Hi there; Birdie here!
I have now finished my first year of veterinary school! I'm not totally sure I did well enough to keep my A in bacteriology, and it would kind of suck if that class is the only one I get a B in this semester, but I passed and that's what matters. And hopefully it will work out, it usually does.
It feels kind of weird to not have to study. Like, I'm not just taking a break between exams, I'm done.
Not too much has happened since my last post. We did role plays in my Human-Animal Bond class. The class split into groups of 3 to talk about the scenario, then one person went up to play the veterinarian. But if they didn't know what to say, the others in the group could help them out. We only did two scenarios per group and I personally didn't get to go up and be the veterinarian at all (yes, I kind of wanted to--it's really good practice!) but I did say at least one thing to help both of my groupmates when they were up. Our scenarios were really tough: an unexpected death of a boarding pet, and an elderly client who kept changing the subject from euthanasia of his declining aged pet. There was at least one funny scenario, too: a client whose pet looked worse despite having a condition that's easily treatable with medication. Our teacher who acted as the client played it as comedy, too. Oh, and I told that teacher about my undergrad thesis. She asked to read it (she still has it, actually), and she told me about a veterinarian communication conference. It's every other year, so it'll happen in my third year, but she said she'll keep me in mind and see if they can find funding so I can go!
I still haven't got flights for VLE. I just got an email with the contact info so I guess we're supposed to call ourselves...I'm kind of hoping the other student from LSU going with me will deal with it.
I'm staying in Baton Rouge today for packing/I don't even know what else, and heading home for the summer tomorrow after Pathfinder. After this weekend I'll be out of town for the next 5 weekends, so I really wanted to be here for this one.
I probably won't be updating this blog too much over the summer. I'll try to do an update on VLE at least, but since I have no plans to do anything vet-related, I'm not sure I'll have anything interesting to say.
Happy summer!
Friday, May 9, 2014
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Nearly done...
Hi there; Birdie here!
I just got out of my pathology final, so all I have left is a bunch of meetings of my elective, bacteriology final Friday, and I'm done! Literally, that's all I have left; there's not even any bacteriology class left. Technically there's class time for it, but I already finished the last lab so I just need to do whatever they need us to do do close out. Of course, I still need to start studying bacteriology since I've been focused on path...luckily it's not a particularly difficult course and I have really good resources from previous years.
Last Thursday we had our multihead microscope wetlab. It was really cool. One of my classmates who came brought a slide of a biopsy from a mammary mass on her cat, and we looked at a bunch of blood smears. This stuff is even cooler now that I've actually had a bit of pathology and know somewhat what we're talking about. And I was actually really good at doing the blood smears (which was surprising since I wasn't last time). Then that evening I Google-hangout'd with a bunch of my friends from undergrad, which was nice. I hope we continue to do that.
On Friday I went to the scholarship and awards ceremony. I got to see some of my classmates and also my roommate get awards, but I didn't get anything. In future years, I won't show up unless I get an email that says I'm getting something. We weren't sure whether they'd been sent out this year, so I went anyway. Plus my friend said she was going (she didn't wind up getting anything either). At least there was a reception afterwards.
Saturday was the Josh Project crawfish boil/powderpuff football game, which I was sort of involved with setting up (I made the fliers and made announcements to my class). I didn't go, though, even to help set up. What I did instead was play Pathfinder. It was kind of frustrating how useless I was in combat, so after the session we talked about how to make my character better. It helped a lot when I found out I was supposed to be adding my +2 dex to hit, which means I didn't need to miss as much as I did. We also changed one of my feats and one of my discoveries, so I should be much more useful next time. I also liked that they pointed out how useful I am outside of combat--I have basically all the knowledge skills so I can roll to find out about pretty much anything, and I prepared a new extract that lets me identify magic items (which means we don't have to pay the guy in town to do it, and also we can start using things immediately without worrying about whether they're cursed or something). Altogether, it makes me feel much better and I'm really looking forward to this Saturday (which will be the last weekend I'm here for 4 weeks at least if not the whole summer).
Then on Sunday I did an ophthamology wetlab with surgery club, which was AWESOME. I highly recommend surgery club wetlabs, you learn a ton. The cadavers we used were the heads from cadavers that had been used in one of the electives (skin). We did corneal debridement and grid and punctate keratotomies--if an animal has an ulcer that's not healing because the attachments of epithelium to basement membrane are messed up, you remove all the unattached epithelium (and keep going until it all comes off), and then create little divots in the basement membrane so the epithelium will go in and adhere. The clinician said that punctate ones are better because the grid ones cause more vision distortion. This procedure you can do under just sedation or local anaesthetic (when you're comfortable with it); it doesn't need general anaesthesia. We also did temporary tarsorrahpy, so if an eye pops out of a dogs head (this happens sometimes with small brachycephalic breeds where the eyes are already bulging, even just with restraint) you decrease the size of the palpebral opening to hold it in for a while. This meant suturing, and marks the second time I've sutured, so that was a significant learning experience. The second years in the wetlab with me were really helpful with that, too. Then we did an eyelid mass removal, with a figure-8 suture to close. I took a few tries, but I'm really proud of how I finished that. Then we finished up with an enucleation--eyeball removal. I was the second one to get my eye out. I didn't get much out of the closure for that one though since 1) I was kind of in a hurry to get out of there because that was 4+ hours I didn't spend studying pathology and 2) I'm not really sure of the Correct way to do a simple continuous suture and I don't want to put a bunch of effort into learning the wrong thing. But anyway, we did a lot, I learned a lot, and it was 110% worth the studying time lost.
Yesterday I met with the dean of students (for the third attempt) to get flight reservations for my trip to VLE. The timing is kind of a mess since the cheapest flights don't get in until after 2, when the last shuttle from the airport to the "camp" or wherever where the experience is actually held. I'm hoping we get to fly on United since I get reward miles with them, but they are not the cheapest (even if I did manage to find flights that work great for not TOO much more expensive than the state will pay for...but more expensive is more expensive). So that's still a work in progress.
I just got out of my pathology final, so all I have left is a bunch of meetings of my elective, bacteriology final Friday, and I'm done! Literally, that's all I have left; there's not even any bacteriology class left. Technically there's class time for it, but I already finished the last lab so I just need to do whatever they need us to do do close out. Of course, I still need to start studying bacteriology since I've been focused on path...luckily it's not a particularly difficult course and I have really good resources from previous years.
Last Thursday we had our multihead microscope wetlab. It was really cool. One of my classmates who came brought a slide of a biopsy from a mammary mass on her cat, and we looked at a bunch of blood smears. This stuff is even cooler now that I've actually had a bit of pathology and know somewhat what we're talking about. And I was actually really good at doing the blood smears (which was surprising since I wasn't last time). Then that evening I Google-hangout'd with a bunch of my friends from undergrad, which was nice. I hope we continue to do that.
On Friday I went to the scholarship and awards ceremony. I got to see some of my classmates and also my roommate get awards, but I didn't get anything. In future years, I won't show up unless I get an email that says I'm getting something. We weren't sure whether they'd been sent out this year, so I went anyway. Plus my friend said she was going (she didn't wind up getting anything either). At least there was a reception afterwards.
Saturday was the Josh Project crawfish boil/powderpuff football game, which I was sort of involved with setting up (I made the fliers and made announcements to my class). I didn't go, though, even to help set up. What I did instead was play Pathfinder. It was kind of frustrating how useless I was in combat, so after the session we talked about how to make my character better. It helped a lot when I found out I was supposed to be adding my +2 dex to hit, which means I didn't need to miss as much as I did. We also changed one of my feats and one of my discoveries, so I should be much more useful next time. I also liked that they pointed out how useful I am outside of combat--I have basically all the knowledge skills so I can roll to find out about pretty much anything, and I prepared a new extract that lets me identify magic items (which means we don't have to pay the guy in town to do it, and also we can start using things immediately without worrying about whether they're cursed or something). Altogether, it makes me feel much better and I'm really looking forward to this Saturday (which will be the last weekend I'm here for 4 weeks at least if not the whole summer).
Then on Sunday I did an ophthamology wetlab with surgery club, which was AWESOME. I highly recommend surgery club wetlabs, you learn a ton. The cadavers we used were the heads from cadavers that had been used in one of the electives (skin). We did corneal debridement and grid and punctate keratotomies--if an animal has an ulcer that's not healing because the attachments of epithelium to basement membrane are messed up, you remove all the unattached epithelium (and keep going until it all comes off), and then create little divots in the basement membrane so the epithelium will go in and adhere. The clinician said that punctate ones are better because the grid ones cause more vision distortion. This procedure you can do under just sedation or local anaesthetic (when you're comfortable with it); it doesn't need general anaesthesia. We also did temporary tarsorrahpy, so if an eye pops out of a dogs head (this happens sometimes with small brachycephalic breeds where the eyes are already bulging, even just with restraint) you decrease the size of the palpebral opening to hold it in for a while. This meant suturing, and marks the second time I've sutured, so that was a significant learning experience. The second years in the wetlab with me were really helpful with that, too. Then we did an eyelid mass removal, with a figure-8 suture to close. I took a few tries, but I'm really proud of how I finished that. Then we finished up with an enucleation--eyeball removal. I was the second one to get my eye out. I didn't get much out of the closure for that one though since 1) I was kind of in a hurry to get out of there because that was 4+ hours I didn't spend studying pathology and 2) I'm not really sure of the Correct way to do a simple continuous suture and I don't want to put a bunch of effort into learning the wrong thing. But anyway, we did a lot, I learned a lot, and it was 110% worth the studying time lost.
Yesterday I met with the dean of students (for the third attempt) to get flight reservations for my trip to VLE. The timing is kind of a mess since the cheapest flights don't get in until after 2, when the last shuttle from the airport to the "camp" or wherever where the experience is actually held. I'm hoping we get to fly on United since I get reward miles with them, but they are not the cheapest (even if I did manage to find flights that work great for not TOO much more expensive than the state will pay for...but more expensive is more expensive). So that's still a work in progress.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Crazy busy
Hi there; Birdie here!
I am now two weeks from being 1/4 a DVM. Pathology final next Tuesday, then bacteriology on Friday, and then I'm done with first year!
On the minus side, I got my third and final summer rejection, for the Banfield summer job program. I'm really not excited about sending out emails and talking to clinics and maybe thinking about trying to get a paying job. But honestly I'd only be available for like 10 weeks, and no one's gonna hire me for that when I was more available last summer and still got rejected for that reason. Really quite disappointed about the whole not making money thing.
Integrative med was a pretty cool class. I really liked having labs every day. I don't think I learned that much useful stuff in it though since you pretty much need a whole certification course to be able to do any of that stuff. I'm not really sure whether I'm up for that. Some of the stuff was interesting (like the community practice day, and the massage lab was great since I can actually just do that on my own pets), but some of it was a lot more detail about traditional Chinese medicine and why it's great than I need since I'm not going to practice it. What I got out of that bit was that it's a thing I can refer for. I'm starting my other elective today, and we already got an assignment--to bring in two articles for class. I'm pretty excited about this class, and hoping there will be more I get out of it to actually use in practice.
Remember how last Friday was the dance I decided not to go to? Well, my good friend decided not to go too (her boyfriend had hurt his foot and wasn't really up for dress shoes/standing up all night at a dance), so I spent the evening playing video games at there house, which was a ton of fun. I enjoyed it much more than I would have enjoyed the drunkfest that the dance was.
Saturday we had the feline necropsy wetlab. Once again I am not good at necropsy wetlabs. I'm totally fine when I'm doing it, but when we're just standing around in front of a dead animal talking about it I start feeling not-good and need to sit down. It didn't even smell that bad! It was cool though to actually do it. We worked in pairs, and the cat I was working on had multifocal tiny pale lesions in his liver that the residents said were probably parasite migration. We didn't see the same lesions in the kidneys, but they might have been there microscopically. We actually took out the brain this time (for the dog last semester, I took of the head but didn't get the brain out) and there now exists a picture of me triumphantly holding a cat brain. It might also be my officer picture for path club. Some other people were joking around and said that my partner wanted to keep the brain, so one of the residents actually put it in a bag with fixative for her to take home! I will admit, if I knew that was an option I might have asked to keep the brain. We're having our last multihead microscope wetlab tomorrow, and it's blood focused and we might even get to practice making blood smears.
Then Saturday night I went to a friend (and Pathfinder groupmate)'s birthday party. I made macaroni and cheese in "collaboration" with my neighbor friend, but then let her take credit for that (she didn't really, but I said she could) because I also made a coca-cola cake. I thought I was showing off with putting roses on it, but I got totally shown up by a cream cheese-chocolate covered strawberry cake, with cream-cheese filled chocolate-covered strawberries to go with it. It was a lot of fun and involved a lot of playing with kitties, and I only left early (right before they started playing Cards Against Humanity) because I got a text from my sister and went to meet her and her muppet. We hung out at a coffeeshop for a while before heading to a bar where they had some really cool firedancers. I was impressed. So basically that night was pretty great.
Sunday of course was Pathfinder day since I had the wetlab Saturday. I continued to be pretty useless in combat, but my alchemist character got to do some science! There were a couple of pools of water (one rimmed with skulls) that I dipped a series of things in to try and figure out what they did. I took samples, too. I'm still not sure what they did, actually (one cleaned stuff and the other just made stuff wet, but I'm convinced there's more to it). It was really fun, and we get to level up! It's a little higher optimization than I'm used to though and I didn't really like when the things I wanted (because they're cool) got shut down because they weren't practical enough. It's DnD--I can literally make magic fire, why do I have to be practical? Plus I thought the thing I wanted was a really good thing given the way our last adventure went. But whatever.
Monday there was a lab animal club meeting at lunch, which I attended because free food. The speaker was the first boarded lab animal vet I've met who I actually liked, but I was still kind of turned off by the way she talked about private practice as boring and kind of lesser. It annoys me when people promoting alternative vet med paths rag on private practice because that's what I want to do and there's nothing wrong with that...sometimes listening to them it's hard to remember that though.
Other than that I've basically been studying pathology, though last night I did make dinner for my study buddy and her boyfriend (plus her/kind of our since I hang out there all the time tutor). It was chicken and sausage jambalaya, and it was pretty awesome.
This weekend I was going to do the ultrasound thing, but...there were 3 timeslots, and they put me in the one that conflicts with Pathfinder. Since there's only 1 or 2 weekends left before summer and I'm not sure whether we'll play at all then, I picked that instead. There were like a dozen people ready to take my place though, so I don't mind. I'm not leaving them shorthanded (it's a volunteer/experience thing, kinda like spay day but with ultrasound CE as far as I can tell). I'm still doing an ophthamology wetlab on Sunday though! I'm kind of glad the ultrasound thing fell through, it would have been a lot for this weekend. Especially when I have to study for my 2 finals.
I am now two weeks from being 1/4 a DVM. Pathology final next Tuesday, then bacteriology on Friday, and then I'm done with first year!
On the minus side, I got my third and final summer rejection, for the Banfield summer job program. I'm really not excited about sending out emails and talking to clinics and maybe thinking about trying to get a paying job. But honestly I'd only be available for like 10 weeks, and no one's gonna hire me for that when I was more available last summer and still got rejected for that reason. Really quite disappointed about the whole not making money thing.
Integrative med was a pretty cool class. I really liked having labs every day. I don't think I learned that much useful stuff in it though since you pretty much need a whole certification course to be able to do any of that stuff. I'm not really sure whether I'm up for that. Some of the stuff was interesting (like the community practice day, and the massage lab was great since I can actually just do that on my own pets), but some of it was a lot more detail about traditional Chinese medicine and why it's great than I need since I'm not going to practice it. What I got out of that bit was that it's a thing I can refer for. I'm starting my other elective today, and we already got an assignment--to bring in two articles for class. I'm pretty excited about this class, and hoping there will be more I get out of it to actually use in practice.
Remember how last Friday was the dance I decided not to go to? Well, my good friend decided not to go too (her boyfriend had hurt his foot and wasn't really up for dress shoes/standing up all night at a dance), so I spent the evening playing video games at there house, which was a ton of fun. I enjoyed it much more than I would have enjoyed the drunkfest that the dance was.
Saturday we had the feline necropsy wetlab. Once again I am not good at necropsy wetlabs. I'm totally fine when I'm doing it, but when we're just standing around in front of a dead animal talking about it I start feeling not-good and need to sit down. It didn't even smell that bad! It was cool though to actually do it. We worked in pairs, and the cat I was working on had multifocal tiny pale lesions in his liver that the residents said were probably parasite migration. We didn't see the same lesions in the kidneys, but they might have been there microscopically. We actually took out the brain this time (for the dog last semester, I took of the head but didn't get the brain out) and there now exists a picture of me triumphantly holding a cat brain. It might also be my officer picture for path club. Some other people were joking around and said that my partner wanted to keep the brain, so one of the residents actually put it in a bag with fixative for her to take home! I will admit, if I knew that was an option I might have asked to keep the brain. We're having our last multihead microscope wetlab tomorrow, and it's blood focused and we might even get to practice making blood smears.
Then Saturday night I went to a friend (and Pathfinder groupmate)'s birthday party. I made macaroni and cheese in "collaboration" with my neighbor friend, but then let her take credit for that (she didn't really, but I said she could) because I also made a coca-cola cake. I thought I was showing off with putting roses on it, but I got totally shown up by a cream cheese-chocolate covered strawberry cake, with cream-cheese filled chocolate-covered strawberries to go with it. It was a lot of fun and involved a lot of playing with kitties, and I only left early (right before they started playing Cards Against Humanity) because I got a text from my sister and went to meet her and her muppet. We hung out at a coffeeshop for a while before heading to a bar where they had some really cool firedancers. I was impressed. So basically that night was pretty great.
Sunday of course was Pathfinder day since I had the wetlab Saturday. I continued to be pretty useless in combat, but my alchemist character got to do some science! There were a couple of pools of water (one rimmed with skulls) that I dipped a series of things in to try and figure out what they did. I took samples, too. I'm still not sure what they did, actually (one cleaned stuff and the other just made stuff wet, but I'm convinced there's more to it). It was really fun, and we get to level up! It's a little higher optimization than I'm used to though and I didn't really like when the things I wanted (because they're cool) got shut down because they weren't practical enough. It's DnD--I can literally make magic fire, why do I have to be practical? Plus I thought the thing I wanted was a really good thing given the way our last adventure went. But whatever.
Monday there was a lab animal club meeting at lunch, which I attended because free food. The speaker was the first boarded lab animal vet I've met who I actually liked, but I was still kind of turned off by the way she talked about private practice as boring and kind of lesser. It annoys me when people promoting alternative vet med paths rag on private practice because that's what I want to do and there's nothing wrong with that...sometimes listening to them it's hard to remember that though.
Other than that I've basically been studying pathology, though last night I did make dinner for my study buddy and her boyfriend (plus her/kind of our since I hang out there all the time tutor). It was chicken and sausage jambalaya, and it was pretty awesome.
This weekend I was going to do the ultrasound thing, but...there were 3 timeslots, and they put me in the one that conflicts with Pathfinder. Since there's only 1 or 2 weekends left before summer and I'm not sure whether we'll play at all then, I picked that instead. There were like a dozen people ready to take my place though, so I don't mind. I'm not leaving them shorthanded (it's a volunteer/experience thing, kinda like spay day but with ultrasound CE as far as I can tell). I'm still doing an ophthamology wetlab on Sunday though! I'm kind of glad the ultrasound thing fell through, it would have been a lot for this weekend. Especially when I have to study for my 2 finals.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Been a while, sorry
Hi there; Birdie here!
So after my last post about how I thought I was so late, I actually am over two weeks late with this entry. But one of those weeks was break, which we've already established doesn't count. That probably won't be true with summer, though, as I'll hopefully be doing something vet-related...not, unfortunately, at the primate center. I got the form rejection email last week...we received many qualified applications like yours, etc., etc., try again next year. But I'm still waiting on Banfield, and if I don't get it I'm going to keep trying and hopefully find something awesome (ideal would be also paying). It may wind up being a bit piecemeal, though. I applied to the Veterinary Leadership Experience, a weeklong program in...Ohio, maybe? I don't remember. I should find out about that by next week I think. Also, today we had an excellent speaker for VBMA, Dr. Andy Roark. Maybe you've heard of him? Or seen his "How NOT to welcome a new vet" video? If you haven't, click the link, it's pretty funny. And he's about as funny to listen to IRL about veterinary business and leadership. Plus he's really big into building relationships with clients, which you probably know by now is kind of my bag. I gave him my business card after the talk (as I do; when I print 250 business cards I like to give them away whenever the opportunity presents itself) and will hopefully talk to him more later; if Banfield doesn't work out, or depending on the scheduling of it, I'm planning on asking if he'll host me for a few weeks. I'd really like to have something solid now, but as long as I wind up having an awesome summer, now doesn't matter much. Oh, also, at the VBMA meeting I caught one of their T-shirts. This is the second one to basically hit me on the head (though I actually caught this one), so I kept it--clearly I'm meant to have one.
Anyway, I guess I'll give a quick blurb about break. I saw my family, read more of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief but still didn't finish it, picked strawberries, dyed Easter eggs, made blue cookies, and generally totally skipped all the vet-school-related stuff I'd been thinking of doing last weekend (not this past weekend, the one before). Also, I spent a totally fantastic day in New Orleans which involved Thai iced tea (though not bubble tea, sadly), superhero shirts, and hanging out with a friend I haven't seen since freshman year of undergrad. Came back here on Thursday so the fam could go to Bermuda without me (to my parents who are most likely reading this: :((((((, I say). But I got to go to the zoo on Friday with my friend and her boyfriend (who is also really cool. We talk comics), and I got so much studying done I probably could have been ready for the bacteriology exam even if it hadn't been moved from today to Thursday. The way this class is taught makes it kind of hard for me to care a lot about studying for it though (it really bugs me when teachers say to study old exams. It really, REALLY bugs me when old exams are better study material than the lectures I sit through because I'm the kind of person who Doesn't Miss Class. Plus it's just not organized in a way that I remember it well, nor are the lectures very interesting).
The week before break was actually really interesting, though. For one thing--and I just realized I hadn't already written about this--I had my introduction conversation with Dr. Shaw! It was a little awkward because I've never done this networking thing before, but it was pretty cool. She was very willing to mentor me and to answer all my questions, and I will definitely be keeping in contact with her. The way she talked about realizing that in the long run, she needed grad work was not very appealing to me at this point, nor was her job in academia--right now I really want to get out there and practice. But it's definitely an option to consider in the future. She was very understanding, too--I got the feeling I was like one of her clients or students she wanted to build a relationship with!
We also had a multihead microscope wetlab for path club. Since we've started our pathology class I understood more than I have before (mostly pigments and names for types of necrosis). In fact, this club has helped me with path (and bacteriology, kind of, but not with test material), too--like, I already knew that a granulomatous inflammation has macrophages and a pyogenic one has neutrophils. And we also got to see a case of squamous cell carcinoma, which we've talked about loads in class. There were 4 people at this one, which is about standard for these wetlabs. I really hope we continue to have participation and keep them going; I really love them. Oh, and I also got to go see the new Captain America movie, which was really good. :) And I did get my anatomy exam, and I did well enough to keep my A! And I never have to take another anatomy exam again!
I've started (and will be finishing) my first elective this week: integrative medicine. It means I have to be at school for a long time (especially compared to the last week of school, when I was pretty consistently off at noon), but it's totally okay because half of that time is lab, aka actually doing stuff! Yesterday we learned about canine acupuncture, and this time equine acupuncture. Yesterday's was mostly talking and practicing sticking pins into satsumas--each group had two dogs, but neither of ours were great because one was super furry and one was fat and both of those things make it hard to find the points. Today we found several points on a horse, marking them with shiny star stickers, and then practiced with some needles. I kept accidentally bending the tops of the pins as I tried to hold them in the placement tube, but I did get 3 in properly. Tomorrow is just a lab, on massage (the instructor encouraged us to bring our own pets, but unfortunately I don't have one here), and we also have a rehabilitation lab coming up and an hour of equine massage on Friday. The lectures aren't the best presented, but it's pretty interesting regardless. Not to mention this class is super easy--it's purely attendance based.
After the lab today I volunteered to walk our horse out of the stocks where we had her for our lab. Our group kind of nicknamed her Princess because she liked attention and would look over at us whenever we moved away from her head and when we talked about leaving; I'm not sure what her real name is. She was a dark bay, but her mane and tail looked bleached--if there's a name for that color, I don't know what it is and my Google Fu is not good enough to find it. I'd never taken a horse out of stocks before, and the first horse to go out backed out pretty hard, not quite spooked, but definitely quick. I talked to Princess the whole time though and she backed out very nicely (which probably had more to do with her than with me, but made me feel good about myself). It was the first time I've led a horse since the last time I had a riding lesson in undergrad, and it was both really nice and really made me miss being around horses more often.
Oh, I'm also feeding Sydney this week. It's kind of unfortunate--it's warm enough that most of the birds are in the outside flight cages (they were in the room adjacent to the feed room over winter), which means Sydney is at leg level, and she's mildly aggressive and tries to bite at my legs and such so I can't wear any shorts or capris this week. Which is sad 'cause, as I believe I mentioned, it's warm now. I'm not sure whether I'll feed the birds next year or not. I love certain birds, but I'm not sure whether Lucy or Professor is worth Sydney or BAMF. I'm friends with one of the co-chairs--maybe I'll just tell her to sign me up if they need people. Or maybe I'll just see how I feel when signup time rolls around again.
This weekend we are having our joint Feline/Pathology Club cat necropsy wetlab, which I'm pretty psyched about. Especially since I'm pretty sure I got our Pathfinder group to move the game to Sunday so I won't miss it (I will be skipping Spay Day--the last one of this school year--for that, though). Our president put a lot of work into finding the cat cadavers for us to have in the wetlab; I appreciate her a lot. This Friday is also the...basically, vet school prom, which I am not attending because of reasons. One of which is the fact that it's an open bar, which is why it's so expensive, and both of those facts I sometimes need to remind myself of because it sounds pretty fun. I did enter the $10 drawing for a pair of tickets (plus tux rental and hair appointment), but I didn't win, so I conclude I don't need to go.
In the middle of next week I start my other elective, and I have a ton of plans next weekend, too, actually. I'm signed up for an ultrasound course at school (which I'm not sure whether it's one day or both days or what times it is or what--no details yet) and an ophthalmology wetlab with surgery club. Of course, if it's not a designated break (and sometimes even if it is *coughSUMMERcough* I just have to be busy! ;)
So after my last post about how I thought I was so late, I actually am over two weeks late with this entry. But one of those weeks was break, which we've already established doesn't count. That probably won't be true with summer, though, as I'll hopefully be doing something vet-related...not, unfortunately, at the primate center. I got the form rejection email last week...we received many qualified applications like yours, etc., etc., try again next year. But I'm still waiting on Banfield, and if I don't get it I'm going to keep trying and hopefully find something awesome (ideal would be also paying). It may wind up being a bit piecemeal, though. I applied to the Veterinary Leadership Experience, a weeklong program in...Ohio, maybe? I don't remember. I should find out about that by next week I think. Also, today we had an excellent speaker for VBMA, Dr. Andy Roark. Maybe you've heard of him? Or seen his "How NOT to welcome a new vet" video? If you haven't, click the link, it's pretty funny. And he's about as funny to listen to IRL about veterinary business and leadership. Plus he's really big into building relationships with clients, which you probably know by now is kind of my bag. I gave him my business card after the talk (as I do; when I print 250 business cards I like to give them away whenever the opportunity presents itself) and will hopefully talk to him more later; if Banfield doesn't work out, or depending on the scheduling of it, I'm planning on asking if he'll host me for a few weeks. I'd really like to have something solid now, but as long as I wind up having an awesome summer, now doesn't matter much. Oh, also, at the VBMA meeting I caught one of their T-shirts. This is the second one to basically hit me on the head (though I actually caught this one), so I kept it--clearly I'm meant to have one.
Anyway, I guess I'll give a quick blurb about break. I saw my family, read more of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief but still didn't finish it, picked strawberries, dyed Easter eggs, made blue cookies, and generally totally skipped all the vet-school-related stuff I'd been thinking of doing last weekend (not this past weekend, the one before). Also, I spent a totally fantastic day in New Orleans which involved Thai iced tea (though not bubble tea, sadly), superhero shirts, and hanging out with a friend I haven't seen since freshman year of undergrad. Came back here on Thursday so the fam could go to Bermuda without me (to my parents who are most likely reading this: :((((((, I say). But I got to go to the zoo on Friday with my friend and her boyfriend (who is also really cool. We talk comics), and I got so much studying done I probably could have been ready for the bacteriology exam even if it hadn't been moved from today to Thursday. The way this class is taught makes it kind of hard for me to care a lot about studying for it though (it really bugs me when teachers say to study old exams. It really, REALLY bugs me when old exams are better study material than the lectures I sit through because I'm the kind of person who Doesn't Miss Class. Plus it's just not organized in a way that I remember it well, nor are the lectures very interesting).
The week before break was actually really interesting, though. For one thing--and I just realized I hadn't already written about this--I had my introduction conversation with Dr. Shaw! It was a little awkward because I've never done this networking thing before, but it was pretty cool. She was very willing to mentor me and to answer all my questions, and I will definitely be keeping in contact with her. The way she talked about realizing that in the long run, she needed grad work was not very appealing to me at this point, nor was her job in academia--right now I really want to get out there and practice. But it's definitely an option to consider in the future. She was very understanding, too--I got the feeling I was like one of her clients or students she wanted to build a relationship with!
We also had a multihead microscope wetlab for path club. Since we've started our pathology class I understood more than I have before (mostly pigments and names for types of necrosis). In fact, this club has helped me with path (and bacteriology, kind of, but not with test material), too--like, I already knew that a granulomatous inflammation has macrophages and a pyogenic one has neutrophils. And we also got to see a case of squamous cell carcinoma, which we've talked about loads in class. There were 4 people at this one, which is about standard for these wetlabs. I really hope we continue to have participation and keep them going; I really love them. Oh, and I also got to go see the new Captain America movie, which was really good. :) And I did get my anatomy exam, and I did well enough to keep my A! And I never have to take another anatomy exam again!
I've started (and will be finishing) my first elective this week: integrative medicine. It means I have to be at school for a long time (especially compared to the last week of school, when I was pretty consistently off at noon), but it's totally okay because half of that time is lab, aka actually doing stuff! Yesterday we learned about canine acupuncture, and this time equine acupuncture. Yesterday's was mostly talking and practicing sticking pins into satsumas--each group had two dogs, but neither of ours were great because one was super furry and one was fat and both of those things make it hard to find the points. Today we found several points on a horse, marking them with shiny star stickers, and then practiced with some needles. I kept accidentally bending the tops of the pins as I tried to hold them in the placement tube, but I did get 3 in properly. Tomorrow is just a lab, on massage (the instructor encouraged us to bring our own pets, but unfortunately I don't have one here), and we also have a rehabilitation lab coming up and an hour of equine massage on Friday. The lectures aren't the best presented, but it's pretty interesting regardless. Not to mention this class is super easy--it's purely attendance based.
After the lab today I volunteered to walk our horse out of the stocks where we had her for our lab. Our group kind of nicknamed her Princess because she liked attention and would look over at us whenever we moved away from her head and when we talked about leaving; I'm not sure what her real name is. She was a dark bay, but her mane and tail looked bleached--if there's a name for that color, I don't know what it is and my Google Fu is not good enough to find it. I'd never taken a horse out of stocks before, and the first horse to go out backed out pretty hard, not quite spooked, but definitely quick. I talked to Princess the whole time though and she backed out very nicely (which probably had more to do with her than with me, but made me feel good about myself). It was the first time I've led a horse since the last time I had a riding lesson in undergrad, and it was both really nice and really made me miss being around horses more often.
Oh, I'm also feeding Sydney this week. It's kind of unfortunate--it's warm enough that most of the birds are in the outside flight cages (they were in the room adjacent to the feed room over winter), which means Sydney is at leg level, and she's mildly aggressive and tries to bite at my legs and such so I can't wear any shorts or capris this week. Which is sad 'cause, as I believe I mentioned, it's warm now. I'm not sure whether I'll feed the birds next year or not. I love certain birds, but I'm not sure whether Lucy or Professor is worth Sydney or BAMF. I'm friends with one of the co-chairs--maybe I'll just tell her to sign me up if they need people. Or maybe I'll just see how I feel when signup time rolls around again.
This weekend we are having our joint Feline/Pathology Club cat necropsy wetlab, which I'm pretty psyched about. Especially since I'm pretty sure I got our Pathfinder group to move the game to Sunday so I won't miss it (I will be skipping Spay Day--the last one of this school year--for that, though). Our president put a lot of work into finding the cat cadavers for us to have in the wetlab; I appreciate her a lot. This Friday is also the...basically, vet school prom, which I am not attending because of reasons. One of which is the fact that it's an open bar, which is why it's so expensive, and both of those facts I sometimes need to remind myself of because it sounds pretty fun. I did enter the $10 drawing for a pair of tickets (plus tux rental and hair appointment), but I didn't win, so I conclude I don't need to go.
In the middle of next week I start my other elective, and I have a ton of plans next weekend, too, actually. I'm signed up for an ultrasound course at school (which I'm not sure whether it's one day or both days or what times it is or what--no details yet) and an ophthalmology wetlab with surgery club. Of course, if it's not a designated break (and sometimes even if it is *coughSUMMERcough* I just have to be busy! ;)
Monday, April 7, 2014
Blog blog blog
Hi there; Birdie here!
Is it really only Monday? I was sure I was about to be two weeks late with my blog entry. I guess it's the fact that this will be a pretty short week, after which I get to go home for spring break! Plus my path exam is tomorrow, and my next exam after that is the Thursday after break...and I don't have any classes in the afternoons this week, so it's going to be SUPER easy. Once this exam is over, anyway...
I'm kind of worried about the path exam...at this point I've done all the studying I usually do, but this exam is going to be largely short answer, in contrast to the more-or-less entirely multiple choice tests we've always had before. Plus my study guide for this exam is 20 PAGES--usually they're only about 10 or 11. I'm feeling confident about one of the instructors' parts, but we have two unknowns, one of whom wrote a terrible test last year that second years are saying "everyone failed."
No, I haven't gotten my anatomy exam back yet--I'm waiting to say anything until I have my full, final grade.
This weekend I didn't do anything but Pathfinder (which was a fun session in which I got a critical fail followed immediately by a critical hit) and study. Mostly I'm looking forward to next weekend. I've decided I won't do any of the things I'd been thinking about for then (diversity symposium, Dream Clinic), and instead will just go visit my family. Especially since they're leaving before the second weekend of break since my little brother's spring break is the week AFTER Easter (unlike mine)--I'd like to actually be able to spend some time with them. If I had the second weekend with them, I might stay for symposium...but I don't, so I won't. I'm pretty psyched about going to pick strawberries and not worry about studying until I come back to BR!
Is it really only Monday? I was sure I was about to be two weeks late with my blog entry. I guess it's the fact that this will be a pretty short week, after which I get to go home for spring break! Plus my path exam is tomorrow, and my next exam after that is the Thursday after break...and I don't have any classes in the afternoons this week, so it's going to be SUPER easy. Once this exam is over, anyway...
I'm kind of worried about the path exam...at this point I've done all the studying I usually do, but this exam is going to be largely short answer, in contrast to the more-or-less entirely multiple choice tests we've always had before. Plus my study guide for this exam is 20 PAGES--usually they're only about 10 or 11. I'm feeling confident about one of the instructors' parts, but we have two unknowns, one of whom wrote a terrible test last year that second years are saying "everyone failed."
No, I haven't gotten my anatomy exam back yet--I'm waiting to say anything until I have my full, final grade.
This weekend I didn't do anything but Pathfinder (which was a fun session in which I got a critical fail followed immediately by a critical hit) and study. Mostly I'm looking forward to next weekend. I've decided I won't do any of the things I'd been thinking about for then (diversity symposium, Dream Clinic), and instead will just go visit my family. Especially since they're leaving before the second weekend of break since my little brother's spring break is the week AFTER Easter (unlike mine)--I'd like to actually be able to spend some time with them. If I had the second weekend with them, I might stay for symposium...but I don't, so I won't. I'm pretty psyched about going to pick strawberries and not worry about studying until I come back to BR!
Monday, March 31, 2014
Light at the end of the tunnel
Hi there; Birdie here!
After Wednesday, I will be DONE with anatomy! School will be so much easier then...I won't even have any afternoon classes until after spring break. I am stressing pretty hardcore about this (even as I type this instead of studying)--since I actually did really well on the last exam, I have a chance of keeping an A in this class, so I really want to. Plus it seems like there's a lot more stuff I don't know at this point for this exam. I spent a couple hours yesterday and pretty much all evening Saturday in the lab and am feeling a lot better about the limb and especially the bones. I started out knowing bones really well so that's always my confidence point, and since we get to pick which question we start on for the practical I like to start with a bone.
Actually, I just ran a grade calculator and if I get an 88 on everything left I'll (barely) keep my A. I think I've done better than that on all my previous anatomy stuff. This might actually be doable...I can't slow down, though, this is anatomy and it's a lot of information. I feel better about it now though.
I did a good amount of non-anatomy over the weekend, too. Saturday morning I went to a raptor workday and did my second ever blood draw--on Sydney, the turkey vulture. She has big veins, and I volunteered first. :) My draw wasn't actually very good--I only managed it with the clinician's help, and I took too long so the blood clotted in the tube. BUT I got blood, so I'm 2 for 2. After that we played Pathfinder, but it seemed really short, especially since we stopped in a place that wasn't really a stopping point in the story (we were chasing the Monk down a hall). It was still fun, but sometimes I really miss my previous DM.
Oh, speaking of tabletop games...there's a kickstarter for basically a Monster Manual of bacteria and antibiotics. It ends today so I doubt anyone will be able to donate from seeing it, but here's the link https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nerdcoremedical/the-bacterionomicon
I backed it and will be getting the hardcover when it comes out. My study buddy and I are trying to convince her boyfriend (who DMs for a party online through Roll20) to DM a game for us using it.
On Sunday I helped out with Spay Day. There was an adorable dilute calico kitten (dilute calicos and tortiseshells are among my favorites) that I wanted to take home. It was a shelter cat, too. Unfortunately, my roommate says I can't have a cat, so that's not happening for another year at least, so I don't get that kitten. I worked prep again this time. There was one cat who looked like she might have had a spay scar, so we were going to run a blood test to check if she'd been spayed (it checks for...lutenizing hormone, IIRC. Some hormone from the ovaries). The test would take 30 minutes (including getting plasma/serum), so we just let the surgeon open her up rather than have her under anasthesia so long. I had heard of the test last time, but this is the first time I heard the details and one of my classmates was hearing it for the first time, so I thought maybe my readers would find it interesting.
Last week I also finally got my car fixed. It was actually minimal trouble--I dropped it off in the morning, got my friend to drive me to school, and we went to pick it up after just a little extra time in anatomy lab. It was a little anxiety-inducing at the end, since apparently they needed my permission to do one part replacement and I missed the call asking for said permission since I was in bacteriology lab and wearing gloves that it took some time to get out of. Luckily they were able to replace it and get me my car back right around closing. And then I got a snowball--it's definitely heading towards summertime, 'cause the snowball stands are opening up. If you're not a Louisianian, you probably don't understand the wonders of snowball. It's like a snow cone, but bigger--in an actual styrofoam cup (or Chinese takeout box, if you're at Plum Street), not a little cone. And there are cream flavors, which are my favorites (they're sweet, with condensed milk mixed into the syrup), and you can get toppings like condensed milk on top. Snowballs are an important part of my summers.
I also did something with Josh Project (for once)--I went to deliver the kits (stuffed dog + book) to children in the hospital, along with a couple of service dogs. We didn't spend much time at all with the kids, and a lot of time standing in hallways because the dogs went first and we came in when they left. It was pretty nice, though--I'm going again on April 22, right after spring break. I was really impressed with the hospital worker and how he talked to the kids.
Other than that, last week was mainly just classes. I got lunch from a club/presentation every single day. I learned about class IV laser therapy, anemia, and some surgery cases. I also sat through a webinar about how to pay off debt that pretty much only applied to federal loans, which mine aren't. At least they gave me pizza.
Well, wish me luck on anatomy...however it turns out, it will all be over soon.
After Wednesday, I will be DONE with anatomy! School will be so much easier then...I won't even have any afternoon classes until after spring break. I am stressing pretty hardcore about this (even as I type this instead of studying)--since I actually did really well on the last exam, I have a chance of keeping an A in this class, so I really want to. Plus it seems like there's a lot more stuff I don't know at this point for this exam. I spent a couple hours yesterday and pretty much all evening Saturday in the lab and am feeling a lot better about the limb and especially the bones. I started out knowing bones really well so that's always my confidence point, and since we get to pick which question we start on for the practical I like to start with a bone.
Actually, I just ran a grade calculator and if I get an 88 on everything left I'll (barely) keep my A. I think I've done better than that on all my previous anatomy stuff. This might actually be doable...I can't slow down, though, this is anatomy and it's a lot of information. I feel better about it now though.
I did a good amount of non-anatomy over the weekend, too. Saturday morning I went to a raptor workday and did my second ever blood draw--on Sydney, the turkey vulture. She has big veins, and I volunteered first. :) My draw wasn't actually very good--I only managed it with the clinician's help, and I took too long so the blood clotted in the tube. BUT I got blood, so I'm 2 for 2. After that we played Pathfinder, but it seemed really short, especially since we stopped in a place that wasn't really a stopping point in the story (we were chasing the Monk down a hall). It was still fun, but sometimes I really miss my previous DM.
Oh, speaking of tabletop games...there's a kickstarter for basically a Monster Manual of bacteria and antibiotics. It ends today so I doubt anyone will be able to donate from seeing it, but here's the link https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nerdcoremedical/the-bacterionomicon
I backed it and will be getting the hardcover when it comes out. My study buddy and I are trying to convince her boyfriend (who DMs for a party online through Roll20) to DM a game for us using it.
On Sunday I helped out with Spay Day. There was an adorable dilute calico kitten (dilute calicos and tortiseshells are among my favorites) that I wanted to take home. It was a shelter cat, too. Unfortunately, my roommate says I can't have a cat, so that's not happening for another year at least, so I don't get that kitten. I worked prep again this time. There was one cat who looked like she might have had a spay scar, so we were going to run a blood test to check if she'd been spayed (it checks for...lutenizing hormone, IIRC. Some hormone from the ovaries). The test would take 30 minutes (including getting plasma/serum), so we just let the surgeon open her up rather than have her under anasthesia so long. I had heard of the test last time, but this is the first time I heard the details and one of my classmates was hearing it for the first time, so I thought maybe my readers would find it interesting.
Last week I also finally got my car fixed. It was actually minimal trouble--I dropped it off in the morning, got my friend to drive me to school, and we went to pick it up after just a little extra time in anatomy lab. It was a little anxiety-inducing at the end, since apparently they needed my permission to do one part replacement and I missed the call asking for said permission since I was in bacteriology lab and wearing gloves that it took some time to get out of. Luckily they were able to replace it and get me my car back right around closing. And then I got a snowball--it's definitely heading towards summertime, 'cause the snowball stands are opening up. If you're not a Louisianian, you probably don't understand the wonders of snowball. It's like a snow cone, but bigger--in an actual styrofoam cup (or Chinese takeout box, if you're at Plum Street), not a little cone. And there are cream flavors, which are my favorites (they're sweet, with condensed milk mixed into the syrup), and you can get toppings like condensed milk on top. Snowballs are an important part of my summers.
I also did something with Josh Project (for once)--I went to deliver the kits (stuffed dog + book) to children in the hospital, along with a couple of service dogs. We didn't spend much time at all with the kids, and a lot of time standing in hallways because the dogs went first and we came in when they left. It was pretty nice, though--I'm going again on April 22, right after spring break. I was really impressed with the hospital worker and how he talked to the kids.
Other than that, last week was mainly just classes. I got lunch from a club/presentation every single day. I learned about class IV laser therapy, anemia, and some surgery cases. I also sat through a webinar about how to pay off debt that pretty much only applied to federal loans, which mine aren't. At least they gave me pizza.
Well, wish me luck on anatomy...however it turns out, it will all be over soon.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Symposium, etc.
Hi there; Birdie here!
So, what happened last week before symposium? Not too much. I went to the Happy's run on Tuesday, after which there was an extended happy hour special for us vet students. 3 of my Pathfinder group members showed up, too, and I would have loved to stay...but unfortunately since I was leaving Thursday and knew I would be too busy to study over the weekend, I had to go home and study. I also had a bird to feed last week; I had to switch with the undergrad student who was feeding earlier since I was scheduled to feed over the weekend when I was at symposium. So instead, my shift was now Monday through Thursday. My bird this time was Lucy, a Mississippi kite, which is a really pretty blue-gray bird. She was really good, too--very nervous, but she fisted well for me every time. One morning I even had to walk across the room with her on my arm to put her in a travel cage so I could clean her cage, and she was not as bad as I feared. I hope I get to feed her more (and more than Sydney who tried to attack me!).
Symposium itself was pretty good. I'm pretty sure I want to go again next year, although I'll definitely try to register earlier so I can 1) be in the same hotel it's in and 2) get actually wet wetlabs. The only wetlab I got this time was a client communication one that was basically just two lectures that I had to travel to CSU's campus for. It turned out pretty well, though--the vet who gave one of those talks also gave a talk on the last day, and I went up and talked to him afterwards. Gave him my card, said thanks for doing communication stuff, told him how my thesis was on that, and he offered to introduce me to Dr. Shaw, who does a lot of research in this area. Which reminds me, I still need to email him...
Besides that wetlab, I went to a bunch of lectures: business-type things, secure hemostasis, virology, Parvo research... all sorts of stuff. And the nights were for social activities. The first night I intended to get there in time for the opening ceremony, but the shuttle from the airport started later and took longer than I expected. According to my classmates who did go, I didn't miss much. Then there was a bar crawl thing--we each got a "passport to Fort Collins" detailing certain deals that some places downtown had for us as well as a $15 gift card good for most places downtown. First place I went (with a couple of fellow LSU-ers and another SAVMA delegate the two of them knew) was a bar called the Drunken Monkey, which had swings instead of bar stools! It was cool, especially since we went there at like 7 and it wasn't crowded. Then we went to get food, and that was very much no longer the case. The first place we went for a burger deal, there were so many people that we tried somewhere else. Which turned out to be a poor choice; it was just about as crowded AND apparently the workers didn't know there was going to be this symposium. It was CSU's spring break, and they were short-staffed, which was VERY short-staffed with how many people we were (symposium had ~1600 attendees, though I'm not sure how many attended that event). Also, it was an Irish pub, so I was really disappointed when my "What kind of cider do you have?" was answered with "Woodchuck." That's it. In actual Ireland, they had at least 3 varieties of cider that weren't even apple (I got a blackcurrant one for my 21st birthday). We had to wait an hour for food, and eventually it was so crowded and I was so uncomfortable that I just left, leaving my gift card on the table to cover my stuff. I only drank like 3 sips of my Woodchuck, too (not a fan). I wish we'd gone to the Melting Pot for the $15 chocolate, cheese, and drink special instead... I wound up leaving at 9 and just went to bed.
That was Thursday. Friday night was much better. There was a casino night at some theater place. I learned how to play craps, and won 16 imaginary dollars. They gave us each $500 to gamble with so that we didn't have to use our own money. Craps was really fun! Our dealer introduced himself as Bruce, but his nametag said DJ Bruce so we called him DJ all night. He was a lot of fun, teaching us how to play the game and joking with us. I gave him a high five when we cashed out. Saturday night was the closing ceremony, which had really nice food (although I didn't eat much because the beef was really rare for me). Some people went out afterwards, but I wasn't feeling it, especially since I had to wake up for a 6:40 shuttle to the airport.
Oh, btw, I got an email: I didn't get the summer NASA program. I'm pretty much okay with that, though. It was my least favorite since I'd have to find housing in Houston. Plus it has set start and end dates, and now I get to pick my start dates, which means I get to go to Hawaii with my family at the beginning of summer!
So I finally got my car fixed yesterday. The maintainance light was on, so I got an oil change and my tires rotated, and I finally got my cracked windshield replaced. And it didn't lose me my 2-year brake tag that I just got last summer! This week so far I've been studying anatomy really hard, but I really need to work on bacteriology since we have our first exam Friday. We also started Pathology this week. I really liked the first lecture, but today I was having trouble paying attention. How much repetition there was from yesterday didn't really help. I still need to watch a bacteriology lecture and an anatomy lecture that I missed for symposium. Oh, and today I'm finally doing something for Josh Project (despite being a committee member...)--today I'm going to Our Lady of the Lake Hospital to deliver some kits!
By the way, my Pathfinder group did play without me. Apparently it was like a sidequest, and the DM has an idea for what my character was doing during it. I'm still looking forward to this weekend! I might also be doing a scout's day with VOICE (diversity club) on Saturday and Spay Day on Sunday, but since it's the weekend before our anatomy final (Final EVER!) I haven't decided yet.
So, what happened last week before symposium? Not too much. I went to the Happy's run on Tuesday, after which there was an extended happy hour special for us vet students. 3 of my Pathfinder group members showed up, too, and I would have loved to stay...but unfortunately since I was leaving Thursday and knew I would be too busy to study over the weekend, I had to go home and study. I also had a bird to feed last week; I had to switch with the undergrad student who was feeding earlier since I was scheduled to feed over the weekend when I was at symposium. So instead, my shift was now Monday through Thursday. My bird this time was Lucy, a Mississippi kite, which is a really pretty blue-gray bird. She was really good, too--very nervous, but she fisted well for me every time. One morning I even had to walk across the room with her on my arm to put her in a travel cage so I could clean her cage, and she was not as bad as I feared. I hope I get to feed her more (and more than Sydney who tried to attack me!).
Symposium itself was pretty good. I'm pretty sure I want to go again next year, although I'll definitely try to register earlier so I can 1) be in the same hotel it's in and 2) get actually wet wetlabs. The only wetlab I got this time was a client communication one that was basically just two lectures that I had to travel to CSU's campus for. It turned out pretty well, though--the vet who gave one of those talks also gave a talk on the last day, and I went up and talked to him afterwards. Gave him my card, said thanks for doing communication stuff, told him how my thesis was on that, and he offered to introduce me to Dr. Shaw, who does a lot of research in this area. Which reminds me, I still need to email him...
Besides that wetlab, I went to a bunch of lectures: business-type things, secure hemostasis, virology, Parvo research... all sorts of stuff. And the nights were for social activities. The first night I intended to get there in time for the opening ceremony, but the shuttle from the airport started later and took longer than I expected. According to my classmates who did go, I didn't miss much. Then there was a bar crawl thing--we each got a "passport to Fort Collins" detailing certain deals that some places downtown had for us as well as a $15 gift card good for most places downtown. First place I went (with a couple of fellow LSU-ers and another SAVMA delegate the two of them knew) was a bar called the Drunken Monkey, which had swings instead of bar stools! It was cool, especially since we went there at like 7 and it wasn't crowded. Then we went to get food, and that was very much no longer the case. The first place we went for a burger deal, there were so many people that we tried somewhere else. Which turned out to be a poor choice; it was just about as crowded AND apparently the workers didn't know there was going to be this symposium. It was CSU's spring break, and they were short-staffed, which was VERY short-staffed with how many people we were (symposium had ~1600 attendees, though I'm not sure how many attended that event). Also, it was an Irish pub, so I was really disappointed when my "What kind of cider do you have?" was answered with "Woodchuck." That's it. In actual Ireland, they had at least 3 varieties of cider that weren't even apple (I got a blackcurrant one for my 21st birthday). We had to wait an hour for food, and eventually it was so crowded and I was so uncomfortable that I just left, leaving my gift card on the table to cover my stuff. I only drank like 3 sips of my Woodchuck, too (not a fan). I wish we'd gone to the Melting Pot for the $15 chocolate, cheese, and drink special instead... I wound up leaving at 9 and just went to bed.
That was Thursday. Friday night was much better. There was a casino night at some theater place. I learned how to play craps, and won 16 imaginary dollars. They gave us each $500 to gamble with so that we didn't have to use our own money. Craps was really fun! Our dealer introduced himself as Bruce, but his nametag said DJ Bruce so we called him DJ all night. He was a lot of fun, teaching us how to play the game and joking with us. I gave him a high five when we cashed out. Saturday night was the closing ceremony, which had really nice food (although I didn't eat much because the beef was really rare for me). Some people went out afterwards, but I wasn't feeling it, especially since I had to wake up for a 6:40 shuttle to the airport.
Oh, btw, I got an email: I didn't get the summer NASA program. I'm pretty much okay with that, though. It was my least favorite since I'd have to find housing in Houston. Plus it has set start and end dates, and now I get to pick my start dates, which means I get to go to Hawaii with my family at the beginning of summer!
So I finally got my car fixed yesterday. The maintainance light was on, so I got an oil change and my tires rotated, and I finally got my cracked windshield replaced. And it didn't lose me my 2-year brake tag that I just got last summer! This week so far I've been studying anatomy really hard, but I really need to work on bacteriology since we have our first exam Friday. We also started Pathology this week. I really liked the first lecture, but today I was having trouble paying attention. How much repetition there was from yesterday didn't really help. I still need to watch a bacteriology lecture and an anatomy lecture that I missed for symposium. Oh, and today I'm finally doing something for Josh Project (despite being a committee member...)--today I'm going to Our Lady of the Lake Hospital to deliver some kits!
By the way, my Pathfinder group did play without me. Apparently it was like a sidequest, and the DM has an idea for what my character was doing during it. I'm still looking forward to this weekend! I might also be doing a scout's day with VOICE (diversity club) on Saturday and Spay Day on Sunday, but since it's the weekend before our anatomy final (Final EVER!) I haven't decided yet.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)