Tests and family!

Well, to recap this week, I had 2 tests, 2 quizzes, and 3 family members come visit! The family was by far the most fun! We ate at all our favorite restaurants and had a really good time. Luckily, the two tests (Parasitology and Pathology) landed earlier in the week (Monday and Wednesday), so I got to enjoy the company and only study for the quizzes during my breaks at school. It worked out well and I did pretty well on all of it.
I'm always amazed at my in-laws' mobility (no offense, but my parents just aren't like that!). Gabriel's mom and dad came 8 hours (16 round trip) for a two night visit and picked up G's grandma on the way...aren't they amazing? Anyway, I'm glad they came up for the visit, b/c it always nice to replenish familial emotions.
Nothing else exciting happened this week...just a lot of studying; however, I'm heading home tonight for the weekend of my best friend's wedding, so I'm sure a lot will happen for me to report on in my next post!
-Shirin

Gabriel sitting with his lovely grandmother at the Thai restaurant.

My delicious lunch: Panang curry, for those of you who are wondering.

The family lunch (not pictured but present: G's mom and me).

Typical scene at my house: dogs and vet students; I think we were studying pathology.

Our newest little babies.

I haven't posted any kitty pictures lately, but that doesn't mean they aren't still here. Actually, most of them are new, so maybe you've never seen them...I can't remember.
Right now we have 3 siblings, 1 girl and 2 boys. The latest boy was just trapped about 2 days ago, so he's still really scared. The other 2 are much more used to us and are very sweet. It's hard to spend enough time with each since school has started, but I guess we're the best they've got!
-Shirin

Beth, helping me socialize the newest one, Jojen.

His sweet brother Benjen. He used to look like his brother did: crazy and scared!

My sweet girl Tully. We've had her for a very long time and she's almost totally normal at this point.

Busy Sunday.

For some, Sunday is the day of rest. For me, it's a day to get stuff done. Daily itinerary so far:

7:45 AM Wake up
8-9:30 AM Walk Cha Cha at the dog park
9:30-10 AM Give Cha Cha a bath
10-10:30 AM Make Gabriel breakfast
10:30-11:30 AM Study parasites in the vet lab with Beth
11:30-12 AM Play Super Mario with Gabriel
12-1:30 PM Go to the dog shelter and take pictures for the petfinder page.
1:30-2 PM Return home and shower
2 PM Update the blog and make entries for the shelter dogs on the internet
3 PM-bedtime Study, clean, cook, nap, play, and get ready for another busy day.

-Shirin

Cha Cha's legs and belly after running through muddy puddles at the park (they were worse before he jumped in the lake)

The dog park.

I had to cover the seat with garbage bags since I drove my dad's truck...he was SOOOO dirty!

A happy little dirty hoofie.

A disgruntled Cha Cha after his spray down with the hose outside.

My vet lab where I study parasites.

One of the many parasite pics I took through the microscope. This was the sexual stage of a coccidian.

At the dog shelter taking pictures of homeless babies. This poor girl was very itchy. She also wanted to be Gabriel's lap dog!

How vet students have fun!

I just finished my 2nd week of school and am suddenly remembering why I never had time to do anything last year....I'm already feeling swamped! Oh well, I'm enjoying myself and it's still probably better than working full-time (although I'd like to have an income!)
I have 2 big tests next week and some other stuff to do, so I'd better get studying! It's been hard to get back into that!
-Shirin

Beth and Denise waving from the middle of the sophomore room. This is where we spend alot of time everyday. I sit to the right of Denise and in front of Beth.

Looks like we're studying, doesn't it? Well, we sort-of are. Right now, though, Denise seems to be telling me something much more interesting than protozoal life cycles!

Beth is learning another vet med topic: what clothes look best on dogs (Bren, aren't those your old shorts? They are Cha Cha's now!)

Look! I make the peace sign in photos now too! I've spend so much time with our visiting Japanese colleagues, it's rubbed off on me! (Notice that I have a salad on my lap and look very happy!)

Diversity Co-chair.

So, did you guys know that I'm the chair of the Diversity Committee here at the vet school? Well, I've had a really good experience as chair so far, but I've had a lot of stuff to do for it already and am feeling a little warn out (sadly, it's only the 2nd week of school).
In any case, we've been doing cool stuff and hanging out with the visiting Japanese vet students this week. Yesterday, we went to the Mall of GA and ate at the Longhorn Steakhouse (I had no idea that's what was planned...I went as a guest of another vet school club), and today my club hosted an International Potluck in the school lobby and, this evening, I went with Gabriel to the house of the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for a BBQ with some professors, administrators, and the Japanese students. My club is also taking the students out on Thursday night for a walk downtown and dinner in a local pub...nothing like the authentic college experience: beer and pizza!
We also have an International Trivia night planned for November and a "Safe Space" training session for any student or faculty that want to participate. "Safe Space" signifies that a person that is gay, bisexual, or transgender is safe from discrimination, usually in a professor's office. But, anyone can get trained, so we're trying to get that organized. I feel like a very open-minded person, but I think I still have a lot to learn about those issues. For example, I almost always just assume a person I meet is straight until proven otherwise...that's not really fair or accurate, if you think about it!
I also have to share one more little tidbit before studying a little and going to bed. Some of you know that when I met Gabriel for the first time, he struck me as a quiet, dull boy (sorry, it's true). Now that I know and married him, he's the most interesting person I've ever met, but he's still not that good at talking to strangers and usually relies heavily on me at first to make "small talk." So, last night when I roped him into going to the steakhouse with me, I felt that I would, again, be responsible for making conversation with the visiting Japanese students we were sitting with....boy, was I wrong! I have never seen him so chatty or comfortable talking to a person he just met! I was having a little trouble coming up with topics to discuss with them, and he was just gabbing away about the girls' pets, favorite movies, and Japanese culture. I was very impressed. Later, he told me it was just like his job in Japan where he taught English for a year and just sat around making small talk in English...still, I was very impressed...I didn't know if I was sitting next to an impersonator or what!!!
OK, enough writing. Parasitology awaits!
-Shirin

My little chatty Kathy with his new Japanese friends at the BBQ.

The whole vet student group at Longhorn's.

My dinner at the steakhouse (all the others we taking pictures of how big their steaks were).

He's a bad boy, but you gotta love him!

This picture was sent to me by Beth, who was taking care of Cha Cha for us yesterday. The girl in the picture is Beth's dear friend Liz, who was visiting from Alaska, where she was doing Americorp for a year. While at Beth's house, Cha Cha dug a hole under her fence and let both of her dogs out of the yard (they all came around to the front door, at least), trying to steal candy off of the counter, and went through her trash can and ate some trash. Gotta love him....but I'll be glad when Mommy Anahita takes him back on Labor Day!
-Shirin

Fun weekend.

Well, I may like school but that doesn't mean I'm studying more than I have to right now. I don't have an exam until a week after next, so this weekend was full of friends and fun. David was down to visit and we played games with our good friends, Nowell and Denise (she's my classmate)...trivia on Fri night and poker on Sat. The losers of poker had to buy the winners' breakfast this morning, so me, Denise, and Nowell bought breakfast for David and Gabriel. Typical...the seasoned poker players ended up winning, not that we didn't try to beat them!
This afternoon, David did some handy work for us, including a very dirty job they described as "cleaning the air conditioning coils." See pictures below to find out what Gabriel and I did while David fixed up our house. We're very appreciative of him...Gabriel can fix computers all day long, but other house work is not either of our fortes.
School and work starts tomorrow, so it's back to our real lives.
-Shirin

David, Nowell, Denise, and Gabriel before we started trivia.

Denise's dog, Jack, got seriously watched by one of our kittens (who also got adopted this weekend).

David doing some dirty work.

What Gabriel was doing at the time.

At least I was making everyone lunch while poor David worked!

It's good to be back!

Well, I'm not gonna lie: I really love school. I always have. It's not so much of a revelation to me, though last year did end up being very tiring and stressful, and towards the end I wanted to be done very badly. Regardless, I am so glad to be back. I just love (almost) all the topics we talk about and think I'm going to have such an interesting year. So far, I'm taking Pathology, Parasitology, Epidemiology, and Pharmacology. I have to say, Pharm is gonna be really hard and probably pretty boring, but the rest are fascinating. Apparently, MDs barely focus on parasites in med school and are even pretty bad at diagnosing parasitic infections in humans (according to my professor), but vets are fully aware of and better at recognizing parasitic infections b/c we deal with them so much. My summer research mentor is my parasitology professor, so that makes it doubley fun. Pathology is also taught by two of my favorite professors, two semi-crazy ladies with lots of energy and humor. Today was our first lab/quiz session and was very interesting. It was much more like you'd imagine a hard core professional school to be: we all stood in the necropsy room, wearing our boots, gloves, scrubs, and lab coats, looking at a bunch of dead animal parts. There was a brief history about each specimens and then we were quizzed orally by our professor on the morphological diagnosis of these tissues, the pathogenesis of the diseases we saw in the tissues, and how it ultimately caused death. She fired questions at individuals and put us on the spot to answer whatever question she could think of. My group got a horse heart, full of "paint brush" hemorrhaging and pictures of horse intestines, covered in pinspot hemorrhages called petechia (Pathology has a whole new vocabulary, just like Anatomy did). The horse died of Salmonella, and we had to explain how and why. Very cool stuff! I really enjoyed the session. It was sort of hard to think on my toes, but overall very educational and "real world-ish."
In other exciting news, we had a 3rd year vet student interrupt our Epidemiology class the other day so he could propose to his girlfriend, one of my classmates. It was shocking and romantic, though we all agreed we'd kill our boyfriends if they ever did that to us. I took some pictures on my phone.
I'm very glad it's the weekend, but I actually am glad I get to go back to school on Monday. I know it's the beginning of the year, and I'll be worn out soon enough, but right now I'm loving it.
-Shirin

My lab group garbing up for the necropsy lab (it's a contaminated zone).

We had to have rubber gloves, scrubs, lab coats, rubber boots, and name tags.

My friend Bob showing off his new kitchen gloves. Nice!

Hyperemia of a colon.

Gingival petechia of a cow.

The big proposal! (Notice my professor in the front, as well as his power point about Infectious Diseases up on the screen behind them).

She said, "yes!"

The new fiance with her ring. (It was really hard to pay attention in class after that excitement!)

Why Barbaro was put down.

Someone asked me recently why Barbaro (the great race horse) was euthanized and why the owners and vets didn't try to keep him alive at all costs.
Well, here's a diagrammatic explanation of why:
Basically, he developed laminitis in his good rear leg (the one that wasn't broken) and eventually sustained too much pain and damage to his left hoof to live a good life. The immunulogy of it is complicated, but if a horse gets laminitis, it basically means his hooves fall off. Since it takes about as long as a nail would to grow back, the hoof separating from the leg is often a death sentence to a horse.
I know this is the most random post, but I was just studying for my Pathology course and came across this diagram that explains it all. LPS comes from bacteria and causes lots of immune chemicals to be released in the body. These cytokines cause lots of problems, including laminitis and death. Sorry if this was boring.
-Shirin

Having a little fun!

We decided that since it's a Monday, my first day of school, and Gabriel had to work late that we should have some fun...so, we played Nintendo! Gabriel refused to be pictured, but here's me kicking some butt in Super Mario Bros...really brings me back!
-Shirin

Animal house.

Well, you all know there are 5 kittens in my guest room (see previous post). But, being friends with vet students also lends to lots of requests for pet-sitting as well. So, along with our 5 babies and Cha Cha (we have him til Labor Day Weekend), we also have one friend's cat and another friend's dog. Plus, I am also going to one of their houses to take care of her cat there. Seems like a lot, no?
Luckily, I'm crazy about animals and am glad to do favors for my friends...and, the new dog is a great buddy for Cha Cha, though he has a bad habit of barking an awful lot! Oh well.
Gabriel is a different story. While he loves cats in general, and the cat we're keeping for my friend, dogs are a whole different ball game for him. (Makes me laugh since the first time he ever called me was to ask me what kind of puppy he should adopt: I told him NONE). All the aspects of dogs that make them so great are lost on him, since he can accurately name so many bad ones: they bark, they chew on things, they drag food off of our counter when we're not looking, they are dirty, and they have to be taken outside constantly. So, depsite the fact that I've been enjoying the constant companionship of dogs that follow me around the house and can go jogging with me outside, we will be giving the dogs back soon, and I'll probably never be allowed to have another again! Until my next friend needs a dog-sitter, that is.
-Shirin

Gabriel and his babies (the mean one is not pictured)

Monster Kitty (sorry, it's a cell phone pic)

The hoodlums.

We're yellow and silly!

We just watched the new Simpson's movie and it was great. Anyone who appreciates that show at all owes it to themselves to go see it. In honor of one of the greatest shows on earth, we created ourselves in their own images at www.simpsonizeme.com. I'd love to see some of your pictures...send them to our e-mails and we'll post them!
-Shirin

Our family is always changing...

First, we had 7, then 4, then 2, then 4 again, then 6, and now 5. That's right, I'm talking about kittens. They are the joyful additions to our family that we have enjoyed so much ever since moving into our own place. We were about to get 4 more today, which would increase the total to 9 (yikes), but luckily the foster home decided to keep them. Can't say I'm too disappointed, since I'm in charge of all the animal stuff until school starts. It's not too much work, but dog-sitting Cha Cha and cat-sitting Monster (a friend's cat) as well is definitely a part-time job.
Here are some of our new members, so as to keep you all abreast of the family we are right now. We actually just said good bye to one of our favorite kittens ever: Tywin. He will be sorely missed.
-Shirin
PS Brendan, we need you to use your dog whispering skills for the cat named Daenerys. She's plain hateful towards us, so come on over and tell her to chill out!

Benjen, one of our newer ones. He's the brother of the two grey/white kittens.

Daenerys, our newest kitten. She's a ferocious little thing (we took her b/c she bit her foster dad). Don't worry, we're being careful. She's slowly getting a little better every day.

Theon, our sweet boy. His orange brother got adopted over him, but just barely.

Tully, our only girl til Daenerys came yesterday. She's Benjen and Varys' sister.

Varys, my sweet boy. He's brother to Tully and Benjen.

Six days til the beginning of the end...

Hello all. I'm back in Athens and very glad to be home. I love DC, but I've got lots of stuff to do before next Monday when all else ceases to be of import (ie, school starts). I'm actually really looking forward to it. I'm sure that seems crazy for you non-nerdy people, but I learned so much cool stuff last year and actually enjoyed MOST of my year.

I think the stress and lack of sleep and the inability to do anything fun are the downsides, but I'm going to try really hard to make sure I take some time to cook healthy food and remain active. I hope I can stick to it.

I think the other good thing about this school year is the material gets even more clinical and relevant. Last year we had all the broad "-ologies," which I'm sure were important, but this year we get even more specific classes for our clinical careers. How fun! I just sent in my book order, which was remarkably expensive for so few books. I even got two of them off of half.com but even still...mucho dinero. Oh well, I'll use them until I die.
-Shirin