Long Overdue Update

Sorry that I've been really bad about updating this as much as I should. Even if I can't post something weekly, I really want to try to at least keep it going so that I don't totally stop at some point (which is how all my other journals and the like have ended up).

Anyways, a few things worth talking about. It's hard to believe that it was almost 2 weeks ago now, but we finally got a good snow! It was around 8 or so inches, if I had to guess. It was really beautiful, helped even more by the fact that I haven't seen this much snow in a long time (Isn't that sad? I swear that even growing up in Fredericksburg we got at least one good snow at least once a year).

Here's the view from our apartment balcony on Monday, March 3. I love it.

Elisa wanted to come out to see the snow too!

She may look very pensive here with Candace, but she was actually pretty scared and wanted to go back inside rather quickly. She's very much an indoor cat, and is very content to stay that way. It makes me wonder if it has something to do with whatever happened to her before we got her.

The most interesting part of the snow was finding out what was going to happen with school on Monday morning. I got a message on my phone around 6 am, saying that we had a two hour delay, which was rather exciting (apparently VA Tech rarely ever closes or has delays, even if people are slipping treacherously on their way to class. Silly mountain folk.). Since that meant we had to be in class by 10, I meandered outside around 8:30, figuring that would give me plenty of time to clean off my car and then enjoy a short walk around in the snow. Unfortunately, I found that both of my car's front doors were frozen shut and that there was a nice refrozen layer of former slush underneath all that lovely, fluffy snow. Long story short, it took about an hour to get my car warm, cleaned up, and ready to go. I then ventured out of the apartment complex, facing some of the worst looking roads that I have ever had to drive on. It was pretty scary, especially when a large pick-up truck going on the opposite direction of me started to swerve all over the place. Yikes. However, I got to school safely, braved the very icy hill from the parking lot to the building, and finally made it inside. Most everyone seemed to have been safely assembled around 10, only for one of the scheduling people to come in and announce to our class that the professor for our 10 am had decided that it was too much for him to dig out his car in time, and so would not be coming. Argh. Best of all, in true vet school fashion, we don't just lose the 3 hours that we missed, but we have to make them all up, and the scheduling people were kind enough to promptly plug in all the precious 8 am slots that we happened to have free. Sigh.

However, I am very happy to report that I still love snow, even though I seem to have reached the point in my life where it causes more problems than not. My mom always warned me that this day would come...but I think I will remain stubborn. After all, it definitely made that Monday a lot more exciting, and having a little bit of a change from the routine was great.

This semester is continuing to move along at a steady clip. It's really amazing how fast it's going by. Now that I think about it, I have less than two months before I'll be finished with my first year of vet school. How in the world did that happen? The good thing about things moving along quickly is that this last week before spring break hopefully will fly by. We have an anatomy test on the thoracic limb on Thursday, and then we'll be home free!

To finish up this post, some humor, courtesy of our vet school professors:

"Did you hear about the corduroy pillows? Yep, they're making headlines!"
-Dr. Monroe

"Now, when studying the funny bone, you have to be careful, or you could get it confused with the humerus."
-Dr. Eng

Hehehe...oh, dear. I'm sorry. I have to listen to things like this everyday, so I thought I would share!

P.S. Trying to format this thing when you have multiple pictures, and don't just want them sitting in the middle is danged complicated. Phew.

Wonderful Random Moments

These past two weeks have not been particularly fun, with several tests and quizzes coming along in quick succession. However, the past couple days have been great, definitely making up for all of it.

Thursday morning began with our Pathology test, which most of us were very excited to be done with. It was the last one in the string of tests we've been having, and it preceded a (sort of) three day weekend for us. Once the test was over, however, we still had a full day of class until 5 to get through, including the dreaded double lab sessions (which seem to be more and more frequent these days). With most of us running on only a few hours of sleep, this was not a particularly exciting prospect. By the time my group had gotten through parasitology lab and had to face our final two hours of anatomy lab, we were all slightly giddy with exhaustion. Thankfully, the lab didn't require too much brain power, since Dr. Eng's method of going through the muscles of the thoracic limb involves slowly and carefully explaining and going through each of the muscles one at a time as we dissected them out on our dog cadavers. So in the end, the lab itself wasn't too bad. What made it memorable, however, occurred about halfway through the lab when I started to hear scattered snickers and giggling throughout the classroom as Dr. Eng described the actions of various muscles. Finally, I realized that the laughs were due to Dr. Freeman, who, behind Dr. Eng's back, was demonstrating the actions of each of the muscles with wildly exaggerated movements (the best one being a rapid succession of fist pumps). Finally, Belinda, the MDL lady who was operating the video camera on Dr. Eng's dog cadaver, just broke down into uncontrollable laughter, which seemed to be the signal that set the entire lab laughing. If this doesn't seem like that big of a deal, you must understand that anatomy lab is usually a relatively serious affair, so the whole thing was pretty amusing. Despite the entertainment provided by Dr. Freeman, we were all still very happy to leave, and it was the first time a professor announcing the end of a lab session has been greeted with applause.

To cap off the weirdness that was Thursday, as Alex, Candace, and I were heading out of the building, we ran into Dr. Klein, our neurobiology professor. We already knew that Dr. Klein was a little strange (he brought a saw to class one day so that he could hold it up to his own head in order to demonstrate the different kinds of sections that can be made of the brain), but we were slightly concerned when we saw that he seemed to be staring into a closed doorway. Noticing us coming, he pointed at the doorway. Confused, we looked and realized that he was pointing at a mouse, which was skittering nervously around the crevice of the door. All four of us watched as the mouse hurried by us and turned down the next hallway, checking each doorway for a potential escape. I don't know why, but it was kind of a weird, surreal moment. Probably just because I was so tired. Perhaps also because it brought back flashbacks of the mice that escaped during my research in undergrad, causing me to have to crawl around on the floor to catch them. Anyway, after a moment of intense interest, we continued on our way, finally heading home.

Yesterday, we did not have classes, but were all strongly encouraged to attend the VA Veterinary Medical Association conference being held in Roanoke. Although it involved waking up earlier than usual, it was a really fun experience. I attended a series of lectures on cat and dog behavior and aggression, got a pretty delicious breakfast and lunch, and got to go around the exhibit hall collecting a bunch a free stuff branded with vet supply company and drug names. I mean, who wouldn't want a baseball cap that says "Prevent the Ulcer" on it? It's the height of stylishness. If there's one thing I've learned from vet school so far, it's that if I stay in this profession, I'm probably never going to have to buy another pen for the rest of my life. As long as I don't mind using pens that say "K9 Advantix" or "Purina" on them, I'm pretty much set.

"If absence were measured in terms of the heart...

...friends would only ever be a minute apart." So says the small picture that's been hanging in our kitchen at home for as long as I can remember. Although the picture shows two girls mailing letters to each other, I was thinking today about how this seems to apply even more to modern forms of communication.

Although I used AIM a lot in undergrad, I have come to appreciate it even more now. While it will never replace having a phone conversation with someone or getting to see them face to face, it's a wonderful way to keep the people you care about as a part of your day-to-day life. Even if the conversation isn't any longer than a few lines, I find that it causes me to feel that people who are hundreds of miles away aren't so distant after all. A brief story about something that has happened that day, a few words of encouragement, a link to an interesting article or video, or a quick question about how my day has been going always manage to brighten my day and break up the monotony that studying sometimes becomes.

Anyway, point is, you all are wonderful, and I really love having such an great way to keep you as such a central part of my life.

Sometimes moving forward involves...moving backward?

I just got back to the apartment from being in the anatomy lab for about 8 hours today. These pre-anatomy test weekends can sometimes feel like mini-marathons, except instead of running they involve looking at lots of severed animal heads in excruciating detail. However, as strange as it may seem, this is probably why anatomy has been my favorite class so far. With the studying being so hands-on, the time spent in the lab really does just fly by. Also, when you find that lymph node, or finally understand the course of that stupid nerve, it's a really rewarding feeling. So, while it's still overwhelming, it definitely beats spending all of your studying time staring at flash cards or highlighting pages of notes (although anatomy involves plenty of that too).

On a totally different subject, I've been thinking recently on something that several of us first years seem to have taken note of. This is the rather paradoxical fact that veterinary school seems to share a lot of similarities with elementary, middle, and high school. How can this be, you ask? Well, here are several of the best examples that I've come up with:

• At the beginning of the year we were all assigned lockers sitting in the hallways. While standing around and chatting at lockers isn't nearly as important of a social outlet in vet school as it was in high school, the whole procedure really brought me back. Like in high school, people still enjoy decorating their lockers. While picture of pets predominate, there are also plenty of pictures of spouses and children, a decided difference from the usual high school decor.
• The entire school has the same lunch period from 12-1. While we have considerably more freedom to do whatever we want during this time than I ever had in high school, having everyone gathering into the commons to eat has a very cafeteria-esque feel to it. Not only that, but the Doctors/Professors always sit together at the same big table...very reminiscent of the teacher's table in middle school. After four years of living off a dining plan, it's interesting to be bringing a lunchbox to school everyday again.
• The drama...ooooh, the drama. I have a very distinct memory from middle school from when I was in sixth grade or so of one of my friends telling a friend who was a year above us that our entire class was like "a big Soap Opera." We took ourselves so seriously...it was cute. Yet, here I am again. This is what happens when 91 people do everything together all the time. Thankfully, I have found relatively drama free friends, for which I am extremely thankful. This means I just get to watch most of the drama from afar, which is pretty much what I attempted to do in middle and high school as well.
• Show and Tell! Being vet students, we all love to talk about our pets and show them off as much as possible. Dogs are invited to pretty much every social event, and people never fail to accept said invitation. When our wonderful physiology professor said she'd like pictures of our pets to show for mini breaks during class, we all jumped on the opportunity. The best example of show and tell came during reptile lab last Friday, when everyone with reptiles was invited to bring in their pets. The reptiles were introduced, passed around, and appropriately oohed and ahhed over, not so very unlike the little treasures that we used to bring around to show off in elementary school.
• I have definitely not done this much coloring since middle school, and once again colored pencils have become a necessary item in my back pack each day. This is mostly for anatomy, where color coding pictures of muscles, nerves, bones, and the like has become an essential part of my study regime. We even have a textbook that is essentially a humongous anatomy coloring book with tons of black and white pictures which I can highlight, color, and scribble to my heart's content. True, coloring is a rather lax way of studying, but the colored diagrams really do help me study later. Best of all, it allows me to feel like I'm being productive when I really don't feel like doing anything more thought provoking.

Vet school is definitely a different environment from undergrad. I feel like I've somehow both gained some freedoms and grown as an adult, while losing a lot of freedoms, at least as far as my academic curriculum goes. I suppose that it's all a part of slowly narrowing in on what you want to do with your life. Thankfully, the more and more I learn, the more excited I get about this strange career I've chosen. There's a whole lot of cool stuff that vets can do. So, I think the stringency of the program here will definitely be worth it in the end.

Lions, and Tigers, and Macropods...Oh my.

So, I am finally returning this blog back to veterinary school, where it's supposed to be. Christmas break was a marvelous and much needed respite, but now that I'm here, I'm really happy to be back. Our first week of second semester went well, and I'm feeling optimistic. I don't think this semester's going to be any easier than the last one, but I feel like I'm coming into this one with a better understanding of what to expect and without having to deal with all the transition stuff that inevitably went along with the first semester. Plus, a lot of the classes this semester just seem more interesting, which is exciting.

Before it gets shoved too far behind more recent events, I wanted to write a little about the exotics conference I went to last weekend. I drove back to Blacksburg a few days early so that 13 of us could leave bright and earlyto drive all the way to Columbia, MO in two mini vans. The conference was held at the veterinary school at the University of Missouri, and covered a wide range of topics about exotic animal veterinary medicine. An exotic animal is basically anything that is not a cat, dog, or common domestic farm animal. So while there were plenty of lectures about the so-called "pocket pets" (hamsters, gerbils, parakeets, and the less threatening of the common reptiles), I was most excited about the wide variety of lectures about wildlife and zoo animal medicine, topics that Virginia-Maryland's vet school curriculum is sorely lacking. Anyway, both the conference itself and getting to and from Missouri were very interesting experiences. Here are a few of the things that I learned over the course of the trip:

• It takes 12 hours (plus extra for meals, pit stops, speeding tickets, and black ice) to drive from Blacksburg, VA to Columbia, MO. The trip takes you into 6 different states, through one time zone change, and through such exotic locales as Louisville, KY and St. Louis, MO.
• While it was entertaining, I do not have particularly good aim with a blow dart gun and probably need a lot more practice before I try to dart anything alive.
• When concentrating to pump up a foot operated air pistol to the appropriate pressure, it's probably a good idea to pay attention to where you are pointing the loaded pistol. If you're swinging it around wildly towards random people in the room (inadvertently, of course), it makes the instructors nervous.
• If I'm interested in having a residency at a zoo pretty soon after I graduate, I probably should have applied about a year before I even knew that I had gotten into vet school.
• It is legal to keep large cats as pets in the United States as long as you have a permit, and it is extremely easy to purchase, say, a cougar kitten off the Internet. I think this is ridiculous and needs to stop, but it also means that these large cats need veterinary care (and thus, interested veterinarians!).
• A macropod is a large-footed marsupial (a wallaby or a kangaroo).
• Female kangaroos have a grand total of 3 vaginas. Yep, 3. And 2 uteri (uteruses? Guess not...spell check says so.). A single female can support three young at one time (one fetus, one very tiny joey that has just been born and entered her pouch, and one older joey that still returns to the pouch to nurse).
• The trend towards obesity that we see in humans and pets is also beginning to be a problem in zoo animals.
• When one of your mini vans (thankfully, not the one I was in) does a complete spin out at night on black ice and stops just off of the highway facing the wrong direction, this causes other drivers to freak out. Then they, in turn, have their own spectacular spin outs off of the highway. This greatly delays your trip, especially when one of your members feels the need to go console the other driver, who is slightly hysterical. Good news is no one was hurt.

Anyway, needless to say, the trip (especially the return trip) was quite an eventful way to start off the semester. I really enjoyed the conference itself. It was interesting to meet people (including members of my own class whom I didn't know very well) that share an interest in exotics. It was also really cool to be around so many actual zoo veterinarians. They are living proof that it's possibly to pursue zoo veterinary medicine as a career. Greater yet, there were doctors who had practices that allowed them to treat both small animals (something I'm also very interested in) and exotics. So probably the greatest thing I learned was that if this is something I really am passionate about, it's not totally impossible. The trick now is figuring out for myself exactly how much I want to make wildlife and/or zoo animal medicine a part of my career.

Yo Ho, Yo Ho a Disney life for me!

My parents and I returned a couple days ago from our trip to Disney World. I had such a wonderful time, although we started every day early and often fell into bed exhausted at night. Only at Disney World could you find me eagerly hopping out of bed at 6 in the morning on a daily basis.

I've been going to Disney World every couple of years since I was 3. We have videos of several of those trips, and it's really interesting to see how the parks have changed, which has been quite drastic in some instances, but also how some little corners of the parks have essentially remained the same since my first trip in 1989. Even more interesting is how my family's trips and experiences have changed over the years. My family is clearly now out of the key Disney demographic, and although I experience the parks differently, I don't think I enjoy it any less than when I was 7 or 10.

When I was younger, Disney World trips were a rare, nearly mythical occurrence that happened every 3 years (3 years! That's like an eternity when you're 7...). I had vague memories of previous trips, or what I could see of the parks in videos my dad had taken, but the trips were essentially full of the new: seeing places and riding rides that I had never been on before or that only hazily existed in my subconscious.

Ever since my last trip with my family, which happened in the middle of undergrad, I've noticed a small change. I don't know whether its because I'm older or because I've been on who knows how many trips to Disney World now, but the parks have taken on a sense of comfortable familiarity. So, even though it's been three years since I was last there, I find myself surprised at how much I remember about little specific places or certain attractions. The Disney parks are constantly evolving, probably even more so than most theme parks, so there are always plenty of new things to see after 3 years. But now, I was actually surprised to realize, instead of "the new" defining the trip, it's become more about reliving old, now comfortable, experiences. I don't know if it was because my brother wasn't there, or if I was simply more perceptive this time, but there was much reminiscing that happened on this trip. I tend to be a nostalgic person anyway, and at this point in my family's life, Disney just lends itself towards loads of nostalgia. Instead of finding this disappointing, I really enjoyed it. It's what caused me to tear up when watching the Fireworks at Magic Kingdom or the Fantasmic show (a show that hasn't changed, as far as I can tell, since 1998, but is still completely amazing...how is that?) at Hollywood Studios. It's what makes me smile when overhearing a child exulting over one of my favorite rides that he's just ridden for the first time. It's what, probably to my parents chagrin, still makes me what to stand in lines to get my picture taken with people dressed up as my favorite characters (thankfully, I'm not the only person my age who does this, so I'm not completely insane). I also have a feeling that it's what allows us to continue riding "It's a Small World" while maintaining our sanity.

Not to say that there wasn't plenty of "new" on this trip as well. Staying for the first time in the Animal Kingdom Lodge was amazing, and my only regret was that we didn't have more time to spend at the hotel.

There were also plenty of new rides and attractions to see, all of which were as impressive as I have come to expect from Disney. The most interesting experience was seeing the revamp of Spaceship Earth in Epcot. Spaceship Earth, along with the American Adventure show, is my dad's absolute favorite attraction, and one that always had held more nostalgia for him than anything else. It's undergone some little changes over the years, but this one was the biggest change we've seen. I thought it was great...it kept all of the spirit of the old ride while changing it and updating it enough to keep things interesting. Thankfully my dad liked it too (we rode it 3 times...), so the best news was that we didn't have to go home with a heartbroken Dad on our hands.

Another big surprise was getting to see Cinderella's Castle in it's Christmas lights. We were wandering around Main Street USA, waiting for the parade and fireworks to start and enjoying the shops there, when I suddenly turned to the castle again to find it lit up like this:

This picture doesn't quite do it justice, but it was gorgeous. Leave it to Disney to somehow find a way to make the castle even more beautiful.

Anyway, knowing me I could probably go on and on about Disney World longer than anyone wants to listen to. I really, really love the place. If at some point in my life I have a family and kids, I am so excited about getting to share it with them and reliving the new all over again.

Sunset, sunrise...

I've enjoyed some wonderful sunsets over the past three days. The first one, on Sunday, occurred as my family was leaving Washington DC after seeing a fantastic production of West Side Story. The sky was covered in a thick layer of clouds, but just above the horizon the sky was perfectly clear. This allowed the blazing orange of the sunset to show brilliantly and reflect onto the bottom of the blanket of clouds above. The second sunset was on Monday, as Josh, David, and I were driving from Williamsburg to Portsmouth. We were crossing over the extensive bridge into Portsmouth just as the sun was setting. The entire sky to the west was a beautiful orange, and the color and light reflected off the water, leaving it shining. It was rather distracting, especially while trying to drive, but I did my best to steal only quick glances of the scene, and managed to stay on the bridge. Yesterday, I also marvelled at the sunset, from all places, at the Wal-Mart parking lot in Fredericksburg. As I was leaving the store, I couldn't help but notice that the entire lower sky was a startling pink, a brilliant blush showing where the sun was sinking. It just goes to show that the beautiful can also show up in the most mundane of places.

As the sun sets on 2008, I've been thinking about what an amazing, full year its been. I remember having a similar feeling at the end of 2004, the year I graduated from high school. I think there's something about a transition year that makes you really appreciate all that can happen and change within a span of a year. Here are some of my highlights from 2008:

• The year began with a wonderful Disney cruise to the Caribbean with my family. Besides it being a Disney cruise (making it wonderful in every way...), it was great to see a part of the world that I hadn't seen before and truly relax before diving into my final undergraduate semester.
• I successfully completed and defended my honors thesis. It was an uphill struggle, and something I don't really ever want to do again, but, man, it felt great to accomplish it. Sure, my research didn't really discover anything earth shattering and probably led to more questions than it answered, but I learned a lot, including the fact that research is not really for me (an important discovery in itself, I think).
• I graduated from William and Mary. My four years at William and Mary were incredible. I know that I grew and changed a lot as a person, and met, grew to love, laughed, and cried with people I know will be some of my best friends for the rest of my life. Graduation was a wonderful culmination to those four years.
• While there isn't a particular event that stands out in the summer of this year, it remains one of my favorite times of this year. I worked shadowing my mom for most of the summer, and learned so much and really enjoyed it. In addition to the working, I was lucky enough to have the chance to spend a lot of time with friends, take an absolutely fantastic trip to Florida, and spend a relaxing week at the beach with my family. It was the perfect balance between having fun and being productive, and I couldn't think of a better summer before starting a new stage in my life.
• I interviewed for, got into, and started vet school. What an amazing experience vet school has been so far. I've moved to a new city in the middle of the mountains, got a taste of new independence by moving into an apartment, met some amazing new people who I'm excited about spending the next four years with, and learned massive amounts of new information (some of which I hopefully retained). I'm starting to finally feel confident in the career path I've chosen, and for the most part I'm really looking forward to the rest of my time in Blacksburg.
• Candace and I adopted Elisa, our wonderful little kitten who has been such a great addition to our apartment. She's the sweetest, goofiest little cat, and adds some much needed levity when studying gets a little overbearing. I now can't imagine things without her.
• I went to New York City for the first time! This was something that I've been wanting to do for such a long time, and my first trip was just as amazing as I could have ever hoped for.

Of course, 2008 hasn't been completely perfect. There have been plenty of downs along with the ups, and we all know that there's no lack of turmoil going on in the world right now. However, I have nothing but hope for 2009, hope that we will continue to see the good along with changes that will lessen the bad.

I'm spending this evening packing for my family's new year trip to Orlando, which we're leaving for bright and early tomorrow morning. Clifton's not going to be going on this trip, so it's going to be interesting. I haven't been on a vacation by myself with both of my parents since I was four...so it's going to be kind of like I'm reverting to an only child for a week. We'll see how it goes. My parents, especially my mom, really need this vacation, so I really hope that it's fun and not too stressful for them. I'm really excited about it, so my hope is that it's just as enjoyable for them.

This post has become very long, and it is already after 11. I believe it is time for a nice combination of packing and champagne, perhaps at the same time! Best wishes to all of you for a wonderful and happy beginning to 2009!