Today was a kind of odd day. I woke up groggy and confused and late to work with a sunburn from yesterday on the back of my calves burning uncomfortably as I drove my truck. It became warmer and warmer and I felt more and more exhausted. I ate lunch, I drank water, I tried to keep to the shade, but it wasn't working out for me and I started getting dizzy when I stood up, even from sitting on a bucket.

Boss-lady let me go home, I went to start Yoshi, my 1995 Madza pickup, and nothing happened. No dead-battery clicking, no attempts to turn over, no dashboard warning lights or dials coming online to show that I had even put the key in the ignition. Odd. Odd and unpleasant, especially as all I wanted was to go lay down, preferably somewhere cool.

Boss-lady suggested compression (push) starting the truck, as it's a manual, and recruited co-worker guys. I've never done it before. Turns out you just put it in second (clutch in) get it rolling, pop the clutch out and give it gas. A shudder and a rumble later and I was back in business.

I got home, drank a good amount of cold juice, wiped off the day's dust accumulation and sweat with a cold rag and lie down. I felt better, but still tired, fairly quickly. I think the combination of heat, sleep dep, and having worked for the past eleven straight days finally got to me.

Then I went and rode a pony. Not really a pony, but a 9y/o bay Arabian gelding who had served at stud in his younger life. He's had a lot of training and carried beginners before I'm told. His mom is an on-the-ball sort who makes him mind his manners, a necessity for a good-natured, but stubborn and occasionally pushy sort of a horse. His mom was out of town. The SO has been looking after the pony and warned me he was being a jerk just before I came out.

I shrugged mentally at the news, "So what? If he's bad, I won't ride him. Just do groundwork and see if we can't build up a little mutual respect. Then ride him some other time." I got out there and he seemed to be behaving to an extent. Nothing bad, just a little pushy. We did some groundwork. He wanted to run, so I made him run where I wanted him to. He settled down a bit and stood calmly for me, so I got on. No saddle or bridle (those are away with him mom), just me, him (slightly sweaty from running and the heat) and his halter.

He tested, pushed, and wanted to run. I wasn't entirely comfortable. He's got a bouncy trot and I was bareback, but eventually we seemed to get the hang of each other. I can tell he's got a lot more training than I do- it certainly helped make me aware of what I need to focus on in my lessons. It was a lot of fun and I hope I can ride this horse more in the future. He's an entirely different animal from the Curly-Tank I normally ride. Eventually we were working together. I asked him to turn and trot, he did. I lost my balance slightly, and it occurred to me that I could work and stay on, or slide off and call it done on a good note. I opted for the latter since we had been out there nearly an hour by that time.

I love riding ponies. My pants were all gross with pony and my sweat, and I tried to brush my butt-mark off him as best I could before we put him away. Dirty, awesome ponies. My riding lessons definately came in handy. I feel a little more and a little less confident. A little more aware of what I can't currently do comfortably, and a little more aware that what I'm learning really does apply to horses in general, not just one little arena in the palouse.

WTF in the truest sense of the words.

There is an inch of snow on the ground outside my house. In Eastern Washington, on June 10th, 2008. The temperature is 36 degrees. Normal for this time of year is around 90 degrees. Somewhere on Facebook, one of my friends has posted pictures if you are still in disbelief.

I know it's been forever since I've posted anything, but due to some rainy weather I've been stuck inside today. Thus I decided to take some photos and share them with you all!

I recently cleaned thoroughly, built a new fence,repainted the house, and rearranged the budgie/computer room and cage. One of my budgies, Seafoam, is off at a friend's house, being a buddy bird for her little budgie until she gets a second of her own. He seems to love it, confident little bugger that he is, changes of scenery and flock don't seem to bother him at all. He even sings for the vet!

I also got warned by the park managers that I need to clean up the pile of scrap wood from the old fence. Yah-huh. I know, and your dumpsters are where? Not to be seen. "It might be a while, you need to clean that up soon, before they're here." We'll see about that. I have decided I will start cleaning it up. Piece by piece, whatever fits in my normal garbage can with my normal trash. Let us see how long it takes. Really, if you throw down a gauntlet, I'm obligated to pick it up. That's just common sense.

( Let us lead you to the pictures! )

x-posted to my own journal

lindabcs and

parrot_lovers.

Here's the challenge, say something applicable to life, the universe and everything in six words. No more, no less.

Some examples:

These occurred as I procrastinated tonight

Winter must end before I kill

Veterinary school isn't all fuzzy puppies

Veterinary school isn’t all rectal palpations

When it starts smoking, it's done

True, but booze solves some problems

Sex isn't everything, but it helps

Medial, Lateral, Plantar, Palmar. Fuck this.

They tell me cramming is bad

And I'm supposed to remember this?

You learned this last semester....right?

Loudly, clearly and distinctly, she said

Have you got any better ones?

I just realize I've only posted 5 (6 including this one) times this year. I should increase that frequency in the future.

Daytime high in Pullman today: 40
Nighttime Low: 26
Four inches of snow on the ground. Pretty, but cold and slushy and it's supposed to be spring already. In fact, yesterday I was ecstatic because it was a very spring-y day.

Other highs: SAVMA symposium in Alabama, meeting up with my aunts, learning they support my US Army HPSP bid, southern food, drinking and dancing (with a hot girl) and hand stamps in Auburn, being done with 3 out of 4 anatomy tests, dreaming not of anatomy the night before the test, but rather the SO and teaching him to meditate and cuddling in said dream that also included the very centering sound of chanting and the roshi's lecture (and a bake sale?), getting the position of Fort Dodge Rep at WSU CVM, two naps this week.

Other lows: Creepy guy demanding entry to our hotel room late at night in Alabama (umm...NO.), the tired touchiness the day after a night of heavy drinking, driving four hours, spending six hours on aircraft, hella stressful hard anatomy exam that caused MULTIPLE vet students to have nervous breakdowns and took me twice as long as they normally do, having to work this weekend, being behind in classes

More highs: Hopefully finally finding a camper shell to fit my pickup, kittens, my dogs, the nice guy from the home glass place that came by to get measurements so they can give me a quote, my puppies splashing through a creek, my birdies, having broken down the 10gal that was in my kitchen and replacing it with the 2.5 which fits ever so much better, cleaning my other 10gal thoroughly, getting LOTS of little stuff done, queen sized beds, getting my studs switched out for free, winning some sort of scholarship.

More lows: It snowing the day after I switch out my studs, not knowing what kind or how big of a scholarship until April 18th, kittens chewing through my headphones, canine yeasty ear infections, suicide of someone I liked to think a friend, even if not very close, worrying about other people in that house, worrying about ex-boss, two more exams by noon Monday, worrying about sister, worrying about other family not supporting my Army HPSP bid, and sleep deprivation.

I don't know what to think, except I'm looking forward to summer. Maybe then I'll have time to breathe between emotionally charged events. I'm glad I have good friends (and SO!).

Not the Monster Mash. Just a random ass mis-mash. I've got an email sitting in my inbox from a couple of people that I need to get around to responding to. It's mostly the part where my list of things to do keeps growing exponentially and the hours in the day do not. Oh, and I've been busy. That kinda delays things too.

( Snippets of the past two weeks in no chronological order. )

Pretty accurate actually. And cute, which is of course more important in random meme-land.

Your Score: Proto-Elamite

You scored

You are Proto-Elamite, ancient, glorious and incomprehensible. Absolutely nobody understands a word you say, but they'll always agree to whatever it was anyway, simply because of who you are.

So, at the moment I am thinking that my life is pretty damn awesome. School is hard and I'm having to work my ass off, but I feel like I'm actually learning more this semester. My pets are all good. The boy is awesome in many ways and I've spent the weekend with him not studying at all, which has been a nice mental break. I've been keeping up with my horseback riding lessons and have another tomorrow, and have even stayed on when the horses have decided to be stupid.

Wendy: What's a current email address for you so I can get you my mailing address? I can't text message from my phone...

Marry Christmas, Hanukkah, and all those other winter-time holidays. I am on the west-side for the week and it's rather strange. Too much traffic, too much construction, and it's odd to see all the changes that have occurred since I was here last.

There are four dogs at my family's house. It's a real dog pack at that point and very cute some minutes and very annoying others. It was fun taking them all down to the school for a walk- they were off leash and running around like fools, loving every minute of it. I'd feel bad if someone who was scared of dogs came down for a walk themselves, even I would have been intimidated to see all four of them come running up at me out of the dark.

I am 3/5 done with the first 1/8 of vet school, making me 3/40 of a vet according to Class of 2011 calculations. Hopefully by the time I go to bed, I will be 4/40 or 1/10 of a vet, and then the full 1/8 by noon Wednesday. I think I must be gaining weight to get there though, because it's study some, EAT! Study a little more, EAT! I can live with that though, I'll just have to work a little harder than none over break.

I bought a goat for my freezer. It is very tasty and the dogs get all the parts I don't want (bones, offal, fat) and seem to enjoy it well enough. All I can think about is food. And fish stuff because I need to go to the pet store and get a new fiber media for the filter I just put in the divided ten gallon that has the danios and bettas in it. It was used and the old fiber is just gone, as in, nowhere to be found. At least the tank's already cycled, though adding the filter will probably upset it a bit.

Next riding lesson is on Wednesday. I can't wait. It's after I'm done with everything, thank goodness. I have a doctor's and an optometrist's appointment Friday...hopefully I can convince the doctor to give me some happy drugs to take before I go to the dentist's (an appointment I have not made yet).

Yes, another test waiting for me this Thursday, and then a paper and then two exams next week. Boo. I should be studying more for this Anatomy exam because I need to pass it, but I can't bring myself to do it. Where is the stress? Where is the motivating panic? The fact that I only need to do better than a 55% may have sucked the wind out of the test-axiety sails. This is bad because I ACTUALLY MUST KNOW THIS STUFF. As in, for the rest of my life as a vet. Alas.

In far more entertaining news, I had my first horseback riding lesson today. It went well. I didn't fall off, though the horse, a Paso Fino name Destino, decided to stop and turn suddenly enough once that the saddle went a little sideways. I guess that if I was doing it properly it wouldn't have gone so sideways, but still, I didn't fall off. When I was on the horse, it didn't look nearly as high up as it seems like it must be when I'm looking at the horse from the ground. Next week I'm going to ride a Curly horse. Yes, a horse with curly fur. Guess what his name is. He's very pudgy though, so it'll be interesting to ride him...I don't know how you hold onto a pudgy horse with no withers. He's seven years old if I remember right and seems to have some energy, so we'll see how it goes.

Did I mention that there were no stirrups today? Yeah, I had to hold on...'hold on' is not the right wording...sit on him and not fall off using my 'seat' which is apparently the word for balance and leaning/turning where you're going so you don't slide off the other side. Also, when the horse goes faster, you lean back. Not forward like you want to. Back. Yeah, remember that while you're like, "Oh no! He's decided to jump forward! Whee/Ahhh!"

Also, horses are like dogs. Not like cars. You have to interact with them. In theory very easy, and easy to do normally. But today my head was like, "OMG remember to do this and this and this and not to die." It made remembering the whole 'horse' part hard. Seem counter-intuitive? I guess it's because I was so focused on ME that I couldn't spare attention for him. That's on the list of things to work on.

Yes, I have a test tomorrow. No, I haven't been studying. Yes, I plan to do so before the test. Yes, I am procrastinating right now. No, I'm not concerned. Yes, I should be.

Part of my procrastination today has included the following:
Grocery Shopping, including the purchase of a new mop
Sweeping
Mopping
Vacuuming
Shaking off the couch covers
Using my new Furminator(TM) on the GSDs. Outside. They're blowing coat.
Cleaning the surface of my living room table
Wiping down counters
Dishes (put away the clean ones and washing more)
Making an entire eggplant's worth of eggplant parmasiano (spelling?) and cutting it up to meal-sized portions for freezing and later consumption.
Talking with the boy
Updating all my calendars
But not laundry...that was all done already.

Letsee... Furminator. It rocks. It was actually worth the $55 it cost me. I didn't think any device to remove shedding fur from my pets could actually be worth more than $20, but bought it because of a promised 30-day money-back guarantee. I figured I had nothing to lose and with two GSDs and a cat in 550 sq foot trailer, any chance that it might actually work as advertised should be followed up on.

I'm sold. It looks like someone's been killing rabbits in my yard because of all the fur. I was using a flea comb, which had been the most effective tool. This thing blows it out of the water. You can actually pet my pets without fur flying everywhere now. I haven't actually brushed them to the point that they're no longer shedding, though I know I could, just because I can only brush for about a half hour (10 min each) before I get tired of it. I think we'll get there, but slowly. I'm told that once you get to that point, you only have to brush once or twice a week to maintain it. We'll see.

Aliens: In 8th grade, we had to do a postage stamp like what the USPS does to commemorate events. We were supposed to do it on the famous explorers of the 19th century. I hated history then (though I have since had some good teachers) and did mine on aliens. Because, you know, if they exist, they'd be the ultimate explorers, right?

Dinosaurs: Come on, you know they're cool. I have an early memory of sitting in preschool with the fin-back meat-asaurus and the t-rex looking meat-asaurus, a triceratops and a brontosaurus (didn't they rename these guys), making the herbivores get eaten by the carnivores over and over and over again. I remember doing this on a regular basis...maybe all the time.

Canoeing: It's on my list of things I've never really done. I mean, my grandpa and I would go up and down the slough, but real canoeing looks awesome!

Euphorbia: It's a genus of desert plants that come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and has a milky toxic sap, leaves AND spines.

Nilif: This is the best training method ever for dogs and other hierarchical species! You want something? Do something that I ask, then you might get it. You don't just get to have it because you want it. This might work on children as well...I haven't had a chance to test it out yet though. Seemed to work okay on my little sister anyhow.

Mt. St. Helens: My grandparents used to hike here, before it blew. I love science and I love hiking, and now this peak's got more than enough of both to keep me happy. Add a touch of power and danger, and you've got yourself a fun little mountain.

Semi-arid flora: How does no one else on lj have this interest?! They're so cool! They've got all these awesome adaptions for living in tough climates and they come in so many interesting shapes and sizes and colors. Plus, they're really easy to take care of (for me anyhow, I know most people kill them near-instantly).

Anyone else want to play? I pick 7 interests on your profile and you've got to explain them

I am still alive!

So...vet school.

Vet school is interesting. It's not hard, not in the sense that the material is hard anyway. The material itself is actually pretty easy, it's just that there's a LOT of it to learn. For example, our first test tomorrow is over Genetics and some BioChem. It's four weeks in and we've covered pretty much ALL of genetics and biochem. Next up is cellular communication in our Cellular Physiology class. There's also Histology (though at this point it's purely microantomy) that goes, "See this?" "Yeah..." "Okay, it's this and this and this and serves the cell in that way. Now go find one like it in your big box of slides and memorize its importance." Hard? No. Massive amounts of work? Absolutely.

Then there's real anatomy. We use dog cadavers in the dissections that we have four times a week. There was one dog, Dog #9, who didn't embalm properly. Imagine the smell after four weeks. He was getting a little squishy, so they replaced him with New Dog #9, who is also not as well preserved as one might wish, though he reeks of formaldehyde. Everything reeks of formaldehyde. You come home after lab days (every day but Monday) and you can still smell formaldehyde, even though we each have designated lab clothes and shoes that we change into and out of before and after lab. Sometimes I feel like my brain is being pickled. It's four weeks in and we have covered all the muscles and bones in the canine body except the skull. And by covered, I mean that we should know every bump, rough spot, point of origin, attachment and action of every bit. It's 115 pages in the textbook...and ours is not a fluffy textbook. Memorized. Yeah. Wow. We also have embryology and anatomy lectures twice a week.

Then there's Animal Restraint and Handling. So far it's been a survey course of opportunities in vetmed and the most basic handling info that many people are already familiar with. We start large animal stuff soon though, so that will be new to me. There's also a 'fluffy' class in the form of VM 500 "Animals, Community, and the Veterinarian." It's where we get into small groups to practice our communication and discuss controversial issues such as animal use in veterinary schools.

Our first exam (in Cell Phys) is tomorrow, so I'm procrastinating, hence the post.

On a more personal and personable note, the social aspect is interesting. There are 103 people in my class, and we spend eight hours a day, five days a week together. For the next three years. You think Whitman is small? This is like camp. I have made some friends, which is always a good thing, and have begun to settle in and realize that this is a long haul, as they tell us, "A marathon, not a sprint!" On the upside, I only have to pass. There are no grades, per se. It's all pass or fail. You fail a class, you have to repeat the entire year. You pass, you go on towards that DVM we're all going for. It's odd, because it's simultaneously more and less pressure.

Any Questions?

It doesn't exist for me anymore apparently. So, that major update will have to wait...some more. Besides, how many of you really want to hear about formaldehyde and cadaver dogs?

For now though, I have Refridgerator Magnet Poetry Quotes:

"Set aside all the people and purfume
as initial misconceptions."

"You remind me of the most naked chaos."

That is all.

There are things that I don't get in Pullman. There are people I don't see enough of, and there are games I don't get to play.

I'll shoot for a real and semi-comprehensive update soon, so if there are any questions or curiosities you'd like addressed, let me know and I make sure to include them.

Also I found some more icons I like. I need to score some firefly ones though.

The Number 23 (unrated version)

I'm pretty sure the unrated version has more sexy in it than the theatrical version...otherwise they're courting a NC-17 rating since even the "R" version is so rated for Violence, Disturbing Images, Sexuality AND Language. Hmm...I didn't really notice any language though.

So, I bitch about Jim Carrey. I used to think he was a horrible actor; rather than acting, he just played an obnoxious self in a number of comedies. Then I saw the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and was blown away. I loved it, I forgot it was Jim Carrey and instead followed the story of a character, in a great, mind-blowing, twisty-artsy film. He acts in this one too. I approve. I also never (EVER!) thought that he could pull off sexy, but again, I have been proven wrong.

So, if you like psych-horror/drama/thriller (think Silence of the Lambs type genre) as much as I do, SEE THIS FILM. It's not the top of the class, but it's good, very good. I may buy it once I have money, and as those of you with whom I have shared my movie collection with know, that's my highest endorsement. (Though it's not reserved for "Great" films. I only buy movies that are great at what they do, eg: I own Constantine because it is once of the most entertaining cult-y films I know after Rocky Horror.)

Your Score: Proto-Elamite

You scored

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