Piggies!

I'll write more about it later because it deserves more space than this, but I loved playing with the piglets today. It was so fun and I had really never seen a hog farm before. This one is the MU teaching one, so there are less pigs. They do research and teach classes and have all different types of pens and housing so you can see the different ways pigs are raised as well as the costs and benefits of each.

Super educational and really really fun!

At a micro review now, this was our 2nd week of 3-4 tests and next week we have 3 more. I'm getting good at tests :) so back to studying for now but I just wanted to share some piggie pictures....

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And BREAK!

Ok, so not really break, it's only Thursday and I still have class tomorrow and next week we have 3 tests again but our 3 tests for this week are over, so it feels like a break. I didn't even do school work this evening.

But I did work on my essay for the summer research program at Mizzou. It is a really awesome program where you are mentored by one of the doctors at the school, perform research, and also get to go on all of these fun social and educational events for free! It's a great experience and will really help me figure out if research is something I want in my life. I'll see if I get funded and get the mentor that I want and then I'll be back with the details.

So this block is kind of rough just because we have a lot of late days and lots of tests. On the bright side this is an actual block so it is only 8 weeks!
My normal week looks like this!
Monday: Class and lab from 8-1 and lab from 2-4
Tuesday: Class and lab from 9-1 then class from 2-5
Wednesday: Class and lab from 9-1 the lab again from 4-6
Thursday: Class and lab from 9-1 THEN DONE!
Friday: Class from 8-1 and the clinical skills lab from either 2-3:30 or from 3:30-5

I have Anatomy still but it's large animals so that is cool
Then we have GI physiology, microanatomy still,  developmental anatomy, and nutrition which is the most boring class of my life. Seriously. Awful. Horrible.
But then we have clinical skills which is touching real life animals and tomorrow I get to learn how to milk a cow woohoo!

At the ZEW club meeting I learned how to give fluids, handle, and do some basic up keep on big and little birds. I got to meet lots of different kinds and get a little knowledge.  Again, I have no clue what I want to do with my life, but I do like exploring my options.

We got through our first big round of tests. In GI physio we have a test every week on Wednesday, which helps you keep up with the info but also means you can never completely have a week off. Oh vet school.

To counteract this, we have been working out like crazy! We all joined Fitocracy.com where you can get points for working out and basically compete/cheer on your buddies. A bunch of the vet school chicks joined because we all end up at the rec together. Some us are also doing potlucks almost every weekend which is kind of usually sometimes cheaper and definitely a fun way to visit and also eat full meal with sides instead of the "oh maybe I want this...and this....and maybe a salad" method of feeding ourselves.

Our house went through a little panic when our complex went bankrupt and we worried that our rent was gonna go up and we were gonna have to move (ew) thus making me break my promise to Addie-cat that we can stay in one place for 2 years. Plus I would have to move my stuff and after years of moving in and out of dorms....I really really really don't wanna do that! But luckily if we sign the lease early our rent will only go up like $6 a person  which makes everything A OK with me.

Tomorrow we don't have our 8am and I don't have to be at school until 8:40 when we are throwing a surprise b-day party for Dr. C because he turning 80 years old! Plus there will be cupcakes....for breakfast... cancel out that running and pilates and pushups I've been doing.

Night all! Stay tuned for more research info and for the 2 upcoming weekends ( in a few weeks) where I get to go to Ohio and then have my best friend from Ohio come to me!

Craziness

So I had a little bitty stress attack last night just because I started getting a little overwhelmed by the little errands and things like my car still dying on me every few weeks.

But I let myself chill out and watch dumb reality TV....
Which is what this post is actually about.
If you haven't seen it, TiVo it, find it online, but you have got to watch "I Cloned My Pet".
I am not kidding, these people are CRAZY!!!!
My roommate and I couldn't look away. These people love these pets more than their spouses, more than their kids, are more sad about their deaths than about those of significant others or parents. One lady has a huge picture of her dog on her comforter, pillows, and wall. She sleeps in bed next to his ashes tucked into a blanket (Trouble liked to curl up in blankets...), she saved the water that was in his bowl when he died....Craziness. A man from Korea has his dog buried but has all her toys sitting on her grave in a little picket fenced area. He has pictures of her everywhere.
This cloning process costs them $50,000-$100,000...

Yea, you read that right.

But they love their pet and they just want them back right? Funny story about cloning. Cloning does not equal duplication. Your dog might look the same (but might not, some colors and patterns change during growth in unpredictable ways), it may have some (I stress some) of the same preferences, but all of the life experiences that made it your beloved pet will not happen.

For example, all the quirky things I love about my animals come from the way they were raised before I ever met them. 
Harvey was on a chain outside all day. I guarantee that this had an effect on his attitude and his personality, maybe even his size!
Addie was on her own for four months...I have no clue what happened or where she was, but that is a big part of what made her Addie.
Ivy was raised by one of our very best family friends. Do you think that she would be the same if she had been raised entirely on her own instead of with a passel of  her siblings? If she had been raised by me and not her breeder?
No!
They would still be great pets (maybe), their health might be the same (but clones generally live shorter lives), and they might be the same color......

I just wonder if anyone went over this with them before the spent my student loan debt/the cost of a house/ a huge retirement fund on their new puppies.

Then again one lady took her new puppy to a psychic who said the puppy recalled the old dog's last moments meaning that he had the memories of the original.... so I could be wrong.


You gotta watch this show for yourself, it's on TLC and it is worth it for sheer shock value!

Have a good everyone, it snowed here so everything looks beautiful!

Good Morning School

I'm halfway up! Little work out every morning.

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Boom! There's a new semester!

So everything is going well. Just assume that is the general theme.
When the worst part of your life is that your cat has decided she can get on the counters after about a year and a half of life....well then you don't have much to complain about do you?

So this semester is all about large animal. Ok, it's not really all about them, but because we have anatomy lab so often the theme of anatomy lab is the theme of life.

Luckily, according to one of the main Large Animal (LA) docs in the clinic, the LA part of clinics is super laid back and fun and funny. Girlfriend has a green streak in her hair, so she knows what's up.

Anatomy lab is slow for many reasons. The first reason is that these animals are large, so everything takes awhile to clean out and find and manipulate. The second reason is that there are about 15 of us in every group, but there is only enough room for so many people to be working at one time. So I spend some time reading from the book and pointing things out. I really miss my old anatomy group. Believe me when I say my new group is a great group by far and there are many groups that are not nearly as easy to get along with. But still...my old group was so fun, I wouldn't mind everything taking so long because we have so much fun together. But I am getting to hang out with some new people so that is really good, change is just hard and last semester was so much fun. It is so neat to be learning about the LA side of things though. I am kind of a moron about that because my parents wouldn't buy me a farm. Rude.

We also start a really neat but not important at all to my grades type class. It's called Clinical Skills and it is essentially a pass/fail, laid back kind of class. It's to get everyone to a baseline of comfort with some basic animal handling skills and just a certain level of comfort around the animals. So for me, the small animal portion will be very easy and the large animal part will be a little trickier. Luckily it should be low key and fun. I think we will all learn a little something and it will be nice to have a more chill kind of class with so many practical applications. I'm so excited because I am in the second group which means that some groups went today and I get to go tomorrow and play with cows! We are all so stoked to touch live animals again that we can't handle ourselves.

Not gonna lie though, I am a little nervous. We are gonna be in groups, but there are somethings that you can only do one at a time. With animals everything is a little iffy and I already hate being the center of attention. What if I embarrass myself? I know it's ridiculous, and I am not even that worried, but these are the kinds of things I think about. We also get to practice different hitches and knots so I'm gonna feel like boy scout.

All in all I feel  rather caught up. Most of our classes are focusing on the GI tract, and it is really nice to have that kind of continuity. Nutrition is the most sinfully boring class so far, but as long as boring still = understandable I can just get over it. I am even watching a movie right now and have been reading a real book that is not about animals and their problems.

I really love  what I do. Like a lot. Like I am a little afraid to graduate and not have learning new things be my whole job. It is great to a be a student. Oh! And the fact that my housing complex is going bankrupt is having no effect on our lives because we get to sign a new lease this month and our cost is only going up $25 total! That is like $6 a person. Our whole house is ecstatic. The idea of finding a new place really sucked and we were willing to pay nearly anything to stay in the same place for more than a year, that has never happened since undergrad started 5 years ago.

And I'm on a bit of health kick and have been eating veggies and fruits and not subsisting on things you can microwave. This means more of an expense than I prefer, but my rent isn't really going up so I can kind of afford it maybe.

I hope this 60 degree weather holds, because it puts everyone in a fabulous mood.
Or maybe it's just the movie that I am watching. No Strings Attached is hilarious so far.
I gots to get up bright and early to be productive and care about animals....life is hard.

Good Morning

So here I am at school getting ready for a new block, yay!
It will be nice to have a few more classes that aren't as time intensive (one day a week as opposed to 4-5 days a week) and to start some large animals. The large animal freaks me out a little because it is so completely brand new to me. However, I learn decently fast and we start clinical skills this block so I actually get to start working with live animals.

It was so nice getting to hang with my whole family this break. I got to spend nearly all of it with Mike and Harvey which was such a nice change. It was really nice getting to do the family rounds and to actually see each other for new years. New years at the Erwin house was pretty much a bring whoever you want, game playing, jello shot drinking, fun fest. It was pretty fantastic, this is not what you would expect from a party at your family's house. Well maybe you wouldn't, but I have a fun family, so I would.

I have my syllabuses all printed out and the sun was shining on the way here and my radio was blasting so all in all I was thinking I would feel super prepared today. However, last night my girlfriend was like "hey do we have class at 8am tomorrow?" and I was like "no, of course not". But the confusion lasted all the way until this morning so I still felt like my life was a little bit in shambles all the way until....well now.

Ps. we did not have class.

More about the new semester once it starts :-)

Good