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?