Blogger Makes Me Very Irrrrrritated

So I understand no one could see the pictures.  Awesome.  Perhaps I will try to fix them at some later point but sadly don't have time right now; if you really want to see them try the links at the bottom for lots more photos anyway (especially the second one).  In the meantime I'll try to remember that throwing my computer doesn't cause the internet any pain.

Thinking Sunny Summer Things

Hey all, we're back to the weekly grind out here.  And it's January.  So instead of me whining, it seems like an opportune time to do a summer retrospective.  And show off my dear boyfriend's mad photography skillz.  Apologies if this takes forever to load (no worries for Janet and the supahcomputah!)

August 2010

Wizard Island, or, the remains of Mt. Mazama's
eruption cone

Crater Lake at Sunset

20 Minutes of South Central Oregon Sky

These wacky guys are very very very old lava vents.
Mariel, take it away!

He is incapable of staying out of any water,
even if that water is 45 degrees
(at least there is no ice this time)

Another one for Mariel: this was an old lava
vent, and when everything else eroded, the igneous
didn't (did I get that right?)

I am a lava bubble!

How to void the warranty on your Volkswagen Golf
(and send your girlfriend into a conniption fit)

So if you notice I may have scraped the passenger side
mirror along the entire inside of the tree.  Eli reminds
me every 0.5 seconds that I am the only person he
knows to ever hit a tree at 1 mph in broad daylight.
Who wants to loan me their keys?

The Corkscrew Tree.  We had a picnic in it.

Redwoods are enormously wonderful trees.

You should visit if you haven't already. 

The Oregon Coast is not shabby either.

Of course, Eli is now here:

The Bahamas

So as far as we're concerned, he can just go...

...swim with the fishies.

This has been [largely] an Eli Stevens production.

Not that I'm biased, but he's pretty dang awesome.

Go here

or here

for further proof.

We now return to our regularly scheduled mid-winter doldrums.  I'm already starting my paper-chain countdown for next summer (hint: it involves whole other hemispheres!!)

Unghhhh, or, Finals Zombie Time

Reporting from Pullman, where currently the Shackleton expedition would feel right at home.  I'm going to keep this short and sweet, but I wanted to say HI! and I MISS YOU! and HOPEFULLY I WILL SEE MOST OF YOU OVER BREAK IN TWO WEEKS! and also OH MY GOD THERE ARE STILL EIGHT TESTS AHEAD OF ME WHAT AM I DOING ON BLOGGER?!?!?!

Here because I'm not all there

Just rolling off the end of our first Diagnostic Challenge.  This is an exercise in which classes are cancelled Mon-Thurs, and our class is broken up into groups, given 'clients', and we simulate working through real cases.  It was a lot of fun, although sometimes knowledge is scary.  Our case involved a couple dogs who both contracted multi-drug resistant staphylococcus intermedius infections at 'our' hospital; these bugs were only susceptible to one antibiotic tested, which is the same drug used in humans as a last resort to combat really strong versions of MRSA and the like.  Bringing up the ethical question: should we even be using this drug in a veterinary capacity?  If by using it, we select for a strain of bacteria that doesn't even respond to the strong stuff and that is transmitted to a human, then what?  Obviously if my dog was suffering a potentially fatal infection I would want to treat it.  But I would also be pretty pissed if I or my friends then got a resistant strain and you know, died.  If it's all the same to y'all I would like to crawl back under my cozy rock of ignorance now.

In other news, last weekend I went on a field trip to the largest dairy farm in Washington state--they milk 21,000 cows a day, basically around the clock.  The management system in place on that farm is insane.  We also got to see a calf born, two calves pulled from a cow who was having a bit of trouble, and do jugular blood draws on calves (I feel about calves the same way I feel about cats: it is a crying shame that they have to grow into cows because they're so cute and harmless as babies).

Attempting to locate the jugular under all that fuzz.  Yes it's the size of a
garden hose.  No I'm not a gifted phlebotomist.

Please note the sweet stethoscope.  Thanks Mom and Dad!
Also, it was raining.  So much for "Sunnyside".

We got to do necropsies (autopsies) on a few calves that had died.
I decided that this was as graphic as I would get for you guys.
You probably think my life is way weird already.

I have to run to class at the moment but I'll be back for more later.  It's 5:10 pm.  That's dedication, people.

I Guess My Misadventures Pale in Comparison

I have a project right now in which we are to research a disease and create a case scenario for that disease.  Mine is equine pyrollizidine alkaloid toxicity (horse eats toxic plant, liver shuts down, yada yada yada).  So I am reading about this syndrome in my 10 pound bible entitled humbly "VETERINARY MEDICINE" (one-stop shopping at its best, right?) and it's not looking good for our indiscriminate eaters--listlessness, head pressing, fits of mad galloping--and then I get to a sentence which just tickled my apparently black rotting funny bone: "Death due to misadventure is a frequent outcome".  I know it shouldn't be amusing--but doesn't that sound like the way Scooby and the gang will ultimately meet their demise?

PS To all my horsey buddies: not a common problem.  Nobody we know should be succumbing to any misadventures anytime soon.

First Semester...Second Year--sounds like (but isn't!), lazy!

And we're back!  I'm reinstated in Pullman with so much procrastinating to get done, therefore naturally I have returned to this blog.  This is the first weekend since classes started and we've already got quite a load.  Additionally all the professors this semester are into something called "class participation".  Somebody look this up and get back to me because I'm unfamiliar with the concept.  They are also [almost] all very engaging and enthusiastic (oh god...50 pages of notes in one week enthusiastic!) which makes up for a lot of it.  Grad school is great because the professors, as well as the students, are interested in being there.  And let's see...we have on our plate Systems Pathology, Clinical Pathology, Virology, Bacteriology, Pharmacology, International Veterinary Medicine and Skeletal Prep (in which you make a dog skeleton...from scratch; I'll just leave that one to your imagination).  We've already grown your friendly neighborhood Staphylococci, learned to read a packed cell volume and plasma protein, and have a paper in which we get assigned a different kind of DIARRHEA! to research and then make up a case involving our DIARRHEA!, and on the way talk to another student with a different type of DIARRHEA! and then learn about it and teach it to our classmates (I think this may be getting at that pesky participation thing) and frankly they are all too excited that we are learning about DIARRHEA!!  But there's chronic and acute and necrotizing and cytotoxic--the wide, exciting world of diarrhea is seemingly endless.  Because we are all very mature there have been no comments at all about, What kind of diarrhea do you have? or No, I can't go out, I have to get home and deal with my diarrhea.

It is so nice to be around grown-ups (JESSICA).

I have a lot to tell you all about my epic summer vacation, starring some extremely unauthorized uses of a VW Golf (stay tuned! small rivers forded! ATV trails tackled! trees hit--really, really slowly!), blue water, really large Redwoods, and naked middle aged river beach intruders practicing their early morning yoga (hello, and welcome to northern California).  But that is going to wait until Eli has got his camera situations all sorted out and I can illustrate the points.  Except for the naked people, ew.  What do you think this blog is, gross?  I have standards.  That is the other best thing about Pullman.  Not that there are no naked people, although that is a definite plus, but that Eli is here for a while.  (Well, not right now.  Today he drove halfway to Montana to a ski hill to taunt gravity on a mountain bike, which is his favorite 'sport'.  I maintain that if you have to wear body armor, it isn't a sport, but then I go jump horses around in the woods so I am nothing if not hypocritical.  Whatever.)  He is taking some time to study and do the coursework for his captain's license before heading off to waters uncharted again.  In the meantime he'll be earning food money as the detail dude for a Ford dealership, which to me sounds like work but to him is like hanging out at the pound all day in that he wants to bring them all home with him.  Whatever floats your boat.  And cooks me dinner.  Mmm, dinner.

Off to have Monty Python night with a friend.  See previous comment regarding extreme maturiosity.

In Protest of the Apron Scale or Whatever the Heck That Was, Mariel

The closest thing I've ever had to a 'normal' job was paging at the library, which I did for about two years to pay for my wicked horse habit until I couldn't take being inside ONE MINUTE LONGER one April and quit.  Otherwise, jobs have included shoveling many, many tons of manure, shoving cows around in the wee morning hours, taking apart fresh pigs (yeah.), sidekick for an equine dentist (sidekick is an awesome job: you often get to drive, you look good by association, and while Batman was probably up at night worrying about the safety of Gotham, I'm betting Robin slept like a baby), working for the surgery teaching department at school, and now, general farm whipping boy.  

Last week, I cleaned kennels, got paid for four hours in the sun in a field playing with dogs, dusted the ceiling, painted all the exterior trim of a house by myself with a single paintbrush, Round-Upped the whole farm with one of those backpack things while not humming the Ghostbusters jingle to myself even a little, was the nail in the coffin for the farm's decrepit riding mower, hossed out the sawhorses and an angle-grinder and felt supah BAD-ASS de-rusting a gate for priming, took the power hedge trimmers to the nasty barberries and maybe (maybe) drove Eli's massive truck back and forth across the property to the garage for things that I really didn't need to 'haul' just because it felt cool.  Also I observed minor surgeries, handed the doctor acupuncture needles, and tried to restrain some small animals which I swear is harder than horses because they're so freakin' wiggly.  Why be normal?  And why compose a sentence with less than seventeen independent clauses?

In other news, I'm watching Burn Notice and I was about to ask Where are the cops in Miami? Are all the streets just littered with bullets? And then I remembered my trip with Janet to West Palm Beach late at night and if Miami is anything like that then yes, yes they probably are.

Hello Finals Week

Ripped-up bread, balsamic vinegar, milk, onion, garlic, green pepper, salt and spices.  Add .25 lbs ground beef, stir together in big mug (you know, the ones you use for cereal).  Microwave 5 minutes at 70%.

And it's surprisingly edible.

Ah, desperation.

The Beginning of the End of the Beginning

Hello, all!  I just had my large animal anatomy final (which went well) and two large slices of chocolate cake, so I am both a) on my very last day of smelling like a mausoleum and b) all sugared up!  It's a good morning!  Add to that the fact that Eli is coming out for the weekend and it's a damn fine Thursday (except for the SNOW but we'll leave that out of it because we're so charitable).

I'm sorry to have let the ol' blog slip so much this semester.  It was a bit more strenuous than the last and I wasn't staying on top of it very well, but I'm slowly reforming and hope to be SuperStudent by next year.  SuperStudent opens her books at least twice a week, not just in the days leading up to exams.  SuperStudent uses her daily planner.  SuperStudent goes running more often.  Come to think of it she sounds sort of obnoxious.  Perhaps another goal would suit...I know, I'll figure it out later....  That's more like it.

Next week: Nutrition, Physiology, Immunology, Pathology, Neuroscience finals.  Anatomy...check!

I'm so looking forward to coming home for the summer--with the water, and the mountains, and the horses, and the people.  I will need to find gainful employment but you know, that's not really what I daydream about while I'm here.  I have a couple weeks of work at my job here in Pullman--my department puts on a continuing education small animal endoscopy (small camera on a tube for scoping guts) lab for area DVMs, and I'm very excited about that.  I have so little experience with small animals and anesthesia, and I love imaging (and gadgets!!), and also they have air conditioning at work.  Really nice here in late May.  (We have AC at home in Poulsbo, too, but you wouldn't know it, MOM).

I'm excited for my cousin to get home so we can start working on his house again, because he lets me use tools.  For some reason a lot of people are reluctant to let me use tools on their property but Evan doesn't know this yet and I'm inclined to let him make his own mistakes decisions so no word from the peanut gallery, thanks.  I'm excited to kidnap Jackie and go find hiking trails at the very ends of twisty precipitous dirt roads.  I'm excited to be riding again (don't laugh at me Janet I've been busy and I'm out of shape), and to be able to just throw my dog in the backyard when she's annoying and have a dishwasher.  I'm excited for Mariel to move to Arizona and MB to move to Nawlins because then I'll have more trips to make although maybe not this exact summer.  I'm excited for Eli to send me photos from Alaska and then come home.  I'm excited at the prospect of being so bored that coming back to school sounds like a good idea, because I'm sorry vet school but I've lost that lovin' feeling.

Summer is so thrilling.

Oh right, I have a blog.

Wow, this semester has been kicking my butt.  It's been a while since I was here.

I think the most important thing I have to say is that I am about to be on SPRING BREAK!  If you were here you would know that just saying those two words the clouds break and the choirs of angels trumpet joyous songs from the heavens.  We are all so drained.  I skipped a class today (don't judge me, all the notes are online!) so I could shower.  Because I couldn't last night or this morning due to a school project (okay, it was extra credit, but I got to do whatever I wanted so I made a quilt--on my beautiful 73 year old sewing machine, thank you Janet!!--and it felt soooo good to use the other half of my brain).  Actually, this is kind of cool--our cardiac physiology prof granted us 15 points for an artistic representation of what we'd learned.  So I made a quilt of an ECG, I saw several paintings, crossword puzzles, a pipe cleaner heart complete with construction paper vessels and my personal favorite, cake.  It was amazing--they had a heart shaped cake and a lung cake and a liver cake and two kidney cakes, with lines connecting them to show the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, which responds to changes in blood pressure.  I really hope we get to eat it tomorrow.  Now that is what I call sweetmeats.

Where was I?  Right.  Break.  I'll be home Friday night and around until Sunday the 21st, hanging out with my dogs because my parents went to Maui without me.  It's okay Mom and Dad, I'll be fine and I still love you (maybe, depending on what you bring me).  I will, however, be trucking home several tons of textbooks and trying to cram for the next round of five exams after spring break.  YAY!  Please, if you are around, give me a reason not to study.  Also: I would be calling you all and notifying you of my presence (at high decibels) except that I left my phone in Eli's truck so it got back to Poulsbo a week before I did...helpful.  Email is the only form of communication I have right now.

This has not been an inspired update but I am really tired and I think I'll go take a nap now.  More later, after I haven't been in class for a day or two and can resume a normal sleep schedule.

Stuff I Like

I have an Anatomy exam tomorrow, and so of course, here I am.  But sometimes I am humming along through my day and I hit on things that are really neat, like so neat that I talk on and on about them at anyone who will listen.  So since this is my blog and you are my captive audience, here are some things I like (starting with: I like lists of things):

--My labradoofus.  She makes me very happy, even when she smells like mud (i.e., 95% of the time).

--The clock tower bells.  WSU has a clock tower (we call it the Eye of Sauron because it is lit in red neon) which chimes on the hour and plays a song every day at 5 o' clock.  I've only ever been able to identify "Tradition" from the Fiddler on the Roof, but it makes me happy that I can hear it from my house.  I keep meaning to find out who puts the songs together and ask them to post the playlist on the web somewhere.

--Renal physiology.  It is very cool, and would probably be even cooler if I knew what the hell was going on (that's this weekend's project).  My favorite thing about physiology is that it is so interesting, the class goes by quickly.

--Radiographs.  So nifty, I mean, have you thought about it?  You are looking inside the body.  And it's like a jigsaw puzzle in there. And thanks, Dr. Mary, because now I know how to look at head x-rays and impress the bejeezus out of my colleagues (How can you tell it's a 4 year old horse?!  Oohhhh...).

--This website.  Any idea to be more happy is a good idea!  I like being happy.

--Hatching plans for my apartment.  I'm allowed to paint it (!!), and boy howdy do I have ambitions here.

--You guys.  I am so lucky to have such a wonderful network of people around me!  I appreciate each and every one of you and I would encourage you to visit Pullman (although you may want to wait until the weird chemical smell is out of my new cushy futon mattress).

--The hot chocolate at the Black Cypress restaurant downtown.  If Indy and I are not quite enough, this hot chocolate will make the trip to Pullman worth your time.

--Procrastination.  Today I saw a t-shirt reading "I have not yet begun to procrastinate" which I may need to own.

--This weirdo (Pumpkin Pi for Halloween; please note the clever stem):

The Year of the Ologies

Apparently, the second semester of vet school is when they begin to dump ologies on you.  You know; ologies:

-Path-ology
-Neur-ology
-Physi-ology
-Immun-ology
-And also Nutrition and Anatomy but those sound less impressive without that all important suffix

It's only into the second week of classes so hard to tell yet how the term will shake out.  We've certainly got the full range of teaching styles though.  It runs from old-school (really...with a slide projector that he makes the students at the back of the room operate for him) to high tech with powerpoint shows and remote clickers and receivers to compile the input from the class in realtime.  Our brains are having to span not just volumes but decades of information.

We also have considerably more lab time this semester.  Each week holds two pathology labs, one microscopic and one gross specimens, a long (looooong) neuro lab wherein we poke about in dog brain with our "Canine Atlas of the Brain" which was printed in 1986.  1986 and they made me pay for it.  It is also in black and white because apparently color photography had not yet been introduced in 1986.  I don't know because I wasn't alive.  Moving on.  Also a physiology lab and three days of large animal anatomy lab, although we're not dissecting all of those days.  Our anatomy groups are divided into A and B subunits and on alternating days, except when we're only doing bones, or reviewing for an exam, or working on the bovine cadavers, or the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars, the A group dissects and the B group studies and vice versa.

So, in sum, I think I spend ~15 hours of the week in a lab which is pretty cool because it means I get to do something.  I am not good at learning on my butt.  I get a lot more out of moving around and learning, like when I'm dissecting or when I'm cleaning the house and making Eli follow me around and read bold terms to me.  He gets a headache, but I get a lot more out of it.  The flip side of this coin is that I'm extremely clumsy, and in the anatomy lab alone have a running tally of one broken skeleton pelvis, one previously labelled femur which might not be described as such so much anymore, a small scar from where I walked into Jessica's scalpel blade, and a 4-inch bruise and laceration on my shin where I tried (and failed) to walk through one of the huge steel racks from which our pony cadavers are suspended.  You will understand, then, why my lab partners were so very, very excited when the instructors handed me a 7 inch knife for our dissections.  Yee-HAAA!  So far no casualties but I'll keep you posted.

Signing off for tonight: 8 o' clock class tomorrow morning.

On the Road (Again)

Back in Pullman after a long lovely break, and here in my living room after a long lovely week.  If I may climb onto the metaphorical couch for a second, I'm conflicted.  I wasn't ready to come back to classes and homework and exams but when I got to class Monday morning (on time, in the right place, a minor miracle in and of itself) I felt like I had a purpose again.  I'm here to do something!  I'm a human data sponge!  Woo-hoo!

Indiana is not feeling so fulfilled.  She was irritated on the car ride home and downright petulant when I shoved her into her crate the first morning (would not be an issue if she hadn't started chewing on my walls) but she's starting to get over herself.  It's nice to be allowed on all the furniture again, right?

It was a great time being home, though, and so wonderful to see many friends and family.  Although it was relaxing, there was not a whole lot of downtime!

I:

• got snowshoeing at Hurricane Ridge (is it really snowshoeing if there are only six inches? or is it just strapping goofy contraptions to your feet at that point?), 
• ate my way through Seattle (Kell's, Piroshky, Habesha, I love you) 
• had a great time snooping around at a local barn ostensibly working with Dr. Mary who may or may not have paid me in wine (the way to a grad student's heart, I tell you)
• went to Portland where (hello?!) it snowed four very wet sloggy inches and rendered all the snow-plowless Portlanders totally useless on the road, resulting in,
• driving Eli's standard transmission one-ton pickup beast all the way back home to Poulsbo by myself without mishap, although I did get some patronizing looks from the good ol' boys when I pulled up to the [diesel] pump on the wrong side and was then forced to execute an 83,754 point turn to extricate myself,
• got a trail ride in with Beau, the best Morgan ever, 
• had some wonderful rides with Jaegermeister who not so gently reminded me that I should really work on those core muscles while I'm here at school, 
• had a fabulous Christmas with more eating and lots of kitchen related gifts which made me wonder how I am not 400 pounds already
• went on a 'snowboard' trip only to abandon snowboarding after one (soaking wet, bruised, but definitely enjoyable) day, to return to my much drier skiing roots the next--stick with what you know, people, and
• was totally out-lasted by my parents and their friends on New Year's Eve.  By the way, you know who you are, I am having dreams about those carob chip muffins.  I must know the recipe, please help!

Now it's Friday, and I'm getting back into the swing of things.  Actually, it's better than that: I've done my dishes every day I've been home and there is nothing on my floor that is not supposed to be there.  Oh, no, I'm becoming a grown-up!  Send sugary treats and insolent slovenly attitude at once!  To add to the nauseating responsibility around here, I must go take my dog for a walk before I head out for the night: free bowling thanks to GPSA--I hate bowling but love my friends, for whom I will even brave used shoes.

Stay tuned this weekend, at which time since my house is clean (that sound you heard was my mom swooning) I might give you a tour.  And also recap my first week as a second semester veterinary student (spoiler: involves guts).

TTFN,

Kate

1/8th of the Way There!

All right, everyone!  I am finished with finals and home for break and starting to recover from the raping and pillaging of my brain that occurred last week.  I know veterinary school is supposed to be harder than undergraduate, but Ye Gods, that was unpleasant.  Okay, though I didn't study as much as I should have, I console myself with the knowledge that even had I studied enough, THAT WAS NOT WHAT I WOULD HAVE STUDIED!  It's fine, I am pretty sure I passed, so I get to go back for the next semester.  Phew!  One down!
Now going to bed.

Too Much Information

To add to my list of Things I Have Now Experienced That I Never Really Wanted To: that lovely sensation of disturbing your frozen nose hairs every time you breathe while walking your dog.  With your fleece gaiter pulled up over your face.

It's rather chilly here (for December, as my supervisor pointed out; it's like this all the time in January and February), with the mercury at -3 when I woke up this morning.  I stubbornly waited until it got to zero before venturing out.  A girl's got to have limits.  Indiana doesn't understand this concept at all.  Apparently a natural fur coat really is the best thing in the world, because we just got back from our long walk and she was happily lying in the frost with her stick-cicle when I decided I was approaching frostbite threshold.  Wussy humans.

We've now entered "dead" week, AKA the Week Before Finals, and as of yesterday night I had turned in my final paper for a class, so that's my first official vet school course out of the way!  I was pretty excited.  Next week will be a doozy but I'm doing fine in all my classes so far and if I can just keep it up everything should be all right.  We're already ordering books and signed up for next semester's classes, so the juggernaut is on autopilot now.  I'm excited/terrified about it.

This past weekend was a kick, just the right thing before finals hit.  Friday night was our Game Night for my friend's birthday, and we had such a blast that nobody left until two in the morning when Eli had to practically drag my sleepy butt to the car.  I had forgotten how much fun board games are!  So I bought Mexican Train (technically dominos; close enough) and you better believe that anyone visiting here from now on will be playing that ad nauseum.  We also stopped by the WSU Ski Swap (in the same manner that a cocaine addict might be able to 'stop by' a crack house), and I got a pair of goggles to keep me from squinting so much or getting any insane sunburns on our Mt. Baker trip.  It was very, very difficult not to reallocate my student loans into a ski and snowboard fund but somehow I refrained (Eli: "I have more important things to spend my money on before it goes into skis."  It's no fun to shop with a kill-joy, sir).  Saturday morning I went in to school for a lab on neurological examinations and procedures, and got to try high and low spinal taps and nerve blocks on cadavers (I so greatly appreciate the cadavers--let anyone who's been thinking of donating their animals to science when they pass that they are invaluable to us and get a second life as the best possible teachers!).  Sunday we went to the Nutcracker on campus as performed by the Eugene, OR ballet company.  It was lovely, and they were very creative with their sets, costumes and the rather limited space.  We're so spoiled in Seattle to have the live orchestra there, and nothing makes up for that, but it was great and now it really feels like Christmas.  Or almost...four more finals to go!

Ta for now from the Palouse.

Business as Usual

So remember all those resolutions down there?

Yeah.  Whatever.

Help

Dear Vet School,

Stop the carousel please, I'd like to get off.

Respectfully,

Kate

And that is why you haven't heard from me in a while.  I deluded myself into thinking that I would get my life in order and all up to speed over Christmas break, but instead I fell back into my old college traditions and got sick.  Which couldn't have happened at a better time, really, because I didn't have to be in class and I had Eli around to sit on the couch and watch movies with me.  Also he is so tall that he was able to put up half our Christmas lights (slight exaggeration) without a ladder, which precluded my dad and I from throwing our annual Coarse Vernacular Festival.  It went quickly, but to be honest, we felt a little cheated.  (I mean, thank you, Eli, your spending vacation time decorating our house is very much appreciated.)
Now final exams are less than two weeks away and sweet mother of pearl, I am not ready.  In fact, I am paralyzed with fear and have no idea even where to start.  Confucius has some answer about thousand mile journeys and steps but that is way too logical.  Dithering is my specialty, and why waste talent?  Between now and then, there's a holiday cocktail party on Friday for the Graduate and Professional Student Association (I really like to say that because it makes me feel important) which I may go to if I can be bothered to dress up for it, and the Ski Swap (yay!) on Friday and Saturday, and then the Nutcracker on Sunday!  So clearly, studying is out for the weekend.  Perhaps I ought to get down to it.

Adios for now.

Edited: Christmas break, by which I meant Thanksgiving.  My brain is in la-la land.

Winter!

Yesterday and this morning were Indiana's first experiences with snow, and MAN OH MAN BOY OH BOY HOLY COW was she excited about it.  On the deck it was merely a curiosity:

However, when we got to the park and there was a FIELD! and a TENNIS BALL! and that SNOW! her excitement level went from 'Huh.' to registering on the Richter Scale.

It's hard to beat a Labradoodle puppy for sheer joie de vivre.  She makes everything a lot more fun.

Except when she is bombing down steep icy sidewalks with you slaloming on the other end of the leash.  Then it might qualify as more harrowing.

Today I'm going to a friend's house for a Suture Party.  We have our suturing lab exam next week, and it should not surprise anyone who has ever seen me try to play video games (or seen any of my rare crafty work) that hand-eye coordination is not my very strongest suit.  So this is how we cram for stitches: we sit around and watch the VIDEOS that they gave us from which to LEARN OUR SUTURE PATTERNS and which HAVE NO SOUND!!! and then we all try to follow along and tell each other what we are doing horribly wrong (for example: "Kate, when you throw knots they must appear flat and square, not like a manifestation of the Flying Spaghetti Monster").

There are approximately 374, 695 different suture patterns and we are supposed to know all of them.  This would not really be so bad except that there are 1, 2, 5 (3 sir!)--but really, 6 different surgeons who have been in our lab teaching us these patterns.  And all of them do things differently.  So, if Dr. 1 is examining you, remember not to tunnel your closing knot for the intradermal stitch because that makes Dr. 1 crazy.  Dr. 2 never mentioned deep and superficial strands and the necessity of knotting with both deep strands, while Drs. 1 and 3-6 find this to be the most crucial part of the stitch.  If taught by Dr. 3, you use two hands for most of your one hand tie.  If taught by Dr. 1, you use mostly just one.  Dr. 5 claims that you should always begin a pattern with an even number of throws on your knot, and end with an odd number.  Dr. 4 claims this is ludicrous and that continuous patterns must always begin and end with exactly 6 throws.  All of these surgeons are very talented, helpful, personable and for the most part patient teachers but my God, the conflicting information!  It is like our brains are a nexus of matter and anti-matter voiding each other out and leaving us (or me at least) with nothing to go on.  Anyway.  Hopefully my peers are in a different boat and can correct me this afternoon.

To end this rambling post (which bears, in its uneven and wandering structure, a striking similarity to my Ford Interlocking Stitch), I will leave you with one last heart warming image of a Labradoodle in the snow.

Post-Script: A Cautionary Tale Entitled "How Not to Drive Up or Down an Icy Hill" or "Why I Will Not Be Taking South Street Downtown Today"

Stuff and Things

I feel like I ought to have more to write about, and I know that if I really took the time to think about what is going on (or took advantage of half the opportunities available to me around here) I would.  But it sort of seems like my brain turns off when I close a book, and refuses to reboot until the next time it is called upon for something academic.  Come back, brain!  Come back, creativity!
Today I had a histology exam.  It was a trainwreck in classic Kate Gunderson fashion.  Which is to say, I think I did okay, but I tried very hard to sabotage myself while at it.  First, I switched times with a classmate so she could take it in the earlier session and get to work, so I was no longer on automatic pilot.  Consequently, I somehow thought that my section of the exam started at 3:30 when in actuality it started at 3:00.  Thank you Erika for informing me of this fact when you walked by me, still studying obliviously, at 3:20.  So I frantically bluster into the exam room (wear bright red when you do things like this!  It attracts no attention at all!) and sit down, am informed by my neighbor that I must be at a logged-in computer to take the exam and then approached by the professor who says, I seem to be one exam short, and has to run off to print out another test.  Clock ticking.  When he comes back I head off to the microscope room to try and describe the appointed slide, barely save myself from mistaking the colon for the gall bladder (how? how? they are at different ends of the digestive tract!) and scoot on back to the computer lab.  I finished with about 3 minutes to spare.  Also, this is the professor who agreed to write me a letter of recommendation...after seeing how I did on the exam.

Hi, my name is Kate and my hobby is shooting myself in the foot.  Thank you and good night.


PS: I leave you with the amazing simulated and poop-free cow entrails thanks to my Uncle Dan (dear Great Britain, this is cheating and also a fine example of why you are so awesome): http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/haptic-cow/ 

Resolved

• To study daily and avoid necessitating any more cramming
• To do my dishes on at least a weekly basis
• To use my lovely day planner for its intended purpose
• To maintain my house at least to the point of not being mortified by the thought of company
• To keep track of my budget
• To get my sorry butt off the couch and move at least once a day