So, about third year...

It's going fairly well... except for pharm. Words cannot express how much that class frustrates me. Will update again when I have some breathing space.

Spring break!

After the pharmacology exam yesterday I ran a few short errands, walked my dog, and installed Dragon Age II and spent some well-deserved time killing darkspawn and acquiring party members.

That game is awesome. Shiny awesome.

Gotcha

I'm not sure exactly when it started (the details are fuzzy at this point), but since November or so I have regularly been finding small dog poop all over my yard. On my driveway, all over the part by the street, around the tree that is in the middle of my yard... you name it. It seemed irregular at first, but with the advent of snow it became obvious that it was a daily -- sometimes twice-daily -- occurrence. It has been incredibly frustrating.

Since it started I've been suspicious of my new-ish neighbors. Why? They're the only ones that I've seen with a small dog in my immediate vicinity and this started after they moved in. Talking to them was obviously the "good neighbor" thing to do -- except that they're home at odd hours that rarely coincide with when I am home, which makes it extremely difficult to do so.

Halfway to break

Three exams down, three to go in PSBTM. Case study and public health went well, but virology... let's just say it took everything I'd studied, laughed, and threw it down a black hole while cackling about clinically irrelevant minutia and laughing maniacally. Words cannot express how much I loathe that class.

What a way to start another weekend full of studying! Blagh.

Studying and whiny dogs

My dog likes to talk to me. A lot. "I need outside." "I'm sure there are rabbits or squirrels outside for me to chase." "I want a chewie." "You just got home, therefore you should feed me." "That plate you have there has something on it for me." "Go to sleep. Seriously."

Sometimes he combines the talking with bounding around the trailer like a horse. Just in case I couldn't hear him, I guess. Oh, well. At least he's cute.

Whining can be therapeutic

Spring break has passed, and so has my first nervous breakdown of veterinary school. The details:

We had an anatomy test on March 4th that should not have been difficult... okay, it shouldn't have been overly difficult. It was the most God-awful anatomy test I have taken in my life (and I've taken more than a few). If you want to imagine what it was like - picture the thorax, with the heart still attached and in its normal position. The lung has been removed; all that is left of the its vessels are a few centimeters of vascular wall surrounding a gaping hole in the heart. The pulmonary vein was pinned.

Yeah. You can imagine similar pinnings for the rest of the exam.

If you think undergrad was frustrating...

...spend 2 hours carving 5-inch-thick muscle from the pelvis, removing part of the pelvis, and gouging fat from the pelvic area of a (relatively) small cow.

While alternately trying to think of nothing and go through hormones in your head.

In all serious, though, today just about brought me to my first nervous breakdown of veterinary school. More on that later - I've got histo to study, just needed a short break.

Vet school is a time sink

The last time I sat down to write here it was a month into the semester--I never finished that post--and now we're just past midterms and creeping toward the 3-month mark.

Getting through midterms seems almost impossible now that I have time to stop and contemplate it. I'm not sure how I managed, to be honest. Midterms essentially went:

October 8 - anatomy exam 2 (I kicked butt)
October 13 - histo exam 2 (I did not kick butt but did pass)
October 14 - cell bio and med terms finals (I kicked butt on both)
October 21 - nutrition exam 1 (I so did not kick butt and consider myself lucky that I barely passed... it was NOT FUN)
October 29 - anatomy exam 3 (I did fairly well)
October 30 - radiology midterm (results pending)

It was one long month of studying for the next test. I've actually been studying in the library. I was in the building for 12 hours straight for the first time on the 28th... but, sadly, my productivity dropped significantly after last Thursday. Daylight savings time ending didn't help much either--it was dark when I left school at 4:30 today. Dark! At 4:30! At least it's light in the brief time I go outside each morning...

In other words, I really should be reading. Or something. But the motivation isn't quite what it needs to be.