10 ways that Queso says I love you

10 Ways That Queso Says I Love You:

1. He knocks my vintage Colonel Sanders bobblehead (which was a gift from my good friend Liz) off the cabinet shattering him into many little pieces.

2. Attempts to destroy my bulletin board by jumping up on my desk and clawing at all of my pictures and calendar. (Foiled in the attempt)

3. Sprays litter all over the apartment by leaping out of the box and tearing around the house.

4. Hairballs and vomit strategically placed around the carpet.

5. Frantic demands to be fed at 3am, and 4am, and 5am...

6. Destruction of the miniblinds.

7. Loses my glasses and my aggie ring for about a week by knocking them off my dresser.

8. Repeated attempts to make a break for it by dashing out the front door. (Even though a previous attempt resulted in him meeting a couple of unfriendly dogs.)

9. Eating all of my houseplants including a two-year old bonsai that I had grown from a seed.

10. Incessant licking of any exposed skin.

A Thanksgiving without pie

The headline says it all. At least there was cranberry sauce this year. And I did get to spend the holiday with my boyfriend and my family. There will be a lot of people spending the holidays without a home, family members, and their family keepsakes this year.

I spent all morning cleaning my apartment and hiding naughty things because my parents were coming over. Then I remembered that today was Saturday, not Friday. I don't know why they didn't come over yesterday, but i'm kinda glad cause my apartment was a den of filth and debauchery. Well, my apartment is clean at any rate.

Thanksgiving break is here

Since Queso woke me up an hour early today, I guess I'll leave a post before class. I just realized that I should probably be careful what I say about my classmates online since I have a direct link to my blog from my facebook and myspace profiles. Luckily, no one cares about my life enough to actually read these things.

Finally, the holiday break is here. We (the sad, overworked vet students) have been looking forward to this week since school started. Hopefully the reduced work load will not make me complacent, I'm going to need to do some hard core studying over my break to make it through finals in a couple of weeks.

Is there a problem with me putting up my Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving? Some people seem to think so, but I'm blaming it on corporate brainwashing. How am I not supposed to get into the holiday spirit when Walgreens puts up its dancing Santa decorations on Nov. 1st? Hmm that bed is looking awfully good, I think I'll jump back in for another half hour.

Rocking in the corner

Doing badly on a test makes for a bad week. Doing badly on three tests in one week makes me sit in a fetal postition in the corner rocking. My classmates and I are getting really burned out. Having always been an overacheiver, I've never done the calculating the grade needed on the final to get a passing grade in a class thing, but I find myself doing that for every class now. I've always been a bit high strung about school, but I'm the easy going one in my class. There are bets being made about who's going to be the first one to have a nervous breakdown and drop out of school. (Or actually the third person to drop out since we had two students leave during the first few weeks of school, but they probably didn't want to be there anyways.) I wonder how some of these people are going to make it through 7 more semesters.

I don't understand why some of my classmates act the way they do sometimes. One girl in my micro. group is so anal about every procedure, even the steps that have no outcome on the results of the expirament such as writing our group name on the petri dishes to identify them. "You didn't write the name in the right place, what if the bacteria refuse to grow because they don't like the way you wrote on the outside of the petri dish!" The funny thing is that regardless if our expirament succeeds or fails we get full credit for showing up and doing the work, so who the fuck cares!

Well, I guess I'm done ranting for today. Go see Harry Potter on Friday!

Assholes et al

My previously alluded to bad day was due to an ass of a teacher who thought it would be funny to play a practical joke on his students the day of the test. The test consisted of 3 essays, a page of short answer, and 40 mc; the essays and short answer portion being worth 60% of the grade. The essays were so involved and complex that I started panicking. (As was the rest of the class, although I was so absorbed in my own mental suffering that I didn't notice) One question had so many parts that I remember thinking "I don't think there is enough room on the page to provide all of the information he's asking for." I have horrible test taking anxiety to begin with, and I have gotten nosebleeds and panic attacks during tests before, the most memorable being a horrible physics exam and a biochemistry final. I felt my chest constrict and the blood pressure rising in my head as I started to hyperventilate. Then, about 10 minutes into the test, our professor stands up, announces his wicked ruse, and tells us that the real test consists of only the last mc portion. Many people were amused, but many others, myself included, were so flustered and upset about the first 10 minutes that we couldn't concentrate for the rest of the test. Several girls cried during the test, and after the test was over I called Marc to rant and rave over the injustice of it all. But on Monday, the prof came to class to apologize for his stunt. He seemed very genuine in his remorse, and invited anyone with concerns to talk with him in his office about it. So I have decided to forgive him and have stopped wishing plagues and pestilence on him. Nevertheless, you can't play a trick like that on 100 sleep-deprived, over-stressed type A personalities and expect it to go over well. Hopefully lesson learned for him. And don't worry Billy, I drowned my sorrows in sleep and not liquor.

No words for this disaster

My day was so horrible it cannot be put into words. I'll try to find the strength in a day or two. Now I'm going to study with my Anatomy group, and then I'm going to drink...heavily.

Sick rat woes

I had a scare this morning when I woke up to find my newest rattie, Wilma showing neurological signs. She was having a hard time getting around the cage and was spinning in circles. Fearing the worst I took her to school with me and dropped her off at the clinic while I was in class. Thankfully, she only has an inner ear infection so some antibiotics should clear her up soon. Wilma is enjoying the pina-colada flavored Baytril, which reminds me of how gross medicine was when I was a kid. Except that pink amoxacillin. I was always excited to get strep throat if it meant I could take that stuff. Unfortunately, since she needs to be medicated twice a day, I'll be stuck in CS for a couple of weeks while she's being treated. The doctor also discovered that the scabs that I had assumed were from spats with her rat buddy, Betty, were actually a lice infestation. After seeing the blood drain from my face, Dr. Pare assured me that the lice are species specific and won't get on me or Queso. So after Wilma is done with her antibiotics, she and Betty are going to be treated for their parasites, and I'm going to decontaminate the cage. Super yuck. I guess that's what happens when I get my pets out of the feeder bin at the pet store. They probably aren't kept in the best conditions there. So that's the conclusion of my stressful day. That's a picture of Wilma, during healthier times, above.

Halloween pictures

I finally uploaded my pictures from the Halloween party. Check them out by clicking on the link to my photo album.

Not much going on around here. The week of horrible tests is over, and I feel pretty good about the results. This week is another couple of hard tests so my stress level is still running high. I've been feeling lightheaded off and on for the past few days. I think it could be related to the stress. At least I'm not as bad off as one of my classmates who was having chest pains last week. Just a few short weeks until the holidays though. I think I can make it. After my microbiology test is over this week I might put up the Christmas tree to celebrate.

This week sucks

My classmates will all attest to the fact that this week sucks. A project due on Tuesday, a histology test on Thursday (which kicked everyone's butt), and a 4 hour anatomy exam on Friday. I knew it was bad when my dissection partners and I were discussing the answers we had put for a question. "I put pancreas." "I put salivary gland." "Really? I thought it was the liver!" Thank goodness that birds are so wierd looking inside. At least I know I got those questions correct. Everyone is freaking out about the anatomy test tomorrow including myself. Reviewing usually leads to panic and maniacal laughter.

On a lighter note, I started my ostrich husbandry rotation this week, and I love it! I want to steal the ostrich and make her my pet because she is so funny and personable. She's not the brightest rock in the pile either. She's easily distracted by sticks, shiny things, or the wall. At one point she started being kinda pushy so I turned her around toward a corner. If she could talk I think she would have said "Oooh! a wall!" She then stared and pecked at it for about ten minutes, forgetting all about me. Getting to take care of her in the mornings actually makes it easier to wake up at 6 am, and since the ostrich is my optional rotation, I don't have to clean her pen this weekend.

I'll be in Houston again this weekend. I have a palpation exam next week so I need to practice on my parent's dogs on Sunday. I'll probably be studying most of the weekend because I have two tests next week as well (Hooray does the fun ever stop?) I might be going to a concert on Saturday night though. After the test tomorrow, I will probably need a stiff drink, so I'm going to take Friday night off from studying.