There's something abnormal about 70 degree days in November...in Iowa. It would make sense if I were still beach-walking in Southern California, but the last time I checked, I was back in my own land, with the open fields, cleared of the stereotypical corn and soybeans. If this were an unsual case seen in the clinics, I would label it as an "atypical presentation," and perhaps it would find its way into some academic journal. Ah, but this is so much more simple, just a sunny day in November. And I am not complaining too much. It was nice to be able to take Izzy out this afternoon, in the daylight, with just a light jacket.
I've now finished my small animal medicine rotations, all six weeks, which seemed like only a couple days. I'm already one-quarter of the way through my next two rotations, a split between clinical microbiology and the "I-see-dead-things" rotation (i.e. necropsy). I know it's important to be able to complete necropsies effectively, but I can't say that I've minded that in the past two days, we haven't had a case out on the floor. Monday, however, we did have two cases, both dogs.
As we did not have cases today, we had time to work on some of the other assignments associated with the necropsy rotation. At 3:30, though, we were allowed to leave; that's something that never would have happened on the medicine rotations, even if we were all just sitting around the rounds room doing nothing but chit-chatting, checking our email, and pretending (or maybe really trying) to study for boards. I was ecstatic to leave early and enjoy the weather. While it won't last long, it is rumored to last through this week. This week, the meteorologist is everyone's friend!
I took Izzy, who's now bordering on forty pounds at just 4 months of age, on a walk through the neighborhood that I used to live in during first year. She followed right by my side through a park and a wooded area, and ending up on some city streets near the main university campus. The crunch of dried leaves of varying shapes, sizes, and colors that lined the path amused her. I'm not sure which was more exciting - her own paws touching the leaves and making a soft noise, or my Keene sandals, creating a louder crackling sound with each progressive step. I left my iPod at home, but was entertained, or at least acoustically stimulated, by the distant sounds of a marching band. The tune that floated through the air rang in my head almost immediately, and under my breath, I said "phantom," associating the sound with the musical that I had heard so often in my own high school marching band days.
Just like high school marching band is a memory, preserved in the crypts of my brain and on video tapes someplace, I know that all too soon, veterinary school will be the same. I suppose I really don't mean "all too soon." I wholly ready to finish, accept my very hard-earned doctorate, and be at the border of the state of Iowa by 3 p.m. on the day of graduation. (In actuality, it might not happen that way, but if I had a choice, I would have the car packed and running by the time my diploma cover was in hand.) Before I can finish though, I have this one major obstacle to overcome. That is the board exam.
Although I started studying in July, and was dedicated for a couple weeks, the work of rotations really consumed me as of late. Now, with the test date only a month and a week away, I'm focusing steadfastly on reviewing. I even left the computer at home and the cell phone in the Jeep while I studied! And with that renewed dedication, my addiction to chai tea has returned. I can't even say when the last time that I purchased chai tea in the store. Tonight, though, I made myself comfortable at a coffee shop in campustown, with my black binder filled with copious review materials and the "bible" of veterinary medicine before me. The sounds from my iPod blocked out the sounds of the coffee shop, which any other time, I wouldn't mind. I reviewed A & B of the well-known A-Z guide, and in that time, sipped through three large iced chai lattes (nonfat with sugar free vanilla syrup, if you please). I cross-referenced and reviewed, and found myself mumbling some of the facts that I had gone over tonight on my way to the Jeep. An onlooker might have thought I was a schizophrenic, with one personality engaging another.
The consequence of my studying is that it's now after midnight, and I'm still wide awake. Even worse is that Izzy hasn't figured out that over the past weekend, we changed the clocks, making her "wake up time" an hour earlier. Throughout my medicine rotations, she was used to getting up at 5:30 a.m., and finding her breakfast in the kitchen a few minutes later. With 5:30 being 4:30 now, she's still waking up "on time" according to her internal clock, but way too early according to "mom's" internal and external clock! I hope that in the next few weeks, she'll get the hang of it, and slowly slip back into the 5:30 or even 6:00 a.m. routine.
I suppose that this will be the routine for the next few weeks, even when mother nature does catch up with the calendar. Studying and "cramming" four years worth of information into a compact space in my brain, long enough to spit it all out (especially things about the large animals). With any good grace from above (not luck), I'll get a letter that tells me rather ambiguously, that I've passed during the last part of January.
And that point, all the chai that I could possibly drink between now and then will be wholly worth it, even if it does result persistent insomnia, because like I heard someone say, "this exam is for all the cookies!" Cookies and chai...interesting combo.
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