This is probably a bad idea

Hi there; Birdie here!

If you're wondering what the title is about, it's NaNoWriMo. If you don't know what that is...well, you can google it, but I'll give you the short version. It's a Thing on the Internet in which people all over the world try to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Considering I'm also in vet school, you can see why this could be a very bad idea. But I'm going to do it anyway. I won every year in undergrad and I have an idea I really want to write, so I'm trying to keep it up. Still haven't started a single word for today, the day it starts, of course...

I helped sell a few bandanas for Josh Project at the picnic last Friday. One woman who came to look at our stuff was wearing a class ring from my high school, so we chatted a bit. Our class also had a Halloween party on Friday. I wasn't going to go, but at the last minute I threw together a costume (Time Traveler: frilly shirt from a convention outfit with skinny jeans and boots, accessorized with a bulky pair of steampunk-style goggles and a space-patterned ribbon tied in a big bow around my neck). Everyone's costumes reminded me of conventions quite a lot, actually--we had people dressed as the girl from Archer, Miley Cyrus from Wrecking Ball, a pirate, and quite a few superheroes (plus one Clark Kent).

Sunday was my second Spay Day, and the last one of the semester. I was in recovery this time. We basically had a line of cats we were watching, turning over every once in a while, and putting back in their carriers when they woke up. Part of the recovery station also dealt with tattooing and ear notching, but I didn't do that part. We had a lot fewer volunteers than last time; only about 30 people signed up. We still managed to spay and neuter something like 155 cats, though! With that and the mandatory SCAVMA meeting on Tuesday, I have all the SCAVMA points I need for the whole year! I'm actually considering getting more involved in SCAVMA. I'm not a fan of the AVMA and how they don't seem to be addressing our overcapacity and rising debt concerns, but maybe I could help fix that from the inside. Eh, probably not...it's just an idea.

I did wind up with a leadership position in a club anyway, though: historian for diagnostic imaging club. We had elections at the meeting today, and people were nominated for president, VP, etc. but no one stepped up for historian. One of the current officers said "she wants to do it," gesturing sort of at me, so I said "sure, I'll do it." It means I'm in charge of taking pictures at wetlabs and organizing our display in the hallway--not too bad, and probably kind of fun! The meeting today was pretty awesome, actually. We played diagnostic imaging jeopardy. I think I was the only first year on my team, but I managed to get a couple of the questions right for my team, starting with the very first one! Luckily "basics" (aka everything we just covered for our exam) was one of the categories. The final jeopardy question was an anatomy one: name the indicated structure (trochanteric fossa of the femur) and three muscles that attach there. We were freaking out on time, so we only got two of the three, but I feel good that I personally steered us away from a totally wrong answer and got one of the right muscles. It was very close--314 to 310--but my team won! I really like DIC--if I'm going to have a position in a club, I'm pretty happy with it being that one. Diagnostic imaging has always been one of the things I'm really excited about learning in vet school. I'm actually going to an abdominal ultrasound wetlab with them on Sunday, so that should be good.

I'm also feeding a bird again this week. I have BAMF again. Even though I'm more confident that I know how to fist them, I still haven't successfully got him. He keeps flying away every time I try. My friend, who has Professor this week, tried fisting BAMF and got him for a few seconds at least, which is more than I did. But I feel a little better because I was able to fist Professor 3 times when she was having trouble with him.

I have two tests next week: physiology on Monday and histology Tuesday. I'm more worried about physio, mostly just that I won't have the time I need to sit with it in order to memorize all the pressures and formulas for the exam. It's cardiovascular physiology right now. I'm surprised how useful my physics II class is for this. I really didn't see how all that electrical stuff would be relevant in vet school, but blood flow is basically a circuit. One of the things we have to know is a form of Ohm's Law, and another is basically resistance when vessels are in series or in parallel. So if you're a pre-vet in physics wondering why you have to take this stupid class...it actually is helpful in your vet school classes for you to know.

What I'm even more worried about is anatomy. This is the first time that we have just literally not had enough time for anatomy lab. Suddenly we have a ton of lectures, and we're also covering probably 2-4 times as much information as either of the previous exams. This is the blood vessels and nerves exam--for pelvic limb, thoracic limb, thorax, abdomen, and probably pelvis--PLUS all the internal organs. It doesn't help at all that the exam is happening right after fall break. I was planning to go home for the two days off AND the weekend, but now I'm thinking I might need to spend both days of the weekend back here so that my partner and I can finish the dissection--I really need at least that one day before the exam to review! Luckily my partner is an out-of-stater and will be here over the break to work with me. So trying to learn all the information for that is going to be a problem, but it's one I can't worry about until after these two exams coming up.

Which I'm now going to ignore for a while longer to try and get some novelling done. Like I said, probably a bad idea.