Life of Vet Student - 2 days until Midterm week

If you're a first year vet student at Mizzou, life is hard this week. Everyone has been on edge...likely to break down at the slightest percieved insult. At least most of us has been that way... to help the non vet student understand I've heard and thought of many analogies:

1. You're thirsty...dying of thirst. And your trying to drink out of a fire hose.
   
2. you've trained all your life as a martial artist. You can break bricks with your pinky...and someone walks up behind you and shoots you.
3. Chromophobe is one of the cells found in the pituitary gland... it used to have granules of various content, but now it's empty and it's life is colorless (lack of granules leads to the cell refusing to take up stain).
4. Danan: Vet school is like you're trying to push a boulder up a mountain, but everytime it gets to the top.... Like Sisyphus.
5. Santana: Vet school is a huge monster...each day you go sacrifice yourself to appease its hunger.

So those are all fairly negative things. However, I'm feeling much better than when I started the week. My rather persistent cough is still around, but I seem to fall asleep easily enough. I passed (with a nice cushion) all of my quizzes and tests this last week. I made an a on my Developmental Anatomy exam which brings my anatomy average up to a comfortable C. Unfortunately the Anatomy lab exam average clause still worries me, but there's no reason why I can't bring my practical average up. Sometimes I think that I should just drink a glass of wine (or a shot of something) before going in. That darn buzzer that goes off every minute notifying the frazzled test takers its time to switch stations annoys the hell out of me. I think I could even do well on an anatomy practical, if I could just get over the anxiety. Panic answer-changing and just panic in general sunk my last practical score. I would have gotten a B if wasn't for the panic and nerves.

I just have to survive the 4 midterms this upcoming week. I'm still hopeful I'll get through all of those with flying colors. Luckily, I have the best, most supportive friends I could ask for here. We eat together, study together, work out together... They've solemnly vowed to get me through my Anatomy practical anxiety :) Haha...but I think God himself will have the most to do with that...not a shot of tequila or even my wonderful friends.

In other news, Chase is steadily working on his application for Mizzou engineering doctorate program. He's a 4.0 masters student so we're hoping and praying he'll get a fellowship here. Without the fellowship, he'll probably just have to get a job up here. I've talked to some friends, and they don't think it will be too much of a problem for him to find a job because of all the private research companies. Beth's husband will be switching jobs soon (making a lateral move within the company)..he's a chemical engineer who manages a lab focused on developing new waste water management techniques. They are keeping thier eyes open for a replacement, but aren't in any hurry. I'm sure this will all work out for the best even if he ends up working instead of going to school. He's fairly certain that the University of Arkansas would offer him A LOT more money than Mizzou would (Arkansas seems to have more funding for fellowships etc). His current thesis adviser wants him to do his doctorate work at UA so he can continue his current line of research. So maybe we'll end up back in Fayetteville after I'm done. Who knows!

Sniffles, sneezes, and snot

I'm officially sick... I guess i'll go to the doctor on tuesday.

Recent news and observations

1. School is no fun.
   
2. I don't feel well - stomach bug + sore throat
3. I've moved to the pass fail system until I feel better. C or better = pass
   
4. Anatomy stinks and makes me stink.
   
5. Nutrition is potentially the most boring class known to the first year vet student
   
6. there's a wedding convention this weekend here in CoMo
7. The upcoming weekend is a 3 day weekend.
   
8. I have the best friends in the world
9. I have the best fiance in the world
10. I have the best family in the world

birdcage

Official Wedding Theme

The Cake Topper

The Colors

Couples Game night

Chase and I had a lovely Missourian adventure. We ate lunch at Chilli's, went to the mall, walked around holding hands, got a sizer thingy for my ring (to be resized to a 5.5 later), and then wandered around

So these are all my good friends now. We're just like a family :) Tonight we had a board game night, but it ended up being 5 couples. It was a lot of fun! We finally toasted to our first semester as we had planned before Christmas break too! Tonight was very enjoyable.


Beth & David and Amanda & John (John arrived later)

Joe & Jen and Santana & Danny

Me and Chase (in a clearly posed photo)

Vet School Prom

more stuff

More ideas :)

These are $0.50 each. We could fill them with flower seeds or something...very green and eco friendly. I like it :)

Look at this too!! http://www.beau-coup.com/tea_sachets.htm

These are little tea sachets

Personalized tea bags!

Color Option #1 - Purple and Green with white and brown accents

The coleus leaf is my favorite part. It's name sounds like a muscle. Did I mention it's a late summer bloomer?

The actual paint chips themselves should be looked at...but here are scans just the same.

This scan isn't really accurate. Lowes Biltmore Estate paint chips

Lowes again. Purple and greens with brown and white-ish accents.

I really like the style of this cake. Make it whiter...and some sort of purple flower. Simple.

If I did this sort of them. I could have little jars of natural stuff as decorations...Like a jar of acorns or something. Instead of flowers on reception tables I could have little potted plants and little birdhouses and birds. What you think dad? :)

Engaged (In Chase's Words)

What Chase has to say about it:

This past Saturday, January 3rd, 2009, I attempted to propose to my girlfriend of two years. I had it all planned out. We would go out for a nice dinner disguised as a farewell 'party for two' since she was moving back to Missouri the next day. Then, we would go out for a look at the Quadrantid meteor shower and, at some point during the shower, I would get on one knee and do my thing. Romantic, unique, once-in-a-lifetime (or at least a year) opportunity, and generally awesome.But that's not quite how it turned out.

I started out my expedition into uncharted waters by asking the blessings of mygirlfriend's father. He's a quiet, unassuming man, but I know that he can be stern. I expected a strange sort of grilling unlike what you would expect from more aggressive men, which made me all the more uneasy about the idea. But, I knew that I wanted permission prior to asking her so I didn't have to say,"alright, now I gotta go ask your dad..."

So, I sneak into the house(thank goodness the weather was warm that day and my girlfriend was enjoying some time outside before the next deep freeze) and sat next to her dad watchingbasketball. I waited for a commercial break, glanced around for signs of girlfriend entry, and then sent out a short barrage of my intentions. He looked at me blankly for a second, obviously in mild shock (I was in shock, too), and then responded, "Well, it doesn't bother me as long as you make her happy. That's the main thing." and then some other stuff about not being too surprised about my inquiry. Much to my surprise, that's all there was to that part of my journey. What I had built up in my head as this huge thing turned out to be less than a minute ordeal. I think we were finished talking before the commercial break ended, so we just sat there awkwardly watching the commercials.

Now we come to the dinner. My girlfriend had informed me that a family friend was leaving and they were going to have dinner, but I thought it was Friday night. Turns out, dinner was Saturday night, so we went out with the family. I was barely able to eat half my meal from nerves and sat there listening to everyone and trying not to act stupid or suspicious. It seems to have worked.

Then comes the meteor shower. Keep in mind that a cold weather front is on the way and a cloud wall with rain and sleet is on the edge of the state as we started on our journey out into the darkness. I decided it would be cool to go way off into the woods by this lake about an hour from our home town so that we could be far enough away from the city lights to see everything.

So, we drive out there for an hour or more and finally get to theroad to the lake itself. So we start down it, and at least a half hour later, we finally stumble across the road that will take us to the lake...apparently, the"lake road" is not the road to the lake, but a scenic route through the hillsaround the lake that eventually takes you to the -real- lake road... I digress.

So we get to the lake, and what do we see but flood lights everywhere.They built a camp around the lake and covered it in security lights to keep people safe. So now the lake is a loss. I decided to try a boat ramp which the sign indicated was around 0.5 miles (~0.8 km) away. We started down the road and quickly realized that it was not 0.5 miles, but 5 miles (~8 km). So we go down the road about a mile and finally happen upon a small open field. We decided to stop there rather than go all the way to the boat ramp and setup our tarp and sleeping bags in the field.

We nestled in for a long night ofstar-gazing and my girlfriend got out her nifty camera and started taking long-exposure pictures of the stars. We expected meteors at any moment...any moment now...was that one? No, it was an airplane...two, three, four, ... ten airplanes later and still no meteors. Thirty minutes and no meteors. The moon set and still no meteors. The clouds finally reached the trees and started tocover us and still no meteors. It was only after we got back home that I found out that the Quadrantid meteor shower has a one-hour "sharp peak" meaning you won't see anything until the peak hour, during which you can see 40-60 meteors per hour. That peak turned out to be 3-4am, about 2 hours after we left the lake. So...no meteors.

At one point, my girlfriend heard rustling in the leaves in the distance, so she wanted to leave. I convinced her to stay a little bit longer, but eventually she was ready to go. So she stood up and started getting blankets folded up and I stood up and then acted like I was going topick up the sleeping bag but instead got down on one knee.The followingis a basic rendition of the conversation that followed:

Me - *with ring boxin hand on knee* You know, I didn't need to see a meteor shower tonight...*interrupted*
GF - What? *stops folding blankets*
Me - *continuing* or even the stars, because all the light of the stars is wrapped up in your eyes.
GF - Wait...wait a minute! You're kidding right?!?
Me - No...
Me - *continuing again* And I don't need to wish on falling stars, because I know that a higher Power has brought us together. All I need to know is, will you marry me?
GF - *almost interrupting my question* Yes! *generalexcitement, giddy gibberish, and hugging*
GF - This is the part where youput the ring on...
Me - Oh yeah... *opens ring box in hand

**Fin*
So yah, I almost forgot to give my girlfriend the ring... *sigh* Anyway, it was at this point that she tackled me giggling and we kinda stared up at the sky some more being generally excited and such. But then, we started hearing coyote showling in the background (remember the rustling in the woods? Yeah...) so we decided to get the heck out of there.

On our way out, I was driving down this really narrow road with a steep embankment through the fog.I was doing the speed limit, about 55 mph (88 kph). We're just driving along being excited and checking cell phones for reception to see if we can call people when out of nowhere this white flash emerges from the fog and over the white border line on the road. It was a freakin' white rabbit... I swerved to miss it, and I didn't hit it with my tires, but it jumped up under my car and I heard it hit. I figure there's a chance it survived since I didn't roll it, but it's probably dead. The End

Chase's Disclamer:Please recognize that certain portions of the original post may have been modified from the actual events so as to make for a better whale of a tale or two... Also, the overall tone of the OP is negative, but the evening was by far the most awesome set of events that could possibly have strung together and Katie and I both had a lot of fun...except for the poor bunny.

So that's Chase's view...I'll have to post mine soon :)

Goals or Jellyfish...jellyfish please.

This is a Portugese Man of War. I think I would rather touch it with my bare hands than do what I need to do today...Unfortunately I wasn't presented with a choice. Goals for this year...

1. Today's goal: Fundraising. I have to go begging/requesting donations from local businesses. I hate this. I really hate this. It wouldn't have been so bad if my other teammate hadn't skipped out. On my list...

• The Clinton Library
• The Discovery Museum
• The Peabody
• The Zoo?
• The Capitol Hotel?
  
• The Rep?
  

More Long term-ish goals:
2. Maintain a 3.5 in vet school.
...without killing myself in the process. this involves

• Studying my lecture notes the evening following the lecture.
• Doing assigned reading ahead of time

3. Read my One-Year Bible.

4.Take a photo per day and post them here --> http://greyhoundstride.blogspot.com/
5. The obligatory get in shape goal. Steps to accomplish this...

• Working out 3 times per week
• eating healthier food...avoiding the chocolates and cutting down on hot cocoa.
  
• Walk Gary in the morning.
  

Happy 2009

Happy New Year!

The new year aways bring a sense of renewal...a new beginning, a fresh start. However I'm not ready to start school. Undergrad spoiled me with its full month of Christmas break. Tomorrow is fundraising...Saturday is my last day home so I'll probably pack up and get ready to go. Then it's back to school for me! Ugh. I'm really dreading the fundraising thing. Why did I sign up for this again?

Less than 24 hours into 2009 and I've already lost my phone. It's going to be a good year.