Missed me?

Hi there; Birdie here!

Excluding the physiology exam this morning (for which I hope my guesses were educated enough), today is a really great day. I had a surgery club meeting at lunch, which meant I got free Chinese food and got to learn about arthroscopy. Apparently all the time I spend playing video games is practically training to be good at arthroscopy! Then in anatomy lab, it was a bone day. I spent most of the time wandering between tables and talking with different little groups of people. We talked about a lot of random stuff, and I learned all the major bones of the skull and the hyoid apparatus. All the little tubercles and foramina can wait a little while longer. ;) Then I went with a friend to walk her roommate's dog and my roommate and her dog, to a little park where we jumped the dogs over benches and played with them. And then later I went out to dinner with a bunch of my classmates to celebrate being done with tests until after Thanksgiving break! The weekend should be good, too--see above, no tests. Plus I'm going to see the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special in 3D tomorrow! I don't usually like movies in 3D, but I'm making an exception for this.

It's been a while since I've written, hasn't it? Two Fridays ago it was our Fall Break. I'm not sure why LSU decided that we should only have two weeks between Fall Break and Thanksgiving, but that's what it is. Unfortunately, we had our anatomy exam (specifically, "the one everyone fails") the next week, but I did go home for the Thursday and Friday that we had off. Then I spent the next two days in the lab and in a study room at school. Considering the warning, I consider that it paid off--I got a B! Then last weekend I went home again. We got a coupon for tickets to the Renaissance Fair about half an hour away from my parents' house, so we all went together. Unfortunately my little brother was being a jerk for pretty much all of it and I didn't get the twisty dragon or crystal hair ornament I wanted, but I got to ride a dragon swing, see a joust, and drink a pumpkin pie smoothie. Then on Sunday night I went to see Celtic Thunder in concert! Last year one of my friends got free tickets to see them in Albany (or thereabouts) and took me and another friend, and I've loved them ever since! Ryan sang House of the Rising Sun, which got a big reaction considering that the concert was in New Orleans. Anyway, between having little school stuff to share and being busy driving on Fridays, I haven't had much time to update.

It turns out that maybe I shouldn't have bought that concert ticket, though. Did I mention how I had to get rabies vaccines back in August/September? Well, the school just cashed my check (from three months ago), so my bank account was suddenly down $600. So if you're going to start vet school and get rabies vaccines, watch out for that.

I've done a couple more wetlabs since I last wrote. One was for diagnostic imaging club: small animal ultrasound. I wound up at the hardest station first: the adrenal gland. I managed to find it really quickly, though! I guess I used up all my luck at that station, though. I couldn't quite follow the intestines or find the bladder easily. I didn't get to the liver/spleen table, either. Oh well--next time! I also did a clinical pathology wetlab, practicing mass aspiration (on banana chunks in caulk) and blood smears and dip staining. I wasn't very good at either of the clinical skills, but it was good practice, and the clinician we were working with was really cool. He spent a good bit of the time telling stories about a trip with his kids to Disney. Oh, and a much less clinical thing: there was a grad panel (with free dinner, always a plus). They had like 6 veterinarians (including a radiology resident) talking about post-graduation stuff. There was a bit of a debate about whether internships are worth it, and the whole thing took 3 hours, which I was not prepared for. I'm still glad I went though, even if I didn't have business cards to "network" yet (I'd just ordered them, and didn't get them until the next weekend or so).

If you're wondering about the novel I mentioned last time, I'm still writing it. I'm only one day behind the target word count for today, which I consider acceptable--I can pretty easily write 3,333 words (two days' worth) in a day on a weekend when I've got more than a couple of hours to write. I've also done a few write-ins; it's really nice to have a group to write with, as opposed to just doing it on my own like I did in undergrad. I've also discovered a great coffee shop in Baton Rouge: it's called Brew Ha Ha, and they're famous for cake balls. So far I've had funfetti (my personal favorite), wedding cake, pumpkin, and oreo flavors. Also, my variation of a drink (I don't like coffee, so I ordered a frozen drink with chai instead) is famous now, apparently.

Last thing: I've figured out what I'm applying for this summer. I'm applying to three things, so hopefully I get one of them. The first deadline is the end of December, and I need to submit my part of the application before I can get my recommendations in, so I'm hoping to send that in this weekend. I think that's for the serious 100% research one--but it's with NASA, so it's really cool. The other two are more directly veterinary: the Tulane Primate Research Center Fellowship and the Banfield student job program. I learned about the Banfield one when they had a lunch talk--since what I probably want to do is small animal, it would be a super great experience for me to get some real clinical skills experience, and they have great mentorship. I'm honestly really excited about whatever one I'm writing about at the moment. Hopefully I get into one of them!