Meeting the UC Davis cows!

Click here to see the video I made about meeting the UCD cows today!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b1hlNETjV4

A First Time for Everything

On Monday morning I biked over to the horse barn to introduce myself to the manager there. What I expected to be a quick, "Hi, I'm Kim," shake hands and leave, ended up being anything but. I met Joel and some of the girls that work at the barn, including a barn resident (the program I applied for and did not get), then we jumped right into work. I watched and assisted as they rectally palpated the brood mares and the mares they use in the animal science classes; they were checking ovulation cycles. Then I was able to perform my very first vaginal palpation on a mare! Yup! This girl was shoulder deep in a horse's patootie.  That was something I was not expecting to be able to do until vet school, so I was shocked and very grateful for the opportunity at the same time. 

After all the mares were checked, we vaccinated, dewormed, moved some horses out to pasture and weaned some babies. All in all, a very eventful and exciting morning! Now I need to study like crazy to understand all the reproductive terms they were using.

We didn't get a picture of the special moment, but here is one from the internet to give you a clear mental image. 

What's your weakness?

I have a weakness, and my weakness is emotional TV shows about things that entertain me; specifically, Grey’s Anatomy. [In a nutshell, it is a show following a group of MD interns on their individual journeys to become surgeons that has been running since 2005.] I justify my addiction to this television show because it is about medicine. When they perform procedures, I look up the diseases or surgeries online and read about them and try to learn. I am the epitome of what MD’s and vets hate the worst (commonly known as Dr. Google). I allow myself to believe that I am gaining knowledge instead of destroying brain cells by letting them melt away from disuse. I almost feel a sense of camaraderie with these people. I realize they are just actors, but as a child that grew up watching television I love to allow myself to get drawn in and feel like it’s real. When they deal with hardship, I sympathize. When they survive difficulties in their careers, I feel like I can survive difficulties, too. How sad is that? Pretty sad, but that’s me. I am very American in my personal expectation to be entertained, an attribute I am trying to combat.

When I watch Grey’s Anatomy, I usually cry. (Just an FYI, I’m a crier, as in, full time wimp). I am sure that this is the producer’s intention, because in each episode they manage to draw you in enough to think that you know these people, that you have some pseudo-emotions for these characters, right before they kill them off. And yet, I continue to watch. I said I’m a crybaby, never said I was a logical crybaby.

One good thing about watching a show that has to keep coming up with shocking and unusual injurious situations to put people in to keep the audience entertained is that I am afforded the opportunity to think about what I would do in a similar situation. What would I do if I was diagnosed with cancer and given a week to live? What would I do if Sean was in a car accident or fire that destroyed his face? How would I handle losing a limb? Would I want to be a vegetable for a while or be unplugged right away?

(I would want minimal medication and to be home if possible, never away from Sean, surrounded by everyone I love, including the furry ones. I would be there for Sean no matter what, every second of the way. I would mourn the loss, and then I would try to learn how to adjust. I would want to be a vegetable for as long as there was a little hope. If I’m gone gone, like 100% brain dead, then I would want to be taken off life support so Sean and everyone else could have closure, and I could meet my Savior.)

All I do know for sure is that when I do die, whoever writes my obituary better put the way I died in there. It’s my biggest pet peeve to read obituaries and have no idea how the person died. And not just a cursory “passed away from an illness” or something like that. I’m talking details, people! Details. 

Grey's Anatomy Top 5 Moments

[Edit: As far as Facebook goes, I think I would want my Facebook page to stay up, with a brief description about how I died and stuff like that on there. It's a tough subject, because I have read the Facebook pages of people who have died and it's a bit weird. I don't want people posting to me on there, messages to me. I won't get them, that's for sure! I would rather people who felt compelled to write something, write about a memory we shared or post a photo or something like that. Something to remember the good times, to celebrate life.]

Starting a New Life, Again. Alone.

Over the summer, Sean and I stayed with Bonnie and Lew at our old ranch/their home in Morongo Valley. It’s one of my favorite places in the entire world, so quiet and set back from the world. Things slow down out there, I like being away from people and crazy. Sean and I lived for the most part in a little fifth wheel trailer that some dear friends gave to us at Christmas. It was a quiet summer, where I completed my final classes at College of the Desert (Spanish, got an A, yay!). Over the summer, I was able to almost completely finish a giant checklist of tasks, for which I am very grateful.

The actual moving part really wasn’t that bad. Bonnie and I woke up leisurely and started packing the van on Saturday morning. Bonnie is a genius! She was able to fit the entirety of Cub's and my belongings into the back of a minivan with room to spare. 

Vacuuming out the Orca. 

The dogs helped us pack. Gunther (left) and Boing (right) could definitely tell something was up,  as they got pretty clingy there at the end. 

Look at that packing job!

Betsy bike, all decked out in her Spongebob duct tape. 

Look at that, room to spare!

People in Sacramento are mean! First there was the lady at the gas station, then the lady at Target, then the guy in the parking lot at Wal-Mart. People are just not nice here! Well, that's not true. People in Davis seem to be quite nice, so I guess I'll just stay away from the capitol for a while. 

The cows don’t like me. Sean and I went for an exploratory bike ride and found a spot on campus where you can walk right up to the cows. I am not familiar enough with the campus yet to know where it is exactly, but it was not far from Hutchinson road. Anyway, there were three gals hanging out near the fence so we walked over to pet them. When they saw us coming, they moved off and went to join up with the rest of the group over by the feeders. Good thing I’m not specializing in dairy!

One of my three roommates was able to move in on the first day, but she went home since she doesn’t live far away. The other two are staying home so they can work until school starts. That means it’s just Cub and myself in this giant 1,600 square foot apartment. Well, I guess technically it’s not that big since I don’t have access to three of the bedrooms. It’s interesting how they have the set up here; you get an electronic key that works for the front door, and for your bedroom only. Each room has a deadbolt with this special electronic lock on it, it’s awesome! I never have to worry about anyone going inside without permission, although I never worried about that anyway.

When Sean and Bonnie left, it was very hard on me. Sean and I spent a lot of time that morning in each other’s arms. I even tried to play off the sadness with some humor, but anyone who knows me knows that I can’t tell a joke to save my life, so that wasn’t a very successful plan. By the end, all three of us were sobbing. Sean walked me back to my door, and for a second I thought that he wasn’t going to let me go. I wish he hadn’t.

This will be my first time ever really being away from home. I was born and raised for the first half of my life in Palm Springs, then lived for a short while in Joshua Tree, a long while in Morongo Valley, bounced around a few places in Yucca Valley for a while, then ended up in Morongo for the last four years. I will always feel like Morongo is my home, I feel more comfortable there than in any place in the entire world. I will always want to go back there, I think, unless somewhere along this adventure Sean and I find someplace that fits us better. I find that hard to imagine, I’m such a homebody and I love most everything about Morongo, but Sean wants to keep an open mind. He would much rather be in a place where green things grow on their own accord, where we could let the horses out on a big pasture and he could farm a bit. Sean would love to raise our own meat someday, but that’s a whole other story on its own. Suffice it to say that at this point, Morongo is home and this is the farthest I have ever been away from there. And all alone, too.

One of the weird things that I have noticed about being here is that there are tons of people that I see who look very similar to people I know at home. While Sean and Bonnie and I were going through stores searching for last minute items, I didn’t feel like I was away from home. All Wal Marts and Sam’s Club really just look the same, after all. I would find myself subconsciously glancing around for people I know, and then I would see someone that looked super familiar and realize that I have no idea who that person is, that they simply resemble someone I know back home. That is such a strange feeling!

My job with the volleyball team started on Tuesday. It’s great because it literally takes five minutes to get to the ARC on my bike. I brought two bikes to Davis: Andy which was Sean’s bike and to which we attached Cub’s WalkieDog contraption and Betsy who has the basket and is better for cargo. I even met a fellow student to buy a DVD player ($5, what a deal!) and took it home in my bike basket.

Speaking of volleyball, it has been a very stretching experience so far. I’m almost bi-polar in my self-confidence. Sometimes I am bubbly and confident and outgoing, and other times I am so painfully shy, I can’t even look anyone in the eye. I get awkward and straight out scared. For some reason, at volleyball the latter side shows its ugly head. The staff and girls are great, though! Everyone is super tall, so I literally feel short. Watching them practice is kind of like the COD team, but just remove every mistake, makes the best things we did the worst things they do, and add some amazing sets and hits and athleticism like I’ve never seen in real life. I go in next week to get my photo taken for the website. UPDATE: Photo is posted now.

Cub had a lot of trouble adjusting, and we still have a long way to go. For the first few days, she was super stressed and didn’t go to the bathroom at all. She gets so nervous that she doesn’t want to leave her kennel. I almost had to drag her outside! She gets this look on her face that makes her look like the most miserable creature on the face of the earth. UPDATE: It has officially been a week since move-in, and Cub is really starting to settle in. Her favorite place to go is the field straight out from the apartments. It’s not being used right now, so it’s mostly just dirt and some shriveled up old roughage, which is fine for playing fetch and all of that good stuff. There is another lot next to it filled with waist high thistle bushes, and crawling with jackrabbits. Cub finally discovered the jackrabbits last night and spent at least an hour flying around the lot, chasing them at top speed. She sure felt it this morning, though, when she woke up and could hardly move. Poor thing.

Speaking of pets, I was able to finally fulfill my promise to Frog and get him a larger tank. Now he has a ten-gallon tank, and although it’s not set up like I wanted to (with all the fancy rocks and decorations, etc.) it actually looks pretty cool. There is no hood, so I filled it up about six or seven inches from the top to avoid him trying to jump out. There is no filter, either, so the water is still. I think Frog would prefer it that way, and to prove his happiness, he built a beautiful bubble nest in the corner, which he improves on daily.

The next big news is that we add to the family! Burton Guster is a young blue delta fin Betta that couldn’t be kept by his two previous owners, so he ended up here with us. It’s funny, now we have two dogs, two cats, and two Bettas. Very balanced! Gus came with a two and a half-gallon tank which seems small, but he is just so tiny that it seems like a good fit at least for now. Now I just have to resist the strong urge to fulfill my wish of getting a pet bird of some kind. I never had a bird as a child because of my mom’s intense hatred of them (well, of parrots, she actually really likes finches). I really don’t have any experience with them, and am even a bit afraid of their ability to bite so I would like to get a bird to learn about them first hand and to help get over my fear of them.

Bonnie and Sean left wonderful little fun surprises around the house for me. For example, I found some cookies in the cupboard, some string cheese in the fridge, and a full season of Spongebob waiting in my desk drawer! It’s the best feeling in the world knowing there are people out there who know you probably better than you know yourself.

I spent the entire summer patiently waiting and growing out my nails. They didn’t make it easy, when they were almost even, one would break and all that good stuff. However, by the end of the summer they were beautiful, the perfect length and the perfect shape. It only took a day of being alone and nervous before the nails were gone. It started with the ring finger on my right hand, and then I worried the others off, too. Well, at least now I get to focus on trying to grow my hair out without destroying it, too.

Construction is still going on here. Right outside my window they are finishing the landscaping, the parking lot covers with solar panels and various other projects. On the other side of my apartment, they are building the clubhouse and the pool for Solstice. Since I live at West Village, I can use the current clubhouse and pools that they have over at the Ramble’s side but it’s a decent walk away and I don’t have any friends yet, so I don’t feel comfortable being out there all alone. I also haven’t gotten up the nerve to visit the gym, so I’m hoping that I buck up enough to make friends soon before I become a total loser. UPDATE: Since writing this, I was able to meet a friend and we went and worked out for a little bit yesterday. The gym has a little machine in there similar to a Redbox where you can rent movies for the night.

Fun fact: Edmond Dantes wrote the screenplay for Beethoven, the movie with the St. Bernard. My sister Holly will appreciate that. 

College of the Desert Graduation

This will be my first post in quite some time. I started up my Facebook account when school ended and when I have that going, it’s really hard to maintain both. I am starting the blog back up because when school starts, I will turn off my Facebook account again. For me, it is just too time consuming. Plus, the website is changing and there are ads that I don’t agree with and don’t want to be looking at, posts from friends that hurt my heart, and so much complaining that I can’t help but feel deflated after reading all the terrible, frustrating complaints in other people’s lives. I happen to be a practiced complainer as well, so I struggle with even wanting to maintain this blog; however, I want to keep in touch with my family and friends somehow, so this is probably the best way to do that.

Here’s some photos from the College of the Desert graduation. We had a few events in the days before, like the transfer recognition ceremony and the MESA banquet and the ACES celebration, that's what some of the other photos are from.

 I had a lot of mixed emotions during graduation. It was difficult to get through finals (I got my very first, and hopefully only, C grade ever; the rest were A’s), pack up the apartment alone (Sean had to work), and try to separate myself emotionally from everything that I’d invested in the last two years. At COD I had finally found the camaraderie that I had been searching for since high school. I had friends, I could chat with my professors, I had a sport and I knew where to find everything. It’s all I ever could have asked for, and I was having to leave it all behind. I know there are great things waiting for me here at Davis, but the thought of starting all over is a bit daunting.

My mom and Holly were able to make it to the graduation, something for which I will always be grateful. They flew down and after sitting through a ridiculously long ceremony were able to see our little apartment on San Marino, then come up to Morongo and see our ranch, which we’ve had for three years now and they’ve never seen.