What's better than exploring a new place?

Having your best friend flying out for the weekend, and exploring a new place together.

Last week, Crystal flew into Tampa to join me for the weekend.  We hit up the Wizarding world of Harry Potter, and took a couple boats to different island state parks - Caladesi state park, and Shell Key preserve.  We hung out on beaches that had very few other people on them, explored, snorkeled, and saw black tipped sharks, sting rays, a dolphin, and got attacked by some seagulls.  And now she's back in Colorado, and my hotel room is covered in sand.

It's amazing how isolating some of these rotations can be.  I'm ready for it to be over.  I miss my critters, and I want to go home - but I'm effectively homeless at this point.  The apartment isn't my home, since I moved all of my stuff into my mom's house.  My mom's house isn't home, it's the place my stuff is stored, and a convenient place to stay between rotations.  My house isn't home, it's still occupied by temporary renters.  It's an unsettling feeling, not having a place of my own to call dibs on.

I get to go back to Colorado Saturday, before I leave for my last rotation in California.  At least in California, I'll be able to hang out with some great people, and won't be as isolated.  And I'll be that much closer to once again having a home.

Escaping the snow

Last week I was home in Colorado between my internal med rotation, and my dentistry rotation.  There were days I got in my car, only to see the thermometer display in the negative single digits.  I keep managing to go home during the really cold snaps.  On the plus side, I've managed to skip much of winter this year, and I'm continuing the trend by spending the next few weeks in Clearwater, FL.

I had a hard time finding a veterinary dentist who would take me on a 4 week internship.  The one local to me said he would, and then when I sent his office manager the information to get approved as a site for the school, she backed out.  Some, I emailed, and were booked solid.  Others never replied to emails and voicemails.  But the one out here replied immediately, and has been incredibly informative all week.  I'm loving the time I'm spending working on teeth, and I'm considering that if my current plans for general practice don't work out after a few years, applying for a dental residency.  I could see myself doing this and loving it.

Today was my first day to really get out and explore, and I found manatees!  In Tampa, there's a power plant that releases warm water into the bay, and the manatees congregate in the warm water.  (I'm not too sure how I feel about that, but at least it seems like they're trying to make an effort at conservation and stewardship.)  It was amazing to see so many manatees in the wild.

I made an attempt to see a wild alligator, by going to a local park that had yelp reviews for tons of wildlife viewings, but did not get so lucky.  Saw a crane, but no gators.  I'll try again sometime later in the trip.

Sure beats being cold.

NAVLE squee

After waiting (not so patiently) for the past month, I got my National board scores.  I've been stalking forums, and found out that in previous years the scores have been released between the 11th and 14th of January, so I was hoping for earlier.  Apparently, they decided to be masochistic and delay results this year.

Finally, today during lunch, I checked my facebook, and saw that some classmates had their results, so I checked, and I passed!  I never have to take another gawd-awful test like that again!

One of my classmates is doing his core surgery rotation at the same practice as me.  He went to high five me after telling me he had passed, changed his mind halfway through the high five, and bear hugged me instead.  Then one of my preceptors picked up the phone, and announced "Our Western students, Karin and ***** have passed their national boards.  Congratulate them when you see them."  This whole time, I was acting very serene, but inside, I was bouncing off the walls with giddiness.

Just to add icing to the kick-ass-day cake, we had a special patient from a zoo (I can't go into specifics), so I got my exotic animal fix.

I can't believe I've made it this far, and I've made it through the hardest parts of vet school.  Life is good.

I'm really bad at waiting.

For my NAVLE scores, that is.  They should be released any time now, and they sure are taking their sweet time.  The webpage was even changed from saying they'd be released mid-January to saying it'll by by late-January.  Gah!

I'm in the Phoenix area right now for Internal Med.  The clinic is nice, and time passes pretty quickly while I'm there.  When I'm not there, it drags.  I was lucky enough to find a place to stay here for free.  The downside is it's in a gated retirement community, and I can't get through the gate after 8pm, so for 12+ hours every day after I get off work, I'm held captive in the land of old people.  I'm going pretty stir-crazy, and feeling really isolated.  Luckily, I don't have much more of this throughout the year.  My next rotation I'm staying in a hotel (Yay! freedom and autonomy!) and then staying with a good friend (even better!) I just need to remember, there is an end in sight, and it's sneaking up quickly.

If only my NAVLE score would sneak up quickly.

You know how to get your heart rate up?

Step 1.  Decide to take your dog out for one last walk before bedtime.

Step 2.  Put on his leash, and walk out the back door.

Step 3.  See a startled skunk come running straight at you, because apparently he lives under the porch, and was running to his safe spot - which happens to be exactly where you are standing.

Step 4.  Forcibly drag your dog back inside, because at this point all he wants to do is chase this fantastic animal he's never seen before.

Step 5.  Realize how lucky you are that neither you nor the dog got sprayed.


So that was fun last night.  And now every time we go for a walk, Skwissgaar wants to go sniff at the porch.  I have a feeling this isn't going to end well for us.  And no, I'm not going to do anything to chase it off - if it lives under the porch, it was there first.

When I was at the zoo, I got to work with a skunk they have in their education building - her name is Lilly, and she is an absolute sweetheart.  However, she has a really wirey, short hair coat, possibly due to some endocrine disease.  The skunk that came running at us last night had the most glorious fur, like it was in some sort of skunk pantine pro-v commercial.  As startled as I was, I couldn't help but marvel at what must be the Portia De Rossi of the skunk world.  Lilly would be jealous.

Done with NAVLE

So I took my national boards on Friday.  Despite it being a computerized test, I have to wait until January to find out how I did.  I really hope I never have to re-take that sucker.  Until I find out, I've got a few weeks off with no obligations, and it's fantastic.  I've got all my christmas shopping done, presents are wrapped, and I know this christmas won't be a repeat of last year's christmas.  Life is good.    I took Skwissgaar to my old schutzhund training group yesterday, and he showed off his mad training by ignoring the bite sleeve, running to the fence to chase the neighbor's horses, then refusing to come when called.  It was embarrassing, but he had fun.  Anyway, boring update, but I figured I'd update since I survived my boards.

Let the studying for boards commence

Since my last post, I've become a lot more zen about my situation.  I'm moved into my mom's house for right now. It's a bit disheartening to be 28 and living with mom. It doesn't make sense to get a place right now, since between now and when I graduate I'll be gone for 3 1/2 months. So I'm temporarily here, the tenants living in my house will be moved out in a few months, and then I'll be able to have my old house back once I'm done with school.  I left almost all of my furniture with Tyler, so there's a little bit of joy of knowing that once I get to move into my house, I won't have to move any heavy furniture -  I'll be able to order new stuff and have it delivered.  On my study breaks, I've been trolling pinterest, and pinning up a storm. I'm daydreaming about being able to decorate my own place with no other input, and not having to have a band practicing in my basement again.

One of the big plus-sides of being at my mom's house is my harp is here - I couldn't take it to California with me when I moved for vet school, and I've missed it ever so much.  I'm pretty rusty, but I've been practicing every day, so hopefully it will come back to me quickly.

9 days until I take the NAVLE.  Holy crap.  I just need to direct all my energy at this one thing, and after I finish, the rest of the year should be pretty smooth sailing.  9 days.  Eek!