Happy Holidays!

Christmas is on Monday - how did it sneak up on me like this? It seems like I was just putting off Christmas shopping because it was too close to Thanksgiving and now we're less than a week away. I am relieved that everything I ordered online has come in (unless I've forgotten about something).

Matt and I haven't been doing much...he's been busy with work. I've spent my time entertaining Piper, playing some WoW and Final Fantasy XII, and learning more about editing/creating pages for WoWWiki. I like messing around with WoWWiki because I can find a random page, make it look nice and contain valuable information, and then make sure everything it refers or links to is also clean and helpful. An example of something I've put together would be: this, if you were curious.

On Tuesday we had to run back to Dallas for my appointment with Dr. Z. We drove in, had lunch at Cisco so we could say hi to Debbie, and stopped by the Roberts (giving Luke his Christmas present early - a Wii controller). We watched him play some 2-player tennis with a friend and Matt bowled a few rounds, and then we went to the appointment. Dr. Z and I are both really pleased with how things are going, and we didn't change any medication or anything. Matt and I did some quick Christmas shopping on our way out of town and came back to CS.

Last night we watched the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" We really enjoyed it, as much as a movie that gets you pissed off about something can be enjoyable. Next in our queue are "Ghost in the Shell" and "Talladega Nights," so those should be a change.

Tomorrow afternoon we're heading to Dallas for Christmas, and we'll only be back briefly in College Station from the 29-31 before we go to Dallas again for our Utah ski extravaganza. Yay!

Oops, forgot to blog...bad blogger!

I got a little behind in blogging. Oh well, I can move past it if you can. We spent last weekend in Dallas. Matt had to go into the office on Friday so we headed out early on Friday morning (I slept 2 hours in the car, yay). While he worked on ... whatever it is that he works on, I got to go to Amore and have lunch with Brittany, who was fortuitously in Dallas. It was a very Christmas-y weekend - we had the KMPG Christmas party on Friday night, helped the Roberts decorate and the Halls pick out the Christmas tree. And Matt, Dad, and I got to watch Mom wrapped in lights, transferring them from around her neck to around the tree.

Also worth mentioning about the weekend was Matt and I had our first Wii encounter. Luke has a Wii with the sports game and Zelda. I watched the boys do boxing, golf, bowling, and tennis and tried my hand at baseball. Matt and I both had authentic "Wiinjuries" for days later too (in our case, nothing too severe, just very sore shoulders). Saturday night we celebrated Susie's 51st birthday slightly belatedly by eating at Cuba Libre and then Matt and I watched Luke beat Zelda. On Sunday I gave Zelda a shot of my own, getting through the first dungeon, and Matt spent the evening suffering through a horrible Cowboys game at Texas Stadium with Dad, Jerry, and the managers.

We hit the road pretty early on Monday so Matt could get some work done. This week has been more of the same for us, although Matt has been relatively busy with work. Last night I saw my first shooting star (followed by at least ten more) during the fabulous meteor shower. =D

Oh, and I got my CT results back. I have a most likely congenital venous angioma in my brain, but it is totally innocuous and so I'm finally done with my brain testing. So I can drive! I may celebrate by going Christmas shopping tomorrow.

Christmas Season is Upon Us

I fully oppose stores beginning Christmas as soon as Halloween is over, but I have no problem getting into the spirit as soon as Thanksgiving is over. It was a little weird this year with the early Thanksgiving, so I held off until December (2nd to be exact). Matt and I woke up slightly late this morning and watched The Chronicles of Narnia. Then we hauled out the Christmas decorations and got to work. We are so fortunate that Mom and Dad have hooked me up repeatedly with decorations, so we had lots of different things to put up (and I got a little excited last year when we were in the apartment and bought some more). So we hung lights, garlands, stockings, wreaths, and put out the fake poinsettias, Christmas pillows and other things. Then we went ahead and hung some non-Christmas items we've been meaning to get up for 4 months now. All the while, I had my iTunes Christmas playlist blaring. And a good time was had by all.

On Monday I went to the neurologist to get my MRI and EEG results back from a few weeks ago. The EEG was fine, but the MRI showed a very small venous angioma. It was stressed that this was almost definitely nothing but that they had to do an additional test for completeness to ensure that it was, in fact, nothing to worry about. So on Wednesday I went in to St. Joseph's Hospital for CT angiography with iodine contrast. The iodine contrast was fun - the radiology technician warned me it would make me feel warm and like I was tinkling on myself, but that I should remain calm because I would not be urinating in my pants. Wow, awesome. And it was totally true - thank goodness she had warned me because I really did have to repeat to myself "you are not peeing, you are not peeing." =D Other than that, it was uneventful. They'll call me with the results sometime next week.

My big project for the week was assembling 10 care packages to send to soldiers in Iraq for Christmas. I baked them each a loaf of pumpkin bread (Susie's wonderful recipe). Also included from the suggestion list I was given:

• 2 pairs of white crew socks
• Candy (jolly ranchers, starbursts, holiday-themed chocolates)
• Fruit snacks
• 1 Little Debbie Christmas snack cake
• Little toys to give to Iraqi children
• Off Deep Woods insect repellent wipes
• For the three female-specific packages:
• personal wet wipes
• Lip Smackers chap stick
• body wash

I also wrote them each a card and put a picture of Matt and me in there. I had a blast putting it all together, and it made me feel really good. We took them to the post office and sent them off...it was really cool. Although the people in line behind us probably didn't agree, since it takes a long time to mail 10 boxes to Iraq! If anyone is interested in sending something over there (just a batch of rice krispies and a note would really brighten someone's day), e-mail me for the care package information.

This week was kind of odd because Matt actually had work to do every day. I really like having our desks together in the same room, because we listened to music together and I played WoW or did kakuro puzzles or something while he worked. I also created a WoWWiki page for my WoW guild and for myself, which was pretty fun. Oh, and I got my rogue to level 60...my fourth level 60 character. Hehe, go me. Tonight my guild is going to a new dungeon for the first time...the good news is Matt has two college football conference championship games to watch while I'll be dying over and over in my game. Speaking of games, I'm picking up Final Fantasy XII for myself in about an hour and am super excited.

I guess that's it for now - Matt and I are off to run and enjoy the beautiful weather (from 78 degrees on Wednesday to 29 on Friday - it finally feels like the Christmas season!)

Thanksgiving Goodness (oh, and WHOOP!)

Thanksgiving rocked. Matt and I arrived at the mini-ranch on Wednesday afternoon. Carolyn, Mom, Dad, Murphy, cousin Lisa and her husband Eric, and their two dogs Darby and Travis were already there. Oh, and Helmut, Lisa's unborn child. Okay, that's not really what they are naming him, but when we were laughing at the horrible baby names in the baby name book, that's the one we got kind of stuck on the little person-to-be. Leslie and Bryan arrived after we'd started consuming a wonderful beef stew made by Mom. They had flown into Austin and borrowed a Klingner car to drive to us. We finished eating and sat around a wonderful bonfire - it was the perfect temperature outside to be warmed by the fire, but not too hot or too cold - and looked at the stars. I got reacquainted with Travis and Darby too. Travis is a 2-year-old lab(?) mix and Darby is 12-year-old half golden retriever and some Rhodesian ridgeback. They are both sweet dogs, and Travis is super energetic and playful, and therefore great fun.

Leslie, Bryan, Matt and I were staying at the Pous' lake house because the mini-ranch was pretty full. We got settled and chatted for a while and then had to hit the sack. On Thanksgiving morning I got up early and watched "You've Got Mail" while everyone else slept. Then as they began to stir and the outside had warmed up some, I went for a little run. After I ran by the ranch house, I heard the whir of Daisy the golf cart and turned to see Dad coming after me. He was coming to give me a stick in case I had to beat off the vicious dogs owned by the lovely mobile home neighbors. Luckily it was a light stick. I went around the neighborhood, and wound my way around to the back of M&D's property, climbing through the back gate so I could meet the new horse Lucky.

Leslie and Bryan had already come over, and I ended up eating a piece of toast at the house while Matt rode Mo the golf cart over and joined us. I gave Murphy a bath and then went back to the Pous' to clean up myself. Uncle Mike and his girlfriend Eve drove in on Thursday morning, as did Uncle J, Stephanie, and Cousin Michael (who had just flown in the night before from Armenia - he was there for work). At 11 we celebrated Carolyn's 80th birthday; it was awesome having everyone there for her birthday. Then we killed some time until it was time for our big Thanksgiving meal (one major activity - feeding the horses and bathing Travis after he rolled in poo). Our meal was the traditional turkey, sweet potato casserole, green jello salad, rolls, Carolyn's oyster dressing, and veggies. And it was fabulous. We ate at some banquet tables out in the pavilion and the weather was gorgeous - warm enough to not need a sweater, but cool and breezy and sunny.

Next, full and sleepy, we sat in front of the TV to watch the Cowboys dominate Tampa Bay after seeing J and Stephanie off to their next Thanksgiving dinner. Matt and I threw the football a bit during halftime, and I wandered out to swing in the hammocks with Leslie and Bryan at some point when I got full of football. Matt and Dad particularly had a spectacular time watching the game and making boy noises. At some point ping pong was played, conversations were had, leftovers and pie were consumed, beer was drank, darts were thrown, softballs were pitched and hit, and bonfires roared back to life. At one point we ended up all sitting in the den in an oval talking (12 of us plus three dogs)...one highlight was hearing the story about Michael getting peed on by a girl once...I suggest you ask him about it sometime; I'm sure he'd be thrilled to retell it. After that we had to wave goodbye to Mike and Eve as they left to go to Dallas and visit some of her friends. Then we all sat down to watch Grey's Anatomy, while I rubbed pregnant Lisa's sore little feet (and I mean LITTLE, they were tiny) and we broke the rules and let the dogs on the couch. The 4 kids staying at the Pous headed back to over there, joined by Mom and Dad, who hopped in the hot tub with Leslie and Bryan.

This morning we had a great pancake breakfast and then Leslie and Bryan had to leave to go to Austin for their Thanksgiving #2 with the Kingners. The rest of us watched the A&M-UT game...it was great having some real Longhorn fans to join us for the game (Lisa, Eric, Michael), especially because the Aggies WON! Whoop! And I was very proud that Mom and Dad were unconditionally rooting for A&M (it is all Leslie's fault about that, but luckily she doesn't care at all). After the game, the dejected Longhorns set off for Austin while Matt and I came back here to CS. We had to get back so the cats didn't starve and/or destroy the duplex (Emily's in Galveston with Rick's family until Sunday). Matt has sports to watch all weekend long and is in football & basketball heaven, and I'll probably play some WoW while he watches all of them. It won't be long before I get my fourth level 60 character (a rogue this time), and she's quite fun to play. And I imagine we'll be letting the Pipes out in the yard to play a lot since the weather is still so nice.

A Blogger Returns to the Fold

I'm back. Yes, really. Try to contain your excitement.

This past weekend Matt and I went camping with Emily and Rick at Gardner State Park. It's apparently the prettiest state park in Texas, located in the hill country west of San Antonio, and along the Frio River (which is not, incidentally, that cold - more on how I know this later). We got there just before sunset on Friday. Our campsite was in an area along the river (maybe 50 yards, a hill, and some brush away from it). We had neighbors on one side (Aggies the second night, complete with 3 dogs, an African Grey parrot, and an alternative lifestyle) but no one on the other side, which made for some pleasant privacy. We got a fire going, pitched our tent, and Rick and Emily made us some excellent hamburgers. A few s'mores later and we were ready to hit the sack. It got down into the 30s that night, which made for some chilly camping...that plus Rick's snoring made for a slightly restless night, but it was also made infinitely better by the loan of one of Rick's air mattresses to Matt and me.

On Saturday I awoke before the sunrise to build up the fire. It was COLD! I guess that's what happens when you camp in November :) After some bacon and eggs by camp-chef Rick and a mug of hot chocolate (actually, a red plastic cup from Peggy Sue of hot cocoa) we were ready to tackle the day. The park has lots of little trails through the hills so we figured we would just wander around on those, making sure to hit the two caves listed along the way. It was great hiking weather - not a cloud in the sky and a high in the 70s - and it was definitely beautiful, even for a Texas fall landscape. We had great views of the Frio River, which is shallow and crystal-clear, and the hills. We met a huge troop of Boy Scouts from Uvalde as we hit the Crystal Cave...the cave wasn't that deep or particularly crystallized, but it was a cave and therefore automatically cool. We hiked around some more, got lost about 5 times (the signage left something to be desired, and we were thankful the trails were less than a mile long each since we kept getting off track), and ate lunch on the ... hill. Can't really call it a mountain - it was about 1800 ft above sea level. We saw the other cave, which was smaller but narrowed down in a very gradual and thus appealing way. I squeezed myself down into it, making Matt nervous but having a grand time getting dirty and being adventurous. :)

After the hike we returned to camp (after hitting up the little store for syrup and Cinnamon, and ice cream bars for Matt and me). We planned to go sit by the river, but with the sunny heat of the day and our tired feet, Matt and I decided to dip our feet in and see how the water felt. It turned out to be very pleasant (not too cold at all). So, naturally, we began walking around in the river and discovered we could walk to the other side without getting into more than 6 inches of water. Then we walked up the river along the other side. I had a couple close calls and got one arm soaked when I stepped on a slippery rock (the ones in the current were totally grippy but the ones out of the main flow were covered in algae and treacherous). We also happened across an armadillo during this excursion. He was rooting around in the bushes (we didn't have our camera but I did get a couple of shots with my phone). After getting back to our starting point, we decided to try going down the river for a bit, and that's when I slipped and fell into the water. I didn't hurt myself or anything, but I didn't get 100% soaked. Luckily, with the sun and the mild temperature of the water, I was absolutely fine! I didn't even have to change clothes right away, and instead explored down the side of the river and laid on a sunny rock for a while. Then I showered and changed into warm clean clothes, and Matt and I lounged around the campsite while Rick and Emily went off to try their luck fishing.

Saturday night dinner, again prepared by our most competent camp-chefs Emily and Rick, was fajitas. Matt and I set up our own tent for the second night, to escape the snoring, and because we love our tent and can set it up in all of 5 minutes. We had some more s'mores and built a roaring fire. It didn't get as cold Saturday night, which was very nice. On Sunday morning Rick made us some french toast and pancakes, we soaked our last few hours of pyromania, and then we packed up camp and hit the road.

Highlights of the trip:
- Emily tries to tell us a story and the three of us hear "only one of my nipples is real" (what she really said "only one of my dimples is real" relating to a time in her childhood time when some punk hit her in the face with a baseball bat)
- Bees swarm our picnic table on Saturday afternoon and Rick begins attacking them with flip-flops to cripple them and toss them in the fire, shouting comments like "oh, it hurts, doesn't it?"
- I catch a tiny frog by the river on Friday night
- one simple word: FIRE

You can find pictures of our trip, as well as some other new ones including, of course, a million of Piper, on our web site. I have yet to get the pictures Emily took of our trip, but I will add them soon.

Backing up a bit, last week was my 24th birthday. We went to Dallas on Monday afternoon and had a birthday dinner at Amore with Mom and Dad (fresh in from a wedding-planning trip in California) and Carolyn. Then on Tuesday I got new running shoes with Dad and we jogged at White Rock Lake. I had lunch with the 'rents at Cisco while Matt participated in "Field Day" with his work (yes, like elementary school, tug-of-wars and all). We had dinner at the Roberts with Luke and Susie, when I got to open my presents (best ever: kakuro book - you just think sudoku is fun, try this). On Wednesday we had a birthday lunch with John and Susie at Bubbas, I had an appointment with Dr. Z, and then Matt and I came back to College Station. It was a great birthday! Another great part of last week - Amanda was in town on Thursday for an American Chemical Society presentation, and I got to spend lunchtime with her catching up. :)

So, chances are the majority of my readers are at this point wondering either 1) why haven't you blogged in 2 months, or 2) how did you pull these fun activities off if you're knee-deep in vet school. The thing is, I haven't really known how to approach this topic on my blog, a very public site on the internet, where I don't mind talking about my activities and whatnot, but not exactly the most personal medium on the planet. But enough time has passed now, and things are moving along, that I might as well just get it out and move on so I can, if nothing else, start bringing you more of the blog posts I know you hunger for. So...In June I was diagnosed with depression. This may come as a surprise to some, or not to some. It was kind of both to me. Anyway, so Dr. Z is my psychiatrist that I've been working with since then. We've been doing the whole talking thing as well as anti-depressants. It was those medications that ended up being the smoking gun for the seizures I had in July-September. I've gotten off those and onto something else now that seems to be working well, and I had an MRI and EEG to make sure that it was the drugs, and not my brain, that was causing the seizures (I get the official results next week but all signs point to good news). Anyway, so with the seizures and the anti-seizure medicine that made me feel stupid, drunk, and sleepy, as well as the depression and some fun insomnia, vet school wasn't so much happening. It was either 1) try and muddle through, possibly fail out or pass without learning anything, or 2) take the medical deferral they were thoughtfully offering so that I could get a guaranteed spot in next year's class and get my things together. I took option 2. So right now, I'm not in school, and this is how I have time to go camping, visit Dallas, play Warcraft, work on my kakuro/sudoku/crossword skills, run, watch DVDs like seasons 1-3 of nip/tuck, hang out with Matt, and sit outside with Piper as she sniffs around and eats grass. All I have to do with A&M is let them know by January 15 if I want to come back. And on that note...I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving! BTHO t.u.!

no such thing as "definite"

So much for "definitely meeting in the anatomy lab on Saturday." I'm back in Dallas to celebrate Emily's nativity, see the husband, see Jackass number two, etc. Hopefully much anatomy studying will occur this weekend as well. Also, the anatomy lab is open until 9pm on Sunday, so I will go in once we get back to College Station to brush up on things. I discovered on Thursday that I don't so much need Tigger to study ID - I pretty much have those down - I just need to memorize actions, origins, insertions of muscles, which nerves innervate what, the developement of bone, and things of that nature. Fun times.

Study break

I just finished reading some histology and it seemed like a good time to take a break. Today was great - we had amusing lecturers in both classes (histo and physiology), I had my three hour break from 10-1, histo lab was short, and my last class of the day, clinical correlates, was in the Medical Sciences Library and only lasted 45 minutes. So, I got home at 4:00! Unheard of!

Dr. Cudd, the less than inspiring physiology lecturer, has been replaced for three days by Dr. Wassar, as fast-talking New Yorker who is much more fun to listen to. He also always adds "on this planet" whenever he makes generalizations about animals (example: "all skeletal muscle contracts this way in animals on this planet") because he says he doesn't think we're alone in the universe and that veterinarians, especially ones engaged in comparative studies between species such as himself, will be the most suited to study aliens when they are found.

We opened the chest cavity in anatomy lab yesterday. It was wonderful to see the boys transform from sleepy and slightly bored (I can only make things so amusing) to completely fascinated as we cut into the ribs and opened up the chest. They got to poke the lungs and ogle the heart and whatnot, and it was neat to see their interest. We are definitely meeting on Saturday to review because we have a test a week from Friday and it will cover a ridiculous amount of material (it is 50% old, 50% new, and the test lasts 4 hours!).

It was beautiful and cool this morning when we left for school. It didn't really stay that way, but it does make me think that fall is just around the corner. Too bad I'm outside for so little time each day. I suppose I can study with the window open when it cools down or something.

89, whoop!

Greetings from Dallas

This update is coming to you live from Susie's iMac in Dallas. I had a lovely evening sitting on the couch with Matt watching "House" from Tuesday and a "Cheap Seats" off the TiVo. Oh, and eating Mr Gatti's Pizza. Yum!

My week of school was pretty good. Highlights included going to the Bryan Auction Barn for my Clinical Correlates class and Mom's visit, as well as the last celebration of knowledge in the first round of tests, and my first physical in ten years. Mom rolled into town on Wednesday in time to take me to my doctor's appointment - I hadn't gotten a physical and regular check-up type thing since, I believe, I needed one for middle school basketball tryouts. I had gotten the name of Johnny and Cindy's primary care physician and made an appointment with that office, although it was a different doctor. I was a little nervous, but the doctor, Dr. Neal, was very nice and I liked him a lot. The visit was uneventful, although he did take blood to check my thyroid and kidneys (when I had bloodwork after the first College Station seizure they sad my creatinine was high, so we were rechecking it). I should get the results Monday. Mom returned me to school in time for anatomy lab and I got a ride home with Christi. Mom cooked Emily and me a fabulous meal and then went to work making curtains while I tried to study for microbiology. She poked around the duplex and College Station while I was at class on Thursday and then came up to the school to catch the end of my anatomy lab. She got to meet "The Boys" and Christi, and I showed her the cooler and a group's dog that was out (we had already put Tigger away for the week). Then we walked around the vet school a bit and I got to introduce her to Dr. H before we left. I came home to the wonderful aroma of pot roast and Mom and I had dinner before I retreated to study for the next day's test.

So my microbiology test was this morning, and it went okay. It was multiple choice, and tricky at that (the scantron had A-J and some answers required bubbling in more than one answer at a time, and there were lots of "EXCEPT" questions which are not fun). But I think I passed. Hopefully I did so I can say I survived my first round of tests with little-to-no failure :) I scurried out as soon as I was done with the test and hopped in the car with Mom to head to Dallas. We saw the mini-horses on OSR and stopped at the Sonic at Buffalo for lunch but had no other adventures. My appointment with Dr. Z went well, and that was good to check off the list. I got to chat with Mom and Dad while waiting for Matt to get off work, which was nice. Tomorrow's plans include studying while Matt is at work (yeah, on a Saturday) and then hanging out with the Roberts family tomorrow night, and probably watching the A&M game.

69.5 is totally passing

Yeah, I got a 69.5 on my physiology test that I took today. I think that's technically passing, if you round =D Honestly, with the amount I studied, I would've taken anything over 50%. I got an 87 on my histo test though. Go me. I wonder how anatomy will turn out (I'll know tomorrow). I was just burned out after the two tests last week and my phys prof sucks the wonder and joy out of the subject, and ... yeah, I'll study more next time. The 69.5% I got right was all due to knowledge garnered from undergrad anyway.

So last week sucked a lot. It was all leading up to Thursday's histology test and Friday's anatomy test. The anticipation was awful, and we were all blowing off physiology and micro to study for these classes. Anyway, the tests went okay and then it was Friday, which meant CALF FRY! I ate calf balls. Four of them. So did Emily. They were fried and battered, and tasted like a cross between fried chicken and fried catfish. I mean, I wouldn't eat them every day, but they weren't gross. Christi had met us at the duplex and the three of us (her, me, Em) rode over together. It was at an outdoor pavilion. We chatted with some classmates, including my wonderful lab partners Justin and Brandon and ate some testicles and burgers, and left about an hour later. Apparently most of the people who stayed ended up getting completely trashed. Vet students seem to have the motto: "work hard, study hard, play hard."

Matt got in Friday night and we went to bed at the respectable hour of 9:20. Saturday I studied (sort of) while Matt watched football. He and Emily went to the Aggie game that night while I stayed home and tried to study but mostly sat around. I wasn't feeling like being around 70,000 other people. They came back bearing Sonic (vanilla malt joy!). On Sunday Matt took me to the grocery store and went back to Dallas (to work!) after lunch. I studied (played Warcraft) the rest of the day, went to bed early, and woke up at the ungodly hour of 5am this morning (that was NOT intentional). Anatomy lab was fun today - we finished the pelvic limb and started on the trunk. And finally I was trusted with a scalpel so I hacked away happily for 2 hours. =D

I'm writing this at the vet school computer lab actually. I had something to do at 6, and Emily has a Judo meeting at 7:30, so I am killing time until my awesome lab partner Brandon comes to pick me up. He and Justin both told me that if I ever needed a ride, I could ask them. Such gentlemen!

Other news...Mom is coming down on Wednesday, just in time to take me to my doctor's appointment (I'm missing micro lab for it, how naughty). Then I have a micro test on Friday, followed immediately by Mom driving us back to Dallas so I can make an afternoon appointment with Dr. Z. Then I get to have fun in Dallas and not study for tests all weekend! Christi is going home (Lewisville) that weekend too so I am riding back with her.

not the smartest move

In a not so brilliant move on my part, I decided I didn't want to take my seizure medicine because of the side effects. I mean, they are awful and I find it very hard to concentrate or study while on Keppra, but just not taking them wasn't necessarily the best idea. I know this because after about five days of slacking on the meds, I had another seizure. Yeah yeah, it's my fault. I was in the small anatomy lab attending one of Dr. Hoffman's Friday lunchtime review sessions, and about 10-15 minutes into it...down I went. The girl behind me mostly caught me as I toppled off my stool, and the first memory I have is me laying on the lab floor (ew) with my head laying on Dr. Hoffman's crossed-legged knee and him patting me on the side, which was really comforting. This would be the second time he's played a role in my brain adventures...it was really helpful to figure out what had happened while staying calm thanks to him. So yeah, off I went to the hospital again, which I said I wouldn't do but post-seizure I think I'd forgotten that.

My classmates were very nice. One borrowed my phone and called Matt and Emily, another made sure my stuff made it to the Dean's office for safekeeping. I went to St Joseph's in Bryan instead of The Med in CS and it was much faster and nicer. Emily and Johnny came up to be with me, I learned nothing new; mostly the message that I needed to go to a neurologist got reinforced through lectures by many people, including Matt, Emily, the ER doctor, and Dr. Hoffman.

Yeah, I went back up to the vet school about 2.5 hours after I'd had the seizure because I needed to check my locker and I wanted to see if I could catch the professor of the class I missed to get any make-up work. Emily and I walked all around, first to see Dr. Hoffman. He gave me a very fatherly look and ... mini-lecture when I confirmed I hadn't taken my seizure medicine (apparently he'd asked if I was taking it after the seizure but it was during my confusion stage). Then I picked my stuff up from the dean's office and we went to find my classmates. I talked with Christi and she thought she just hadn't been able to find me for class. I said "um, I was in the hospital."

Matt was coming for the Labor Day weekend anyway, but he left as soon as I had the seizure, so he got to the duplex around 4. We watched some tv and he watched football while I messed around in WoW. We went to bed at 9:20 to facilitate my ridiculously early awakenings. Good thing too, because I was wide awake at 5:00 but I was able to just get up and not feel like I'd only gotten a tiny bit of sleep. Today I studied some anatomy in the lab with Justin, Brandon, Christi, and Christina (Matt got to meet them) and then came back here and managed to be very unproductive. Now I have about an hour to study before we leave for the A&M game. Oh well, tomorrow's another day.

I took the night off

Last night I gave myself my first break from studying. There have been nights where I haven't gotten much done, of course, but I got home and thought "I'm not opening my backpack up tonight." I had been hitting the anatomy books pretty hard and we had a really good lab yesterday afternoon. We completed our study of all the muscles and bones of the thoracic limb, leaning everything past the elbow that day. Justin, Brandon, and I quizzed each other and tried to make sure we would retain some of the information for more than an hour. I think we succeeded. I also got a really nice little e-mail from Brandon later thanking me for my hard work in lab and telling me that if I ever needed a ride I could ask him. Have I mentioned that I love my lab partners?

Other excitement of the day: physiology lab. It was about placing catheters and drawing blood to run it for some basic bloodwork (PCV, total protein, serum protein, glucose). There were 8 of us in our group, and our less-than-enthusiastic lab dog was named Colorado. Half of us had plenty of experience doing that stuff, so we mostly sat back and assisted the newbies try to get it done. I learned that one of the girls in my group went to SMU and has eaten at all the restaurants. And she worked at Hillside Veterinary Clinic for years so she knows Sarpong. Small world =P I ended up eating lunch in the "grasshopper room" with her and another of my labmates, which was actually really nice - we didn't know each other that well, but we're in all the same classes and obviously have at least one interest in common, so we had plenty to talk about. After lunch was histology lab where we had a practice test and I was reminded that I should probably try to learn some of this stuff. The real test is next Thursday. Eek! Then it was time for the best part of the day - anatomy lab, which I've already discussed. :)

Getting home from school proved to be tricky yesterday. After Emily picked me up from the vet school around 5:10, we had to go get Rick (her boytoy) from the Bright Building, which is right in the middle campus, i.e. major traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian. And then getting from the Bright Building to home...goodness. We got to the duplex around 6 (it usually takes us 10 minutes to go between the duplex to the vet school). Poor Emily, it was not a fun driving experience.

So I arrived home and puttered for a bit, playing with Piper and poking the internet. Then I logged on to World of Warcraft for a real gaming session, my first in two weeks. It was nice to be greeted happily by my guildmates. I messed around with my druid Camali, getting her halfway to level 55 (which is 5 long levels from the end goal of 60). I also got to chat on Ventrilo with everyone and catch up on what they'd been up to. And I commiserated with Trisha/Atsukana about A&M having class on Labor Day.

I played "late" - past 10! - to try a new sleeping experiment. I haven't slept well in a few nights, the issue mostly being that I am waking up between 4-5:30 and not really being able to go back to sleep. So, I thought maybe I was just going to bed too early and my body was getting enough rest by then that it wanted me to get up. Well, I still work up somewhere around 4:30 despite not turning out the light until 11:20. So the *new* plan is to go to bed really early and just accept that I may be getting up at 5. *shrug* we'll see.

Matt comes in tonight! Yay! And he gets to stay until Monday since *he* doesn't have to go to work on Monday.

Oh, I'm writing this from the A-T lab in the basement of the vet school. I ended up here because I had 2.5 hours to kill before class (Emily has to work at 8 so I figured I'd come along with her), so I watched the video I needed to watch for Clinical Correlates on Tuesday: "The Restraint and Physical Examination of the Equine" or something like that. My group in that class has our horse case on Tuesday and I needed to learn that stuff. Although the prof is telling us now we might do a cow instead, which is really not cool. 1) cows aren't as interesting, and 2) I've already prepared for the horse! Oh well. I really would like to know by today because there is also some written homework I have to do beforehand. Grr.

PS: It is September! Ridiculous!

oh my

Vet school requires a lot of studying. I knew this, of course, but living the reality is craziness. I think the part I didn't really comprehend was how awful it is to go back to school and have to be in class 8:00-5:00 (even worse than grades 1-12) and *then* have to think about eating/studying/sleeping/having a life. Eating has proven a particularly hard task. What did I eat today? So far...a bowl of Lucky Charms, a Luna bar (thanks to Em), 3/4 of a grilled cheese sandwich, one glass of apple juice, and the heel of a loaf of banana bread. Hmm. Yesterday I finished on a strong note with a pot pie, but lunch was half a sandwich and a Snickers. I need to work on this.

So other news...I saw a horse being embalmed today in the back room of the anatomy lab. I think it was the first of the batch they will be working on for us to use next year. Apparently they are horses that were on their way to become dog food. I did a heartworm test in micro lab today. In anatomy we skinned the forearm; well, Brandon did. My lab partners are so cute. Two boys (Brandon and Justin), which is very rare, and they are both from rural places, wanting to go into large animal practices when they graduate. They are also pretty darn smart, and we have all come up with brilliant ideas for learning things that we've shared with each other. Oh, and keep this on the downlow, but Justin was the "Masked Rider" last year for Texas Tech (the mascot-type person on the black horse). Isn't that cool?

Other class news...I don't really have any. Next week will be big - I have a group thingy involving a live horse and exam, a histology exam, and on Friday, my first anatomy test. Eek! Oh, and Matt gets to spend Sunday night here too this weekend thanks to Labor Day (I of course have class on Monday, which stinks). Oh, and the first A&M game is this weekend. I got seats in the gimp section so we can sit down in case I have a seizure or whatever.

Okay, microbiology and histology are calling my name. *wave*

Week 2

Tomorrow begins my second week of vet school, and I'll admit - I'm nervous. Of course, last Monday wasn't exactly what I expected so this should go a little smoother. I got some studying done this weekend...not as much as I would have liked, but much more than I would have done in undergrad, so hopefully that's enough.

I had a fun weekend with Matt. Yesterday we slept in and got a bunch of errands done. Funny how those stack up when one cannot drive. We went to Copy Corner to get my class notes bound, then Old Navy where I got the best pajama pants ever, along with jeans, a shirt, and a skirt. (a skirt! I know! if I see one I like, I must get it since that happens about every 5 years) We went to Home Depot to get some keys made and to buy some other things. We had lunch at Abuelo's ("Mexican Food Embassy") and it was pretty good. I had: "medallions of chicken breast stuffed with chorizo, poblano and cheese, and lightly fried, served with refried beans and papas con chile." Matt had cheese enchiladas. And then the grocery store and home. That afternoon I made some banana bread and studied while Matt worked on some work he'd brought with him from Dallas. We had a laid-back evening, eating dinner at home while watching Ocean's Eleven. After dinner, we had a basketball rematch, only this time the game was "H-O-R-S-E" and Matt shut ME out. It was tragic.

This morning I couldn't sleep in, so I played around in WoW for an hour or so while Matt slept. It is really bothering me that my paladin is 57.7...so I am trying to nudge her to level 60 by playing her every now and then. I spent the morning studying while Matt did some yard work and watched tv. We had lunch together watching one of our TiVoed "Dirty Jobs" and then Matt helped quiz me on the bones of the thoracic limb. This afternoon we had to run over to campus for me to pick up my sports pass, and we poked around in the MSC a bit before coming back home. Then it was sadly time for Matt to head back to Dallas. :( Emily got back from her weekend in Katy with Rick, though, so I wasn't alone for long. She starts school tomorrow, her senior year! Whoop!

PS: Luke hooked me up with the pictures that Susie took when we were in Breckenridge last month and they are now included in the Breckenridge 2006 album on our gallery.

Miscellany

I had a lovely conversation with Brittany tonight. Remember Brittany? Girl with the trumpets? So yeah, she had a busy summer and we sort of made it through the whole thing without chatting. It was great to catch up with her. For those people who are following this budding professional musician, I'd just like to point out that she has a new blog that she is actually updating! Check it out in the link in the sidebar.

Matt is here!!! We just had some practice down at the new basketball court (and I beat him in a mini-game 10-0). Now we're sweaty...it is like 110% humidity out there.

Did anyone ever wonder how it went when I met those people from my World of Warcraft guild last Friday? Well, it went well...there was lots of drinking involved on their part, which was understandable since they are old friends from high school and one of them had just graduated from college. But, they were nice, and while I don't think they are my new best friends, I am glad I got to meet them in real life! We're still pushing for a Texas-wide guild party sometime soon, to include all of us plus the Killeen and Tyler people. =P

I am delicate

This is what happens (I am guessing) when you slam your arm into your seat during a seizure. This shiner is my souvenir from the first day of vet school excitement. Wee!

Unrelated sidenote: The pictures that Matt and I took in Breckenridge are now up and captioned on our Gallery. Also featured are pictures of Piper and Nellie, um, getting to know one another in the duplex. :)

Off to a Slightly Rough Start

The good news is that my fellow first years know who I am. The bad news is that this is because I had a seizure after the first class of my vet school career. AHHH! Yeah, pretty embarrassing/annoying/not cool. Now that I have your attention, I'll back up. Matt and I scurried around all weekend getting stuff for the duplex, unpacking and whatnot. Mid-day on Sunday Mom and Leslie rolled into town for the day, arms full of BBQ. We had a lunch of Peggy Sue goodness and fresh veggies, and then Matt had to get back to Dallas. We puttered around, talking about curtains and decor, and then Mom altered some of my clothes for school (hemming, darting, etc). Then all of a sudden it was time to go to bed - it was a school night!

Monday dawned bright and clear and Emily drove me to school. I had anatomy first thing at 9am. We have almost all of our lectures in the same room (201) and Monday they were all there - anatomy, then physiology, then microbiology. After anatomy, which was just going over the syllabus, we had a 10 minute break before the next class. So...one minute I'm sitting there waiting for the next lecture, the next...I feel really tired and can't keep my eyes open. The next thing I hear is words I'm beginning to really hate "Cameron, do you know what happened? You had a seizure." My response: "aw crap." So yeah, there were four paramedics/EMTs kneeling in the aisle next to me (convenient I sat on the aisle). I get to answer the fun questions like "what day is it," "what year is it," "how old are you" <-- I couldn't answer that last one, while my classmates are pretending to not watch and I'm about ready to climb under my seat cushion and hide. So yeah, I got helped down the stairs in between two paramedics, their hands under my arms, and out the door into the ambulence. Oh, and I made class start 10 minutes late. I have maybe 10-15 minutes of unaccounted time while I guess I was either seizing or totally out of it.

So I got taken to College Station Medical Center...and unlike my seizures in Colorado, I don't have Matt riding shotgun with me. When I get there, I get transferred into a room and I call Susie to ask if she can get ahold of Johnny or Cindy to come to the hospital. That pretty much activated the network so eventually Matt, Emily, my parents, Johnny and Cindy, etc all knew. Johnny was able to come up to the hospital right away which made me feel a lot better. There's just something about having a dad with you, even if it isn't your dad, that is very comforting. Eventually Emily came up too - the College Station hospital was way slower than the one in Colorado. All they ended up doing was giving me fluids and rechecking my blood work, which didn't really show anything remarkable, with one exception to be mentioned later. I called Dr. Z while I was waiting too, to tell her, and she was equally displeased about the whole thing. So we made a game-plan and I eventually got released. Emily took me home and we watched TV ("50 First Dates," to be exact, which was actually kind of good). In the meantime, Dad was driving down to College Station to be with me. :) That afternoon I worked on finding out what all I had missed in my classes (I missed two lectures, histology lab, and anatomy lab). Mostly it was going over the syllabus, so it was actually a good day to miss content-wise. I started by e-mailing Dr. Hoffman, my faculty mentor and anatomy prof, not to mention the guy who called 911 =P I told him the extremely short version of my recent medical excitement; he passed it on to the profs and then I e-mailed them myself.

On Tuesday I was rather reluctant to show my face because I was "that first year who had the seizure." I went to the Dean's office and they were extremely nice...said there was no need to do anything more, that the absence was already taken care of. So that was good. After my two lectures (histology, physiology) I took my three hour break before labs to meet with my microbiology professor and Dr. Hoffman. Yet again I was struck by how *nice* all the faculty and administration are. There were a few more times that I met people who sort of had that "ah-ha" moment when I introduced myself, but generally it wasn't as hard as I thought it might be. I also had a nice card from some person I don't even know in my box (a fellow 1VM). In the afternoon I had histo lab, which was hard having not had a lecture yet. But, I shared a double-headed scope with Christy and tried to catch up. Histology seems not hard but not interesting and it is a pretty new subject for me. So I don't know how it'll go. The next and final class of the day was "Clinical Correlates." In this class we will do a lot of hands-on stuff, including "husbandry" of two animals for a week each over the course of a year. I have a cow and horse along with my group. It's going to be an interesting class I think. We will also learn to take histories and do case study-type things, which will be neat but probably also a lot of work. So finally at 5 the day was over - Dad came to pick me up and we went to an early dinner at Ozona Grill. Our food sucked. Then I had to get back to study.

Yesterday was a LOOONG day. It started at 8 with Professional Development. The teacher was the acting president of A&M a while back and sounds like the elder George Bush. It was really boring and I think most of it will be. Luckily it won't be too much work. Then anatomy, physiology, and microbiology lectures, followed by our one hour lunch break. The afternoon labs were microbiology (we tested samples for Brucellosis and Equine Infectious Anemia) and anatomy. I met my anatomy group - two guys! - Justin and Brandon. They are two West Texas boys, from Abeliene Christian and Tech. Dr. Hoffman put one person who'd had A&M anatomy with people who hadn't, so I'm the most experienced, which is a bit intimidating. But the guys are really nice and so far we're working well together. We jumped right in with our dog, and started working on the thoracic limb until 4:40 when it was time to clean up and call it a day. Dad took a bunch of us to dinner at Chedders. It was me, Emily, Johnny, Cindy, Danny, Chris, Katie, Stephanie, and a friend of Katie's who is living with them this year. Then, again, it was time to study! But I gave up early and went to bed. This proved to be a mistake because...

...today I had my first quiz. It was via our little remote controls we have to carry around, and it was in histology lab. We had to identify some different kinds of cells, and since this was a topic I was saving for the weekend to learn...I got 1/3. Oops. Luckily, even though that does count toward my grade, it isn't a big part and there are a few bonus questions I could get to make up. So yeah, histology is sort of boring. But anatomy is a fabulous way to end the day (seriously) because we don't have to rush out of there or stink up our next class or anything. We got our thoracic limb off and reveiwed. We finished early but just called it a day because we need to go home and do some personal studying before moving on. I also got my bone box (remember from my undergrad? It is the same thing. Actually, my undergrad one was in better shape). Emily picked me up and we went home. We had some lasagna Mom and Leslie had brought for dinner, and I, guess what, studied! Then I took a break to write this, and now I need to wrap it up and get back to work.

Matt gets in tomorrow night, which makes me happy. He is bringing work with him so I can study and he can account but at least we'll be together. It was rough going though the medical thing this week without him, although I was lucky to 1) have Uncle Johnny and Emily to come to the hospital, and 2) have Dad come down (he went back today) to make sure I was okay.

The exception I mentioned in the blood work? Yeah, so the doctor said my creatinine was high and nothing else was, and that meant I might only have one kidney. Isn't that random? I have to go see a regular doctor and find out sometime. That'd be a good thing to know.

Return of the Pictures

I will endeavor to write about this weekend and my first day of school (eek) when I get home tomorrow. In the meantime I would like to inform you that I am finally updating our picture website with some new photos. Check it out!

Day 2!

One interesting thing I have noticed during all the talks by vets at orientation. At least half of the vest said they ended up doing something different than they wanted to do when they started school. (examples: dog & cat -> birds, small animal -> large animal, practice -> teaching)

We started out today with breakfast again, but I ate beforehand to avoid potentially bad food and the line. At 8:30 we had a couple more vets present cases to us... for fun I guess. Then at 9 we spend thirty minutes going over policies and procedures in our "Professional Student Handbook." The only thing that was fun about that was that we have an "audience response system," where we each have a remote thing with which we can answer multiple choice questions. The fun part was choosing the blatantly wrong answer, like in "which of the following is true according to your handbook?" Answer: "each student is allowed one unethical act during their four years in vet school." Some people also chose E, which was blank.

At 9:30 we heard from reps from several student organizations, including SCAVMA (Student Chapter of American Veterinary Medical Association; I am already a member), a class BBQ put on by the second years every year, Open House (the huge vet school open house they have every year, which is super-cool and totally student-run), and Pet Fare. Pet Fare is a place open during our lunch where we can buy insanely cheap Purina and Hill's pet food. The highest price is $9 for a 40# bag. !!!

At 10 we were released for 45 minutes to peruse the tables in the hallway set up by a bunch of student clubs/organizations. I was really interested in some of them: the Student Veterinary Emergency & Critical Care Society (SVECCS), the Pathology Club, and the American Veterinary Society for Animal Behavior. The cool thing about SVECCS, besides that the president is Kimberly Martin, a HP grad, is that they have programs called "SA ICU Program" and "Large Animal Emergency Team." In these, you follow a 4th year around during their emergency-type rotation for a 5-hour shift (7-midnight) about once a month. But you actually get to participate to a certain extent. I'd really like to do the large animal one, since I already have a fair amount of small animal emergency experience. During this time I also got a bunch of free stuff, like a water bottle, some pens, candy, cat food, highlighters, and colored pencils.

I didn't need the whole 45 minutes to look at the tables, so I went to try and find the locker room. I couldn't though, but a nice vet student passing by helped me out. When I asked her, she didn't just tell me - she walked me into it, gave me some advice on which lockers to pick, and was generally very nice. It made me happy to think that the upperclassmen are like her! I hope they all are, anyway.

At 10:45 we talked about the honor code, then had a presentation from the Texas Veterinary Medical Association and got a free medical dictionary from them. Lunch was at noon, catered from Blue Baker. I made sure to be in the front of the line this time, which resulted in me being all done at 12:15 with 45 minutes to kill. I chatted with Christi, the girl from the organic labs, and her friend from physiology. After lunch we had a never-ending talk from the computer guy. We were all restless at that point and he talked about 5 times as much as was necessary. But finally we got released, and now it is the weekend!

I'm about to go to a little get-together with, well, four people from my World of Warcraft guild (one is starting grad school here in Comp Sci, her husband obviously lives here too, and a guy from Austin and a guy from Huntsville are driving in). In my mind, I'm seeing Atsukana the hunter, Istavon the mage, Doune the warlock, and Dugloth the warrior. =PSo we'll see how it goes. Matt gets in tonight to visit, and he will rescue me if necessary.

"Professionalism, Communication, and Life-long Learning"

*deep breath* This is going to be a long one. =P

First, though, a bit about Tuesday and Wednesday. We spent Monday night with the Roberts, since we had no bed or any furniture really in the apartment. We got up bright and early on Tuesday and drove our Budget truck back to the apartment to perform a final few tasks before the move. Mom and Dad met us there and picked up some things we were returning and helped us move the electronics (including the big tv) into the truck. I did some final cleaning (like Piper's litterbox), we checked our mail one last time, I turned in our keys to the office, and away we went. Piper was sitting in the middle of the truck cab, her cage set upon my backpack. She was pretty good the whole time, just meowing occasionally. We let her out a couple times and generally she was so scared that she was happy to return to her carrier. We got to College Station around lunchtime, and the carpet was all done on our side except for Emily's closet. So, we started unloading...and sweating. It was 107 on Tuesday. Yikes. While Emily and Matt struggled with fun things like the couch, I painted the baseboards. :) In the afternoon Matt had to take me to get my picture taken for vet school. It was insanely easy - I walked in, picked up my name off a table, sat down, *click,* I reviewed the picture, said "that's fine," and walked out. Then we finished unloading and I started messing around with unpacking boxes and arranging.

On Wednesday, Matt and I went to Target and the grocery store. We were able to find most of what we needed. Some things we couldn't get - a shelf, one of those plastic things that goes on your carpet to roll your desk chair on - and some we needed to wait - curtains are waiting for Mom and Leslie's expertise. The grocery store was crazy, having to almost totally stock up the kitchen. The only things I had moved were spices and some basics that were worth holding on to. Then we got that all settled and I worked on unpacking the kitchen. Also on Wednesday we got our cable internet and Directv hooked up...the Directv has a couple stories with it. 1) They screwed up our order and didn't bring a third receiver, so we couldn't get tv in our room. But the guy hinted that he'd set it up so if we bought a receiver at Best Buy, the cords were all set to just plug it in. He also left his cell phone number =P and 2) Matt talked him into not switching our local channels from Dallas to College Station. The benefits of this are twofold: we don't have to watch the ridiculously crappy local stuff they have here, and Matt gets to watch Dallas sports instead of Houston sports. He was happy. Emily took Matt to the airport in the afternoon, and I took the time to play on the internet and mess around with some more unpacking. When I checked my vet school e-mail I finally found out what time I had to be at school for orientation the next day. For a graduate program, some of the things with A&M have been awfully disorganized it seems!

I woke up this morning with close to "first day of school" jitters. Emily was kind enough to transport me to the vet school, and I arrived before the 8am scheduled continental breakfast hosted by the US Army Houston Health Care Team (they want us to be all that we can be). Again things seemed disorganized, because we were lined up forever going through to get our food. We also got our folders with our orientation schedule, our class schedule, a bunch of other papers, our lab assignment (A or B - our lectures are all together as a class but we are split into 2 groups for labs to halve the size; I am 'B'), and our name tags. We have to wear our name tags all the time, and every class has a different color, so you can just glance at it and know if they are a 1VM, 2VM, etc. Ours is maroon! Then the real orientation started. I'll go through the day...

• 8:30 - Welcome
• 8:45 - "Expectations of the professional" by the Associate Dean, Dr. Rogers. She was really cool and has a fun sense of humor. She's only been in this position since July, but has been with A&M for decades. This is where we learned that the title of this post is our class' motto of sorts. Joy.
• 9:00 - CVM Faculty Mentoring Program explanation, and introduction of the professional program staff. There are about 8 students assigned to each faculty mentor. Mine is Dr. Hoffman, my anatomy prof.
• 9:15 - "Communication Skills" - This was a lecture by one of the large animal docs. He was really funny...had a thick Lubbock accent and amusing Power Point slides. Unfortunately it was a 45 minute long talk and thus inevitably eventually boring.
• 10:00 - break!
• 10:15 - "Overview of the DVM Curriculum & Introduction of the Fall Semester First-Year Faculty" - this was little more than "that's Dr. Hoffman, your anatomy professor, that's Dr. Landis, your physiology professor..."
• 10:30 - two different vets each talked about a case, one large animal and one small, where they could point out ... I guess ... why you learn stuff in vet school? I don't really know the point. But the large animal guy was hilarious in his talk about parturition hypocalcemia, aka milk fever.
• 11:00 - a talk by a Hill's Pet Nutrition guy (heard of "Science Diet" pet food?). So apparently A&M is quite cozy with Hill's, and therefore they gave him a whole hour to blabber to us. He showed us some propaganda on why the founder of Hill's is a saint and hero and about the beginning of Hill's. More puzzling was the second video, which was about a photographer for National Geographic. It had nothing to do about vet med directly; it was about creativity. It was really boring and the narrator kept faking us out by pretending to start wrapping it up and then going off and repeating himself ten more times. Yikes.
• 12:00 - LUNCH! Woot! Paid for by...Hill's! It was enchiladas. I had cheese. This was after standing in a line for 40 minutes. I have no idea why this wasn't planned out better. I did get a free backpack, which is actually quite nice, and a nutrition textbook that I will apparently use in second year. We ate lunch with our faculty mentors.
• 1:15 - "Summer Veterinary Student Research Fellowship Programs" ... You can do this after your first or second year. It is a program intended to introduce research skills to students with no advanced science degree. It is also all summer long and I don't think I would want to give up my whole summer for it.
• 1:30 - DVM/MBA Program - you can get your DVM and MBA in five years. You either take a year off after your second year, using the 12 months plus a summer internship-type thing, to get your MBA, or you can do it in the 12 months following your 4 years of vet school. Um, no thank you. Great program, no interest here =P
• 1:45 - US Army talk. Basically selling us on applying for their really rare scholarships you can get after first year. What happens is they pay all your school costs, give you a month stipend of $1300+, make you a 2nd Lieutenant, and then you have to 1) serve a year of active duty for each year they paid your way and do 45 days of training stuff during the summer. But as I said, the few spots they have each year are highly sought after. And I don't think Matt wants me to join the Army :)
• 2:00 - Post-DVM Clinical Training - an A&M vet told us about internships and residencies and how to start preparing on day one to be able to get one, if you are interested in specializing. These are very competitive.
• 2:15 - Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital - I get 20% off on animal health care. Score.
• 2:30 - break :)
• 2:45 - Support services. Um...yeah.
• 3:00 - Survival Skills for Vet Students - this was a talk and Q&A with 5 4th year vet students. They talked about notes, reading the book, their hardest class, and stuff like that. Nothing too informative for me, but not boring either.
• The End

So... it was a busy day! I only saw one person in my class that I knew at all. It was a girl that started working in the organic labs a few weeks before I left. It is a little weird because she was two classes behind me, but that's what everyone is who went straight from undergrad to vet school. I was surprised I didn't recognize anyone else at all.

Emily picked me up and we had some errands to run. Well, I did. I had to go get my student ID (another line to wait in) and pick up my parking pass (line there too). And a trip to Albertsons to get prescriptions filled (no line, but the guy was insanely slow). Then we had time to go to the duplex for a snack before heading back to the vet school so I could pick up my $600+ in supplies and books. Emily is a saint. I also got to talk to a guy named Clint who I knew from my Animal Nutrition and Animal Science classes in fall of 2003. He went straight into vet school so he's a 3rd year now, and I knew he was around because he knows Uncle Johnny from their church. Quite the coincidence. Then I finally got to go home, eat dinner, and take my shoes off! Tomorrow is more of the same, but we get out earlier.

The cats are not doing well so far with each other. Nellie is pretty calm and usually only hisses in response to Piper...but Piper, well, she's not nice. She hisses preemptively any time she passes a room. She also has claimed the kitchen as hers and is often found sleeping under the dining table or on top of the cabinets above the fridge. Hopefully she'll simmer down soon. She really needs to chill a bit, because she's nervous even when Nellie is nowhere near her.

Matt comes tomorrow night. Yay :) That's the only thing that made me feel okay to let him leave on Wednesday. I thought "when I wake up on Thursday, I can say 'Matt comes tomorrow.'"

EDIT: I forgot a major part! My schedule. It may not be final, but this is what I have...

• Monday
• Lectures - anatomy (9-9:50), physiology (10-10:50), microbiology (11-11:50)
• Labs - histology (1-2:50), anatomy (3-4:50)
• Tuesday
• Lectures - histology (8-8:50), physiology (9-9:50)
• Labs - histology (1-2:50), clinical correlates (3-4:50) (this may not be a lab...)
• Wednesday (basically Monday +1)
• Lectures - professional development (8-8:50), anatomy (9-9:50), physiology (10-10:50), microbiology (11-11:50)
• Labs - histology (1-2:50), anatomy (3-4:50)
• Thursday (Tuesday +1)
• Lectures - histology (8-8:50), physiology (9-9:50)
• Labs -physiology (10-11:50), histology (1-2:50)
• Friday (awesome!)
• Lectures - physiology (10-10:50), microbiology (11-11:50)
• No labs generally, but my anatomy lab tests are scheduled for Friday afternoons

Moved In

We are all moved in and have internet. Emily just left a while ago to take Matt to the airport. :(

I would type more but I'm sleepy and also need to stop poking around the internet and try to get something done. Expect a better update either tomorrow or later tonight.

Bye for Now

As soon as this post gets published I will be dismantling my computer for the move. We get internet down in College Station (if all goes as planned) on Wednesday. So don't expect me to be able to receive any e-mails before then. In the meantime you can call me or Matt.

Tired (Countdown: 2 days)

Friday evening Matt and I drove down to College Station to work on the duplex. When we arrived, we hung out with Emily at the duplex until John, Susie, and Luke arrived around ten. Since it was getting late and we had a long day ahead of us, we left Emily and scurried on over to Uncle Johnny and Aunt Cindy's house where we were spending the night. On the way, we saw a mommy and baby deer nursing just off the road and an armadillo 3 feet from where we parked the car! We chatted with the Stimsons for a while and then sought our beds.

Matt and I left the house at the early hour of 7:00 to get to work, stopping on the way for donuts and unintentionally running into cousin Danny who works there. That was a fun surprise =P (which was even better when he hooked us up with our breakfast for free). For the next 11 hours we worked insanely hard. It would have been a challenge anyway, but it was definitely harder because the boys left their side pretty trashed. That's the side we're moving into, so we definitely had incentive to get it fixed up. Matt and I painted our bedroom and Emily painted hers ("bubble" and "blonde," respectively). I also ripped up all the cords that were still in place and fixed to the walls from the internet setup, painted doorframes, helped clean Emily's bathroom, and my biggest accomplishment: cleaning the refrigerator. That thing was, to put it bluntly, nasty. There was half a bottle's worth of chocolate syrup spilled in the bottom, debris everywhere, caked on food on every shelf, a sausage fallen behind the drawers. The freezer had had more than one coke explode in it, among other nastiness. I took everything shelf out of the fridge, disassembled anything that I could, and scrubbed, soaked, and clawed my way through. It took forever, was disgusting, and I'm very glad I got it done. I wouldn't have had time to clean it that well if I had waited until moving in. The others (John, Susie, Luke, Matt, Emily, and her boyfriend Rick) worked on cleaning, installing new towel racks, and painting the rest of the duplex (just "Sahara white"). We didn't even get to touch the other side because the boys side was such a disaster area.

We all ate at Texas Roadhouse after we were done and then we all rode back with John, because Matt and I had come in my car and we were leaving it there. Today Matt and I woke up tired and sore, but we have a full day ahead of us with packing and cleaning here at the apartment. I am going to be so tired next weekend!

The Countdown (6 days)

In under a week we'll be in College Station. Well, "we" probably more accurately would apply to Emily and me, not Matt and me. This time next week he will be on his way back to Dallas. :/ The weekend was full of packing - Matt did a ton on Saturday and Sunday. In the later parts of the day I went to Molten Core with my guild. I'm trying to squeeze out the last ounce of summer :) Sunday afternoon I also attended Dr. Lavender's baby shower. It was incredibly weird to be amongst 10 women who all had kids and that's all the conversation was about. Yikes! So not ready to even think about that! I did get to see Sarpong's new (7 weeks now) baby Eloise though, so that alone made it worth it.

On Monday "the Moms" as Matt and I refer to them (that'd be my mom and his) came over and helped pack up basically the entire kitchen. And I have a wall full of boxes to prove it. If I'd done it on my own, it would have taken me six times as long, and I bet half the stuff would arrive in College Station broken. So that was a great help. Lest you think we worked too hard, we did take a break for Sonic in the middle of the day though :) Yesterday was more packing with breaks to relax (I got my druid to level 50, because I'm sure you care!). And today was more of the same. Tomorrow? You can guess.

So Monday was my last day to take my anti-convulsants. Everything has been going great with that, and I definitely have more energy. My fingers (and quite a few others I believe) are crossed that I will continue to be seizure-free. At this point I am very optimistic that it really was just an altitude thing in Colorado and that I should be just ducky.

Piper is going insane with the packing; she is very concerned. She lets us know this by meowing loudly and often, being a brat, and trying to injure us. She is such a little kid sometimes :)

I like my phone. Right now I have it set so certain high-frequency callers have their own songs from my mp3 collection as their ring. The 'rents = Daft Punk "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" (for no reason other than that song makes me happy), Matt is "Character Zero" by Phish (again, don't read anything into the title), the Roberts have some Saint-Saens "Carnival of the Animals", and everyone else is "Scatman" by Scatman John (I love that song).

*cheer*

I'm writing this post from my computer. Yay! The water cooling pump (the new one, fresh from the company) didn't work...again. But Luke just brought back the fan and put it back in place so I can at least use my computer again. It is so much more comfortable typing this post on my lovely keyboard, which rests on a desk, with me sitting in a chair.

Yesterday afternoon Mom and I went shopping for vet school clothes. We went to Target first and I got 3 Mossimo polo shirts (so now I have 5 total...navy, black, rust/maroon-ish, blue, and brown). Then we went to North Park and I got 2 pairs of shoes at Dillards. One pair are brown, with laces, that are nice enough for school but comfy like athletic shoes. And the other pair are dressier, brown sandal-type things with ankle straps and flowerish cut-outs at the toes, and a bit of a heel. They are pretty squishy and go with dressier stuff I have, and any time I actually *like* dress shoes I should buy them because those moments are few and far between. So yeah, those are some ridiculous descriptions, but it's all I can think of. Then we went to Gap and I got some khaki pants that I really like and a nice brown leather belt. =D Mission accomplished! Mom came back to the apartment with me afterwards and we talked about packing strategies.

Then last night Luke came over and worked on the computer. He's been so patient with all the travails, it's very impressive. After that, Matt and I dined on some excellent Kraft 3-cheese macaroni he made. We ended up staying up kind of late working on duplex stuff, specifically setting up internet and TV for down there. Today Matt went off to work and I reveled in having my computer back. And what better way than dropping in and saying hello to my World of Warcraft guild. =D I have been away for more than a month, and I was missed. That felt nice. Also, Zetarg (my level 60 orc warlock that grew up on Silver Hand back when Bryan played WoW with me, if you don't keep up with this sort of thing) moved over to the server (Khaz Modan) that hosts my level 60 priest Hyacith. Blizzard now offers a service where you can move characters between servers for a price, with limitations. I just thought it made sense to get him over to a server with my guild and the characters I play more. So that's kind of fun. I'd pretty much given up on the chap, but he may get some more attention now. A little. =P

Matt will be home soon; it is his last Friday where he gets out at 3pm. That's okay though - he doesn't have all that many Fridays left where he has to go to the office at all!

Musings, mostly on moving

I like it when Matt comes home for lunch. We watched Full House from 11:30-12:00. Who wouldn't enjoy that?

I have been wondering why Matt and I were so quick to obey the doctor in Colorado when he told us I needed to "get out of Dodge." I mean, I know it was serious, but upon reflection, why didn't we just fill the prescription for the anti-convulsants and stay our other week? I guess the seizures were a scary enough problem that we were scared into doing the responsible thing, but...it didn't even occur to me at the time to question whether we could fudge it a little and not leave immediately. *shrug*

I packed up my winter clothes today in my big blue suitcase (the rolling kind, a wedding present, a great piece of luggage). Piper is concerned. She got in the suitcase while I was gathering clothes, as if to say "tell me what is going on, and don't forget me!" But I think she has no idea, except that a change of some kind is coming. She's going to miss Matt at least as much as me, I think, during our six weeks apart. At least she'll have Emily to give her attention and Nellie to torment.

I have an entire banker's box full of cords and cables. You never know when you're going to need something, so I don't throw them away, but...it may be getting a bit excessive. At least I finally tossed out the cords that ended in chewed on, non-functional ends (the work of a certain orally-fixated feline).

My poor battered PS2 box. It has tenderly embraced my PS2 in its move from Dallas (M&D's)-> the dorm, the dorm -> the CS apartment, the CS apartment -> the duplex, the duplex -> M&D's, M&D's -> the apartment. I am glad I've hung onto it. You can't beat the original styrofoam packing for peace of mind. When I finally give away, sell, or chunk my PS2, it'll be in its original box. =P

Books suck to move. At least most of them are paperbacks.

Luke is scheduled to come and fix my computer tonight. It'll be nice to not have to compute while losing feeling in one's butt cheeks from sitting on the floor.

UPS can kiss my...

I finally got my new cell phone. It's lovely :)

Today was nice. I spent the morning reading, and then Stephanie came from the clinic and whisked me away to Peggy Sue for lunch (everyone say hi to Stephanie, she discovered my blog today). I had sliced brisket on jalapeño cheese bread, spinach, and fried okra. And a root beer float. Yum! Then I went back to the clinic with Steph to spend the afternoon trying to be good company and, you know, not have seizures and whatnot (with success). So that was lots of fun and I thoroughly enjoyed getting out of the apartment.

Tomorrow is shopping with Mom at North Park for "professional" looking clothes for vet school (I'll try to not wilt under the strain of shopping...it pains me). And then, at some point, I think Luke is coming to try and fix, again, my water-cooling system on my computer. Hopefully the pump isn't gimpy this time. =D

Eek, school!

I was poking around the internet this morning and thought to myself, "I haven't really looked to see if I can find any information on the A&M web site regarding money or schedules or anything." So, I looked. And oh my! I found a bill (which may or may not be final) and, even scarier, a tentative schedule. Looks like the courses I'll be taking this fall are: Gross Anatomy, Microscopic Anatomy, Physiology I, Microbiology I, "Clinical Correlates I" and "Professional Development." A little scary, to be sure, but don't those look like fun classes? =D I'm most excited about physiology, I love that subject. There aren't times for most of the classes yet, but it's 20 credit hours (12 is full time student as an undergrad. 15 i s average) - anatomy, and the two micros are all 4 credit hours, physiology is 6, and the other two classes are 1 each, so...lots of labs in my future! I have somewhat of an idea of what it will be like because my microbiology class did have times: MWF 11-11:50 and W 3-5.

Anyway, that was a lot to take in first thing in the morning. Now I'll be checking back frequently to see if my other classes get times/days and if my bill changes. Oh, I found out I got my parking pass assignment too, and it is the lot right at the vet school. Wahoo :) Also vet related: I signed up for a mentor (a 2nd year vet student) at the beginning of the summer on the advice of someone who'd been there. Now, normally I wouldn't have, that isn't my thing. But I got an e-mail from said mentor sometime last week, and I think it'll work out nicely. We got matched up, I believe, because she was in the drum line in high school marching band and likes to play video games. Her name is Karen, she's from Austin, and she has a rabbit and is interested in exotics. Anyway, she seems really nice and we've already exchanged a few e-mails. And since I don't know a bunch of vet students going in, I'm glad to have her as a contact, even if only for the beginning when it is scary.

I poked around even further, and found what I think will be my basic curriculum overview for all of vet school. 2nd year looks very scary. [here] it is

In other news...the Roberts returned from Colorado last night. Matt and I went over and brought them Amore for dinner to welcome them back. Petey the cat was *very* glad to have his people home. Matt and I have started cleaning and throwing stuff away in the apartment in anticipation of the move. He was particularly productive yesterday, tackling three stacks of semi-important documents (health, financial, etc) that have been accumulating for a year. That's about it :)

Matt's job, the official post!

I just realized with all this talk of Colorado and then medical problems that I never shared with my readers the good news about Matt's job. This all came about in the week leading up to vacation, so it was all very fast. I'll try to sum it up.

Vet school is in College Station. There was no way on earth that Matt and I were going to maintain separate residences in Dallas and College Station so he could stay with his company. So that meant he had to find a job in CS. He interviewed with basically the biggest accounting firm in College Station and the Monday before we left for Colorado they made him a job offer. "Yay" we thought, because it was all settled. He'd be taking a pay cut, but that was inevitable and cost of living is less in CS anyway so we were happy. The only thing that wasn't super about the new job was that the first year he wouldn't get any vacation unless he "earned" it through working lots. With me back in school mode, including all its vacation glory, that was a little stinky. But totally doable.

Matt got his job offer on a Monday and he told the guys in CS he'd have an answer for them by Friday. So that left him the duty of telling his company he was leaving. Keep in mind they didn't know I'd gotten into vet school or anything. The next day Matt told his manager (the hierarchy basically goes staff (Matt) -> senior -> manager -> partner) the situation. His partner was gone until the end of the week, but his manager told him to not quit until his partner got back and could talk to him. Thursday his partner came in and talked to Matt about what was going on. Matt told him about vet school, how we didn't want to live in different cities, and how much the company in CS was offering. Having a number in hand, Matt's partner went to work and tried to figure out a way that he could match that salary while only having Matt in Dallas for the spring busy season. Even on Thursday night we were less than optimistic, because that was going to be a hard thing to do. Well, when Matt went in on Friday, his partner had worked it all out. Matt would have to come to Dallas for 10 weeks during busy season but could work remotely from College Station for the rest of the year. His partner matched the salary offer of the College Station people, plus we'd keep our benefits, vacation, and Matt's spot on the corporate ladder. Matt couldn't say no :) It's all because he's awesome, by the way. So that's what we're doing. The only unfortunate thing is Matt committed to stay in the Dallas office until October 1, but it wasn't hard for him to be nice to them after they were so awesome to us. So yeah, Matt is basically the best CPA ever.

I'm still grumbly about the abrupt end to our vacation. Matt got us home safely on Tuesday, we collected the cat from the 'rents and stumbled into our apartment. I'm going to blame my seizure medicine for me going to sleep before 6pm, because that's just weird. Beware of Keppra - it'll make you sleep 60% of the time! Yesterday we had some breakfast at the Original Pancake House and then Matt took me to get my final rabies shot. Yay for getting that all over with, even if my arm does ache. Then we went to North Park and wandered around, eventually drifting over to the movie theatre where we saw Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Matt thought it was pretty good, I thought it was so-so. We came back home, watched some of our TiVo-ed TV, and I crashed extremely early again.

Today I was supposed to have lunch with Stephanie to catch up (she hasn't heard about all the Colorado excitement yet) but she had to reschedule for tomorrow. So, Matt and I had lunch at the Highland Park Pharmacy (grilled cheese and a vanilla malt here, yummers) and went to the grocery store. We've entered that weird time pre-move when you analyze everything you buy for necessity and mobility. Mom and Dad came over to chat on their way back from the ranch and now Matt's doing some work on his laptop while I putter. I was thinking about playing some New Super Mario Bros again, go for the third 100% completion.

So I have lunch with Stephanie tomorrow, yay. Since I can't drive, that'll probably be the extent of my excitement for tomorrow. Then all I have to look forward to is my appointment with Dr Z on Monday, where hopefully she'll take me off this seizure medicine and I will be able to stay awake again! Oh, and my new cell phone will be arriving somewhere between tomorrow and Monday, so I will be able to return Matt's to him.

The best laid plans of mice and men

Greetings from Amarillo. Yes, that's right, Amarillo. We had to cut our Colorado vacation short because I had another seizure yesterday. About 1 hour after my last blog post, while at the pottery place about to get started with the painting, I went down. Luckily, 1) no other patrons were there to witness, and 2) Matt caught me and knew what was happening. It only lasted about a minute, same as last time. I came to laying on the floor and Matt told me what had happened. I groaned.

The same EMT crew was first on the scene and we exchanged greetings. Then the paramedics, the inevitable vital sign taking and finger stick, and being wheeled to the ambulance. Matt got to ride in the front again (lucky dog) and I immediately asked for the anti-nausea medicine, having learned my lesson about the results of being stoic last time. I got another IV, this time in the back of my left hand instead of the crook of my elbow, was started on fluids, had all my vitals taken and retaken, and went back to the hospital in Frisco. The same doctor was there too, Dr. D, which was nice because he remembered me and would trust the test he had performed less than a week ago. He was not pleased to see me though, because as he said "the first seizure is free," but any after that is no good. Matt had called the house and John came to the hospital to sit with Matt next to my stretcher.

Dr. D talked with some neurologists in Denver to get their opinion. While that was going on, a person who did pet therapy came by with his dog. The guy was almost completely blind, and the dog was not just a therapy animal but also a seeing eye dog. He was a gorgeous golden retriever. So that was a nice way to pass the time while Dr. D was conferring with the neurologists. After a time he came back with his game plan. Basically his part was giving me anti-convulsants (taken 3 times a day, it is awful) and telling me I "had to get out of Dodge." Once back in Dallas he wants me off the anti-convulsants and to get an EEG to make sure that it was just the altitude and not some brain craziness that caused the seizure. I talked that day with my doctor in Dallas, Dr. Z, and she thought his game plan sounded good. I'm seeing her in a week anyway, so that'll work. The only really sucky part was the whole leaving Colorado business.

We'd gone on and on about how glad we were that we'd be in Colorado for 2 weeks this year, unlike last year. We went through the first week remarking that we had all the time in the world to do the activities we wanted, like white water rafting, because of that second week. Well, poop. I had to get out of the 9000+ feet elevation and fast, and that sucked. I mean, it was necessary - I couldn't go on a long hike or rafting or anything like that when I was at risk for having a seizure - but that doesn't make it suck less. So it was time for the end of the vacation. Last night I had to use my oxygen at all times aside from eating and Matt and I had to pack up. We left this morning, to head back to 100+ weather, humidity, and flatness. I'm more than a little miffed. This is not how the 2 weeks were supposed to go. And poor Matt - I can't drive since there's the seizure risk, so he's having to drive the whole way back.

There's plenty I can be thankful for in this whole situation: Matt's great insurance through KPMG, the support and love of John and Susie, that both my seizures were in very safe places, that Breckenridge has a great little hospital and wonderful paramedics/EMTs/nurses/doctors, that I did get to have a week of fun...but it's hard to think of all that right now. Boo. I was supposed to be fly fishing tomorrow.

One fish, two fish...

Yesterday Matt and Luke went to see Widespread Panic in Winter Park. The concert was from 4-8 and Winter Park is an hour away, so that left me in the company of John and Susie for the day. Naturally, we went fishing. We went back to a place I'd gone last year with Em and Jeff, a stream that runs into a reservoir. Last year we'd had some success there although the bushes attacked me and made me fall down. (There is a lot of pressing through 5-feet high bushes to get to the water, and they are very springy). Well, this time around the bushes behaved, even though they have grown in the past year. AND the fishing was excellent! Susie was a real trooper, following John and me through the bushes and reading her book while we fished. There was one hole that we got eight fish from! They were mostly cutthroats with some browns and the occasional "cut-bo" - a rainbow trout/cutthroat hybrid. I was able to work on my fishing technique as there were some tricky casts along the bushy creek. We amazingly didn't lose any flies, although there were some close calls. John only hooked my finger three times. Ouchie =P

Final fish count:
Cameron: 14
John: 12

Booyah.

Around 5 we reluctantly left the best fishing of the vacation yet and headed back to the house. We went to town and had Mexican food (I had some crazy enchiladas with mushrooms, spinach, tomatillo sauce, and sour cream). After dinner and a run to the grocery store, we returned to the house where we were greeted by Susie's friends Kathleen and Dot, who are staying with us for a few days. I retreated to the upstairs to read and play the DS while the womenfolk chatted. Eventually the boys returned from the concert, allowing me to seek my bed. I was tired! Fishing, bushwhacking, and being in the sun all day will take it out of you.

Today is another relaxed day, because we're doing a big hike tomorrow. Matt and I are about to eat lunch and then go to the pottery place where you can paint and fire stuff. I think I'm going to make a dish for Piper. Then Tuesday I'm fishing with John and the guide, and Wednesday or Thursday the boys and I are going to try and do some IV-V rapids with Charlie and Johnny.

So yeah, there's your update for the day. I'll let my loyal readers know how Matt's pottery painting goes =P

I am the winner

I am the winner. I say this because 1) I totally beat John in number of fish caught yesterday (okay, he let me have the choice spots but still!) and 2) I won our game of "Fact or Crap" tonight. Go me.

So yes, yesterday Matt, John, Luke and I went on a hiking/fishing expedition to Ten Mile Creek. We hiked until noonish up the trail and back a ways to a good lunch rock. Then after lunch John and I fished our way back down the trail while Luke and Matt appreciated our fishing prowess. (John got a new fishing pole; it is very springy.) Eventually they got bored and made their way back to the car. I could've fished longer but all of a sudden some ominous clouds rolled in and thunder and lightning made holding a big metal pole seem like a bad idea. So we hustled our way back down to the car and headed towards home. After picking Susie up from town where she's spent the day shopping, we cleaned up a bit at the house and then headed back to town for dinner. Matt and I treated the family to dinner at this pasta place we love (first discovered when the Halls bought dinner for the Roberts on my first Colorado adventure with them, summer of 2001). Anyway, at this place you pick the style of pasta - angel hair, linguine, or fettuccine, and the flavor of the pasta (e.g. spinach) and the sauce. Matt and I shared spinach fettuccine with marinara sauce and parmesan linguine with alfredo sauce. It was good, great post-hike food. Then back at the house, people watched Syriana and we started a puzzle. I had my back to the movie the whole time since I was puzzling, but the movie *sounded* pretty terrible.

Today we finished the puzzle in the morning. John and Susie went and picnicked/fished while Matt and I wandered about Breckenridge and Luke tried to read Crime & Punishment (hehe, high school). Matt and I both got t-shirts, and I bought a couple pairs of socks at my favorite Breckenridge store, The Joy of Sox. =D We returned home and I kicked Matt and Luke's butts at Mario Kart, and then we had fajitas at home and played "Fact or Crap." And I won. I rock.

Tomorrow Matt and Luke are going to a Widespread Panic concert in Winter Park. I'm not sure what I'll do, but fishing is likely :)

Vacation is good, mmkay?

First off, no more seizures. There, that's out of the way. I still can't believe I have to wear oxygen snaked under my nose each night, but oh well. Yesterday we just took it easy while John went fishing. The rest of us lazed around and then went to Frisco to look for new cell phones for me, since the washing machine incident. I didn't find any - the ones at the Cingular store were way overpriced, not surprisingly. Then we ate lunch at the A&W (cheeseburger and a root beer float, oh boy!), after which we walked around Frisco and looked in the stores for a while before heading home. We went out to dinner last night and I went to bed at 8:55 pm. I was tired! And that's like almost 10 pm CST!

Today Matt and I went fly fishing with John while Susie museum-ed in Fairplay (at historic South Park City) and Luke vegged at the house. Unfortunately for us, John's spare fishing pole broke 5 minutes into our excursion, so we were operating with only one pole. John helped refresh me on the finer points (like casting =P) of fly fishing while Matt was our "fishing caddy." The fish, unfortunately, were feeling mean and teased us mercilessly. John caught a couple though. In the afternoon we picked Susie up and drove home. A wonderful thunderstorm has blown in, and Matt and I have been watching it while the others ran to the grocery and puzzle stores. Tomorrow, who knows? Hiking? Fishing? Shopping? I love vacation!

(addendum)

My cell phone went through the washing machine. Oops. It was already sort of broken (the screen didn't work) so I'm not too upset I have to get a new one. But until I say otherwise, don't count on getting a hold of me via my cell. You can call Matt's cell phone (or Luke, Susie, or John) =D

Colorado Excitement

Greetings from Breckenridge! Matt and I escaped Dallas on Saturday to head this way. We took Matt's car this time and when he actually let me drive it for a couple hours in the middle of day 1, that was my 3rd time driving it ever! We spent the night in Trinidad, CO, a good 30 minutes across the New Mexico border. Then it was off again bright and early on Sunday to get to the rental house here in Breckenridge by lunchtime.

The house, wow, it's nice. It is actually a townhouse, but you'd hardly tell. It's the typical Colorado ski house-type place. Three stories: garage on the bottom with lots of hooks and benches for pulling off gear. Then on the main floor, the "Greatroom" with some comfy furniture, a 60-something inch TV, the kitchen and dining table, and 2 bedrooms. One is Luke's and leads to the hot tub, and the other will be used for guests - Susie has a friend coming later and Matt's aunt and uncle from Denver may spend a night or two later on in the trip. Upstairs is the master bedroom for John and Susie, and our bedroom. We have a lovely little balcony off of our room. :) Oh, and that garage I mentioned? It isn't actually a garage anymore. It has been converted to a media room. There is a giant projector that gives us a 90" screen, stadium seating - first row on couch (the one with subwoofers under the seats, incidentally), second row couch, and third row 2 leather lazyboy recliners. The owners have an Xbox (with 4 Logitech wireless controllers) and tons of games and 200+ DVDs, but they forgot to give us the key to unlock the cabinet yet, so we haven't seen our selection yet. And since it is a garage, it gets pitch black when you close the door. We're pretty excited.

So we arrived on Sunday and got unpacked and lounged around. That afternoon Aunt Trish and Uncle Neville came in from Denver to spend the evening with us. After chatting, we central time zone people were hungry so we picked a yummy Italian place for dinner. After that we walked a bit in town, losing Susie and Trish to the scrapbooking store, forcing us to peruse the Joy of Sox (I bought one pair of hiking socks). When we got back to the house we all got sucked into the Tour de France. Then Matt and I were sleepy, so we said goodnight and headed for bed.

Yesterday it was time to try and get used to the altitude so we planned an easy hike to McCullough Gulch. It was only 1.3 miles and 800 ft elevation gain (although we were starting at over 10k feet). It was a nice hike, though a bit more steep parts than Susie would have liked. Our destination was a lake and some high up falls behind, but along the way we saw lots of rushing waters and waterfalls coming down from the lake. We got to the lake, found a nice rock and ate lunch. We noticed some storm clouds in the distance and then heard some thunder...which made it seem like a good time to go down. About 1/3 of the way down, the rain starts, not too hard, but there. Then some lands on my shirt and when I look down I realize it isn't rain - it is sleet, almost like wet snow. That made it much more exciting, even though it made the trail pretty slick. It got a lot heavier before the end and all our pants were soaked. Luckily we all had rain jackets! So basically it was an awesome hike!

We got back, hot tubed, and decided to watch "Driving Miss Daisy" down in the media room. I claimed one of the leather recliners in the back. I watched maybe 2/3 of the movie and then awoke to Matt, Susie, and Luke all sort of clustered around me. I tried to get up and Matt wouldn't let me. I tried to assure him I was fine, I was just sleepy and I wanted to go upstairs. But he was really adamant and asked if I knew what had happened. Um, no? He said "Cameron you had a seizure, the ambulance is on its way." I guess I believe him because now I'm realizing I do feel rather funny and they wouldn't all be staring at me like this otherwise. The EMTs on the fire truck and the constable arrived barely a couple minutes before the paramedics. Mean while I'm getting asked fun questions like "what's today's date? what year? where are you? did you pee on yourself?" (7/17, 2006, Breckenridge, and no). They prick my finger for a quick blood sugar (that being one cause for a seizure), but it is normal. Then pretty soon Matt's gotten me some shoes and I'm getting walked very slowly and carefully to the ambulance. The two paramedics there were so incredibly Colorado-ish, which means for one they were very cool. Anyway, I got laid out on the stretcher, Matt was up front with the driver, and I got to have my first ambulance ride. Along the way they started an IV, drew blood, took my vitals, put an oxygen mask on me, all that good stuff. Oh, and word to the wise: If you feel a little nauseous riding in an ambulance and they offer you drugs to stop that, take them up on their offer. Don't wait until you're puking in the ambulance bay at the hospital! :)

We got to the (brand new) hospital in Frisco and I got wheeled into a room and transferred to a bed. It made me feel like I was on ER or House. Matt was there the whole time which definitely kept me from freaking out about the whole thing. The doctor came in and asked a billion questions, then told us what he probably thought was the cause. He thought (and all the tests later indicated) that it was just the altitude. No matter what your previous experiences have been, sometimes a person can just get hypoxic and, well, have a seizure. We did a CT scan to make sure it wasn't a brain tumor or something instead (my first CT was well!), but my brain looked lovely. So, after being there for a while and being lucid, stale, good vitals, I was able to go home. But, not without a prescription for oxygen! I had a mini tank I took with me back to the house, then when we got home this guy came and brought a "concentrator," which just concentrates the oxygen from the air, avoiding the need for tanks that keep running out. And now for the rest of my time here I'm supposed to use oxygen every night. I feel very special/dumb =P

So anyway, I told you there was excitement!