Good Morning!

It's a beautiful day here. The sun is slanting across my backyard, highlighting the tufts of white in the squirrels' tails as they leap from tree to tree. With the window cracked I can even hear the sound of one munching on a nut, something I liken to nails on a chalkboard. My chickies are running around, fluffing their feathers and stretching their wings. I think they might weigh a pound each now. And there goes Big Red, my beautiful Americauna rooster who crows his head off from 4 AM to noon. Jasmine is sitting next to my keyboard as I type, plaintively looking at me (she either wants more breakfast or pets, probably the latter).

It's nice to finally have a break to appreciate these things. This past week has been like heaven. I had an exam on Monday which concluded my six weeks of exams, and then it was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. My workload has been light, and my birthday was on Friday. I received an invitation to watch a complicated gelding surgery, so I of course took that. It wasn't too involved; one testicle was where it should have been (just not dropped), while the other was  up in the flank. I ended up holding the back leg out, while Doc performed the procedure in a way to provide a really good view for his audience. Two of the pre-vet students joined me (and many more wanted to), and got their first taste of vet med. Both are thinking of doing equine vet med, and so it was a good experience for them. They also got to meet the woman who runs the rescue that the colt is on (someone who I am quite fond of), and Doc and Ms. S. One of the girls set up an interview with Doc to start riding along on Saturdays, which I think she will very much enjoy. Doc and Ms. S. invited the club out to his barn again this year for a hands-on equine dentistry wet lab (which we will definitely take advantage of!).

Later, Jared took me out to the Cheesecake Factory and the large mall in Towson, and his parents joined us. I thoroughly enjoy their company and will be missing the family fall birthday celebration tonight with them, so being able to spend some time with them made me feel a little better about that. It was a really nice night. We hardly get a chance to go anywhere, and I had never been to the C.F. out here, and only been to Towson mall twice. I ended up buying a really pretty dress at Macy's which I found out that the register was marked down even further than I thought, ending up only being $10! Jared bought me a really nice watch of a fancy brand I had never heard of, which I protested strongly (walmart watches are more my style) but am rather fond of. Not sure how often I will wear it though; I am rather afraid of hurting it.

Last night was my brother and I's combined B-day celebration with the family. It was a rowdy and loud time as usual, with a lot of bickering going on across the table! My mother prepared a wonderful meal (of course!) and everyone pigged out. She even made two cakes so Dale and I could each have our favorites. Dale got a shopping trip to get him some new professional clothes, and my mother bought me a 60 minute massage (woohoo!) and an engraved Littman Stethoscope. It is gorgeous and the sounds it produces are incredibly clear (much better than my cheap Amazon one). I seriously hope I get in to vet school or else I will have a very awesome stethoscope and no place to use it! (Jared suggested I could always hang it on the wall as motivation LOL). My mom's small animal vet went to VMRCVM and is apparently head of the program that helps first year vet students get settled... including what they need to bring. So she gave mom advice on which one to buy and to get it engraved (to prevent stealing). I keep meeting vets that graduated from there and they are all so enthusiastic and offer to "put in a good word" or are just outpouring about the program's strengths. I would be happy anywhere, but I would love to stay a bit closer to home, and I do love the school. Here's to hope!

Today (to conclude this long post) I am headed with the club to a small exotic rescue a couple towns over (only 20 mins from campus), and then later to a haunted scream park with my friends! Should be a fun AND beautiful day :)

~Melissa

The Best Thing

This semester has been great in that all of my science classes have been overlapping in really nice ways. Our second unit in Comparative Animal was on muscles, at the same time I was learning about muscle tissues in Human A &P, and just the other day we learned about the detailed bio-chemical aspects of muscles in Biochem. Even in strange things such as learning about crocodile's blood shunting abilities in CAP and then learning about BPG binding (or lack thereof) and hemoglobin affinity for bicarb in crocodile's in Biochem the very next class  (both of which are important factors in croc's ability to drown their prey). It's nice because I get completely different things and details in each course, and then some overlap which certainly helps with the studying.

And then there is my Native American Studies class. I love learning about the indigenous cultures here in America. More than that, I am intrinsically drawn towards learning about the social justice issues, racism and oppression going on in the Native communities. It inspired me to sign up to lead a week-long immersion trip to the Great Smoky Mountains in the Spring where we will be doing service projects and engaging in conversation with the Snowbird Cherokee. This is a new trip this year (also called alternative break trips), and I am trying to act as a bridge between the Native professor on campus and the Center for Public Service. In the past, the trips have been viewed as a bit of exploitation and "let's go see the Indians." I'm trying to re-vamp that and make it into a respectful and mutual atmosphere where students are made truly aware of the issues facing the native people in the Americas. I'm really excited about it (in case you can't tell), but it has also been taking up a lot of time.

A lot of exams and papers and readings lately (have 5 weeks straight of exams, then a week off and start over)... my grades have not been as good as they should be, but I only have so many hours in a day to study for exams on top of everything else. I've even been neglecting writing on here because it takes time!  Speaking of which... I need to go work on my bio paper and my NAS paper and my readings and that video I'm supposed to watch and studying for my exam on Tuesday and working on my biochem HW problems and oh yeah the three or four chapters in textbooks I'm supposed to have read by Monday...

At least its good practice for vet school. Which I may one day get into, and then put myself in debt for the rest of my life.

Happy Tails and Trails,

~Melissa