The Night Before School

So my long summer vacation is over. Supposedly this is the last long summer vacation that I'll have before retirement. That sounds rather depressing, not that I don't like working.

I got to travel all over, from East coast to West, with a rare stopover in the Midwest. I did an externship in Madison, WI and really fell in love with the town and surrounding area. It is a lot like Ithaca but with a lot more going on!

The best part of summer, without a doubt, was having enough free time to read books of my own choice.

Here's most of what I read:

• The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down-- abount the Hmong refugee experience in America and about how cultural differences impact medical care dramatically
• Merle's Door by Ted Kerasote-- about his free-roaming dog in Wyoming. Amazing. My favorite book of the summer. This man seems to know how to get inside a dog's head.
• Delivering Dr. Amelia-- about the therapy of an ob/gyn who makes a mistake that tears her apart and her long process to recover
  
• Goatsong-- a light read about a couple who acquires goats and an interest in cheese later in life
• Woodswoman-- about a woman who builds her own cabin in the Adirondacks and lives there year round-- a bit disappointing as she seems to skim the surface on many complex subjects and also uses antiquated language that I found offensive for referring to race
• Passing Cain-- about raising boys so they are emotionally literate-- I never got to finish this as I left it with Eb and D
• Food Matters by Mark Bittman-- again, I only read bits and pieces as I left this as a present for my mom but it was very intriguing and I plan to finish it someday!
• The Birds Of Heaven by Peter Matthiesen-- about the plight of the world's 15 crane species-- a bit dense for me but I slogged through it in time to visit the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, WI
  
• And I'm ending the summer by finishing off the trilogy of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the final book in this series-- which I began last fall!-- is The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest. I would have never read this series except that my step-dad said that the main character reminded him of me. Hmmm...

It's an eclectic mix-- I had no list to prioritize from, I simply had the luxury and leisure time to pick up and read whatever was available and appealed to me in the moment. Previously, I read all of the Harry Potter series over winter break since it is the book of many of my younger classmates' generation and I thought it would help me better understand and relate to them... And over spring break I read The Secret Life Of Bees, one of the few fiction books I have read in the past years that I really liked.

So, tomorrow it is back to the pressure cooker of vet school. I'm already looking forward to winter break. Which isn't to say that I don't love learning, just not at the pace I've come to expect from vet school.