For the Girl or Guy Who Has Everything

Have you thought about holiday gifts yet? It's almost time. I myself feel a little old to be receiving gifts, but certain family members still insist on it... Which is fine, but this year I'm just going to ask for donations to my favorite charities. I've been making my modest donations to these organizations, but I figure if someone insists on giving me a gift, then why not donate... Who's on my list? The Morris Animal Foundation, which funds research aimed at protecting, curing, and treating companion animals and wildlife. Guiding Eyes for the Blind, an incredible organization that breeds and houses hundreds of seriously cute and talented dogs that are trained to be seeing eye dogs. They also sponsor blind individuals to spend a few months living at their facility so they can learn how to work with a seeing eye dog. I had the chance to work at this place for two weeks doing physical exams, blood draws, vaccinations, and surgeries. It was so much fun and really cool to see how these dogs can work with the blind and give them the ability to be independent. I also got to see people be matched to their dogs to be, which was exciting. The facility is up in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. I also donate to to the ASPCA, which as we all know has a great rep in terms of animal welfare and promoting shelter adoptions. Places I plan to donate to: Now I'm really into PALS, the organization I mentioned in yesterday's blog, which provides therapy for disabled individuals through horse riding. Heifer International, a great program: you donate money to allow people around the world start their own businesses involving livestock (dairy production), poultry (to sell eggs), and even bees for making honey! I also want to start with Kiva, where you can loan money to individuals in third world countries so they can start or maintain their own small businesses. So if you're stumped on what to do with all your cash, looking to ask people for different types of gifts, or looking to give different types of gifts, there you go!

When's the Weekend...

Today was crazy! I ended up taking on a new patient, this horse that came in on emergency the night before. Sad story. A barn that housed many horses caught on fire. Most died, but two survived and were brought to Cornell. I have one of those horses. It was pretty unstable, had many problems that developed throughout the day. So the internists were tending to her basically all day. As a student on a case, you're supposed to try to be on top of things, obviously help, do treatments and all that. But things were moving so fast, the head veterinarians were just dealing with the changing state of this poor horse. So I felt really out of the loop, not knowing what was happening. Then I still had my other patient, the very sweet Quarter Horse Biko. I really love Biko. He could be my favorite patient of all time! If I ever had a horse, it would have to be a Quarter Horse. Apparently, they tend to be laid back with great temperaments. In looking for an example of a Quarter Horse to show on my blog, I stumbled upon this organization that uses horses as parts of therapy for people with physical, emotional, and cognitive disabilities. Pretty cool. And there are little descriptions of their therapy horses, which are all very cute, especially the Quarter Horses. Anyway, later today, I had an appointment with a cria (baby alpaca) and that seemed to take a really long time. Alpacas are such strange animals...they make very strange sounds too. Phew...long day! But now I'm home, and hopefully it's going to be a quiet one. Time to watch some mindless television.

Sunday Afternoon in the Barn

Me a barn goddess? Hardly! Anyway, I'm on what feels like eternal treatment shift duty at the large animal clinic...students take turns working days or nights over the weekend and holiday, and I've been on 95% of the time. But no worries...must stay stress-free and with happy attitude. We've begun Twinkie's flea killing plan and we will soon deal with the tapeworm crisis. Last night we watched "No Country for Old Men". Beautiful cinematography, great, slow pacing (you have to be patient to watch this). But I got antsy and couldn't get comfortable in my seat, so I admit I wasn't as focused as I should have been. So basically, I'm going to have to watch it again, but I did like it. Although I feel like I didn't pay enough attention to be able to really discuss it. But I do recommend it. Marcus really loved it. Onto shopping: I think I'm going to get this hat. It's sorta silly that it says "Cornell" on it, but at the same time, it also makes the hat. Even if I do end up advertising my education...but I have the right...I mean, damn, I pay tuition!!!

An Occupational Hazard

A while back I blogged about Twinkie having tapeworms of a mysterious origin which we treated him for. Well I should have just checked a fecal sample under the microscope to figure out whether it was due to mousing or due to fleas in the first place (animals get tapeworms either from ingesting an infected rodent, infected raw meat, or infected fleas). As far as we know, we don't have mice at all, and we were convinced that Twinkie didn't have fleas because I've never seen flea dirt on him, I never retrieved anything with a flea comb, and I'm so careful about "bringing things home from the hospital". Well, I've learned my lesson. Earlier today I saw something suspect (in his feces) which prompted me to think that he maybe had yet another tapeworm infection!!! AUGH! So I went ballistic and ran a flea comb through his fur and brought a fecal sample to school. Under the microscope I didn't see any fleas on his fur, but I DID see tapeworm eggs from his fecal sample...the kind that are carried by fleas. I most likely am to blame for this, even though I try so hard not to bring any nasties home from the hospital. Ask Marcus, it's like the CDC in here when it comes to infectious disease prevention! So from now on our indoor only, solitary cat will have to be on flea preventative. And yes, cats and dogs can get fleas even from sitting by a screen door, and since cats are such great groomers, you're not necessarily going to see fleas jumping or flea dirt. I should take my own advice and maybe I would have realized that my own cat has fleas. Special thanks goes out to poor Stacy who had to hear about this all and help advise me on my crisis!

Countdown to Holiday Overload

I guess after today, the countdown to Christmas is on...and you know it can get a little scary with all the shopping madness, and the 4AM store sales. Well, after I went to the hospital this morning, I got home and got to watch a couple of movies. AMC is having a Hitchcock marathon, so I watched "The Man Who Knew Too Much". I really like Hitchcock, so it was a pleasant surprise. "Vertigo" was also on, but I wasn't in the mood. I wish I was because I haven't seen that one in a while. But I just wasn't feeling it at the moment. "The Birds" is on, but I recently saw that. What I really want to watch is "Psycho", but that may start too late for me to be able to watch the whole thing. I also flipped between "Mystic Pizza" and the first Austin Powers movie, which I personally love. The rest of the Austin Powers movies weren't so great. Speaking of vertigo, one of my close friends, Jennifer, is a boarded audiologist. But now she's in her first year of medical school down in the Cayman Islands. I've been talking to her and she's trucking along, but I sympathize...that first year is ROUGH...and I mean ROUGH. What's cool though is that I met her back when I decided to go back to school to do this whole vet thing and she was back in school so she could apply to medical school. We became really close friends and it's really exciting to see that she's actually on her way to becoming a doctor! Anyway, Twinkie's been sleeping all day long, and right now Marcus is cooking our "Thanksgiving dinner". No turkey for us, though. We're eating some fish dish. Then some pecan pie. Right now there's a show about Southern food...and damn, that stuff is good....

Back on the Blog Wagon!

I've missed my blogs the past few days! I'm back in the large animal hospital (horses, farm animals), but this time I've adopted a positive, carefree attitude which has really helped! It's incredibly liberating! Since I don't have boards to study for anymore (again, I hope I passed) and my applications are in, there's nothing more to worry about in the immediate future. So I decided that I should just make the most of my situation, and it's really worked out well! I'm so much happier. I'm also more comfortable with horses that aren't so nice. But I DO have a WONDERFUL horse as a patient named Biko. He's up in isolation though because he's Salmonella positive, but he's the best patient ever. He lets me do my thing which spans everything from oral medications, drawing blood, to...medications administered...yes, rectally. And he's so good about it all. Plus he likes it when I scratch his head. I even pick him fresh grass. All he asks is that I feed him...he's pretty demanding about his food. Well, I'm excited because the next few days while I'm in the hospital, but in between treatments, I'm going to start researching my "last hurrah" SCUBA diving trip with Stacy. We hope to take a little vacation either before or immediately after we graduate. Well, I better go. Me and Marcus are going to watch "300", which is Marcus' pick...

My Brain is FRIED

Yesterday I took my boards exam...it was a long exam and by the end it was painful! The night before I stayed at the Marx Hotel in Syracuse, this boutique type place, and ate really good food at its restaurant. I also discovered Lather products, which the hotel uses for its guests. I really liked them! I might buy some for myself. Anyway, sitting in front of a computer screen for 6 hours hurts. I REALLY, REALLY hope I passed the test. This is my licensing exam, so if you don't pass it now, you have to take the ($600) test again. But I'm trying to think positive...that I passed! Talk about random questions though...they spanned from stuff I knew, stuff I guessed on, to stuff I had absolutely no idea about... I was even asked about assessing a horse with narcolepsy!(Which by the way I think I got wrong). After I came back home from the test, we went out to eat tapas at this great restaurant here in Ithaca. I was so hungry though, I felt like I engorged myself! Speaking of narcolepsy, after dinner last night, Marcus and I watched "My Own Private Idaho" last night. I hadn't seen that movie in a while. I like it. It's a Gus Van Sant movie about a male prostitute with narcolepsy and his search for his long lost mother. Then we watched "Sideways", which we've seen before. It's pretty funny.

Lord Have Mercy

Damn I LOVE bakery products, specifically CHOCOLATE cake. GOOD chocolate cake, though. I love German chocolate cakes...and I love (good) chocolate in general...but there's no chocolate at home, I haven't been exercising regularly lately, and I need to learn how to control myself. I really need to get back into baking sometime when I have some down time...I found this beautiful German chocolate cake on the Dean & Deluca site. I wonder if it's any good. If you've never had the pleasure of trying this type of cake, I highly recommend it...I've always wondered about the origins of this cake, since German chocolate cakes have coconut in them, and well, coconut isn't indigenous to Germany! So I found out the details on good old wikipedia. Apparently it was invented in Texas. Who knew. Another great invention: the wonderful combination of peanut butter and chocolate. Whether it's Reese's or some high end chocolate shop's doing, it's a beautiful thing. Oh, then there's Nutella...Italy's answer to the chocolate shortage during WWII. Now that's genius. Love the Italians. Apparently the world can celebrate the joys of Nutella on Nutella Day: February 6. YA!

The Verdict On Bond No. 9's "Scent of Peace"

Marcus brought home multiple samples of Bond No. 9 perfume, including "The Scent of Peace". Unfortunately, I can't say I'm a fan. The grapefruit is muddled by a strong powdery-musky scent that takes away from the "refreshing" perfume I was hoping for. Plus, it's not very potent. Marcus also brought home some other samples, so on another occasion I'll check them out. I can't believe next week is Thanksgiving, basically because here at Cornell, we don't get to acknowledge holidays! We students get our tuition's worth, since we rarely get holidays off. But a holiday like Thanksgiving is one that the university definitely recognizes...but since I'm in the hospital, and will be on large animal internal medicine, I'm going to have to be in the hospital everyday dealing with my patients. Plus I'm on call on Thanksgiving. My hope is that farmers and horse owners will be too busy with their Thanksgiving plans to bring in their animals to the hospital (at least when I'm on call!). I just found a disturbing article on the origins of Thanksgiving, although should I be surprised that the Europeans came to the New World (by the way, that movie was great!) and destroyed the lives of the Native American Indians for their own gain? No, I guess not, but it's always disturbing to revisit the good old atrocities of American history that we're supposed to just apply "benign neglect" to...

Perfume, Perfume...

I love perfume. But as I've alluded to in a past blog, I have my particular favorites. I'm always up for trying out new scents that sound appealing, but the problem is that many of them just don't pan out: either they don't smell nice, or the fragrance doesn't last at all. Again, this is why I LOVE Thierry Mugler's Angel, because it's strong, and even over time, as the scent changes, it still smells incredible. But you either love it, or you hate it (although a couple of men in the past have stopped me in stores and asked me what I was wearing because they liked it, so it's probably pretty agreeable to most). I really love that perfume...I think I'm going to spritz myself with some right now...even if I'm in a fleece robe studying at the kitchen table! Ha ha. Anyway...there's a new perfume that sounds intriguing. It's called The Scent of Peace, by Bond No. 9. I'm not familiar with this brand, but it sounded really good: grapefruit and black currant. There's also some musk in it, which I'm a little weary of...Marcus is down in New York on business, so he said he'd try to get me a sample of it. Other than that, I'm trying to stay focused on studying for my big exam, learning derm at school, and looking forward to the thought of maybe being able to shop at H&M in Syracuse after my test on Saturday. But it's only Tuesday...

I Want a Bourne Marathon

It's Veteran's Day. I'm going into the hospital for appointments this afternoon. So I tried to study by taking review questions on Vetprep, which is this Q & A type program you can buy to try to prepare for boards. But the site is down! Oh well. So I'll study another way this morning. Last night "The Bourne Identity" was on TV. Marcus and I love the Bourne movies. I was surprised that even the last of the Bourne movies, "The Bourne Ultimatum" was great. But I get very weary of sequels, because every sequel is another chance to mess up a beautiful thing, you know? Plus, I don't like when people create sequels for the sake of it (money) versus a really good story that warrants it. I was disappointed that the end of the last Bourne flick seemed to suggest the possibility for another sequel, because it's not necessary! Or maybe they won't and it was just a tease. One thing I don't like too much is how the action scenes are shot in the first Bourne movie: sort of this accelerated-type action. This didn't happen in the subsequent movies, which was, in my opinion a good move. Speaking of good stuff, I was thinking about good sitcoms from the past...like "The Wayans Bros." and "Spin City". Good thing they're on re-run.

Sunday

Lazy Sunday...I love the weekend... I'm studying (again). Last night we watched
"American Gangster". Interesting story! I thought it was a little long, but in retrospect, I liked how the story took its time to develop. Good stuff. That comedy "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" was as a whole, sort of a disappointment...it had some holes in the story. But a lot of funny moments. There were a few scenes they could have cleaned up. But we laughed a lot. Yesterday I interviewed with a Long Island based practice with a great internship program...although I didn't necessarily "wow" them (probably because I never took the time to visit the practice), nor are they a top pick for me right now, the guy said I was strong interviewer with "presence". So that shocked me, and made me feel better. I hate interviews!

Is It Friday Already?

Wow, this week has flown by. I've been on dermatology, and it's great! Love seeing the nasty skin diseases, the residents are really cool, and I feel like I'm learning a lot...PLUS the hours are beautiful! Today, I didn't even have to come in. Another opportunity to study. I'm also getting my hair cut later today...and I will once again have the predicament of wanting a great, stylish haircut, but not wanting to even do more than comb my hair in terms of maintenance...never a functional combination. Last night I watched a french film about incest and murder. It was alright, and I wouldn't really say I'd recommend it. It's supposedly based on real life events. Tonight I think we're going to watch "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" on DVD. I love the guy from "The King of Queens"! Marcus and I always thought that if our cat Pete was human, he'd be just like him on that show...yes, we do think about these things!

Kung Pow

No not the food, the movie. I'm watching it right now on TV. But speaking of food, have you seen my GREAT recipe for a wonderful Cuban dish (to the right of the screen)? Back to the movie. It's just the kind of low brow comedy that I need! I think it's really funny if you like that kinda comedy. Too bad I'm going to miss the end, because today I start Dermatology. Although it's going to be a low key rotation, I'm really going to miss my "me time" (the last two weeks). I've been able to study so much, complete my applications, watch crazy films, and hang out. Last night I watched the french film "Blue", which was again, very solemn, but I really liked it. We watched "Transformers", too and the special effects were seamless! It was amazing. But there were a few holes in the story, and for me at least, the movie was a little too long. The cool thing is that I finally now know the deal with the Transformers...I never watched the cartoon before, so I never knew that Megatron is in fact a bad guy!

To Change or Not to Change

Sunday morning, and Marcus had been warning me that it's time to change our clocks. Now I hadn't heard anything about it, but then again, I don't read newspapers or watch the news much...But I really haven't heard anything about it! Anyway apparently it's time to change your clocks by turning them one hour back. You know, fall back, spring forward. We watched "Reign Over Me" last night, great, solemn movie, but it has its funny moments, too. It's about a dentist who runs into his old college roommate who lost his wife, kids, and dog on 9/11. Great movie, Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle are in it. Adam Sandler seems to do really well playing off beat characters in these types of dramas. He was also good in "Punch Drunk Love", which I personally really liked, as well. So in the movie last night, they ride all over Manhattan on one of those motorized skateboards, which is really funny...but they look like a lot of fun! I think I want one...on a disturbing note, while driving back to our apartment, we saw yet another hitchhiker....what is up with that?!? Seriously, I had never seen hitchhikers until we moved up here. It's the fourth one I've seen since we've moved. And why do they always look sketchy????

The "S" Word is a BAD Word

I recently got word that up here in Central New York we can be expecting snow as early as this coming Tuesday...I am not ready. Maybe it was the weird warm weather, or that I always go through this every year. The weather up here is so extreme...when is snows, it SNOWS. When it rains, it's like Noah's Ark is gonna crash through your front door. And the thunder and lightening always feels like it's right above your house. Thank you, Lake Effects. While exploring the Internet this morning, I stumbled upon the chronicles of the Quaker Parrots of Brooklyn. I've heard about this before and it's pretty interesting. A colony of Quaker Parrots have been living wild in Brooklyn for years. What exactly happened that caused them to be wild in this climate is not totally known, but there are theories. Last night I watched Polanski's "Bitter Moon". I really like Polanski, and I loved the extremes of this movie. And between Ithaca weather, the aberrant colonization of Brooklyn by the parrots, and Polanski's twisted story of co-dependency, this morning's theme is: extreme...the good, the bad, and the freaky.