Delish

Yummy Salad I made up:
shredded cabbage, carrots, cucumber, scallions.
cut up mango
3 handfuls peanuts
2 fresh limes (the juice)
salt
quinoa

The Little Guys Need Standing Up For!!!

I just received a heartening message (I get hundreds of messages decrying the need for help for and the demise of our environment, and after almost two full years in vet school, this is my first positive message) saying "thanks to your voice and efforts, legislation has been pushed back that would have undermined efforts to protect species and their habitats. Also, May 11th has been named Endangered Species Day." Yet, the Endangered Species Act remains vulnerable - and the next Congress could easily repeat the same mistakes. That's why it's as important as ever for us to educate our members of Congress about this issue. Let's just take a look at Kentucky's involvement shall we? For starters, neither of our senators have signed the bill to increase Endangered Species Act (ESA) funding . Secondly, while the Endangered Species Day was voted unanimously for, none of Ky's congressmen helped introduce the bill. Thirdly, have a look at our environmental voting in congress: just another reason to vote democrat over republican. Sad!!! Finally, when you contact your congressmen, remind them that here, IN KENTUCKY, WE HAVE ENDANGERED SPECIES THAT NEED PROTECTION!!!!!!!!!!!! Besides being endangered and an integral part of the health of our ecosystem (that includes YOU. YOU are part of the ecosystem), they have delightful names like Orangefoot Pimpleback, Rough Pigtoe, Fat Pocketbook, Dromedary Pearlymussel, and Pink Mucket. But they also include larger animals like the Puma, certain bats, woodpeckers and other birds, plants like Running Buffalo Clover and small fish like this Relict Darter. (also, a picture of the orangefoot pimpleback. I just couldn't help myself. Gotta include that one as much as possible).

i get funny emails

I was just cleaning out my inbox, and thought it was funny that I regularly get emails like this:

Subject: goat heads

Hi,
Please also bring your goat heads out from the walk-in along with the horses to be sawed in half. Thanks.
-A

Kitty Cat Toilet Training

In order to cut down on energy spent on creating, packaging, transporting, buying, not to mention CLEANING kitty litter, I am endeavoring to train my cats to use the toilet. To keep up on the process, check here. To join in on the feline ecosavvy and clean (after the mess of training) fun, order your own training kit. It costs less than 13 smackers!

Weekend in New York

Quintessential new york cabs and spring time tulips.

Walk in the park with fellow Melodia-wearing dancers.

Bunnies at Paige's apartment, Easter morning.

NEW CAMERA!

Having fun already! (more to come, i'm ever so sure)

the new nostalgia

When i think of high school, I think of how I spent my extra time in high school and how I kept up with friends, it involved talking on the telephone (the old kind that plugged into the wall, that had wires going to your house for it), and... Um. And, well, I guess that's about it. We got together and did things too. Sometimes in class we passed notes in special folded up kinds of ways (that was more middle school). But I just spent the last hour or so looking at my step sisters' and cousins' blogs/myspace areas (they are all in high school), and wow. Even though I never used the internet like that in high school (emails were *just* beginning to arrive), I got nostalgic. Just because of the WAY in which people of that age interact. Desperate to want to be accepted and just as desperate not to seem desperate. At all costs trying to convince others of their individuality, but cautiously. I can tell you that I have mixed feelings about that age, from my own perspective. I certainly realized how trivial high school was, and how what I did or didn't do wouldn't matter a few years down the road, and at the time I think I was pretty unsympathetic with others who clung so voraciously to abstract notions of popularity and the like--but with 10 years distance, I gotta say, it's pretty cute. Very endearing. But also very VERY vulnerable, and my heart goes out to them. Awww. Kids, you'll get through it! Hang on, don't sucumb and sell yourself out or do anything out of desperation--you're strong, you can do it! After high school is better, I promise!

In honor of their efforts, their accomplishments, their trials and tribulations, I would like to dedicate this meme to High Schoolers across the land. Thank you Clare for the (particular) inspiration:

Put your music player on shuffle.
Press forward for each question.
Use the song title as the answer to the question.

How am I feeling today?: Exit
Where will I get Married?: I want to tell you
What is my best friend's theme song?: Catnip Dream
What is the story of my life?: Best Imitation of Myself
what is/was highschool like?: Interlude
How can I get ahead in life?: The Last Laugh of the Laughter
What is the best thing about me?: The Millionaire's Holiday
How is today going to be?: Get Together
What is in store for this weekend?: Mad John's Escape
What song describes my parents?: Prettiest Birds
My grandparents?: A Thousand Years
How is my life going?: Have We Lost Our Dream?
What song will they play at my funeral? Eerie Didgeridoo
How does the world see me?: Casanova 70
Will I have a happy life?: O, Do Not Forsake Me
What do my friends really think of me?: Catharsis
Do people secretly lust after me?: Donkey Riding
How can I make myself happy?: Skagget
What should I do with my life?: Monster of Polska
Will I ever have children?: Cuckolds All-A-Row
What is some good advice?: No Doze
What is my signature dancing song?: Free Floating
What do I think my current theme song is?: Living in the Past
What does everyone else think my current theme song is?: I'm So Sleepy
What type of men/women do you like?: Bubble, Dignity

"Cartoons"

"In my mind, cartoons are things that are animated. They are also fun. These are neither. I would say they are drawings, or illustrations. But we call them cartoons to trick you into learning them." --Dr. Keating, on these slides of apoptosis and necrosis in General Pathology.

Also, a fellow vet student's view on it all.

In good news, I am FINISHED with anatomy and I think I did pretty well on the last exam. No more 9 hour-ers!

Up, down, up, down.

The latest UP is this: I have started teaching classes at the local YMCA and the turnout is wonderful! I teach two beginning tribal fusion bellydance classes--one on Monday nights 7pm, one on Tuesday afternoons 12:30pm, packed with 30 and 22 students respectively! Right on...
They're psyched and so am I!

(PS-I have embedded a video of my dancing from a performance I did down in Florida last year at the very bottom of this page....Scroooooooll down all the way to watch (o: )

18 Evilking exams down, 2 to go; 11 nine-hour anatomy exams down, 1 to go)

I work hard, I work harder. Doesn't matter though. I've failed the past 3 exams I've taken. "Grades don't matter, just learn the material"--so I learned the material and have to repeat the year anyway because Damn it, grades DO matter, and then repeating the year doesn't fare much better for me, and I am looking at failing again. Looking it in the god damned mouth. I am so friggin burnt out. I just want to sleep. I just want to never have to wake up at 5am to take a stupid tricky-ass exam at 7am that ruins my day, leaves me recuperating all week, and failing another exam the next monday ever again. I'm so OVER it. The inability to perform well no matter how much energy I put in has left me more apathetic than ever. I. Hate. It.