Never Say Never

Going into a career as a vet tech, I knew that my biggest temptation was going to be wanting to adopt any of the various animals that would come my way. But I figured that I wouldn't have to deal with that temptation until I was mostly done or done with school and actually working. Famous last words.

I've never liked small dogs. They're tiny, annoying creatures who bark way too much, behave ridiculously, and are generally just a nuisance. I've also never been as fond of female dogs. I honestly don't know why, probably just the fact that I've only ever owned male dogs. I always figured that after my current three boys passed away, I would get another medium or large dog, preferably a medium-sized one. But life it seems had other plans for me.

The last half of the semester for one of my classes involved going over to Eastside Animal Services

Our first meeting!

and working with the dogs and cats there to practice our physical exam skills. Naturally, our teachers wanted us to have experience with large and small dogs. However, while there was an abundance of large dogs we could use, there weren't as many small dogs available. On one of those days where my partner and I needed a small dog, we found ourselves with even fewer options than usual. We wanted a dog that would be relatively easy to work with and the one with the sign that said she was shy but sweet seemed too nervous. But without a better option, we chose her. Alice, as she was called, turned out to actually be quite sweet. She was a pug/chihuahua mix and pretty darned adorable. She tolerated all the indignities of going through a physical exam without any complaints. We carried her back to her kennel after we were done and that was that. Or so I thought.

Life Is Good

It's been going on two months since I last blogged I'm ashamed to say.  I could say that finals and all really got to me, but honestly it's more been the fact that I haven't been in the mood to just sit down and type.  But I have been pretty busy so that has definitely contributed to the lack of updates of any kind.  In any case, I successfully completed my first semester back at college with all A's which was super exciting.  I honestly don't think I've ever had that good of a semester at college ever.

In addition to successfully passing all my classes, I also passed the test I needed to get into the Veterinary Tech program on my first try.  That was a huge shocker for me.  I had to get a minimum score in four different

areas (Reading, Math, Science, and English) in addition to also getting a minimum comprehensive score of 60%.  The test cost ~$40 to take each time so I really wanted to pass it in two goes at the most.  I knew I could nail the Reading and English sections because those have always been super easy for me, but the math and especially the science would be more challenging.  Going in and taking the test, I was sure that I had failed it.  The science section turned out to be significantly harder than I had expected so I was sure that I hadn't made the minimum score I needed to pass.  But when I finished, lo and behold, I had passed with a 78.7% comprehensive score.  I will fully admit that I cried when I got back out to my car, I was so happy.  I also managed to freak my mom out accidentally when I called her as soon as I got back to my car and I was still crying a bit when she picked up.  She, of course, immediately thought something was wrong.  Whoops!

Doctors Against Down Syndrome - An Essay

Earlier this semester in my English class, I was given the assignment to write an argumentative paper.  We all got to choose our own subjects and me being me, I decided to go big and controversial; I decided I wanted to write about abortion.  From that first idea I slowly narrowed my topic down, going from aborting children with disabilities to focusing on Down syndrome to finally focusing on Down syndrome and how doctors handle telling parents that their unborn or newborn child has Down syndrome.  Doing the research was both fascinating and saddening.  The fact that people seem to have so little issue with a child being aborted solely because it isn't perfect but then have a fit at gender selective abortion makes no sense to me.  And then also reading about how many doctors push parents towards abortion was just appalling.  Despite the fact that I felt a bit overwhelmed with writing the paper and honestly didn't think it was my best work initially, my professor loved it and reading it again, I'm very proud of what I accomplished.  So, I decided to share it, not to brag or anything, but because this is a controversial issue and I think it's one that needs to be addressed.

Bus Adventures and Frights

One of the joys of being a college student for me is taking the bus.  Being a student means I get a free bus pass so I park me car, for free, at the Uptown bus lot, show by UNM ID to the driver, and I get a ride to school.  It's pretty darned convenient but not without it's adventures and, at times, it's frightening moments.

I haven't taken the bus since I was last at UNM which was about, what, two years ago or so?  Something like that.  So my first day, last Monday, I caught my bus, made it to my classes, and then ran to bus stop to catch the bus back to my car.  Now I take the Rapid Ride, there's a Red line and a Green line that run past UNM and I take the Red line.  Somehow, I managed to confuse myself and I thought the Green line was the bus I wanted and literally ran to catch the bus and made it.  Yay!  Well, until we drove past Louisiana and I was like, um, wait a second, shouldn't you have turned there?  Yeah, my brain was not working correctly that day.  It took me a second to remind myself that, oh yeah, the Red line runs both east and west, not just west.  Needless to say, I felt incredibly stupid as I rode the Green line bus all the way up to Central and Tramway and then back down to Central and Louisiana where I was able to catch the next Red line bus.  That was my first bus adventure.

Changes and Losses

So obviously I have not been as good as I thought I would be about blogging after concluding my Lord of the Rings project.  Frankly life has been a bit crazy since then and I have not had the ideas, inclination, or time to blog.  To be honest, I could have made the time, but the inclination and ideas were just not there.  A lot has changed though since the last time I blogged so this probably going to be a longer post.

Looking at Life

This past weekend my family went on our first family vacation in about two years.  For me it was the first time I've really been out of Albuquerque and the general surrounding area in that same amount of time.  I know I've mentioned it before, but I am so not a city girl.  We went up to northern New Mexico, kind of north and west of Taos up into Carson National Forest.  Let me tell you, it is gorgeous up there!  So much cooler and greener.  I did not want to leave at all.  We were gone Thursday through Sunday and it was nice to have two full days to just relax.  Friday was my parents' 26th wedding anniversary so we enjoyed celebrating that with a steak linner (you know, too late for lunch but too early for dinner: linner).  Busted out the wine and everything.  It rained most of that day so we pretty just lounged around, napped a bit and played some games.  Saturday was clearer so we went for a 2 mile hike which was fun and then my dad and I went for a drive while mom stayed back and read.  Dad and I saw some really pretty country and just enjoyed getting to explore.  Sunday I got up early to make the 4 and a 1/2 hour drive back to Albuquerque so I could continue filming with a friend who's making a pretty epic movie.  So that made a fun, but exhausting day.   One of the things I really enjoyed on our camping trip was getting back into some photography.  I really haven't used my camera much since my family moved back into Albuquerque so it was a fun opportunity.  There were some really pretty flowers we saw on our hike and with the rain we were getting most of the plants were covered in drops of water, something I've always wanted to photograph so I took advantage of that.

Back To School?

Okay you see that picture.  That could be me in a couple years.  Well, not the food, but you know, the hand garnishing that amazing looking dish.  Okay, I'll give you some context so you can stop looking confused, or if you're not looking confused, well, then, I don't know.  Anyway, since moving back home, there are times when I'll flip on the tv, not very often, but on occasion when I'm eating or doing something in the kitchen.  Most of the time there's nothing good or appropriate on so I've taken to watching Food Network, because, hey, I like to cook and bake and its always interesting to see what other people are fixing and get some good ideas.  My parents noticed this since I fix dinner a couple days a week and usually when they get home that's what I have on.  As we were watching one of the shows while having dinner a week or so ago, my dad made a comment that I should consider going to culinary school since I like to cook so much.  I was a bit surprised, because, well, culinary isn't exactly one of the "practical" college degrees that my parents used to always suggest I go for.  Now don't get me wrong, I know my parents have always had my best intentions at heart when they suggested those practical degrees, but I know I could never do something like business or accounting or even something like being a teacher.  No, no, no.  I would die of boredom or in the case of being a teacher, I think I would lose my mind trying to deal with kids.  I like kids, I think they're cute and all, but I only like them from a distance if I don't know them.  The only kids I actually like dealing with are ones that I know and even then I don't think I could do that everyday unless they were my own.  But that is in the far distant future and not something I'm going to worry about right now.