Sorry for my long absence. I didn't have anything really interesting to say and repeating interesting things that other people said just wasn't doing it for me.
I am overdue for a jubilant post proclaiming that I passed block 5a. Because I did! Yay.
Summer is heavenly. Peaceful. I try not to think that this might be the last summer vacation of my life until I retire. Who knows, I could always go back to school yet again... just kidding.
At least I am making the most of it. I spent the evening outside lying on my back gazing up, Simon at my feet grazing on the grass. Sun-warmed earth beneath me, cool night air above me. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, but was thrilled and surprised that long before the first star came out, two bats appeared fluttering, swooping, reversing course on a dime, chasing bugs around and around over the yard. Amazing. Of course, I was convinced earlier in the year that there were bats in the basement of where I am living. (I heard them. Really.) So perhaps these were them? I must remember to spend more time doing nothing but resting and looking up in the future.
In the background, the last spring peeper croaking and the resident red-bellied woodpecker chortling away.
The perfect ending to a day spent preparing a bird skeleton for display in the school's resource center.
I like life better without any exams.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Rain resumes
This week has been a nice break from the relentless downpours. But apparently it is not going to last. Here's the weather forecast for the next 10 days (below). Really! I miss California more and more.
Today
May 11
Mostly Sunny
69° high
46° low
0% chance of rain
|
Showers
Monday, May 9, 2011
Underwater, Figuratively And Literally
Dear readers, I am sorry for my lack of posts this spring. There has not been that much that has seemed worthy of posting. I study, eat, sleep, watch birds, read, spend time with friends and shop at my favorite thrift stores. Same old story. There are a few noteworthy funny and bizarre stories/facts to post from classes, which I will try to do soon.
I am mostly very excited that I only have two weeks of school left!!! While I enjoy school immensely, I am beyond ready for a break from sitting in lecture for hours and the stress of exams. I don't have terribly exciting plans for the summer-- work on rehabilitating my knee so I can run again, put together a bird skeleton or two that I have in the freezer at school, visit my friends in California and hopefully do an externship somewhere. What I'm most looking forward to is seeing the birth of S's newest goat kids while I'm back in California. I think goat babies are the absolute cutest babies in the entire world!
So for the next two weeks, I continue to slog through a daunting stack of lectures. Part of vet school is getting used to the fact that one is pretty much always behind. My first year, a second year student said something that really helped me adjust and was quite insightful. She said, "If you do laundry or shop for groceries, you are going to be behind." Meaning that it is inevitable you will fall behind in your work just by taking time out of your day for the basic activities needed to get by. There are some people who seem to stay on top of their work, but for the majority, being behind on your work at some point during the semester is par for the course.
Being underwater is usually a figurative term (and one commonly used by vet students to describe the sensation of being overwhelmed-- last year one second year described the work load in block 4 to me as feeling like she was lying on the bottom of a swimming pool staring up), but this spring the whole town has been underwater as we have received 3 times the normal amount of rain, perhaps more. For weeks now the weather forecast has included a dire red box at the top reading "flood warning." Luckily, the place where I live has suffered very little damage other than a large puddle of water at the bottom of the driveway. I don't think there has been much damage overall. My favorite story is how someone saw a blue heron fishing in the Wegman's parking lot. Bizarre!
So here's one of the latest warnings:
Issued by The National Weather Service
I am mostly very excited that I only have two weeks of school left!!! While I enjoy school immensely, I am beyond ready for a break from sitting in lecture for hours and the stress of exams. I don't have terribly exciting plans for the summer-- work on rehabilitating my knee so I can run again, put together a bird skeleton or two that I have in the freezer at school, visit my friends in California and hopefully do an externship somewhere. What I'm most looking forward to is seeing the birth of S's newest goat kids while I'm back in California. I think goat babies are the absolute cutest babies in the entire world!
So for the next two weeks, I continue to slog through a daunting stack of lectures. Part of vet school is getting used to the fact that one is pretty much always behind. My first year, a second year student said something that really helped me adjust and was quite insightful. She said, "If you do laundry or shop for groceries, you are going to be behind." Meaning that it is inevitable you will fall behind in your work just by taking time out of your day for the basic activities needed to get by. There are some people who seem to stay on top of their work, but for the majority, being behind on your work at some point during the semester is par for the course.
Being underwater is usually a figurative term (and one commonly used by vet students to describe the sensation of being overwhelmed-- last year one second year described the work load in block 4 to me as feeling like she was lying on the bottom of a swimming pool staring up), but this spring the whole town has been underwater as we have received 3 times the normal amount of rain, perhaps more. For weeks now the weather forecast has included a dire red box at the top reading "flood warning." Luckily, the place where I live has suffered very little damage other than a large puddle of water at the bottom of the driveway. I don't think there has been much damage overall. My favorite story is how someone saw a blue heron fishing in the Wegman's parking lot. Bizarre!
So here's one of the latest warnings:
Issued by The National Weather Service
Binghamton, NY
Sat, May 7, 2011, 1:06 PM EDT
Local Radar Map
Updated May 7, 2011, 5:55pm EDT
THE FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES FOR THE CAYUGA LAKE AT ITHACA. * AT 11:30 AM SATURDAY THE STAGE WAS 384.9 FEET. * FLOOD STAGE IS 385.0 FEET. * MINOR FLOODING IS OCCURRING. * IMPACTS... AT 385 FEET... FLOODING IS LIKELY ALONG LOW LYING STREETS AND PARKING LOTS NEAR THE SHORE ON THE SOUTH END OF THE LAKE. THIS INCLUDES MYERS POINT LOCATED IN LANSING INCLUDING THE AREA NEAR LAGODA PARK DRIVE. IN THE TOWN OF ULYSSES ALONG TAUGHANNOCK BOULEVARD IN ADDITION TO FLOODING FROM THE LAKE ITSELF... THE HIGH WATER LEVEL OF THE LAKE WILL LIKELY CAUSE WATER TO BACK UP INTO SIXMILE CREEK. FLOODING IS LIKLEY IN LOW LYING AREAS IN THE SOUTHWEST BUSINESS DISTRICT ALONG ROUTE 13 NEAR WEGMANS AND K MART ALONG WITH TITUS FLATS.
More Information
... THE FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES FOR THE FOLLOWING RIVERS IN NEW YORK...
CAYUGA LAKE AT ITHACA AT ITHACA AFFECTING TOMPKINS COUNTY ONONDAGA LAKE AT LIVERPOOL AFFECTING ONONDAGA COUNTY PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
SAFETY MESSAGE...
DO NOT DRIVE OVER FLOODED ROADS OR BRIDGES...
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Sick Euthyroid
So, I've spent a lot of my week dealing with Simon (my one remaining cat, a 10 year old indoor neutered male DSH). He's drinking a lot more than normal, and urinating somewhat more than normal but not markedly. He is a mystery at this point. His blood work was completely normal, not a single value outside the reference range on his CBC or chemistry panel. His urine is concentrated (> 1.050) and the sediment is not active-- there are a lot of lipid droplets, less than one white blood cell per high power field and an occasional epithelial cell (not unusual for sterile free catch-- we tried for a cysto but he just peed all over us, luckily one of the techs standing by caught it midstream in a red top). His physical exam is unremarkable, with the only notable finding being that his kidneys are on the small end of normal, with one at 3 cm and the other at 3.5 cm.
Just for kicks, we ran a free T4, which came back markedly low. (I ran a T4 last spring when he had a bout of vomiting and it was within the normal reference range then so I do have one point of comparison).
So he is sick euthyroid but we can't find a reason. Seriously, Simon, do you have to this difficult?
I decided to culture his urine despite no clear signs of infection, just to rule out infection.
The next step is measuring his daily water intake to see if he is truly polydipsic and then repeating his free T4 in a few weeks.
Why can't my animals have normal diseases? Lindy had chronic kidney disease from the time I got her at 8 months and then her last two years a giant cyst on her kidney that grew so large that it felt like a bladder and no one knew what to make of it. Now Simon... Yes, I'm relieved he doesn't have diabetes mellitus or chronic kidney disease but I wish it could be something simple for once, like sterile cystitis or a urinary tract infection rather than a mystery!
Just for kicks, we ran a free T4, which came back markedly low. (I ran a T4 last spring when he had a bout of vomiting and it was within the normal reference range then so I do have one point of comparison).
So he is sick euthyroid but we can't find a reason. Seriously, Simon, do you have to this difficult?
I decided to culture his urine despite no clear signs of infection, just to rule out infection.
The next step is measuring his daily water intake to see if he is truly polydipsic and then repeating his free T4 in a few weeks.
Why can't my animals have normal diseases? Lindy had chronic kidney disease from the time I got her at 8 months and then her last two years a giant cyst on her kidney that grew so large that it felt like a bladder and no one knew what to make of it. Now Simon... Yes, I'm relieved he doesn't have diabetes mellitus or chronic kidney disease but I wish it could be something simple for once, like sterile cystitis or a urinary tract infection rather than a mystery!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Spring?
I realize I am woefully behind on blog posts. Life has been hard and I just seem to keep getting hit with stuff every time I finally begin to pick myself up. There are lots of stories and photos I want to post, so hopefully I will get around to it someday, even if it is over the summer. It is sad to see my blog fall by the wayside as I did such a good job keeping it up last year but such is life I suppose. School and my precarious sanity come first.
The beginning of this week was amazingly, wondrously sunny and even somewhat warm. I was talking to one of my professors in lab yesterday and she said she loved this time of year, the hint of spring, the tease of nice weather followed by colder weather again. I mentioned this to a classmate who said, "I don't need foreplay to enjoy spring." Me either. But it's snowing, grey and dreary today so I guess I'd better get used to the tease of spring in Ithaca.
The beginning of this week was amazingly, wondrously sunny and even somewhat warm. I was talking to one of my professors in lab yesterday and she said she loved this time of year, the hint of spring, the tease of nice weather followed by colder weather again. I mentioned this to a classmate who said, "I don't need foreplay to enjoy spring." Me either. But it's snowing, grey and dreary today so I guess I'd better get used to the tease of spring in Ithaca.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Financial Aid Deadlines
So, my FAFSA and CSS are due tomorrow, March 1. Guess what time I submitted them? Just now, at 11 pm Feb 28. Yup. I've always been really bad about financial aid and do it last minute, but at least it gets done.
The first year that I had to fill out a FAFSA and CSS it took me hours and hours and I found it extremely confusing (be warned if you are applying to vet school and have relied on your parents to do this before that it needs to be done well before April 15, the earlier the better as some aid is now on a rolling schedule). This is my third time round filling out these forms and it now seems quite straightforward.
It has occurred to me that even though I am only about halfway through veterinary school, I will only ever have to fill out one more set of financial aid applications for vet school (this time next spring). Yahoo! Somehow this makes me feel much closer to graduating than I actually am.
In order to do my FAFSA and CSS I had to do my taxes, various papers for which I organized last minute at SyracuseSurrogateParent's last week. SyracuseSurrogateDad made a funny comment after I explained that I paid an accountant to prepare my taxes because I have multiple states (plus some other complexities). He said, "So do you get taxed differently in different emotional states? Like if you are in a state of silliness is there a different rate?" If only he knew! It definitely makes me smile every time I think about it.
The first year that I had to fill out a FAFSA and CSS it took me hours and hours and I found it extremely confusing (be warned if you are applying to vet school and have relied on your parents to do this before that it needs to be done well before April 15, the earlier the better as some aid is now on a rolling schedule). This is my third time round filling out these forms and it now seems quite straightforward.
It has occurred to me that even though I am only about halfway through veterinary school, I will only ever have to fill out one more set of financial aid applications for vet school (this time next spring). Yahoo! Somehow this makes me feel much closer to graduating than I actually am.
In order to do my FAFSA and CSS I had to do my taxes, various papers for which I organized last minute at SyracuseSurrogateParent's last week. SyracuseSurrogateDad made a funny comment after I explained that I paid an accountant to prepare my taxes because I have multiple states (plus some other complexities). He said, "So do you get taxed differently in different emotional states? Like if you are in a state of silliness is there a different rate?" If only he knew! It definitely makes me smile every time I think about it.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Spring In Ithaca
overnight the trees are blooming
not sprouting leaves or flowers
but bearing fluffy cotton snow
from last night's storm
white puffs thickly coating the branches
blowing off in bursts of snow pollen
to cover the ground
this is ithaca in spring
the snow is wetter
clinging to, piling on the branches
*
It snowed yesterday in parts of the Bay area, including near PK, for the first time in almost half a century. PK loved it, according to her mom. It makes me homesick. I'm used to seeing Mount Hamilton coated in snow, rising up behind the nearer mountains, white cap poking out. I wish I could have seen my regular haunts with snow.
There is a book by the title of Crazy Weather, published in 1944, that I read a few years back about a boy caught between the Mojave and white people's worlds. It was during a stretch when I read everything I could about how the West, and California in particular, used to be. I think of this book, by association, when I think about the weather because we are certainly having crazy weather now.
not sprouting leaves or flowers
but bearing fluffy cotton snow
from last night's storm
white puffs thickly coating the branches
blowing off in bursts of snow pollen
to cover the ground
this is ithaca in spring
the snow is wetter
clinging to, piling on the branches
*
It snowed yesterday in parts of the Bay area, including near PK, for the first time in almost half a century. PK loved it, according to her mom. It makes me homesick. I'm used to seeing Mount Hamilton coated in snow, rising up behind the nearer mountains, white cap poking out. I wish I could have seen my regular haunts with snow.
There is a book by the title of Crazy Weather, published in 1944, that I read a few years back about a boy caught between the Mojave and white people's worlds. It was during a stretch when I read everything I could about how the West, and California in particular, used to be. I think of this book, by association, when I think about the weather because we are certainly having crazy weather now.
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