Cynthialynn2000's Xanga

Don't Wanna

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 16:56:07 GMT

Finally on break from school and finally on break. No clinical work to show up for, no house to decorate, no in-laws to entertain. Just one whole week of nothing to do, so I sit in my pajamas all day long, nibbling from left overs in the fridge because even cooking a meal would be too much effort. I feel as if I must conserve every precious bit of energy to keep my going on the next leg of this journey. 3 months till the next exam the another in 2 months. So many opportunities for th crippling stress to take hold.

Typically I'm anxious to get back to class. So many new things to learn and explore, but this term I'm not. Last semester took me to a very dark place in myself and I really don't want to go there again. I've been given all kinds of wonderful advice on how to not succumb to the panic attacks and crying fits that come about when I realize I've been staring at the same flash card for 45 minutes and still can't remember what's on the back. I know I'm not thick, I know the material isn't beyond comprehension. In fact I comprehend it just fine, I just can't commit all of the fine, tongue twisting words to memory. There's no room, it's all full. Yet, there is 2.5 years worth of material yet to be crammed. Time is helpful tool. When I sit with the information (after the exam) in time to seeps into my subconscious and further to the conscious. Unfortunately this is long past the time when I'm expected to know it. Little consolation.

Yes, there is always the opportunity to resit the exams in August. An experience I'm already familiar with and not fond of. The benefit of time is there, but the looming thought of failure as well. If the words don't come to me during the alloted 1.5 hour periods then I will have to repeat an entire year of course work. The last time I took the resits my hand shook so bad I had to steady it with the other to begin my essay. I've never been so anxious in my life. I passed then, which should give me some peace of mind for the future, but it doesn't.

I try to look at the positives of it all. If I do have to retake a year then I will be an expert at the material by the time I'm done. Yet, the $50,000 price tag for that year, as well as the extra time in Edinburgh weigh the scales to the side of pessimism. I'm trying to be optimistic, really trying, but the penetrating cold and persistent dark of Scotland are penetrating my spirit. I'm spent from fighting.

This all sounds as if I am hating my life right now, but I'm not. I love my life with Tim and the wonderful friends I've made here. I love the course work and the time I spend on farms and in clinics. If I didn't find some joy in all of this I would stop now and pursue another goal. I'm happy with everything except the paralyzing fear of failing that grips me. Last year it would take hold a week or two before an exam, but I could easily push it away and move on...this year it hit me in week 3 of lectures and hasn't left. Fear is exhausting and tormenting. I loathe fear. I forever strive to confront it, overcome it, move beyond it. For the first time in a long time, I am stuck in fear. The main difference is this time I know it. I know it and yet, feel powerless against it.

I'm on break now and can pretend that next term won't be the same. Have a new outlook, try again all of the meditation and relaxation techniques I've learned over the years. But I'm scared. I don't want to fall into the grip of fear again. I don't want to toss and turn and talk in my sleep. Wake up to the alarm clock only to realize I have really rested. While I "slept" my brain stayed active working, sprinting and now I'm more tapped then when I laid down the night before. I don't want to go to bed at night and suddenly feel my chest tighten up, breathing go short and shallow, muscles tense and throb with pain.

I want to sleep, to relax, to enjoy the life I have and the wonder and fascination of medicine. I want to live again, free of fear.

The no time to blog, blog

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 15:10:24 GMT

Cynthia Update 2007

January
-    Came back to Edinburgh from spending the holidays with the Family in California.
-    Started Year 1; Semester 2 of Vet School.
-    Went on a long weekend to Italy with Tim. Florence and Pisa, quite nice.

February
-    Study, Study & more study
-    Froze a bit as this is quite the chilly month in Scotland

March
-    Preparing for lambing season, by learning all of the horrible things that can go wrong, especially when the farmer is away. Confidence building for sure!
-    More studying
-    The daffodils and Crocus are popping up in the Meadows. Gorgeous! Gives me hope that warmth is near!

April
-    Lambing in Oxfordshire. Not as scary as I thought it would be. Exhausting, but fun. Learned ton and lost 10lbs. It was warm the whole time. So nice to thaw out!
-    Spent a day wandering around the town of Oxford. Cute & quaint.
-    Bought super industrial lotion to mend my cracking hands. Il let you imagine where theye been.

May
-    Exams....horrifying exams! Ie never been through anything so stressful and mentally debilitating as UK exam month. Week after week of timed essays and spot exams (you look into a microscope and tell them what you see. I want to say blue and purple blobs, but that won do).
-    Bear in mind that many of these exams are your ENTIRE grade for the year. Fly or die, baby.

June
-    Spent the first weekend in London visiting Chris.
-    Went to see Daniel Radcliff in the play Equus. Amazing!
-    Spend one week playing with Pigs and another week with Chickens. I don want to eat eggs for a very long time now. Most of the workers at the actory?don eat eggs anymore either. That not good. Please buy free range organic eggs!
-    Flew to Newmarket to learn as much as I could about the horse racing industry...and horses for that matter.
-    Spent a week working on a horse farm in Gloucestershire. My nearest neighbours were Prince Charles and Camilla. Unfortunately, when I tried to turn up for tea, they weren home. Pity.

July
-    Tim and I moved into an adorable and spacious two bedroom flat. It is so nice to not have flatmates anymore. Let me know when you want to visit!!!
-    Writing a research paper on West Nile Virus & the horse racing industry. Fingers crossed it will be published in a Scientific Journal by Jan 2008. Began studying for Resits. Resits are what you do in the Summer when you didn pass one of the gruelling exams in May. It basically a o-over.?So nice that that is available. However, when you know that failing a second time means re-doing and entire year of school...including paying the tuition again...it just a little bit of pressure.

August
-    Passed Resits! It official I a Third Year Vet Student. (Just a reminder that UK vet school is 5 years, but I completed 2 years in one. Confusing, I know.)
-    Tim & I visited New York, San Francisco and The OC all in two weeks. So much fun and so exhausting. Where I grew up scares him a bit ?even for a German it a bit too manicured and polished.
-    Celebrated our 1-year anniversary in Los Osos and Tim 33rd birthday with my family. Tim played pin the tail on the donkey for the first time. Too funny!

September
-    Tim Mama (Karen) came for a weeks visit. It nice to have her here and tp learn so much about Tim. Especially all the stuff he doesn tell me.
-    Year 2; Semester 1 ?already feeling stressed and overwhelmed by the amount of information we are being given. I feel confident about the concepts, but my brain is not dealing well with the route memorization of drug names, etc. Having to learn all new study techniques for this term. Yikes!

October
-    I turned 34 and Miss Lenore turned 13. Yup, wee both getting up there. Didn do much, as Tim & I both have the flu. Ugh!
-    Study, study, study

November
-    Took a needed holiday in Milan, Italy. Had a great time and got a bunch of early Christmas shopping done for the nieces. Didn get to see the ast Supper?painting as it sold out for ages....something about the a Vinci Code?hype. Not sure, haven read it. Guess Il have to go back to Milan again, twist my arm.
-    Study, stress, stress, study....not sleeping very well anymore., quite worried about December exams. I don feel close to being prepared and I not exaggerating.

December
-    Exams have come and gone and I still never felt prepared. I think I may have just passed one, but there another that is seriously questionable. Won find out until January if Il be spending another August in Edinburgh taking exams. I really don want to. Who knows!
-    Spending the week working the exotics ward at the school. Mostly dealing with Rabbits, but wee had one bearded dragon to play with. Plus I spent one day at the zoo assisting with Penguin surgery. Fun, crazy, but really fun.
-    Cleaning house in preparation for Christmas. Having a big feast at our place. Tim Mama is coming to town for one week. Wee hoping to take her to Roslyn Chapel, a historic church and also another a Vinci code?thing...Perhaps I should read the book, go see the movie or something. Wel see if I can find the time.

Animal Handling Exams

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 14:11:03 GMT

Everything you never wanted to know about a gerbil

I returned from lambing in late April, 10 lbs. lighter and exhausted. 6 lbs. left me from all of the physical work and the remaining 4 lbs. from a bout of food poisoning. Ugh. An effective, but NOT recommended weight loss plan. Still feeling a bit weak from the whole experience I launching into the first set of exams ?Animal Husbandry Practicals.

This set of exam tests not only tests our knowledge of the care, feeding and issues related to specific animals, but also our ability and confidence in handling them. There are a total of five 15-minute exams over the period of one week ?Horses, Sheep, Cattle, Dog/Cat and Small animal, which can include anything from a hamster to a snake (hopefully not together though). The staff are kind enough to ask if you have any aversions to specific small animals before testing you. I don know if that is to avoid or ensure that youl get that animal??? I spoke before I thought and said, o.?I then immediately imagined being asked to pick up a tarantula and shivered. Fortunately I was given a box full of gerbils.

Here the gist of how my exam went:
Examiner - What is this?
Cynthia - A gerbil (some what questioning)
E- Great. Tell me about Gerbils.
C - Uh, well, uh, they are originally sand dwelling creature from Mongolia so they are adapted to low water conditions. Being social creatures they should never be kept alone.
E ?Is this an appropriate cage for a gerbil?
C ?I hope so, otherwise why would you put them in it?
E ?Let me rephrase. What makes this an appropriate cage?
C ?Oh. Well, it made of metal, not wood or plastic, which they can chew through.
E ?Good. What else can you tell me about gerbils?
C ?Uh, uh. They need lots of exercise so having a wheel in the cage is important. No wait, that hamsters, sorry. Uh, theye great for kids because they rarely bite! No wait, that also hamsters. Crap. I sorry I getting a bit jumbled.
E ?No problem. Why don you pick one up and tell me what sex it is.
(The next 5 minutes are spent with me unsuccessfully attempting to pick up one of the 6 gerbils in the cage. When Ie finally caught one I turn it over and start looking for its private bits. Some say, can see the forest for the trees. I say, can see the bits for the enormous testicles. In the most unprofessional way, I gasped.)
C- It's definitely a boy. Of that I certain.
E ?Great. You can put it down now. Wee done.

So I wasted most of exam time, trying to catch the bloody rodent and getting everything wrong, but I supposed I back peddled REALLY well, because I passed.

The rest of my handling exams followed the same vein.
E - How much does that horse weigh?
C - 700 kg.
E - Really?
C - Well perhaps it closer to 500 kg.
E ?(Eyebrows raised) What color is the horse?
C - Bay......or Brown.
E - Well, which is it, Bay or Brown?
C - Brown (with conviction).
E - Wrong, it Bay. Why is it Bay?
C ?Because you just said it was. (of course)
E ?Cynthia!
C ?Yes, professor? (sheepishly)
E ?Go trot your horse.
C ?Ok. (I attempt to trot the horse)
E ?You trotted better than the horse.
C ?Wouldn't you be sick of trotting if you had had silly students like me trying to make you trot 25 times a day for the past week?
E ?Raise her back leg for an exam.
C ?(After three attempts and her ears flying back) I don think she keen on this.
E ?Neither do I. You're done. Get out of here. I don want to see you again.

Yay, that means I passed!!!

I won't go through every exam this way, but I will note that I got into an argument with one examiner over what a tabby was. Lucky for me I argued my case well and won. I nailed all of my sheep and cattle breeds and types of horse and cattle feeds (Yup, we have to know that too) and passed all 5 exams.

At the end of the week we sat a 2 hour essay exam with questions ranging from, describe the husbandry of a parrot, to define "selection intensity" (a genetics principal in breeding) and give an example of this in practice. I loved the parrot question because I could use a personal story for that essay.

"As a veterinarian I would recommend that parrot owners kept their pets out of personal spaces, such as bedrooms and bathrooms, as parrots enjoy mimicing human sounds. Once the animal begins imitating a sound or word, it is very difficult to retrain them."

I won't name names, but if you own this parrot, you know I talking about you! Il just say thank you though, I ended up getting honors on that paper and I'm sure it was for the entertainment value of my essay.

The saying is "No rest for the wicked." I must be quite wicked. After a week of intense studying and examination we were launched into two more weeks of lectures and labs on neuroscience. One would think they would give us a light topic at this point. No chance. So much for sleep. I hear it highly over-rated.

Long time no blog

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 10:21:47 GMT

As many have reminded me it has been ages since I wrote a blog of my adventures in Vet School. That is true. The neglected is not intended, but more a function of exhaustion. An exhaustion on all levels ?physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, transcendental...

For months I have been in a race for time to learn, do, master, and overcome. I think I getting there. I hope.

Rewind to April ?Spring Break for many college students. Lambing and exam study time for Royal Dick Vet Students. In the UK, most exams are given at the end of the year. One big cumulative exam worth 80-90% of your mark. All exams occur during the month of May, so typically all of April is given off for revision. They call it revision because the assumption is that you have been religious about studying the material all year long, which might be the case if there were 48 hours in a day.

Since my program is the 2 for the price of 1 program ?Two years of study for one tuition price ?wee been doing double time with everything. This means that April was not just study, study, study. It was Lambing, study, study, lambing, study.

What is this lambing thing I speak of? When did a ee beastie?become a verb? And if it is a proper verb, what are we doing to the poor things????

Lambing is the time of year when all the little lambs are born. Cute and wobbly on their new found legs. Wide eyed, bushy tailed and clamoring for mothers milk. Stuck and twisted in the backside of a ewe. I sorry was that a bit graphic? Youe lucky Ie spa red you the visuals in my photo album.

Lambing was great fun. I spent three weeks on a proper English farm in Oxfordshire and by some stroke of amazing luck it was WARM and DRY and BRIGHT with sun shining all day long (not just for 5 hours in the middle of my lectures). It was a little piece of heaven. The first week I wandered the fields checking to see if any of the ewes were in labor or had given birth. Then there was the preparation of the sheepy maternity ward, making dozens of pens filled with soft straw, fitted with water and feed bowls and tasty flakes of hay. No, I didn try the hay, but it did smell fresh and sweet. In evenings I would pull out my notes on animal nutrition and the phrase umen digestible nitrogen?finally made sense, because when we first received the nutrition lectures we hadn had ruminant digestion. I did have a clue what a rumen was! I always knew in laymen terms that a cow had four stomachs, but I didn know that they each had their own name and functions.

I sure that those of you reading this who thought I might someday treat your pet, free of charge, are having second thoughts about that. Just remember, I still have 3 more years to figure out what I doing and at the current learning curve that means A LOT!

Week two of lambing: There are 320 ewes, each is marked with a different color of spray paint. Blue means she having one lamb, green means twins, red mean three or more. There are pros and cons to too many or too few lambs. Singles tend to be big and like to get stuck during birth. Triplets or quadruplets tend to be tiny, have a difficult time surviving and the mother can always produce enough milk for all of them. The ideal number is two ?two of equal size. However, nature has a sense of humor and although most of our ewes are painted green, it best not to take anything for granted.

It is a Monday and things have been busy yet relaxed up to now. I wandering through the field of happy sunning ewes when I notice something a bit odd. One ewe, separated from the group has two heads. One big one in the front and a little one in the back. This is a bad sign. When the head comes out without the legs our woolly mama needs help. I walk towards her, she walks away, I stop and slowly edge towards her, again she walks away. I run at her full speed, which isn all that fast considering I wearing wellies, she takes off a break neck speed. All I can see if the little lambs head bouncing behind and I wonder if I be able to run that fast while giving birth? The idea behind chasing her is to A) Catch her, B) flip her onto her side, C) hold her down with one arm, while D) manipulating the lamb inside her so that it can fit through the birth canal. This is a time sensitive procedure because once the placenta is broken the lamb needs to breath on it own.

On that first day I used my cell phone to call for back up. Antony, a fit 18-year old farm hand, performed the capture and hold, while Robert, the farmer, showed me the ins and outs of removing a stuck lamb. 300 ewes and three weeks later I was downing and pulling on my own. If you woulde told me that would happen in the beginning I would not have believed you.

The maternity ward I helped build was teeming with mommies and babies by the end of my stay. Being that this farm was started in the 1950 much of the processes were from that era as well. Water, feed and hay was hand carried to each pen. Fresh straw was placed in the pens twice a day to keep the newborns clean, dry and warm and any lamb that looked a hungry or unwell was tube fed 3-4 times a day. Ewes are quite head strong and can be rather demanding at times. On a few occasions I arrive in the morning and begin the feeding routine. A handful of the ewes would stand with their front hooves on the top of the pens tapping a hoof every now and again, as if to say, ervice! Service! Can I get some service here!?I was quickly reduced from a trained medical person to diner waitress in the tap of a hoof. The kicker was that I if I wasn quick enough for their taste they would leap the side of the pen and dig into the bag of feed on their own. In my stubbornness I would leave these rude customers for last, that is until the morning when five ewes leapt out of their pens and charged the feed bag. The challenge wasn getting them back into their pens, it was figuring out which mother matched the pen with her lambs. A mismatch could mean rejection of the lambs and they would go hungry. Too long a separation from the correct lambs would mean the ewe would forget her own children altogether. I won say that sheep fit the typical umb?stereo-type, but I almost won be recommending them to Mensa any time soon.

Il let you do the math here ?300 ewes * average 2 lambs/ewe * hot day (lots of water) * tube feeding 3-4x/day. That easily takes up 14-16 hours per day and then there still that studying thing <sigh>. The next time you think, TGIF, just remember that for farmers and Vet students a Friday is the same as a Monday.

Don think I didn get away with bring a little lamb home, because I did. Her name is ittle Black Lamb?and she was the cutest little thing when she was born. Unfortunately, her evil mother didn think so. She was one of two and although LBL was born first the ewe decided that she wasn hers. The ewe adored the second spotted lamb and showered her with attention, but every time LBL tried to feed the ewe would head-butt her into the side of the pen. LBL never gave up. She tried snuggling up against the ewe to keep warm at night and the ewe would push her away. The sad irony is that the ewe eventually ended up sitting on the spotted lamb and all her milk dried up, leaving LBL without a mom. Well, except for me. Four times a day I would feed LBL from a bottle and cradle her like a baby. She loved it! Most lambs aren too keen on being held, but LBL got to the point where she would take a running leap into my arms when I approached her pen. She immediately try and suckle my ear lobe, finger, anything she could. When she was big enough I would pull her out of her pen and let her follow me around the yard as I did my chores. She loved playing games with Jarrocks, the farmers Jack Russell Terrier. Eventually, a ewe gave birth to a large single, one the same size as my 2 weeks old orphan lamb, and we gave LBL to her as a foster child. It took a few days, but LBL learned how to suckle again and bonded with her foster-sister. It was a huge relief to see her cuddled up with another lamb at night and growing faster on mothers milk than she ever did on milk powder.

Robert still sends me emails and calls to give me updates on LBL. Her growth is a bit stunted, but she is the most social of all the lambs. Getting a bit too big though to jump up in my arms.

Upcoming blog installments:
-    Animal Handling Exams ?everything you never wanted to know about a gerbil
-    What UK exams have done to me
-    Pigs and Chickens and Cages, Oh my!
-    Heaven is a horse farm
-    Settling into the new flat
-    What summer holds for Cynthia

The Next Level

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 18:43:05 GMT

I realize it's been quite a while since I've blogged. Life has been non-stop for quite sometime. Honestly, I'm not seeing it slow down anytime soon so please don't expect too much. With that said....

Uni has been going well. The course content isn't impossible, it's just the volume that can overwhelm at times. This is the last week of term, which actually doesn't mean much in terms of down time. Next week I will be off to Oxford for three weeks of lambing. What is that you ask? We'll it involves me getting up quite early, being rather cold and on occasion inserting my arm into the reproductive canal of a ewe. Sound like fun to you? Compared to sitting in 7 hours of lectures a day and coming home to study for 4-5 more hours, it's sounds like a blast to me! All I ask is that the snow pleeeeeeasse go away. We've been having flurries all day and I'm not liking.

As you all know I have issues with cold weather. It's great for snowboarding and day trips because at anytime you can go inside to take a warm bath or sit by a fire. When you have to stand out in it listening to the gut sounds of horses and cattle, not so fun. Actually, it's quite draining.

So aside from being way to cold and mild seasonal depression due to lack of sunlight - I'm great! Once lambing is over I'll be catapulted into the throws of final exams. Four weeks worth! It's brutal. There are three sets of exams (oral, practical and written) and only one set is worth less than 80% of my final grade. No pressure. Right? Fortunately by May 31st it will all be over and the chips will fall where they may.

The super cheerful part of my life (beyond knowing that I get to rectal a cow on Thursday) is that my boyfriend Tim and I found a flat together this weekend. It was quite serendipitous as most great things in my life are. We had been having many deep conversations about what we were looking for in a home together, yet when we'd go look at something we couldn't quite find it. I was feeling the pressure of securing something before exams to get it off my mind and was willing to compromise on something, like having a garden or having to fix something up a bit, but we weren't finding anything that really inspired us. Until this weekend that is. My landlady, know I was moving out, suggested another flat she owned nearby. The current tenant, a vet student (shocking) is in her final year and leaving in August. The price was right and if we looked at it and like it, it was ours. Too good to be true right? Lucky for me, my life has been so so good over the past few years - when we walked in we both lit up. It was exactly what we'd been talking about, looking for, wanting to create. Completely furnished with great art deco wood, a garden in back, huge south facing windows, one bedroom with a study/guestroom and a modern kitchen. There are so many other little details that make it perfect which I can't describe so I guess you'll just have to come and see it.

Needless to say, I'm very excited. There is also a touch of trepidation there too. It's been a long time since I've lived with a significant other, but I adore Tim and am looking forward to taking things to the next level. He's another one of those too good to be true parts of my life that I appreciate immensely. With that said I believe dinner is ready and I'm starving.

Be well until I find a spare moment and breath to write again.

Meet Haggis

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 16:41:28 GMT

Meet Haggis

This is Haggis my adopted Scottish Mule sheep at school. I'd name her something else like Scafy, Slippers or MyNextSweater, but she is destine to be a haggis or mutton or a lambchop. She and I have talked and she knows that I would NEVER make haggis of her, but we aren't all this way.

She's quite cute don't you think?? I know all you guys are thinking thoughts, but honestly, she's only 19 months old. Behave yourselves.

A very fascinating thing about Haggis and other sheep is that they can only breath through their noses. This means that if you want a urine sample from the all you have to do is plug their nose for a moment. I think you'd wet yourself if you found you couldn't breath all of a sudden. I don't recommend that you try this on your own. It's just one of those interesting vet school facts, like horses can't vomitt. All day you sit in class learning about biochemical pathways and various cell types and what do you take home at the end of the day??? Facts like horse can't vomitt and sheep pee when you plug their nose. I'm sure you can tell I getting the most out of this course. Honestly, I'm learning WAY more, but I'd bore you to tears if I went on and on about the origins and insertions of all the muscles of the body. You don't care unless something stops working and as we get closer to exams I won't either.

4.5 Weeks to Exam Day...I'm getting loopier by the moment. Time to turn the heat on it's 6C outside. Sat it's supposed to be -2C - Fun fun fun!

4:30pm Darkness and Horizontal Rain

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 19:24:32 GMT

The time change happened this weekend. I was so excited about having an extra hour of sleep on Sunday, well technically an extra hour of study time (I'm so pathetic) and it was nice. But today was when reality hit. I walked out of lectures at 5pm to complete darkness. I'm not talking dark due to bad weather or dusk, as in the sun is going down. I'm talkin' the sun was looooonnnnnnggggg gone, but 5pm.

I knew with was going to occur, in fact by December the sun won't rise until 9:30am and will disappear by 3pm. Knowing and experiencing are two different things. And knowing and knowing that this is what you will be experiencing for the next several months is really quite different. Oh my. I suppose I will get through it by imagining summers is warm exotic places like India and Indonesia. That's my plan.

As I write this I notice that it has started raining. It's a special kind of rain - Edinburgh rain - the kind that comes down horizontally. The kind that doesn't understand the function of an umbrella. Sometimes it is futile to attempt to stay dry, but still I try. Silly me.

The UK Version of a Mission Burrito

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 23:38:58 GMT

Last weekend in London Chris and I passed a fajita stand. Being native Californians raise on authentic Mexican food, you can't take away our taste buds for it. It's that little piece of home far far away. Well, at least you hope it will be. And in a way it was, but there was just a little something missing. Something I couldn't put my finger on. What it did was intensify my craving for truely authentic Mexican food. So I made it my task to recreate a Mission Burrito with ingredients from the UK. Easier said than done!

To start, no Mexican cheese. The consistency might be right, but the flavor just isn't there. All the local cheeses are so tangy. The flip side is that sour cream exists in the form of Creme Frache, a non-sour verision of sour cream. So between the tangy cheese and non-tangy creme frache you have Mexican cheese and sour cream.

Next you must make the black beans. Refried bean don't exist here either, but I prefer black beans anyway. The only Mexican beans I've found in the UK are "Mexican Style" Baked Beans, which are exactly what they sound like - Boston style (sweet) baked beans, with chili powered mixed in. It's really quite wrong! I'll make my black beans from scratch thank you. Four hours later and I have a wonder stew of onions, garlic, chili powder, cumin, and black beans. Oh the flat smells so goood!

Now for the salsa. Again, the canned stuff just doesn't taste quite right. Probably because I never really eat canned salsa. The fresh stuff was so readily available and so much better anyway, why buy it in a can??? I chop the fresh tomatoes, red onion, garlic, add in all the spices and then load in the cilantro (corriander as it's called here, just like the seed). I add in the general amount, chill and taste....not quite right. Add in more cilantro, chill, taste...better, but not quite. Add in the remaining four large sprigs, note that the salsa is mostly green now, instead of the typical red, interesting, chill and taste. There you go, four hours later I have proper salsa! Seriously, cilantro isn't quite as spicey here. It doesn't have the same kick as it does in SF. Must mentally modify all recipes which call for cilantro.

Now that I have all the bits and pieces for my Mission Burrito I invite Tim over to share in my glory because I have created the closest thing I've had to a Mission Burrito outside of SF. I am proud and my belly is happy. Being that Tim's German and has never been to California (or Mexico) I don't know that he can truely appreciate my accomplishment, but he's a good sport and enjoys watching me revel in my victory. Plus he gets fed, so how can he complain?

Ah yes, did I mention that I forgot to buy white rice - so I ended up using basmati. Oops. Everynow and again the basmati flavor would come through, but who's paying attention anyway. Next mental note, buy white rice next time unless you like Mexican/Indian fusion...and well, some people do. So there.

Perhaps my next feat will be to recreate a Zachery's Pizza? In my spare time between dissections, yum. That is, unless someone wants to mail me a frozen spinch and mushroom deep dish for my birthday??? I'd really appreciate it. Really I would!!! A girl can dream, can't she?

International Furrball

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 19:44:41 GMT

This weekend my freaky kitty Lenore arrived in the UK. The process I've had to go through to get her here was quite grueling, not to mention expensive as all get out. I started it all back in February and here she is curled up on my lap in Edinburgh purring away.

Despite everything I went through I think my mom had the worst of it though. On Thursday she has the task for taking her granddaughter, Lenore, to the vet for her final exam before her flight on Friday. The exam went well aside from it taking the Vet over an hour to figure out the USDA forms - this is no reflection on the competence of the the Vet, trust me. So the exam goes well and Lenore goes home and directly under the bed!

Friday morning - Lenore, being the drama queen she is, is still a bit miffed from the Vet visit. Now Grandma has the task of not only getting her in the carrier, but fishing her out from under the bed first. Bear in mind that Lenore, being a bit chucky at 13 lbs. can be as strong as an ox when need be and she hasn't had a nail trim in 4 months. This is a bad combonation - like velcro and superglue. Not helpful! Grandma prevails, but not without a little bit of bloodshed. Oops!

Once in the carrier Lenore has an hour and a half of drive time to the airport to scream her head off, which I'm sure she did. Grandma takes the screaming banshee along with the impossible paperwork to the airline to be informed that Lenore couldn't fly because her paperwork was incorrect. What??? We've spent the past 8 months preparing for this day. I personally have sent over 50 emails to Virgin Cargo, the USDA and Lenore's vets in Georgia and California to ensure that all of our t's were crossed and our i's dotted. As most of you know my background is in government compliance, I can anticipate what they're going to get all pissy about and I attempt to deal with it before the moment of truth is upon us. And now, my poor mother, who's just following orders is a LAX and being told that the paperwork was incorrect.

Thank goodness cell phones exisist - Mom calls me in tears stressed beyond belief and completely confussed. Mind you, I'm on a train 100 miles outside of Edinburgh on my way to London to meet Lenore's train. So whilst training along my mom passes her cell phone to the Virgin Atlantic customer sevice rep and I start talking sweet and fast. I do my best to explain - I'm a vet student calling from Scotland and this is my cat you are looking at. I've spent the past 8 months making sure that I've complied with every request they made, I've kept in regular contact with "name drop" this whole time to ensure things would go smooth for the woman who's crying in front of you, my mother. She's not very happy right now and I need for you to help me. Please help me get my cat on this plane.

The woman explained to me that Lenore had not been approved by a USDA veterinarian. I asured her that she had and we had researched it every step of the way. Supposedly the paperwork did not reflect this and the only USDA vet had already left for the day. I pleaded with the woman to call the vet and see if they would/could make an acception. After several minutes of begging and niceties the rep. put me on hold and attempted to contact the vet. When she returned I was told that the vet was still in an had agreed to stick around an wait for my mom to drive to the office. Now we needed approval from the airline to extend the drop off time for my kitten-cat. They did and things seem to go smooth from there. Mom went from tears to go go go mode. She was a superstar. She got Lenore back in the car, to the vet and back in record time. With the help of my also superstar Aunt I must add.

What the vet found was that Lenore had indeed been examined by a USDA vet and the paperwork approved. However, instead of "stamping" the paperwork it had been "embossed." You couldn't see it unless you looked really hard or ran your hand over it. Ugh! Oh well, at least they found it.

So Lenore made it on the plane and had a rather unremarkable 13 hour flight to London where she recieved her passport and an international traveler medalion. How many of you can say that you have either of those????

But her journey was not over. She went from the plane to a taxi, to the London Tube, to a bus, to Chris' flat in Islington, London. That night she cuddled close to my head and purred like I've never heard her purr before. Oh my cutie. Sunday we took a bus, to the train from Kings Cross to Waverly Station, Edinburgh and finally a taxi to home. She's quite the traveler! She was so good throughout the whole thing that I might consider traveling with her more often...or not! I think I'm more stressed with her traveling than she is. Yes, I'm one of those silly pet owners, better to sympatize with my clients don't you think.

Now we sit, me on the bed, Lenore half on me and half on my laptop, her warming me and purring away. The way it should be...except that Grandma misses her like crazy. Guess she'll just have to come vist.

Say Hi to Cassie

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 00:54:58 GMT

Say Hi to Cassie

Cassie is one of the teaching ponies at the school. Isn't she cute??? I just had to put her in because my sisters name is Cassie too. They both have brown hair, but the pony's is much much darker. However, they're both quite cute, sweet and love the sunshine.

University is quite hectic these days. There are so many lectures and labs that it's hard to keep up with all of the material. We all get excited when we notice a 1-2 hour break in the day because it means we can study or run an errand. Weekends are slated primarily for studying, ah yes and catching up on sleep. I spend most of my time these days playing with dead animals (rabbits, cats & dogs) in dissection lab. By the end of this year I hope I remember what a live animal looks like. The facial expressions on the cats we have are downright sad and a bit scary. Happy Halloween.

Everyone has been in one of three states lately - getting ill, ill or recovering from being ill. I'm fortunately been in a different class, fighting getting ill. Today my body waged quite a war against something as it forced me to sleep for 4 hours in the middle of the day. I don't know what it was, I didn't feel too bad before, but I was burning up and having strange fever dreams as I slept and woke just as the fever broke. Since then I've felt fine. Who knows what that mystery illness was. All I can say is I'm pleased it's gone.

I think my mother is officially depressed about me coming to Scotland. Ever since I applied for school here she has been worried that I'm never coming back to California. I never made any promises that I would, but I know she holds out hope. Sorry mama. And now that I have a wonderful European guy who has swept me off my feet, I think she's certainly that I'm never coming back to the States. To that all I can say is "I don't know." I never expected to come to Edinburgh, nor did I expect to like it as much as I have. I can say that I'll be ready for a warmer climate when I get with school, but where that maybe is written in the wind. Only time will tell....

My kitty Lenore is flying over from LA in less than 2 weeks. I can't wait to see her, but am a bit fearful of what the journey will do to her. She has quite a fragile mind - hopefully she'll bounce back. If the flights between CA and GA haven't prepared her, nothing will.

Ok, must get to sleep. I'm up at an odd hour, but only because of my odd fever nap today. Do still need sleep to function.