But basically I spent most of the second hour hovering around, trying to be useful or learn something or at least not get in the way, and thinking about how I needed to be studying cardio. I'd definitely say it was a good wetlab. We had over 20 people (which had been supposed to be our limit), so I'm pretty happy with that!
Then on Wednesday, we did a mulitheaded microscope wetlab for path club. And by "we," I mean me and my li'l sib, because that's all who came. We had a few other people RSVP, but they couldn't make it for various reasons such as worrying about oncology, or forgetting about it. Couldn't get any of my classmates to come along, either. We looked at a few oncology cases, and I'm really proud of my little--it seemed like he learned a lot. It was mostly a review for me. We talked about the 5 round cell tumors (TVT, mast cell tumor, plasma cell tumor, histiocytoma, and lymphoma) and how to tell a sarcoma from a carcinoma--all of which I still remember from clin path and from going over again recently in oncology.
I also got to ride twice this week! There were lessons on Monday to make up for last week, when there were no Thursday or Friday lessons. I got to ride Sailor again, and we did some really cool stuff. My instructor put me on the lunge line and took away my reins and then had me canter without the reins. And, what I think is more impressive, after a few canter transitions she had us sitting trot with no reins. I'm really proud of how well I did at that. I remember when I was much younger and taking riding lessons, I mentioned to my instructor that I'd read that you should stop a horse with your seat first before using the reins and asked how to do that. Back then, they told me at my level I shouldn't be trying to do that. Well, now I can! And yesterday I rode Cajun, which I was really into. He was a lot better about not jumping huge, and I'm really proud of him. Well, but then the last jump in our line got moved for our last time through, and he still jumps really big when he gets a long spot. Still, I stayed with him! My position wasn't great, and I had a hard time keeping my heels down. It was a fun lesson though. My instructor thanked me a couple of times for riding him, but I had zero problem with it. I rather liked him yesterday, actually.
It helps that the book I just finished, Catch Rider, is all about a girl who wants to be able to ride any horse. I'm glad I read it on the week I had two lessons! I'm also pretty glad I read Snowman first. In Catch Rider, the main character goes to the Maclay finals at Madison Square Gardens, and I recognized that show site from the other book, so that was pretty cool. Before that, I finished Counting by 7s, which I liked a lot (my disliked characters got a lot of development, too), and The School for Good and Evil. I'm not real sure what to do with that one--I'm still not sure what happened at the ending, and I had some problems with it in general. There's two more, it's a trilogy, but I don't think I'll be picking up the others (at least in the near future). Since Terry Pratchett died, I decided that I need to re-read Going Postal immediately. I'm not even sure whether I'll count it for the challenge; it might be outside of that. It could probably count for funny book if I wanted it to. And at some point I need to finish Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (a book recommended by a friend, which is due back to the library before symposium unless I renew it) and read my Temple Grandin book (before Friday!). Oh, and study for oncology still. Right, studying too.
Tomorrow my family's coming up and we're going to the St. Patrick's Day parade. I'm pretty excited. I didn't get to any Mardi Gras parades this year, and I generally like St. Patrick's parades better because they throw a wider variety of stuff, including vegetables. One time I caught a pack of sour straws. Vegetables are much more useful than doubloons, too. I don't understand the kind of parades where people don't throw you anything--I'm a Louisiana girl at heart! Then on Sunday I'm running in the Great Rover Road Run 5k. I haven't actually been running in at least a month probably, so that's not really ideal. At least I have been riding so I should be sort of in shape? I just want to run the whole thing, I know I have zero chance of placing at all. But the entry fee goes to local shelters and the Dream Clinic, so it's a worthy cause. I'm glad I'm doing it, regardless of how unprepared I am.
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Friday, March 13, 2015
Friday, March 6, 2015
Progress, I suppose
Hi there; Birdie here!
This week has been intense, but I can't really say it's over because I still need to catch up on lectures. First I went to DC, which--more on that later, but it was pretty stressful. Then I came back and didn't even have time to unpack because I had to study for my derm final makeup yesterday and my orthopedics final today. And then yesterday I found out that I got the Banfield summer job program--AND I got summer scholars. So in the midst of my exams I had to deal with that decision. I wound up deciding on summer scholars, since I don't have any research experience and unfortunately despite being in vet school I am still forever trying to make myself look good for the next application. Also my housing in Texas near the Banfield hospital fell through. I made the calls/emails to make that decision official this morning. And I've still got about 7 hours of lecture I hope to get through this weekend, which isn't counting the studying I need to do for next week's exams. Vet school's tough.
I'm actually pretty upset, because even though our classes are usually recorded (which I was counting on, being gone for two days) a certain farm animal clinician decided that not enough people were in class and didn't record. One of my classmates gave me her notes, but I'm not super comfortable with that; I'd rather hear it myself. I'm going to be missing his class for Symposium, too...this time I'll make sure to ask him beforehand in the hopes he won't decide not to record.
DC was...honestly, not what I was expecting. When it talked about "exposing veterinary students to the legislative process" I didn't know that meant making up lobbyists and setting up meetings for us with congress members' offices. The first night was good. We had a little reception to talk with other participants (one of my VLE groupmates was there!), and then a bunch of us went out to a place called the Beer (Bier?) Baron, where I got funnel cake burger sliders and another guy in the group got a chicken Parmesan donut. It was really cold! As we were walking back, everything was encased in ice. It was also raining earlier that day when I was walking to the hotel from the metro station. I actually took the metro station the wrong way for 2 stops, but I wound up on the same train I would have have to wait for, so I consider it a win--I waited in warm trains instead of on a cold platform.
The second day (first full day) was when the problem started. After several talks (we even had powerpoint printouts, just like vet school lectures), we had some mock meetings. The first couple of people who went up made me cringe. First, there was a large group that gave me so much secondhand embarrassment because no one seemed to know what to say and the person playing the senator had to keep feeding them lines. Then the next person was quite good, except that she kept saying things that were probably jokes but were just so very "no, don't do that!" So I figured, I have some idea what I'm doing, I'll go up. So I did. And I completely messed up which bill is which (we were presenting two bills: the Veterinary Medical Loan Repayment Program Enhancement Act and proposals for reauthorization of the Higher Education Act). I did my best to keep going anyway, and I probably wasn't the only one who would do that, but I felt horrible. It was not easy, it was not fun, and it did not make me feel good about messing up in front of actual congressmen (or their staff) the next day. No matter how much I wanted to bow out and fly home, though, I couldn't get out of it. I think they thought they needed me, although after my meetings I'm not sure why. I don't think I made any difference whatsoever: either they already supported our position or they brushed me off without listening. I met with one senator and two representatives--well, I met with their offices. Overall, I don't really know how to feel about it. It's a worthwhile experience and I'm sure it will look good on my resume, but I'm not sure it was a good experience for me.
The surgery wetlab a couple of weeks ago was a better experience, but that wasn't what I was expecting either. Basically, since literally none of us had sufficient background, we spent the wetlab learning to suture and do ligatures. At the end one of the groups got to do the neuter on their dog, but that's about it. Still, it might have actually been better, since literally everyone got to have hands-on personally instructed experience. I mean, the group that did the neuter, it was just 2 people who got to do it, I'm not sure what they would have done with the groups of 3-4 we had. And I feel like I learned a lot about spay/neuter procedures from the lecture beforehand. Either way, it's giving me a great leg up in our current surgery class. We had lectures on suture patterns and on instruments this week, and I have a good basis for that right now. We also had our first microscope wetlab for path club, and finally had a meeting and officer elections. I wasn't able to be there (it was Tuesday, while I was in DC), but I kept my vice-presidency.
At my riding lesson last week, I got to ride Sailor, my favorite! I think we did well together, and my instructor said I "managed him well. He gets a little excited." I also worked on my position, especially over jumps. The ring was super crowded, though, which I didn't appreciate. Naturally I didn't ride this week since I had so much in the way of tests (and summer decisions) to deal with, but actually there weren't lessons at the end of this weeks so I get to make it up on Monday and ride twice next week.
On the book front, I finished Tam Lin and was pretty disappointed in it. In the hopes of reading something I'd like better than my last few books, I got a short story collection called 21 Proms that has a John Green story in it (kind of hoping it would be like My True Love Gave to Me, a recent Christmas short story collection I loved). Well, the John Green story was alright, but I didn't like any of the others. I didn't relate to the characters, and some of them were just plain weird. On my flights/in DC, I read Top Dog by Jerry Jay Carroll for a book I own but hadn't read. It's the best one I've read in a while, which isn't saying much. I liked the battle between good and evil, and some of the symbolism, but as a whole I didn't care for the narrator's tone and I wasn't entirely satisfied with the ending. Now I'm reading Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan. I've read nearly 200 pages just today (mostly just after I got home), so that's pretty good. I firmly dislike certain characters and situations, though. I need to find some better books, or I'll forget why I love reading (no I won't, I'll never do that).
I just got back from going to the gymnastics meet with A. It was senior night--the seniors' last meet. We got there a little late, after the first event had started. There were like three 10.0s this time--there weren't any last time! The star floor performer had her routine last, with music that included Stand Up and Get Crunk (a Saints pump-up song) and I'm pretty sure the LSU fight song too. She got a 10.0 for it, and she totally deserved it. Anyway, it was really fun and totally not catching up on lectures like I should have been doing.
Today I also started my feeding shift. The co-chair on duty right now is actually my li'l sib, and I caught him in the feed room when I went in before my test. He showed me and another feeder how to put on jesses (like a bird leash), and when I came back after the exam I jessed Lucy as well as feeding her. I have to say, it felt pretty cool to just walk around with a bird on my fist, nbd. I'm meeting him again in the morning to help stretch an owl that the wildlife hospital got in.
Next week I've got a farm animal exam (on less than 7 lectures this time, because that makes sense...I really don't like that class) and a cardio final, and the week after that it's Symposium. After this week, I really hope things get better (though I can't really see them getting worse, knock on wood).
This week has been intense, but I can't really say it's over because I still need to catch up on lectures. First I went to DC, which--more on that later, but it was pretty stressful. Then I came back and didn't even have time to unpack because I had to study for my derm final makeup yesterday and my orthopedics final today. And then yesterday I found out that I got the Banfield summer job program--AND I got summer scholars. So in the midst of my exams I had to deal with that decision. I wound up deciding on summer scholars, since I don't have any research experience and unfortunately despite being in vet school I am still forever trying to make myself look good for the next application. Also my housing in Texas near the Banfield hospital fell through. I made the calls/emails to make that decision official this morning. And I've still got about 7 hours of lecture I hope to get through this weekend, which isn't counting the studying I need to do for next week's exams. Vet school's tough.
I'm actually pretty upset, because even though our classes are usually recorded (which I was counting on, being gone for two days) a certain farm animal clinician decided that not enough people were in class and didn't record. One of my classmates gave me her notes, but I'm not super comfortable with that; I'd rather hear it myself. I'm going to be missing his class for Symposium, too...this time I'll make sure to ask him beforehand in the hopes he won't decide not to record.
DC was...honestly, not what I was expecting. When it talked about "exposing veterinary students to the legislative process" I didn't know that meant making up lobbyists and setting up meetings for us with congress members' offices. The first night was good. We had a little reception to talk with other participants (one of my VLE groupmates was there!), and then a bunch of us went out to a place called the Beer (Bier?) Baron, where I got funnel cake burger sliders and another guy in the group got a chicken Parmesan donut. It was really cold! As we were walking back, everything was encased in ice. It was also raining earlier that day when I was walking to the hotel from the metro station. I actually took the metro station the wrong way for 2 stops, but I wound up on the same train I would have have to wait for, so I consider it a win--I waited in warm trains instead of on a cold platform.
The second day (first full day) was when the problem started. After several talks (we even had powerpoint printouts, just like vet school lectures), we had some mock meetings. The first couple of people who went up made me cringe. First, there was a large group that gave me so much secondhand embarrassment because no one seemed to know what to say and the person playing the senator had to keep feeding them lines. Then the next person was quite good, except that she kept saying things that were probably jokes but were just so very "no, don't do that!" So I figured, I have some idea what I'm doing, I'll go up. So I did. And I completely messed up which bill is which (we were presenting two bills: the Veterinary Medical Loan Repayment Program Enhancement Act and proposals for reauthorization of the Higher Education Act). I did my best to keep going anyway, and I probably wasn't the only one who would do that, but I felt horrible. It was not easy, it was not fun, and it did not make me feel good about messing up in front of actual congressmen (or their staff) the next day. No matter how much I wanted to bow out and fly home, though, I couldn't get out of it. I think they thought they needed me, although after my meetings I'm not sure why. I don't think I made any difference whatsoever: either they already supported our position or they brushed me off without listening. I met with one senator and two representatives--well, I met with their offices. Overall, I don't really know how to feel about it. It's a worthwhile experience and I'm sure it will look good on my resume, but I'm not sure it was a good experience for me.
The surgery wetlab a couple of weeks ago was a better experience, but that wasn't what I was expecting either. Basically, since literally none of us had sufficient background, we spent the wetlab learning to suture and do ligatures. At the end one of the groups got to do the neuter on their dog, but that's about it. Still, it might have actually been better, since literally everyone got to have hands-on personally instructed experience. I mean, the group that did the neuter, it was just 2 people who got to do it, I'm not sure what they would have done with the groups of 3-4 we had. And I feel like I learned a lot about spay/neuter procedures from the lecture beforehand. Either way, it's giving me a great leg up in our current surgery class. We had lectures on suture patterns and on instruments this week, and I have a good basis for that right now. We also had our first microscope wetlab for path club, and finally had a meeting and officer elections. I wasn't able to be there (it was Tuesday, while I was in DC), but I kept my vice-presidency.
At my riding lesson last week, I got to ride Sailor, my favorite! I think we did well together, and my instructor said I "managed him well. He gets a little excited." I also worked on my position, especially over jumps. The ring was super crowded, though, which I didn't appreciate. Naturally I didn't ride this week since I had so much in the way of tests (and summer decisions) to deal with, but actually there weren't lessons at the end of this weeks so I get to make it up on Monday and ride twice next week.
On the book front, I finished Tam Lin and was pretty disappointed in it. In the hopes of reading something I'd like better than my last few books, I got a short story collection called 21 Proms that has a John Green story in it (kind of hoping it would be like My True Love Gave to Me, a recent Christmas short story collection I loved). Well, the John Green story was alright, but I didn't like any of the others. I didn't relate to the characters, and some of them were just plain weird. On my flights/in DC, I read Top Dog by Jerry Jay Carroll for a book I own but hadn't read. It's the best one I've read in a while, which isn't saying much. I liked the battle between good and evil, and some of the symbolism, but as a whole I didn't care for the narrator's tone and I wasn't entirely satisfied with the ending. Now I'm reading Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan. I've read nearly 200 pages just today (mostly just after I got home), so that's pretty good. I firmly dislike certain characters and situations, though. I need to find some better books, or I'll forget why I love reading (no I won't, I'll never do that).
I just got back from going to the gymnastics meet with A. It was senior night--the seniors' last meet. We got there a little late, after the first event had started. There were like three 10.0s this time--there weren't any last time! The star floor performer had her routine last, with music that included Stand Up and Get Crunk (a Saints pump-up song) and I'm pretty sure the LSU fight song too. She got a 10.0 for it, and she totally deserved it. Anyway, it was really fun and totally not catching up on lectures like I should have been doing.
Today I also started my feeding shift. The co-chair on duty right now is actually my li'l sib, and I caught him in the feed room when I went in before my test. He showed me and another feeder how to put on jesses (like a bird leash), and when I came back after the exam I jessed Lucy as well as feeding her. I have to say, it felt pretty cool to just walk around with a bird on my fist, nbd. I'm meeting him again in the morning to help stretch an owl that the wildlife hospital got in.
Next week I've got a farm animal exam (on less than 7 lectures this time, because that makes sense...I really don't like that class) and a cardio final, and the week after that it's Symposium. After this week, I really hope things get better (though I can't really see them getting worse, knock on wood).
Friday, February 20, 2015
Keep moving forward
Hi there; Birdie here!
I have now completed seven weeks of classes, but it feels like at least twice that. I was just home for Mardi Gras break as recently as Tuesday, but mostly that just served to throw me off...somehow I was still convinced I was coming back on Monday. I'm really angry about the orthopedics test I took this morning. It was at least half short answer, a lot of which involved questions with 4 blanks or "circle 5 things" or list three...yet none of them were worth more than two points. And the exam is worth 50 points overall, which means there's less of a cushion to get any wrong. I really don't know why they didn't just make it 100 points. And that's not even to mention how confusing some of the questions were...at least I found out that I did well in derm, and kept up my grade in urinary (despite how I felt walking out of the final).
I'm also stressing pretty hard about everything coming up. I'm leaving for Washington, D.C. next Sunday, but I still need to buy some more professional clothes and figure out when I'm taking the derm final, and that's in addition to the 20+ lecture exam in farm animal next Wednesday. It's not that it's hard material, but I've never done anything with farm animals so I know approximately none of it, and it's a TON of information. It would be a lot even if I didn't have to deal with derm, but I'm not sure whether I'm taking that final early (as in, Friday) or late (as in, right before the orthopedics exam). Missing exams in vet school is the worst. They're already crammed on top of each other, there's not really room for much more of it!
I did manage to make my riding lessons these past 2 Thursdays, at least. I've been riding a mare named Nora who used to be a Western pleasure horse and is pretty new to jumping. I like her, and she has lovely smooth gaits! Last week (after 2 weeks off), I had some trouble keeping her going. I did a lot better this week, though, especially in canter transitions (which we worked on a lot). We're also working on bending lines with her. This week we had a bending line where she had to change leads over the second jump (as well as get the correct lead over the first jump), and we weren't very good at it, largely because she doesn't know what she's doing. Honestly, I'm happy I got her to canter out every time I asked for it. Next week I'll do even better. I have to be pretty determined to get to my riding lessons now, though. Last week I studied pretty much every waking hour that I wasn't in class, including the day I took another exam, for my anesthesia final. Currently I'm holding on to the fact that there's only 6 weeks until spring break, and I'm traveling for part of 2 of them. Which means that at least a couple of the others I'll be scrambling to catch up, so I'm sure it will pass impossibly quickly and also take forever to do it--that's vet school.
Of course I'm also determined to keep up with my reading. I finished The Eighty-Dollar Champion and was actually pretty disappointed in it. It was exactly what I don't like about nonfiction: too much history, not enough story. It didn't really make me want to read my other horse books yet, so I haven't. I'm currently reading my year-book (that is, "A book published the year you were born"), but I paused in the middle to read Dragons Deal. I happened on it in Barnes & Noble the day before Mardi Gras, and it happened to be about a Mardi Gras krewe...so naturally I immediately read it in two days. I'm still hoping to read Animals in Translation before I hear Temple Grandin speak at symposium, but I'm not sure what it will count for in the challenge. Regardless, I'll probably read it on one of my plane rides...I have 3 of them before I want to have it read.
The alligator wetlab was pretty cool. I did hit the vein, but apparently "between scales" means between rows of scales, not between scales within a row (even though I'm pretty sure I was between scales, and I did get a flash of blood). I kind of failed at hitting the sinus behind the skull to give any drugs, though. Or rather, when I hit it the gator flailed and broke the needle or pulled it off the syringe or similar. Our alligator was 44 and a half inches long, I believe--three and a half feet. The necropsy was really interesting. Their testicles are kind of long structures almost at midline near the spine, and their kidneys are knobby little masses of tissue. Also, apparently reptiles have pigmented membranes, so fascia and other such connective tissue can just kind of be blue for no particular reason. So that's good to know. In addition to our wetlab, the gators had some specimens taken for a research project someone's working on. We had a really good turn out--26 people or so out of 30 spots, and everyone who couldn't make it gave us warning. Unfortunately our path club president wasn't feeling well and couldn't be there, and after all the work she put into planning it, too! But at least after all that work, it was a success.
We're working on planning our multihead microscope wetlabs for path club now: one histology, one cytology, and one correlation, with the first one next week. I'm also doing another wetlab tomorrow, this one with surgery club. Tomorrow I'll get to practice spays/neuters! We had the lunch meeting intro lecture yesterday, and the talk about ligation made my look at my notes from symposium last year since I went to a lecture on that topic. Unfortunately, my notes are kind of hard to follow. I don't know the suture patterns well enough to understand them, so the drawing doesn't really help unless I see it step by step. Still, maybe I'll look at it tomorrow so I at least have some idea how to do a circumferential and a three-clamp method. I'm pretty excited that I'll get to practice something I know I'm going to do in my career! I'm sure I'll learn a lot tomorrow about spay/neuter surgeries and also about surgery in general (we still haven't started our surgery class...despite being halfway through orthopedics).
Every time I look at my last blog post, it's cute how I think I will stop having so many things at once, ever. After spring break, maybe, when electives start. Until then, I'll just try to enjoy the mess of things I've got besides school.
I have now completed seven weeks of classes, but it feels like at least twice that. I was just home for Mardi Gras break as recently as Tuesday, but mostly that just served to throw me off...somehow I was still convinced I was coming back on Monday. I'm really angry about the orthopedics test I took this morning. It was at least half short answer, a lot of which involved questions with 4 blanks or "circle 5 things" or list three...yet none of them were worth more than two points. And the exam is worth 50 points overall, which means there's less of a cushion to get any wrong. I really don't know why they didn't just make it 100 points. And that's not even to mention how confusing some of the questions were...at least I found out that I did well in derm, and kept up my grade in urinary (despite how I felt walking out of the final).
I'm also stressing pretty hard about everything coming up. I'm leaving for Washington, D.C. next Sunday, but I still need to buy some more professional clothes and figure out when I'm taking the derm final, and that's in addition to the 20+ lecture exam in farm animal next Wednesday. It's not that it's hard material, but I've never done anything with farm animals so I know approximately none of it, and it's a TON of information. It would be a lot even if I didn't have to deal with derm, but I'm not sure whether I'm taking that final early (as in, Friday) or late (as in, right before the orthopedics exam). Missing exams in vet school is the worst. They're already crammed on top of each other, there's not really room for much more of it!
I did manage to make my riding lessons these past 2 Thursdays, at least. I've been riding a mare named Nora who used to be a Western pleasure horse and is pretty new to jumping. I like her, and she has lovely smooth gaits! Last week (after 2 weeks off), I had some trouble keeping her going. I did a lot better this week, though, especially in canter transitions (which we worked on a lot). We're also working on bending lines with her. This week we had a bending line where she had to change leads over the second jump (as well as get the correct lead over the first jump), and we weren't very good at it, largely because she doesn't know what she's doing. Honestly, I'm happy I got her to canter out every time I asked for it. Next week I'll do even better. I have to be pretty determined to get to my riding lessons now, though. Last week I studied pretty much every waking hour that I wasn't in class, including the day I took another exam, for my anesthesia final. Currently I'm holding on to the fact that there's only 6 weeks until spring break, and I'm traveling for part of 2 of them. Which means that at least a couple of the others I'll be scrambling to catch up, so I'm sure it will pass impossibly quickly and also take forever to do it--that's vet school.
Of course I'm also determined to keep up with my reading. I finished The Eighty-Dollar Champion and was actually pretty disappointed in it. It was exactly what I don't like about nonfiction: too much history, not enough story. It didn't really make me want to read my other horse books yet, so I haven't. I'm currently reading my year-book (that is, "A book published the year you were born"), but I paused in the middle to read Dragons Deal. I happened on it in Barnes & Noble the day before Mardi Gras, and it happened to be about a Mardi Gras krewe...so naturally I immediately read it in two days. I'm still hoping to read Animals in Translation before I hear Temple Grandin speak at symposium, but I'm not sure what it will count for in the challenge. Regardless, I'll probably read it on one of my plane rides...I have 3 of them before I want to have it read.
The alligator wetlab was pretty cool. I did hit the vein, but apparently "between scales" means between rows of scales, not between scales within a row (even though I'm pretty sure I was between scales, and I did get a flash of blood). I kind of failed at hitting the sinus behind the skull to give any drugs, though. Or rather, when I hit it the gator flailed and broke the needle or pulled it off the syringe or similar. Our alligator was 44 and a half inches long, I believe--three and a half feet. The necropsy was really interesting. Their testicles are kind of long structures almost at midline near the spine, and their kidneys are knobby little masses of tissue. Also, apparently reptiles have pigmented membranes, so fascia and other such connective tissue can just kind of be blue for no particular reason. So that's good to know. In addition to our wetlab, the gators had some specimens taken for a research project someone's working on. We had a really good turn out--26 people or so out of 30 spots, and everyone who couldn't make it gave us warning. Unfortunately our path club president wasn't feeling well and couldn't be there, and after all the work she put into planning it, too! But at least after all that work, it was a success.
We're working on planning our multihead microscope wetlabs for path club now: one histology, one cytology, and one correlation, with the first one next week. I'm also doing another wetlab tomorrow, this one with surgery club. Tomorrow I'll get to practice spays/neuters! We had the lunch meeting intro lecture yesterday, and the talk about ligation made my look at my notes from symposium last year since I went to a lecture on that topic. Unfortunately, my notes are kind of hard to follow. I don't know the suture patterns well enough to understand them, so the drawing doesn't really help unless I see it step by step. Still, maybe I'll look at it tomorrow so I at least have some idea how to do a circumferential and a three-clamp method. I'm pretty excited that I'll get to practice something I know I'm going to do in my career! I'm sure I'll learn a lot tomorrow about spay/neuter surgeries and also about surgery in general (we still haven't started our surgery class...despite being halfway through orthopedics).
Every time I look at my last blog post, it's cute how I think I will stop having so many things at once, ever. After spring break, maybe, when electives start. Until then, I'll just try to enjoy the mess of things I've got besides school.
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Can I just take a minute to breathe?
Hi there; Birdie here!
It has been an extremely busy past two weeks. I've actually had to miss both my riding lessons because I've been kind of behind on studying for tests and needed my Thursday night to study for Friday exams. We had 2 tests each week. Last week's weren't bad (cardio and urinary), but this past week...systemic path was actually totally fine, but I wasn't nearly prepared enough the day before. And derm wasn't bad, but it was so short (only 40 questions) that it doesn't take many wrong answers to really bring your grade down. Which was kind of inappropriate for how much material we had on it. But before the tests, I also had a bunch of other things to deal with, starting with the fact that I spent all day at Open House last Saturday. I spent most of the day at the path club table. Actually, I was the one who went and picked out the specimens we got earlier last week, too. We had a heart with a low ventricular septal defect that I'd thought was a dog's but turned out to be a calf's (which made a lot more sense actually), the obligatory heart with heartworms, a primary pulmonary carcinoma, an end stage liver, and a polycystic kidney. The highlight was a cross section of a cow's head showing Lumpy Jaw (Actinomyces bovis). I originally was kind of resistant to including it, but I'm actually really glad we did. Then I finished the day at the Josh Project table, where the popcorn machine had already stopped working so I basically just cleaned up. Next year as a third year I won't be so involved in clubs (we'll have new officers and everything; third years are going into clinics in the spring), so hopefully I won't need to take more than one or two shifts. I really want to NOT work all day at open house...
And of course I also had to work on my summer applications! The proposal for Summer Scholars was due this Monday, and we were working on it until noon that day, so that also didn't leave much time for studying. Everything is all turned in now, though. Well, at least I hope Tulane has my whole application...I couldn't get anyone on the phone on Monday to confirm. I sent off the Johns Hopkins application, too. And I had my interview for Banfield last Wednesday. I think it went pretty well, probably better than last year. I got a little upset when I had to answer the question about when I got constructive criticism about how I handled a stressful situation, but I think my answer was at least coherent. I especially liked the question about which of my accomplishment I'm most proud of--I said winning NaNoWriMo for 5 years in a row including during vet school. I was a little thrown when they asked about a professional or educational goal someone else set for me, but I think I came up with a good answer about how I actually got my first job. Anyway, everything is in other peoples' hands. Now I just have to wait until early to mid-March and see what, if anything, I get.
Last blog entry I mentioned that I was going to Spay Day. That was a good experience--I did get to do some cat wrangling!--but I only got to set one endotracheal tube. I was kind of expecting more--there were only 4 of us who'd done the wetlab, and they tube every cat who's getting spayed,
I actually might have been able to make my riding lesson this week and still have time to study if it weren't for the Diagnostic Imaging Club wetlab that was also on Thursday. It actually meant I was still hanging out with horses--it was a distal limb ultrasound. I got fussed at for getting gel on the gel bottle and our teacher kept wandering off to help other groups so I didn't really figure out how to get the oblique view of the sesamoid bones, but I did get a nice picture of the flexor manica and was the first one to show where the palmar annular ligament inserts. Also this week I got to school extra early for a breakfast presentation with Banfield. It was about "I saw it on the internet..." in regards to pet nutrition. She had to rush a lot, though, and we still were late to class. Plus I think it was the same presentation she gave last year.
I'm still ahead on my reading challenge, with 13/52 books read, 11 prompts filled. I actually just finished book 13 this morning: Astonish Me, by Maggie Shipstead for "A book with bad reviews." I didn't really like any of the characters, and there was too much drugs and stuff, but it had some really interesting lines and I'm glad I read it. Don't think I'll read it again ever, though. I also read my book originally written in a different language: A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cosse. I got a little lost in the names and different writing style, especially at the beginning, and I didn't care over much for the ending, but I really liked the parts in the middle about the founding of their bookstore and what it was like. I'm about to start my "based on a true story," The Eighty-Dollar Champion. It's the one of 3 horse books I'm planning on reading, probably one after another, so I really don't want to miss my riding lesson this week! Also, I've lately gotten really into Taylor Swift. I got 1989 a while ago, recently after it came out, but last weekend I decided I absolutely needed to get one of her older CDs, Speak Now (I knew some of the songs because they show up on my Pandora). It was actually a bit of a mess and more time consuming than I would have liked, but I've been listening to it a lot since. I think I might order other ones online though. Less effort and time on my part.
Last night A and I went to the gymnastics meet vs. Georgia. It was really cool. The girls were very impressive, and we didn't even hit traffic on the way home. Plus it was free for me as a student! I'd be willing to go again. I missed the bachelor auction this year, since it was also last night, but I don't mind that at all. Tomorrow we're (finally) doing our joint path club/WAZEM (exotics club) alligator wetlab. We're going to be practicing some procedures and also necropsy. Then I should really have nothing on my plate but school. I'm looking forward to having Monday and Tuesday off next week for Mardi Gras, and being able to go home for the long weekend!
It has been an extremely busy past two weeks. I've actually had to miss both my riding lessons because I've been kind of behind on studying for tests and needed my Thursday night to study for Friday exams. We had 2 tests each week. Last week's weren't bad (cardio and urinary), but this past week...systemic path was actually totally fine, but I wasn't nearly prepared enough the day before. And derm wasn't bad, but it was so short (only 40 questions) that it doesn't take many wrong answers to really bring your grade down. Which was kind of inappropriate for how much material we had on it. But before the tests, I also had a bunch of other things to deal with, starting with the fact that I spent all day at Open House last Saturday. I spent most of the day at the path club table. Actually, I was the one who went and picked out the specimens we got earlier last week, too. We had a heart with a low ventricular septal defect that I'd thought was a dog's but turned out to be a calf's (which made a lot more sense actually), the obligatory heart with heartworms, a primary pulmonary carcinoma, an end stage liver, and a polycystic kidney. The highlight was a cross section of a cow's head showing Lumpy Jaw (Actinomyces bovis). I originally was kind of resistant to including it, but I'm actually really glad we did. Then I finished the day at the Josh Project table, where the popcorn machine had already stopped working so I basically just cleaned up. Next year as a third year I won't be so involved in clubs (we'll have new officers and everything; third years are going into clinics in the spring), so hopefully I won't need to take more than one or two shifts. I really want to NOT work all day at open house...
And of course I also had to work on my summer applications! The proposal for Summer Scholars was due this Monday, and we were working on it until noon that day, so that also didn't leave much time for studying. Everything is all turned in now, though. Well, at least I hope Tulane has my whole application...I couldn't get anyone on the phone on Monday to confirm. I sent off the Johns Hopkins application, too. And I had my interview for Banfield last Wednesday. I think it went pretty well, probably better than last year. I got a little upset when I had to answer the question about when I got constructive criticism about how I handled a stressful situation, but I think my answer was at least coherent. I especially liked the question about which of my accomplishment I'm most proud of--I said winning NaNoWriMo for 5 years in a row including during vet school. I was a little thrown when they asked about a professional or educational goal someone else set for me, but I think I came up with a good answer about how I actually got my first job. Anyway, everything is in other peoples' hands. Now I just have to wait until early to mid-March and see what, if anything, I get.
Last blog entry I mentioned that I was going to Spay Day. That was a good experience--I did get to do some cat wrangling!--but I only got to set one endotracheal tube. I was kind of expecting more--there were only 4 of us who'd done the wetlab, and they tube every cat who's getting spayed,
I actually might have been able to make my riding lesson this week and still have time to study if it weren't for the Diagnostic Imaging Club wetlab that was also on Thursday. It actually meant I was still hanging out with horses--it was a distal limb ultrasound. I got fussed at for getting gel on the gel bottle and our teacher kept wandering off to help other groups so I didn't really figure out how to get the oblique view of the sesamoid bones, but I did get a nice picture of the flexor manica and was the first one to show where the palmar annular ligament inserts. Also this week I got to school extra early for a breakfast presentation with Banfield. It was about "I saw it on the internet..." in regards to pet nutrition. She had to rush a lot, though, and we still were late to class. Plus I think it was the same presentation she gave last year.
I'm still ahead on my reading challenge, with 13/52 books read, 11 prompts filled. I actually just finished book 13 this morning: Astonish Me, by Maggie Shipstead for "A book with bad reviews." I didn't really like any of the characters, and there was too much drugs and stuff, but it had some really interesting lines and I'm glad I read it. Don't think I'll read it again ever, though. I also read my book originally written in a different language: A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cosse. I got a little lost in the names and different writing style, especially at the beginning, and I didn't care over much for the ending, but I really liked the parts in the middle about the founding of their bookstore and what it was like. I'm about to start my "based on a true story," The Eighty-Dollar Champion. It's the one of 3 horse books I'm planning on reading, probably one after another, so I really don't want to miss my riding lesson this week! Also, I've lately gotten really into Taylor Swift. I got 1989 a while ago, recently after it came out, but last weekend I decided I absolutely needed to get one of her older CDs, Speak Now (I knew some of the songs because they show up on my Pandora). It was actually a bit of a mess and more time consuming than I would have liked, but I've been listening to it a lot since. I think I might order other ones online though. Less effort and time on my part.
Last night A and I went to the gymnastics meet vs. Georgia. It was really cool. The girls were very impressive, and we didn't even hit traffic on the way home. Plus it was free for me as a student! I'd be willing to go again. I missed the bachelor auction this year, since it was also last night, but I don't mind that at all. Tomorrow we're (finally) doing our joint path club/WAZEM (exotics club) alligator wetlab. We're going to be practicing some procedures and also necropsy. Then I should really have nothing on my plate but school. I'm looking forward to having Monday and Tuesday off next week for Mardi Gras, and being able to go home for the long weekend!
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Now we're really getting into it
Hi there; Birdie here!
Week 3 of second year is done, and with it the first two tests of the semester. They were...probably okay? I'm pretty sure I passed, at any rate, but I'm not really sure how well I did. We're finished with derm path, which means there's only about two weeks left of systemic pathology. We also had our anesthesia midterm--3 weeks left of that, and after Mardi Gras we'll be starting orthopedics and surgery! I also put in my first IV catheter/hit a vein in a dog for the first time at our anesthesia lab on Tuesday, so that's exciting. Other than not screwing the port in all the way (in my defense, we had a different kind at the clinic I worked at that didn't screw, just was placed in), I totally got it! So that's really exciting.
I did make my chart for this semester, and it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. We have two exams a week for the first four weeks, but after that there's a lot of weeks where we only have one exam...it's kind of sad that that's a break for us, isn't it? And the only time there's 3 exams in a week, one of them is a take-home for behavior (which they insist on calling Animals In Society 2, even though it really isn't). And we have no exams the week after spring break, which is necessary, because there's no way I'm studying when I'm in Disney World. I added an extra column this semester, too, for "Other Major Things," mainly SAVMA convention and the Legislative Fly-In. I'm going to go to DC for a couple of days! I applied sort of the day after it was due, but I got alternate, and then I got an email a while ago that said I'm in! Well, actually it said they were pleased to tell me I'd been chosen as an alternate, which I already knew, but that email went out to people from other schools and was followed by one telling me what to do for it, so I figure that translates to "I'm in."
I'm signed up to feed the birds again this semester (day birds this time--there's only one owl left now, since BAMF passed away, and there's a lot of day birds), but we haven't got the schedule yet. We've already had a bunch of club meetings and sent out our open house requests, which of course remain pretty much blank. We've even had 2 VBMA meetings already: one on Louisiana-specific legislation and one on practice evaluation which wound up being a bunch of boring financial stuff that didn't seem very practical. Um, what else...Last weekend I went home, so that was nice. And my dad found a website that's basically a Farmer's Market that delivers. He got me a king cake that I brought to school, a bunch of blood oranges (which are basically the best, btw), and a couple other things. So that was really cool, too.
I'm still working on summer stuff (and I've only got about a week to finish it all...), but at least I know what I'm applying to: four things this year. My mentor found a project for me...actually two projects. One is the only-takes-two-weeks one, collaborating with several other people to replicate a blood pressure study using the gold standard transducers rather than the commonly used ones as in their last study. The other is a validation of some company's indirect blood pressure measurement. The timing works perfectly, too, since our Italy trip fits nicely in between those two projects. Unfortunately, though, apparently there are a boatload more letters of intent for summer scholars this year than usual, so I'm not sure what the chances are of me getting accepted for that. Thus, I'm applying for other things: Banfield (though I haven't quite figured out where my second and third choice locations are) and Tulane Primate Research Center again, and a diagnostic pathology program at Johns Hopkins. I've lined up my letters of recommendation (as of, um, yesterday) but I still need to write my letter of intent type things, so I'm hoping to work on that today.
I also need to do a lot of studying for urinary and possibly derm today since I won't have a lot of time tomorrow. I'm doing Spay Day tomorrow--and since I went to the ECC wetlab, I'm supposed to be able to intubate some cats! I'm not sure which station I'll work, but I'm probably going to try and do anesthesia again--cat wrangling is still what I'm least comfortable with. I'm also going to a Brian Regan comedy show tomorrow night, which doesn't leave a lot of time for studying! Luckily the urinary test shouldn't be bad, and we've got a good idea of what's going to be on it.
As for my reading challenges, I'm still well ahead. I have now read 10 books so far this month, which is a new record as far as I know--the last time I paid attention to how many books I read in a month was November, when I'd finished 9 and started a 10th by the 30th. I just finished a Mercedes Lackey book, The Black Swan, which I found kind of disappointing. Now I've started Group, a nonfiction book about group therapy, and it's pretty interesting so far. So despite the fact that tests have started, at least I'm keeping up with reading!
Week 3 of second year is done, and with it the first two tests of the semester. They were...probably okay? I'm pretty sure I passed, at any rate, but I'm not really sure how well I did. We're finished with derm path, which means there's only about two weeks left of systemic pathology. We also had our anesthesia midterm--3 weeks left of that, and after Mardi Gras we'll be starting orthopedics and surgery! I also put in my first IV catheter/hit a vein in a dog for the first time at our anesthesia lab on Tuesday, so that's exciting. Other than not screwing the port in all the way (in my defense, we had a different kind at the clinic I worked at that didn't screw, just was placed in), I totally got it! So that's really exciting.
I did make my chart for this semester, and it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. We have two exams a week for the first four weeks, but after that there's a lot of weeks where we only have one exam...it's kind of sad that that's a break for us, isn't it? And the only time there's 3 exams in a week, one of them is a take-home for behavior (which they insist on calling Animals In Society 2, even though it really isn't). And we have no exams the week after spring break, which is necessary, because there's no way I'm studying when I'm in Disney World. I added an extra column this semester, too, for "Other Major Things," mainly SAVMA convention and the Legislative Fly-In. I'm going to go to DC for a couple of days! I applied sort of the day after it was due, but I got alternate, and then I got an email a while ago that said I'm in! Well, actually it said they were pleased to tell me I'd been chosen as an alternate, which I already knew, but that email went out to people from other schools and was followed by one telling me what to do for it, so I figure that translates to "I'm in."
I'm signed up to feed the birds again this semester (day birds this time--there's only one owl left now, since BAMF passed away, and there's a lot of day birds), but we haven't got the schedule yet. We've already had a bunch of club meetings and sent out our open house requests, which of course remain pretty much blank. We've even had 2 VBMA meetings already: one on Louisiana-specific legislation and one on practice evaluation which wound up being a bunch of boring financial stuff that didn't seem very practical. Um, what else...Last weekend I went home, so that was nice. And my dad found a website that's basically a Farmer's Market that delivers. He got me a king cake that I brought to school, a bunch of blood oranges (which are basically the best, btw), and a couple other things. So that was really cool, too.
I'm still working on summer stuff (and I've only got about a week to finish it all...), but at least I know what I'm applying to: four things this year. My mentor found a project for me...actually two projects. One is the only-takes-two-weeks one, collaborating with several other people to replicate a blood pressure study using the gold standard transducers rather than the commonly used ones as in their last study. The other is a validation of some company's indirect blood pressure measurement. The timing works perfectly, too, since our Italy trip fits nicely in between those two projects. Unfortunately, though, apparently there are a boatload more letters of intent for summer scholars this year than usual, so I'm not sure what the chances are of me getting accepted for that. Thus, I'm applying for other things: Banfield (though I haven't quite figured out where my second and third choice locations are) and Tulane Primate Research Center again, and a diagnostic pathology program at Johns Hopkins. I've lined up my letters of recommendation (as of, um, yesterday) but I still need to write my letter of intent type things, so I'm hoping to work on that today.
I also need to do a lot of studying for urinary and possibly derm today since I won't have a lot of time tomorrow. I'm doing Spay Day tomorrow--and since I went to the ECC wetlab, I'm supposed to be able to intubate some cats! I'm not sure which station I'll work, but I'm probably going to try and do anesthesia again--cat wrangling is still what I'm least comfortable with. I'm also going to a Brian Regan comedy show tomorrow night, which doesn't leave a lot of time for studying! Luckily the urinary test shouldn't be bad, and we've got a good idea of what's going to be on it.
As for my reading challenges, I'm still well ahead. I have now read 10 books so far this month, which is a new record as far as I know--the last time I paid attention to how many books I read in a month was November, when I'd finished 9 and started a 10th by the 30th. I just finished a Mercedes Lackey book, The Black Swan, which I found kind of disappointing. Now I've started Group, a nonfiction book about group therapy, and it's pretty interesting so far. So despite the fact that tests have started, at least I'm keeping up with reading!
Saturday, November 8, 2014
So close and yet so far
Hi there; Birdie here!
I have now taken two of my 8 exams in 4 weeks--Clin path exam 2 and Virology exam 1. In 3 more weeks, I'll be done with the hard part of the semester...it's not that long except that I also have 6 tests to go before then. I'm really looking forward to PBL after Thanksgiving.
Clin path was...not as great as last time. We still haven't gotten our grades back (even though they were supposed to be in our boxes Friday morning at the latest...) so I don't know exactly how bad it was, but the instructor sent out an email indicating that he was disappointed we didn't do as well as on the first exam. Virology, on the other hand--for all our stressing out about it--wasn't too bad. It was LONG (75 questions, most of which were 4-5 lines long not counting the answer choices) and a very complete assessment, but I thought it was very fair. There were only a couple of questions I straight up did not study, and nothing I was wondering "Where did this come from?" I'm really glad I went to his review session on Thursday; there were We just took that yesterday, but apparently he's already got the grades back because he sent out the distribution curve. It looked pretty reasonable to me--there were a good number of A's, and I think I'm one of them.
I did take time out of my studying Tuesday to go vote! Pretty much the entire evening out of my studying, tbh. I didn't realize the election was this week until the day before it happened, and I'm registered where my parents live, not in Baton Rouge. So I drove the hour there and back to vote, and got to have dinner with my mom and brother while I was there. Totally worth it, especially since I did get the dinner. Voting is Important.
Next week we only have one exam, but it's our cumulative final in Pharmacology. At least we'll actually have two hours for it this time...but it's also basically two tests in one, since we've covered a whole test's worth of new stuff. It's really quite intimidating. But I've done well in the class so far, and I just ran a grade calculator--if I get at least a decent B on this, I can keep my A. The exam got moved to Thursday, too--which is mildly inconvenient for the Pathology club wetlab we have planned for Wednesday, but really good for giving us more time to study. I'm planning to try and get on top of Systemic path this week, too, since that exam is next week and it's a ton of material.
So, um. You know how I'm not doing NaNoWriMo this November? Well, apparently I can't let November go by without taking a challenge. There's a thing on tumblr called the Book Photo Challenge where tumblr user books-cupcakes puts up a list of prompts for each day of the month, and you put up a photo for each day. So I am actually doing that. My favorite picture is still the first one I took:
I was reading on my bed and suddenly remembered that the challenge had started, so it was kind of spontaneous. I'm really happy with how it turned out. What I'm reading now, though, is The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. Somewhat conveniently, the main events of the novel take place in October/November. I love it when book-time matches up with real-time (sidenote: it's practically essential for holiday books). I bought it when I went into Barnes & Noble to get some shots for the Photo Challenge, but I've been thinking of getting it for a while since it came up on a search for Fantasy horse books. Despite the craziness of the bloodthirsty water horses, there are still normal horses and as a rider I appreciate the horse knowledge that went into it. I'm not quite 100 pages in yet, but so far I can at least say that I want to keep reading.
Speaking of horses...I am going to be riding in a jumping clinic tomorrow, like I mentioned last week. Only now I've ridden Isabella. She's...a challenge, that's a nice way to put it. I don't know what's wrong with me that I can't manage to have a good second course, but this one was BAD. We got around the whole course the first time (though she tried to run out at the first jump), and not badly either. But the second course was just a little more complicated, and Isabella refused a jump. And then went on to refuse about a dozen more jumps, including a crossrail. My instructor said it was because she was tired and didn't want to work (she had been ridden in the previous lesson, and schooled earlier), but that still didn't make me feel great about my riding. It's not very fun to spend half the lesson failing to get your horse over a single jump. Despite how blatantly terrible I was on Isabella, my instructor still wants me to ride her in the clinic. And I will, of course, but I don't think it will be as much fun as my ride last week. I wish I could have done the clinic on her instead. It's probably a good thing that I'll have to work with Isabella again--but I would prefer to do the clinic on a horse I actually work well with. I did at least trot a whole lap without stirrups, so that's something. Alea said next week we'll be starting No-Stirrups November, so that's apparently a thing.
I am really proud of myself regarding running, though! Last Friday I went running after school, and actually used the workout app I recently learned my iPod has so I could track my miles and my time. I had a good bit to run away from, between the Parasitology exams (no, I still don't know how I did) and Halloween stuff, and I actually ran the whole 4 miles! Actually, according to the app, it was 4.9 miles, but I don't know how much to trust that. And I was really proud of that, especially at an 8:09 mile, but I didn't really think that meant I could regularly run 4 miles...until this morning! I don't have my time because my iPod died halfway through (pretty near literally halfway, I think, now that I know the distance more concretely per the app), but I did definitely run the whole loop, and that's definitely 4 miles.
On Wednesday we had our first and only DIC wetlab of the semester, on ultrasound. It was the first successful wetlab since I've been an officer, but this time actually a good number of people came! We had two stations to practice ultrasound on live dogs, and one station with a cadaver dog so we could practice ultrasound-guided aspirates and biopsies. I took a bunch of pictures as Historian (but they're not on the computer yet and I'm not sure I'd want to put them up here anyway) and also got to do the things myself. It was the first time I looked at an ultrasound of the liver and recognized it as liver. I was only okay at finding things, but I'm getting a lot better at knowing what I'm looking at, and I feel like that's half the battle with ultrasound. I'm really glad I got a chance to do that, and I'm glad it was (for once!) successful.
Last night we had a VBMA dinner meeting where a vet from Texas came to talk to us about professionalism and also practice management. About half the time was him answering questions, and he kept asking for more questions and even picking out a random person in the audience and asking them to come up with a question (which I'm not really cool with). He made some interesting points, especially about "live to work" vs "work to live." According to one study he cited, people in large animal or mixed animal medicine are mostly "live to work," and "work to live" people can only be happy in small animal medicine. If that's the case, there is less a shortage of large animal vets and more a shortage of vets who would be happy in that career. It was a pretty interesting presentation, and I'm really glad I went. I went up and talked to him afterwards (especially after he said how he wanted to greet everyone as they came in) and gave him my card. I asked him to email me stuff about marketing, since he mentioned that he'd had some great success with that. I really like this idea for future networking--if I'm giving my card to somebody and I actually care (I give out a lot of business cards just because I can, and I've got 250 of them and they'll all be obsolete in 3 years), to ask them to email me about something specific. I'm still not sure whether I really care about networking with this particular vet, but he was really engaging--in that I personally asked a lot of questions, which I don't normally do. So, you know. I roll with it.
Well, I've effectively spent all morning not-studying. I'm going to grab some lunch and then get to work on this Pharm thing. Only 3 more weeks of exams!
I have now taken two of my 8 exams in 4 weeks--Clin path exam 2 and Virology exam 1. In 3 more weeks, I'll be done with the hard part of the semester...it's not that long except that I also have 6 tests to go before then. I'm really looking forward to PBL after Thanksgiving.
Clin path was...not as great as last time. We still haven't gotten our grades back (even though they were supposed to be in our boxes Friday morning at the latest...) so I don't know exactly how bad it was, but the instructor sent out an email indicating that he was disappointed we didn't do as well as on the first exam. Virology, on the other hand--for all our stressing out about it--wasn't too bad. It was LONG (75 questions, most of which were 4-5 lines long not counting the answer choices) and a very complete assessment, but I thought it was very fair. There were only a couple of questions I straight up did not study, and nothing I was wondering "Where did this come from?" I'm really glad I went to his review session on Thursday; there were We just took that yesterday, but apparently he's already got the grades back because he sent out the distribution curve. It looked pretty reasonable to me--there were a good number of A's, and I think I'm one of them.
I did take time out of my studying Tuesday to go vote! Pretty much the entire evening out of my studying, tbh. I didn't realize the election was this week until the day before it happened, and I'm registered where my parents live, not in Baton Rouge. So I drove the hour there and back to vote, and got to have dinner with my mom and brother while I was there. Totally worth it, especially since I did get the dinner. Voting is Important.
Next week we only have one exam, but it's our cumulative final in Pharmacology. At least we'll actually have two hours for it this time...but it's also basically two tests in one, since we've covered a whole test's worth of new stuff. It's really quite intimidating. But I've done well in the class so far, and I just ran a grade calculator--if I get at least a decent B on this, I can keep my A. The exam got moved to Thursday, too--which is mildly inconvenient for the Pathology club wetlab we have planned for Wednesday, but really good for giving us more time to study. I'm planning to try and get on top of Systemic path this week, too, since that exam is next week and it's a ton of material.
So, um. You know how I'm not doing NaNoWriMo this November? Well, apparently I can't let November go by without taking a challenge. There's a thing on tumblr called the Book Photo Challenge where tumblr user books-cupcakes puts up a list of prompts for each day of the month, and you put up a photo for each day. So I am actually doing that. My favorite picture is still the first one I took:
 |
| For November 1--Currently Reading; I actually finished it that day! |
Speaking of horses...I am going to be riding in a jumping clinic tomorrow, like I mentioned last week. Only now I've ridden Isabella. She's...a challenge, that's a nice way to put it. I don't know what's wrong with me that I can't manage to have a good second course, but this one was BAD. We got around the whole course the first time (though she tried to run out at the first jump), and not badly either. But the second course was just a little more complicated, and Isabella refused a jump. And then went on to refuse about a dozen more jumps, including a crossrail. My instructor said it was because she was tired and didn't want to work (she had been ridden in the previous lesson, and schooled earlier), but that still didn't make me feel great about my riding. It's not very fun to spend half the lesson failing to get your horse over a single jump. Despite how blatantly terrible I was on Isabella, my instructor still wants me to ride her in the clinic. And I will, of course, but I don't think it will be as much fun as my ride last week. I wish I could have done the clinic on her instead. It's probably a good thing that I'll have to work with Isabella again--but I would prefer to do the clinic on a horse I actually work well with. I did at least trot a whole lap without stirrups, so that's something. Alea said next week we'll be starting No-Stirrups November, so that's apparently a thing.
I am really proud of myself regarding running, though! Last Friday I went running after school, and actually used the workout app I recently learned my iPod has so I could track my miles and my time. I had a good bit to run away from, between the Parasitology exams (no, I still don't know how I did) and Halloween stuff, and I actually ran the whole 4 miles! Actually, according to the app, it was 4.9 miles, but I don't know how much to trust that. And I was really proud of that, especially at an 8:09 mile, but I didn't really think that meant I could regularly run 4 miles...until this morning! I don't have my time because my iPod died halfway through (pretty near literally halfway, I think, now that I know the distance more concretely per the app), but I did definitely run the whole loop, and that's definitely 4 miles.
On Wednesday we had our first and only DIC wetlab of the semester, on ultrasound. It was the first successful wetlab since I've been an officer, but this time actually a good number of people came! We had two stations to practice ultrasound on live dogs, and one station with a cadaver dog so we could practice ultrasound-guided aspirates and biopsies. I took a bunch of pictures as Historian (but they're not on the computer yet and I'm not sure I'd want to put them up here anyway) and also got to do the things myself. It was the first time I looked at an ultrasound of the liver and recognized it as liver. I was only okay at finding things, but I'm getting a lot better at knowing what I'm looking at, and I feel like that's half the battle with ultrasound. I'm really glad I got a chance to do that, and I'm glad it was (for once!) successful.
Last night we had a VBMA dinner meeting where a vet from Texas came to talk to us about professionalism and also practice management. About half the time was him answering questions, and he kept asking for more questions and even picking out a random person in the audience and asking them to come up with a question (which I'm not really cool with). He made some interesting points, especially about "live to work" vs "work to live." According to one study he cited, people in large animal or mixed animal medicine are mostly "live to work," and "work to live" people can only be happy in small animal medicine. If that's the case, there is less a shortage of large animal vets and more a shortage of vets who would be happy in that career. It was a pretty interesting presentation, and I'm really glad I went. I went up and talked to him afterwards (especially after he said how he wanted to greet everyone as they came in) and gave him my card. I asked him to email me stuff about marketing, since he mentioned that he'd had some great success with that. I really like this idea for future networking--if I'm giving my card to somebody and I actually care (I give out a lot of business cards just because I can, and I've got 250 of them and they'll all be obsolete in 3 years), to ask them to email me about something specific. I'm still not sure whether I really care about networking with this particular vet, but he was really engaging--in that I personally asked a lot of questions, which I don't normally do. So, you know. I roll with it.
Well, I've effectively spent all morning not-studying. I'm going to grab some lunch and then get to work on this Pharm thing. Only 3 more weeks of exams!
Friday, October 10, 2014
So much everything
Hi there; Birdie here!
Fall break was so not long enough, especially since I spent most of it at the dentist, planning a spring break trip with my family, and making trips to like 4 stores to get my new phone. Not exactly the leas stressful! I finally did get my phone, though (in Baton Rouge, actually, rather than where my parents live). My sister got an iPhone 6, but I chose to upgrade to a 5s instead. The 6 is what I refer to as "stupid big." I can't use it with one hand, and I can't fit it in my pocket. To me, part of the point of modern technology is convenience. So what's the point of having the newest and best tech if I can't easily use it? I love my 5s. I got a really cool purple-and-blue-tone space print case for it, and the ability to unlock it with my fingerprint is awesome! I've got the thumb and forefinger of both hands programmed in, and I'm actually locking my phone now. I never used the passcode feature with my 4.
Also on the technology front, I secured the first place prize for our Josh Project chili cook-off--an iPad mini! It took forever to get in touch with the right person, but I finally got confirmation, and I'm going to pick it up on Monday! The cook-off is coming up really soon now, just two weeks from tomorrow. We're having another committee meeting on Monday to talk about it. We still haven't got any first years on the committee though...I'm going to plug it in the email I send out in the next day or so for sign-ups for the cook-off.
Today we finished our first class of the semester--endocrine final this morning. It was...not ideal, but I think I did well. Almost certainly well enough to make an A, given that I've currently got over 100% in the class. We got a couple of exams back, too. I made an A in pharm, so that's good! Apparently (and surprisingly, I think), that's not the class I need to worry about most. Despite my studying (and I really think I did know things!) I didn't do as well as I would have liked on the parasitology exam. By quite a lot, actually. It's going to be difficult to pull my grade back up to an A now; I'll practically have to ace the final. I'd really like to know the class average for that exam--I'm not sure whether it was really that tough an exam or whether I just failed at studying for it. It's really making me feel pretty bad about my academics.
I'm questioning whether I will be able to do the horse show like my instructor wants when we have a pharm exam that next Tuesday. Especially since I'd just be doing trot-in-canter-out crossrails to verticals. I do still really want to do it though...I'll have to decide probably tomorrow. I rode a new horse at my lesson yesterday: a beautiful bay named Sailor. I liked him a lot. He did keep trying to canter in to the combination we were supposed to trot though. And of course I'm still basically incapable of landing on the left lead--I have no clue why!
In other non-academic news, I went to deliver Josh Kits to children at the hospital on Tuesday. I was The Committee Member who went, with a classmate in my year and a first year. I'm really glad I went, even though I was worrying about studying.
I went to a couple of interesting lunch talks this week. On Wednesday Dr. Mauterer, who runs the vet part of the Dream Clinic, gave a talk sponsored by Zoetis. Unfortunately, it was double-scheduled, so I had to miss the internal medicine club meeting, too. I wish the club meeting had been the day before or after so I could do both. Then today, a dental specialist gave us a sort of intro to small animal dentistry. He talked a lot about the virtues of dental radiographs, and it was pretty convincing. I talked to him after about potentially doing a wetlab with DIC, and he seemed somewhat interested. Unfortunately, he didn't have any cards, but he told me who to talk to to get to him. It would be nice to have that, especially since I know people at other schools have really enjoyed a dental radiograph wetlab.
Today I really should be studying, since we have two exams next week (clin path and systemic path) and especially since I'll be busy pretty much all day tomorrow at a CE (I think?) ultrasound workshop. In fact, there are multiple things I could be doing tomorrow: it's a raptor work day, and the Dream Clinic is happening tomorrow too. Well, it was--actually, it got cancelled due to the Ebola scare in New Orleans! So I'm glad I wound up getting into the ultrasound thing. I'd asked to be in it a while ago and got a response back that it was full--then earlier this week I got the email saying what the schedule is! I'm pretty excited, and I'm sure I'll learn a lot. Unfortunately, it means I have to be there at 8 tomorrow morning--and stay until 5, losing hours of study time.
Despite that, what I did when I got home was finish my book. I only just got around to reading the newest Sarah Dessen book, The Moon and More. Which is a very summery book to be reading in October, but that's okay (especially since I often forget it's not August, anyway. Yay South?). It's not my favorite of her books, but it's still really good--especially at the end. A good ending is very important to me in a book. {Spoilers upcoming!} I usually think of Sarah Dessen as a romance writer, but I'm not sure this book actually qualifies since the protagonist actually ends up with neither of the boys. And I actually really like it that way. Also, I liked how some of the side characters got some development, too. It's put me in quite a bit of a book mood, and I would really like to read something else, or even write...but now I have to actually study. At least I'm halfway through the semester?
Fall break was so not long enough, especially since I spent most of it at the dentist, planning a spring break trip with my family, and making trips to like 4 stores to get my new phone. Not exactly the leas stressful! I finally did get my phone, though (in Baton Rouge, actually, rather than where my parents live). My sister got an iPhone 6, but I chose to upgrade to a 5s instead. The 6 is what I refer to as "stupid big." I can't use it with one hand, and I can't fit it in my pocket. To me, part of the point of modern technology is convenience. So what's the point of having the newest and best tech if I can't easily use it? I love my 5s. I got a really cool purple-and-blue-tone space print case for it, and the ability to unlock it with my fingerprint is awesome! I've got the thumb and forefinger of both hands programmed in, and I'm actually locking my phone now. I never used the passcode feature with my 4.
Also on the technology front, I secured the first place prize for our Josh Project chili cook-off--an iPad mini! It took forever to get in touch with the right person, but I finally got confirmation, and I'm going to pick it up on Monday! The cook-off is coming up really soon now, just two weeks from tomorrow. We're having another committee meeting on Monday to talk about it. We still haven't got any first years on the committee though...I'm going to plug it in the email I send out in the next day or so for sign-ups for the cook-off.
Today we finished our first class of the semester--endocrine final this morning. It was...not ideal, but I think I did well. Almost certainly well enough to make an A, given that I've currently got over 100% in the class. We got a couple of exams back, too. I made an A in pharm, so that's good! Apparently (and surprisingly, I think), that's not the class I need to worry about most. Despite my studying (and I really think I did know things!) I didn't do as well as I would have liked on the parasitology exam. By quite a lot, actually. It's going to be difficult to pull my grade back up to an A now; I'll practically have to ace the final. I'd really like to know the class average for that exam--I'm not sure whether it was really that tough an exam or whether I just failed at studying for it. It's really making me feel pretty bad about my academics.
I'm questioning whether I will be able to do the horse show like my instructor wants when we have a pharm exam that next Tuesday. Especially since I'd just be doing trot-in-canter-out crossrails to verticals. I do still really want to do it though...I'll have to decide probably tomorrow. I rode a new horse at my lesson yesterday: a beautiful bay named Sailor. I liked him a lot. He did keep trying to canter in to the combination we were supposed to trot though. And of course I'm still basically incapable of landing on the left lead--I have no clue why!
In other non-academic news, I went to deliver Josh Kits to children at the hospital on Tuesday. I was The Committee Member who went, with a classmate in my year and a first year. I'm really glad I went, even though I was worrying about studying.
I went to a couple of interesting lunch talks this week. On Wednesday Dr. Mauterer, who runs the vet part of the Dream Clinic, gave a talk sponsored by Zoetis. Unfortunately, it was double-scheduled, so I had to miss the internal medicine club meeting, too. I wish the club meeting had been the day before or after so I could do both. Then today, a dental specialist gave us a sort of intro to small animal dentistry. He talked a lot about the virtues of dental radiographs, and it was pretty convincing. I talked to him after about potentially doing a wetlab with DIC, and he seemed somewhat interested. Unfortunately, he didn't have any cards, but he told me who to talk to to get to him. It would be nice to have that, especially since I know people at other schools have really enjoyed a dental radiograph wetlab.
Today I really should be studying, since we have two exams next week (clin path and systemic path) and especially since I'll be busy pretty much all day tomorrow at a CE (I think?) ultrasound workshop. In fact, there are multiple things I could be doing tomorrow: it's a raptor work day, and the Dream Clinic is happening tomorrow too. Well, it was--actually, it got cancelled due to the Ebola scare in New Orleans! So I'm glad I wound up getting into the ultrasound thing. I'd asked to be in it a while ago and got a response back that it was full--then earlier this week I got the email saying what the schedule is! I'm pretty excited, and I'm sure I'll learn a lot. Unfortunately, it means I have to be there at 8 tomorrow morning--and stay until 5, losing hours of study time.
Despite that, what I did when I got home was finish my book. I only just got around to reading the newest Sarah Dessen book, The Moon and More. Which is a very summery book to be reading in October, but that's okay (especially since I often forget it's not August, anyway. Yay South?). It's not my favorite of her books, but it's still really good--especially at the end. A good ending is very important to me in a book. {Spoilers upcoming!} I usually think of Sarah Dessen as a romance writer, but I'm not sure this book actually qualifies since the protagonist actually ends up with neither of the boys. And I actually really like it that way. Also, I liked how some of the side characters got some development, too. It's put me in quite a bit of a book mood, and I would really like to read something else, or even write...but now I have to actually study. At least I'm halfway through the semester?
Friday, September 5, 2014
Oh yes, this is second year
Hi there; Birdie here!
Today we had our first parasitology exam. Two exams, kind of, because we had a written in the morning and a lab practical in the afternoon. Neither of them was that bad, really, and I think I did pretty well on both of them. But I spent a lot of time on that class (especially if you count the time I spent studying for the 2 weekly quizzes on some of that material), and I don't really want to spend this evening studying, too. BUT since this is second year and we have two tests nearly every week, and at least one test every week but two (and one of them was last week), I already need to get on that. Especially since next week we have our first exam in Pharmacology, which as I understand it is basically the anatomy of second year. So I'm pretty worried about it. I haven't actually gotten to that studying yet...but I should at least get something done tonight.
Other than lots of studying, our first and uneventful DIC meeting, and a therio club meeting I attended purely for the free pizza, this week wasn't too exciting. I did order coveralls, though--therio club is selling embroidered coveralls as a fundraiser, and once we get them I can probably wear them to path club's big wetlabs, too. So that's cool.
This year my big sib didn't pass on anything, so I'm compiling a bunch of virtual resources onto a flash drive for my li'l sib. Today I actually got an email, though, from a friend in 4th year with a bunch of electronic resources that should be super helpful! I'm really glad for that. It's nice to not constantly have to rely on what other people put on dropbox.
I went to the Doctor Who viewing at the Mexican restaurant, too. I've probably mentioned it before, since I went for the 50th and also last week. I haven't found a good way to watch online, and since Certain People like to give me random comments about the episodes on Saturdays when they come out, I want to watch them as soon as possible. Which is apparently on Tuesdays at dinner. For the 50th and the first episode with the 12th doctor, it was a really good experience. Everyone was really excited, and it helped me get into the episode. This week, though, it was less great. I missed a bit of the beginning due to being stuck in traffic, and then people were kind of loud and made it harder to watch. One guy even wanted to do introductions and stuff in the middle of the episode. Like, I thought this was a Doctor Who viewing group? I'm not against a bit of commentary, but can we respect the show enough to not carry on unrelated conversations while I'm watching the new episode for the first time? So I don't know if I'm going back next Tuesday. When I was driving home, I was thinking definitely not. But, well, I still don't have a good alternative to watch the episode. So we'll see.
I also had my second riding lesson. This time I was on a bay mare named Lily, and all the lessons rode inside because it was raining. I will never get over being thankful for having an indoor arena--before I went to college, the barn where I rode had a few different rings, but none that were covered. So I've had several lessons canceled just because it rained. But this week, I still got to ride! There was a little gymnastic set up with 3 pretty low jumps that we went over a few times. We were pretty good, except that Lily kept landing on the wrong lead...even though the correct lead was the one she usually picks up automatically. So that's on me. I got the correct lead a few times, but mostly it was wrong. Especially at the end when I was jumping with one hand behind my back. At the very end of the lesson, my instructor asked me to post the trot with no stirrups for half a lap. I used to do no-stirrups work all the time in undergrad, and I really want to be good at it (and to get my muscle back)...plus, even in the huge ring we were working in, half a lap isn't much. So I did a lap and a half. I probably could have finished a full two laps except that my instructor asked me to come back in. So that, at least, made me feel pretty good about myself.
You know how last weekend was the first LSU football game? This weekend is the first home game. I've got a ticket, because my dad made me buy the season pass, and it's surprising how difficult it is to get rid of! I've messaged two people already who were looking to get a ticket, but one meant for next weekend and the other already decided not to go. So now I've got a couple more facebook messages waiting in the ether for the person to hopefully see it and respond...hopefully both of them don't try to take me up on it! And no, I really don't want to actually go to the game. See: pharm test on Tuesday.
Despite all that studying, I've also been doing some reading just for myself. I don't usually go for nonfiction (although there's a lot more of it on my to-read list now than there has been in the past), but I'm currently reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain. I'm about halfway to 2/3 of the way through it now, and it's really interesting. Sometimes I get kind of irritated, but generally the author seems to realize the importance of balance more than pushing an "Introvert Ideal" to counter the Extrovert Ideal she talks about. It also brings up a lot of questions that I find interesting, especially with my psych major background. Sometimes I wish I were having a conversation with her about this stuff instead of just reading it so I could ask her a bunch of questions (though, admittedly, frequently those questions are about what the control group was or how significance was calculated, for experiments she didn't even run). I haven't finished it yet, but I'm hoping to read the rest this weekend probably. You know, in between all the studying that also needs to happen.
Today we had our first parasitology exam. Two exams, kind of, because we had a written in the morning and a lab practical in the afternoon. Neither of them was that bad, really, and I think I did pretty well on both of them. But I spent a lot of time on that class (especially if you count the time I spent studying for the 2 weekly quizzes on some of that material), and I don't really want to spend this evening studying, too. BUT since this is second year and we have two tests nearly every week, and at least one test every week but two (and one of them was last week), I already need to get on that. Especially since next week we have our first exam in Pharmacology, which as I understand it is basically the anatomy of second year. So I'm pretty worried about it. I haven't actually gotten to that studying yet...but I should at least get something done tonight.
Other than lots of studying, our first and uneventful DIC meeting, and a therio club meeting I attended purely for the free pizza, this week wasn't too exciting. I did order coveralls, though--therio club is selling embroidered coveralls as a fundraiser, and once we get them I can probably wear them to path club's big wetlabs, too. So that's cool.
This year my big sib didn't pass on anything, so I'm compiling a bunch of virtual resources onto a flash drive for my li'l sib. Today I actually got an email, though, from a friend in 4th year with a bunch of electronic resources that should be super helpful! I'm really glad for that. It's nice to not constantly have to rely on what other people put on dropbox.
I went to the Doctor Who viewing at the Mexican restaurant, too. I've probably mentioned it before, since I went for the 50th and also last week. I haven't found a good way to watch online, and since Certain People like to give me random comments about the episodes on Saturdays when they come out, I want to watch them as soon as possible. Which is apparently on Tuesdays at dinner. For the 50th and the first episode with the 12th doctor, it was a really good experience. Everyone was really excited, and it helped me get into the episode. This week, though, it was less great. I missed a bit of the beginning due to being stuck in traffic, and then people were kind of loud and made it harder to watch. One guy even wanted to do introductions and stuff in the middle of the episode. Like, I thought this was a Doctor Who viewing group? I'm not against a bit of commentary, but can we respect the show enough to not carry on unrelated conversations while I'm watching the new episode for the first time? So I don't know if I'm going back next Tuesday. When I was driving home, I was thinking definitely not. But, well, I still don't have a good alternative to watch the episode. So we'll see.
I also had my second riding lesson. This time I was on a bay mare named Lily, and all the lessons rode inside because it was raining. I will never get over being thankful for having an indoor arena--before I went to college, the barn where I rode had a few different rings, but none that were covered. So I've had several lessons canceled just because it rained. But this week, I still got to ride! There was a little gymnastic set up with 3 pretty low jumps that we went over a few times. We were pretty good, except that Lily kept landing on the wrong lead...even though the correct lead was the one she usually picks up automatically. So that's on me. I got the correct lead a few times, but mostly it was wrong. Especially at the end when I was jumping with one hand behind my back. At the very end of the lesson, my instructor asked me to post the trot with no stirrups for half a lap. I used to do no-stirrups work all the time in undergrad, and I really want to be good at it (and to get my muscle back)...plus, even in the huge ring we were working in, half a lap isn't much. So I did a lap and a half. I probably could have finished a full two laps except that my instructor asked me to come back in. So that, at least, made me feel pretty good about myself.
You know how last weekend was the first LSU football game? This weekend is the first home game. I've got a ticket, because my dad made me buy the season pass, and it's surprising how difficult it is to get rid of! I've messaged two people already who were looking to get a ticket, but one meant for next weekend and the other already decided not to go. So now I've got a couple more facebook messages waiting in the ether for the person to hopefully see it and respond...hopefully both of them don't try to take me up on it! And no, I really don't want to actually go to the game. See: pharm test on Tuesday.
Despite all that studying, I've also been doing some reading just for myself. I don't usually go for nonfiction (although there's a lot more of it on my to-read list now than there has been in the past), but I'm currently reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain. I'm about halfway to 2/3 of the way through it now, and it's really interesting. Sometimes I get kind of irritated, but generally the author seems to realize the importance of balance more than pushing an "Introvert Ideal" to counter the Extrovert Ideal she talks about. It also brings up a lot of questions that I find interesting, especially with my psych major background. Sometimes I wish I were having a conversation with her about this stuff instead of just reading it so I could ask her a bunch of questions (though, admittedly, frequently those questions are about what the control group was or how significance was calculated, for experiments she didn't even run). I haven't finished it yet, but I'm hoping to read the rest this weekend probably. You know, in between all the studying that also needs to happen.
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