2008 edition of getting to know your friends

My very good friend, Terah (and keeper of the horses), sends me those silly chain emails about yourself. Since I have nothing better to do (besdides study) I thought I’d post one. She sent this a month ago and it’s been sitting in my drafts box waiting to go back to her:

1. What time did you get up this morning? 5:30 am, dang cat!

2. Diamonds or pearls? Tiffany & Co or Mikimoto, depends on the function (click Tiffany link to see my engagement ring-- all I need is the man of my dreams to buy it!)

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? wow I don't know. That was over a year ago.

4. What is your favorite TV show? House, but Law & Order comes on more often

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? mangos (‘tis the season)

6. What is your middle name? Amalie

7. What food do you dislike? Liver, egags!

8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? none (I don't even think I one with music on it that I didn't make myself.)

9. What time is it right now? 3:57pm EST July 7... 9:08pm EST July 26

10. Favorite sandwich? Pastrami from A&M's deli.

11. What characteristic do you dislike in people? liars

12. Favorite item of clothing? pj's

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Mediterranean

14. Where would you retire to? I have no idea

15. What was your most recent memorable birthday? 16th-- I got a car!

16. Furthest place you are sending this? Texas

17. Person you expect to send it back first? either Eric, who are both hooked on my blog

18. When is your birthday? August 23, I’ll be 26. (Terah said her’s is Groundhog’s Day—have to remember that!)

19. Morning person or a night person? Night owl for sure!

20. Pets? Oh god.

21. Exciting news? Ross built a fence to keep our cars from rolling out of the parking lot into the Caribbean Sea!

22. What did you want to be when you were little? A veterinarian.

23. How are you today? Super

24. What is your favorite flower? Stargazer lilies

25. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Sometime in Aug 2010 when I graduate.

26. What are you listening to right now? Strauss- Blue Danube

27. What was the last thing you ate? Chicken Tortilla ‘de Soup

28. Do you wish on stars? Yes!

29. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Strawberry Red

30. How is the weather right now? Raining

31. Last person you spoke to on the phone? A friend asking me if I wanted a ride to campus, and thus, I’m on campus. (My car is wet.)

32. Favorite soft drink? Cherry-Vanilla Dr Pepper, Cherry Coke, A&W Rootbeer

33. Favorite restaurant? Café Eccel in College Station, TX

34. Hair color? Naturally-light brown, but it’s bleached blonde with the sun down here. If I dye it- red!

35. What was your favorite toy as a child? Baby Doll (who I think is 44 yrs old now) and the Breyer horses I inherited from my older sister

36. Summer or winter?

37. Chocolate or Vanilla?

38. Coffee or Tea? But I’m getting slowly hooked on Godiva hazelnut coffee.

39. Do you want your friends to email you back? Of course!

40. What is your favorite color? Pastels, red, purple, or blue. I don’t like Orange

41. What is under your bed? My suitcase and the cat.

42. What did you do last night? Studied

43. What are you afraid of? Failing out of vet school

44. Salty or sweet? Sour

45. How many keys on your key ring? A lot: my apt, the laundry room, my car, lab, 3 spare keys to several of my friend’s apts, and a friend’s car (they have mine too, I’m good at locking myself out and our landlord is off island).

46. How many years at your current job? Vet school >1yr, the research project I acquired once I got here, <1yr

47. Favorite day of the week? Sunday because if I sleep all day Saturday then by Sunday I’m well rested enough to have fun and go to the beach! (or study)

48. Do you make friends easily? No.

49. How many people will you send this to? Back to Terah to let her know I’m sticking this on my blog

50. How many will respond? No idea, but I think it would be cool if you copy and pasted it with your name under 'Comment.'

51. Do you like finding out all this stuff about your friends? Yes! (esp the birthdays, because I can’t always keep them straight)

Happy 57th Birthday MOM!

Mom has aged yet again! How exciting! (LOL, but she probably doesn't think so.)

For a vacation this year, she's decided to come visit me! (And bring goodies!) I have a 2+ week break in August starting the 14th going to the 31st.

She's confirmed to leave from DFW at 6 a.m. on August 20, Wednesday (Flight 2175) with a 40 minute layover in Miami arriving in St. Kitts (SKB) at 1:50 p.m

She will be leaving SKB on Wednesday, August 27 at 2:55 p.m. with a 3 hr layover in Miami getting back to DFW at 11:30 p.m.

I've decided that the easiest way to wear her out is to hike the volcano! We also plan on going to Nevis for a day, maybe SCUBA dive a wreck another day. It should be interesting.

Yesterday I heard a strange sound, like a chirp, or an injured Guinea Pig. Since the dogs looked like they were up to no good, I panicked and and ran to save my poor little pig! (Remember, they run loose in and out of the house with the dogs.)

When I checked, the pigs were fine, happily munching the weeds in my garden. Rudder was sleeping, but Salty was at the gate whining. I looked and didn't see anything-- she usually barks and snarls at Kittitians, and whimpers at cats. Then something moved! It was a monkey not 3 feet from my car!

This is the best pict I got before it ran off, but how cool?! A huge monkey on the other side of the street fom my apt! It's like one of those Priceless commercials: $150,000 for vet school tuition, $550 for an apartment close to campus, $1000 for an old beat up car, seeing a Green Vervet Monkey outside your apartment next to your car while in vet school-- PRICELESS!

Half Done

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! Exams are over! (Until finals.) Over half of my 28-month term is over.

I didn't do spectacular on my Pharm2 exam, but I passed with plenty of room to spare. As long as I don't screw up the final, I foresee clear sailing into Semester 5.

Then one more year, and I'll be back in the states-- the land of exorbitant gas prices and gourmet food. How exciting! Meanwhile, I'm going to go back to the tv and get sucked in by cable.

No good deed goes unpunished

Ross has a low cost (free) spay/neuter program for locals. Over a month ago I passed the sign up sheet around on a Friday night when the Chicken Lady cooks. I got 2 takers, plus my apartment’s handyman (Spoose) who has 2 dogs.

Last week, Spoose was supposed to bring his dogs in for a pre-surgery checkup, but he forgot. We made another appointment (for today), but his transportation failed him.

Additionally over the weekend, to prevent a no-show, I spoke with one of the local dog owners and we decided I’d take her dog in to make things easier. At 7am this morning I got a call from her, panicked. Her dog had gotten wind of what was in for him so he took off to visit his lady friends and would not come back. Happens to all of us.

So I rearranged the appointments so that the other locally owned dog could come in. I got in the car to fetch this second, spare dog to drag in for his pre-surgery workup. Low and behold when I drove up, there was dog #1 thrilled to see me! I still took dog #2 just because I’d already switched their appointments.

I drag this poor guy to the clinic and put in him a cage. There’s a flea study going on, so I run to tell a professor that he has fleas, as I pick one off my neck. On my 20 min break, I rush back to the dog, who is wildly thumping his tail happy to see me. A friend and I start combing the fleas off him, putting them in a tube. We got quite a bit, and one tick, and then I rushed back to class.

I’d say it was about 15 min of me sitting in class when I first felt it—the flea. It was running through my hair. Around and around it went, first on the right then on the left, going from my scalp to the nape of my neck. I started to itch.

My classes dragged on for hours, plus a review, then more class. It still itched under my tight ponytail. During a break between classes, I had Jossie start picking through my hair like a monkey. Two others joined her. I could feel it running, hiding, evading them. They couldn’t find it and decided it was a psychogenic response.

I can still feel it rushing through my hair. Bugs, bugs, bugs everywhere. Last night I couldn’t sleep because I felt like there were ants all over me. Eventually I got up, thinking that I’m crazy. When I flipped on the light, my bed was covered in ants. Covered! I opted to relocate to the couch.

I guess it could be worse—the malaria-ridden mosquitoes have vanished. Three dogs to go, lets hope my flea really is psychogenic. I still itch all over.

Hurricane Bertha

Oh joy, another hurricane. It's going to miss us though.

Hurricane Bertha is now a category 3 storm with winds at 129 mph. I've been watching it inch across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa for several days now. It just didn't have the same look that Hurricane Dean did last year-- too high.

Remember Dean? (You might have to scroll down a bit since that's the August 2007 archive link.)

It's started to rain already. The Ross admin has started to try to panic the students by sending out hurricane warnings. As of 5AM, Bertha was 675 miles east-northeast of the northern Leeward islands (where I am; c.f. Windward islands) and about 1035 miles southeast of Bermuda. It's heading northwest at about 10 mph (which means it could hit Florida).

So long as the crabs don't start migrating out of the ocean to the mountains, I'm not going to worry. (Besides, I have a Clin Path test on Thursday, and Epi Final on Friday, and a Pharm test next Wednesday. Busy, busy!)

Cable!

To ameliorate my gloom, I got CABLE! I’m so excited; I’ve never had cable before! There are 60 or so channels, and guess what?! There’s still nothing on!

Actually, there are lots of movies. I watched E.T. over the weekend.

So how did I get cable? Gary (my landlord) arrived for a surprise visit. As we chatted, I showed him the guinea piglets and how big the puppy had grown. The next day I asked him about cable. He was shocked. Apparently not only am I the only one without cable in the building, but he thought I’ve had it since I moved in!

Now all I need to do is get my eyes done so I can watch the darn thing. Oh, and back to studying...

Return of the Pup

I gave up the pup today. He was fat, clean, parasite free, vaccinated, and even knew a few commands (sit, come, and NO!!!). The 7-week-old stinker sat in some fire ants and has about 15 bites on his butt though.

I drove out to the pup’s owner. He led me to the back of his poverty stricken yard (which I’d seen before), and untied another pitbull male on a chain. It was black and had many wounds from living a hard life, and a goopy eye. In another yard, he had 2 more pit bulls chained and 2 more in boxes. One in a box was a beautiful pregnant chocolate pitbull. They were all adults.

I know the guy is trying. He’s getting them vaccinated, he does take them to the vet, and he feeds them Science Diet. Everyone has to start somewhere, and no one’s standards are the same.

(I’ve even been berated by classmates for leaving my dogs in my un-air-conditioned apartment. The heat here might be different from those northern states, but sure doesn’t compare to a Texas summer. I think the temperature in my basement apartment is ideal, sometimes too cool which makes me break the heater out. I’m still the only one on island with a heater.)

I scolded the owner for not having a water and food bowl set up. He has his wife bring a bowl of water for the pup. Then the guy put him in a wooden box in the yard with no window. That’s where my poor little pup will grow up, and when he’s large enough, he’ll be chained to a tree until death finds him.

It really makes me sick, but I upheld my end of the bargain (to return a healthy pup) and ensured that Ross vet students would have a good reputation. I don’t know what’s ethical or not, but at least the pup won’t be fought. (I have a good evil eye and a threatening voice.) It’s really heart breaking to know that he won’t be alright from today on.