A Firefighter and a Vet: March 2013

Spring Break

It is spring break, yay! I had completely forgotten that spring semester had a break until a couple weeks ago. The first two months of school have really dragged me down, the stress was almost more than I could handle. With five classes and two labs (and the burden that comes with attempting to earn good grades), starting and running the biology club, working side jobs . . . the pressure gets pretty hefty.

Sean and I got to spend both Tuesday and Thursday together!! I haven’t seen Sean this much for months, and I felt delirious with happiness. At the end of this post are photos from the hike we took on Tuesday. On Thursday, we stayed in and enjoyed quiet quality time together. I miss him every second he is gone, so it is very easy to be purely happy when he is with me. When Sean is home, my heart is full. :)

Gunther and Cub

I took Gunther and Cub to the dog park this morning. It is the funniest thing: when we first moved down here last January, Cub was always the problem at the dog park. She would get extremely protective of me and overwhelming to the other dogs. She would greet them by running full blast into them, growling. As you can imagine, she was not received well by either the dogs or their owners. Gunther, on the other hand, fit in well with the “kennel club set” of south Palm Desert (consisting mainly of purebred dogs and their retired snowbird owners). His size, color, and friendly demeanor quickly made him new friends every time we went.

Well, the tables have turned. It took a lot of work, but Cub is now the relaxed socialite, often finding multiple friends and playing with them like a puppy (pretty neat to see in a five-year-old dog). Gunther, on the other hand, has some newfound dominance that he does not seem to be able to control very well. He tries to dominate the other dogs by standing over them and growling. I do not think he would ever hurt anyone, but since he is so much larger than even the largest dogs at the park, he is not a whole lot of fun.

After Gunther pinned a yellow lab to the ground, I kept him on leash for about twenty minutes. Cub was great, so she and I played fetch. Gunther was tense and frustrated at first (I think mainly he wanted to sniff around, but he had his eye on that lab, almost fixated), but I repeatedly got his attention, had him make eye contact and respond to commands and he began to settle. After a while, I let him off leash and he was a gentleman.

Gunther and Cub put on a great show after all the people in the dog park had settled down to sit and chat. We were sitting under the misters while the dogs meandered around, then suddenly Cub and Goober took off running, playing their full speed ahead game of chase that sounds like a horse race. I am so glad to be able to have them out running, and get Gunther’s mind off of licking his leg. The long sleeved T shirt seems to help, though, maybe it will continue to work after school starts back up.

Avian Barn

I am almost afraid to write about this too soon, but the point of this blog is to keep family and friends updated, help others in a similar situation (vet school hopefuls), and to keep a record for myself, so here goes:

On Friday after my final exam before the break, I checked my phone and noticed I had a voicemail. The message was from Katelyn at the avian department at UC Davis. She wanted me to call back so they could set up a phone interview for me!

Obviously very excited, I called right back. Katelyn answered the phone, and quickly began filling me in with information. Here’s the info:

· The avian facility houses and maintains about 1000 adult chickens, 150 quail, 30 parrots, 120 cockatiels, and various numbers of baby chicks. All are used for research.
· There are two parts of the avian facility, the place where I would live in the Hopkins barn, but there is also a place in the basement of the Meyer hall where birds are housed. The Hopkins facility is three and a half miles from the school.
· There are three spots available since the three students currently living there are all graduating. One of the rooms is a single, and the other is a double. They have interviewed (in person) three other people besides me.
· They want me to come up for the entire summer. It’s a good idea, because I could get trained and learn about the area before classes start.
· The barns are very dusty, but masks are provided. They also use harsh detergents, but gloves are provided as well. I am not so worried about the soap so much as the dust for my asthma, but I think it will be okay.
· One weekend per month of work is required, consisting of checking on all of the birds and making sure they have food and water. This takes 6 – 8 hours. During the week, there are smaller tasks. I would be responsible for a certain, small area.
· The avian facility is near the bee barn, so there are lots of bees and wasps!
· If I work more than the required hours, I can be paid for them. Or, I can bank them and use them to take a weekend off. Or, if I get enough, I can use them as an internship. (AS 99)
· There is a semi-public bathroom available that has a washer and dryer. I get to have my own drawer. There is also a break room that has a couple refrigerators, a hot plate, a microwave, and a table that is good for both eating and studying. There is internet, yay!
· The facility is bio secure, meaning I need to be completely aware of where I am going and what I am coming into contact with. If I go anywhere around ducks or other birds, I cannot where those shoes around the birds in the facility.
· If Sean is ever able to come up and visit me, it is okay, I just need prior consent from my roommate (if I have one) and the manager.
· Best of all, even if I am not able to go to Davis for a face to face formal interview, it doesn’t hurt my chances!

I listed the horse barn as my first choice for a place to live, but the more I think about it, the more the avian barn sounds like it might be the right fit. I have been around horses and probably will be around horses the rest of my life, but an experience like this is unique, maybe once in a lifetime. I think it would be wise to take advantage of it. The biggest drawback, actually, is the distance from campus. On the bright side, I will get plenty of exercise on my bike!

Classes

I have arrived at a cross roads, and now it’s time to decide what needs to be done. I am not having any success in my communications class, at all. I was worried from day one as the professor let us know that the class is the apical step for communications majors, and accordingly, students would be held to a higher standard. I have not taken a class that had anything to do with writing or APA/MLA style in a while, so that in itself was a shock. But let me tell you, comm majors speak another language! It is gibberish to me.

At the beginning, the class was fine. The professor is very young and funny, if you enjoy the types of jokes he cracks. The problem is, all of his jokes are at the expense of some of my most core beliefs. He constantly ridicules God, marriage, families (and children; his favorite thing to say is “do not talk to me about kids, you should have worn a condom”), and his vulgar language is horrible. He does not hold back, at all. It also gives me the creeps when he refers to himself as “daddy.” This has worn down on me week after week.

Another problem is the class is based hugely on participation, but we are supposed to self-grade. I have a problem with grading myself, as I hold myself to a very high standard. He picks on different people to answer questions during lecture, usually not me. When he does call on me or I volunteer input and I do not have an answer that seems to appease him, I give myself a low grade for the day. The problem is, I now have a ridiculously low grade in a class that should be an easy A. Then, we had an assignment that I was worried about. I asked him to read it before I turned it in and he refused, said don’t worry about it. I thought, okay, I won’t. Well, I got the report back and he gave me zero points because he said I was judgmental. I get that my language was not unbiased now that I look back critically upon it, but no points? I completely the assignment correctly, on time, doesn’t that count for anything? Apparently not. I can’t afford to take a class with a professor that is that harsh on grading. I can’t afford to not get an A in a general ed class.

What are my options? Well, I am going to look into taking the class online at COD this summer along with my Spanish class. A “W” will be much better than a B since it does not affect your GPA. I do not have any W’s on my transcript right now, so I’m not worried about having one. They only become a problem if you have too many.

There is a second option that I just became privy to: I could start at Davis early, unofficially, and take my last two TAG requirements there. I don’t know what the logistics are there, that’s just going off a short email from my counselor at Davis.

Hiking

As promised, here are some photos from our hiking trip. We drove up Hwy 74 and took a stroll along the Pacific Coast trail.