It’s official.  I’m going through this again, next year.  I received my waitlist letter on Thursday.  The letter said that there was a “possibility” that I would be admitted.  That’s better than the “not likely” letter I got last year.  However, I found out there is a “likely” letter that they send out.  I know that the in-state list doesn’t move farther than 1 or 2 at that.  Even if I got “likely”, if I’m at 5 to 15, I’d still be screwed.

I plan on working on my garden and then getting back out there in the trenches.  I plan on working on my personal and explanation statements.  I never have enough room for that stuff.  I feel like, though I didn’t feel as rushed or inadequate during the interview, I didn’t say what I needed to say.

I guess, I’ll be working on my LA vet hours and looking for things that will stand out to Illinois for next year.  I also plan to apply for graduate study in the Reproductive biology program.  I won’t be giving up.  I definitely won’t be going on the tour, ever again.  It just crushes me to see all of the great things I’m missing out on.

On a different note,

There will be plenty of time to set up my flats and get started on the main plan for the garden.

I have my orders in for a 3 on 1 cherry tree which will go in the middle of the yard.  I’m doing orange and moon and stars watermelons.  I know the moon and stars would be taking it all the way to the end of the growing season, but I like the foliage.  I figure, if I don’t have any melons from it, it’ll be a pretty distraction for the rabbits. ;-)

Guess I’m a might melancholy today.  Oh, well, sad music makes me feel better.  I’m definitely dreading the outcome of the interviews.

I’ve been neglecting my blog, because I’ve been busy Facebooking, and stressing over prep, submission, and interviews for my application to UIUC CVM this year.

I went over all of the questions I could find and went through a bunch of people, working on my interview.  On February 23^rd, I think I was more relaxed and had more answers available when I went into brain freeze.  I thought of such great things to say, about 20 minutes after I was done.  Oh, I forgot to talk about RAVS!  How could I forget to talk about RAVS!?!  I didn’t talk much about the ASPCA.  Maybe, I did.  I remember using that as a scenario in one of my answers, so I wasn’t a total space cadet.  I didn’t talk about Crosswinds.  I could have brought up long dead stuff, like being on an Ad Hoc committee, or facilitating for a government run survey on race relations and cultural diversity.  Gah!  See!  I’ve got tons of stuff that makes me different.  I just couldn’t say anything.

However, I must say that I wasn’t flustered and made the group laugh.  I could have said that I was one of the 5 things you’d find at Wal-Mart that have to do with veterinary medicine, but I didn’t.  I had a perfect lead in for it.

Oh, shoulda, coulda, woulda.

Let’s see what I have going for myself other than the whole vet school thing.

1. I’m an inch taller than I thought I was last year.  (I grew after the age of 21. Who knew?  I thought you stopped around then.  I guess my plates are completely fused by no, I hope.)
2. I look very good for my age. Getting carded at the bar is still a burdensome luxury.
3. I still love my husband.  Even though he can be a butt, sometimes.
4. I really like my job.
5. We can make payments on the house and car.
6. I can afford gas, lunch, and the kids stuff.
7. I’ve got a cable modem.  Yay, watching anime on Hulu.com!
8. I have a bunch (about 20) of gardening catalogs waiting for me to make choices.  I love late winter early spring.

Yeah, whoo, I’m good, now. 

I know that the decision (either way) will be sent out Friday or Monday.  So, I’ll know if I’m going through this again by Wednesday of next week.

I don’t want to get my hopes up.

Well, I’ve been stressing about my interview, because apparently that was the only thing standing between me and vet school last year.

I’ve been so bad, I’ve been go over the interview with anyone who seems remotely interested.  I plan on going over the questions again and having an answer to all of them, so that I don’t feel like I’m grasping at straws.

I was just thinking of places to eat on interview day for some one on SDN, and it struck me that I haven’t been to Derald’s Catering Truck in months.

The Illinois football team decided to show it on the Big Ten Network documentary, and the lines are too long to stop by on the way to work and pick up whatever strikes my fancy.  I still dream of their fish sandwiches, though.  I think they are the best in town.  That includes the Lent special at The Esquire.  If you’ve been on the east side of Noyes Lab, just south of the Union, you know where it is.

My middle one needs a medication reevaluation.  Too much sleeping during class, which is one of the side effects of the medication.  She’s been doing so well otherwise.  I hope that she’ll wake up more and be able to participate in class.  It’s been night and day the difference from last year and this one.

The people at Crosswinds Equine Rescue have three mustangs that they are training for the Midwest challenge.  All three of the girls are doing quite well in learning that touching isn’t a bad thing.

Haven't had a dream in a long time, See the life I've had, can make a good man turn bad...

Well I finished taking the gre, the last week in August.  I think I got an 83% in verbal and a 79% in the quantitative test. I did a whole 100 points better on quantitative, which was a complete surprise.  I was definitely feeling off my game at the start of the math section.  I guess it was because I rocked the first five or six questions, because I ran out of time and was guessing about a third out from the end.  I know, I was not feeling the studying while I was at work, but I guess it sort of paid off.

Well, with that over with, I can make sure all of my transcripts are in.  I have everything but the personal statement for the VMCAS and the essay for the Illinois supplemental done.  I just have to run them past a few people before I submit it this week.

Did I mention how much I like my job?  Probably about a million times.  The 30^th anniversary of the poison control center took place last Thursday.  I didn’t stay for the whole thing, but I peeked in to see a bunch of people.  I wish I could have stayed to see the PowerPoint presentation, but I knew the fam would miss me.  I’m grateful everyday that I have an opportunity to help animals and their owner’s.  I can only hope that I do just as well in vet school and practice to earn the trust that the ASPCA has given me.  /prattling

I’m working on a way to motivate the kids to do their homework.  I’ve been thinking about showing them that I do homework, too.  My oldest, already thinks, I read textbooks too much.  I’ll just show them the other stuff I do, like going over powerpoints, writing personal statements and filling out endless information on applications to get a chance to go to vet school.

This is me procrastinating.  I have the GRE week after next and I’m more than halfway through the book I bought.  I started over at number2.com.  The vocabulary list seems a bit lame, though.  I spanked that list on the first try.  I think I’ll be looking through some words of the day that I saved in a folder in my e-mail client.  The math section is like pulling teeth (thus the procrastination).  I’ll get back to the math prep book I just bought and get back on number2.com.

I took the kids to the rescue with me.  Apparently, Minion was a hit.  Minion is Tory’s steer (Short for Filet Minion)… with udders.  I thought they got rid of those while still in utero.  Well, he didn’t get the memo.

The girls walked around with him while I helped feed.  Well, old habits die hard.  I guided Minion into the arena without thinking about it.  Just a tap tap and he was on his way with a trot.  It would have been fine, if he was supposed to go over there.  The girls had a great time trying to get him out.  We had a good laugh when number three decided he should help.  Macho boy didn’t get anywhere, either. 

There’s this muscular mare that came in.  It’s hard to believe she was turned out in a pasture with some other horses.  She’s ripped!  She was okay with me touching and poking at her muscle, too.  I’ve been told she needs a name.  She had a few that can’t be repeated in polite company.  She seemed to stay out of my person space and she wasn’t rude in any way.  We’ll see how she is next week.

My middle girl is a bit afraid of Pepper.  I told her to watch his mouth, because he’s a baby and doesn’t know he’s not supposed to chew on people, yet.  To prove my point, the 2 year old reached over and started to chew on my bright orange shirt.  *sigh* Then, she decided to take two paces back.  For his credit, Pepper did a very good job of being led out to pasture, and she was in “like” again.

The boy is officially allergic to cats.  He looked like he was in agony.  Luckily, I brought his other allergy meds in the case that he developed some seasonal allergy.  You have to understand, his father is allergic to cats, hay, and penicillin, his grandfathers (yes, plural) are allergic to cats and penicillin, and I’m allergic to penicillin.  The boys first bacterial infection, he got hives because of the penicillin.  Don’t ever let people say that allergies are not hereditary.

Okay, back to the grind.  Math, I will bend you back to my will.  I promise you.  * shakes hand vigorously in the air*

Side Note – Have a safe trip on the way to Stanford, Jeff.  Send us pictures!

I found these gems while I was cleaning out my documents folder.  When I was unexpectedly reformatted (Children… What you gonna do?  They’ve already been punished.  It was a year ago, or more.), the recovered stuff went directly into my documents.  Apparently, they weren’t filed in my music folder for some strange reason.  I got my media player to find them, so they’re in my library, now. That DMX song reminds me of that fight scene in Cradle to the Grave.  DMX did a lot of music for Kiss of the Dragon, too.  Jet Li, baby!

Last recap what I did in June and July.

CHEVEYO

A great horse that I watched go from scared BLM gelding to affectionate, patient horse died in early June.   Imagine having a tumor running through your intestines for months and acting just fine.  Up until his last week, he didn’t act as though he was sick.  Yes, he did some colicky stuff, but he would recover.  (Now, we see that he was showing that wild animal character.  Don’t show you’re sick until you’re on death’s door.)  the rescue has a memorial set up for him, and there’s a plan for a paddock in his honor.

I took the whole fam to the rescue open house at the end of July.  The boy jumped off of the hay ride and had to be brought back.  Oh, I’ve been more embarrassed.  *sigh*  Like in late June, when my dad started talking about how I’ve had my arm in cow butts while we were at the family reunion dinner.  Dad seemed especially amused when Papa Sam asked me what else I’ve been up to.  I told them about the three gifted kids I have.  The watermelon plants in my backyard that are producing promising fruit.  Then Dad broke back in with, “Ask her about the cows with the holes in their side.  Ooh, and tell them about the ticks on that dog,” as he shoves a forkful of salad in his mouth.  Mom just shook her head and gave me the nod to go ahead.  He wasn’t gonna let up until I said something about it.  I finally sighed and said, “They’re called fistulated cows.  They have a hole in their side so that people can look at how they digest food.  Also, it used to be a thing they did at the state fair to shoot a quarter down the cows throat and have you catch it.”  After a few questions, “No, it doesn’t hurt the cow to have a hole there.  The ticks were about the size of my thumb.  No, I can’t answer that question, because I’m not a veterinarian.”  I got this from the man that is usually a grumpy old bear.  I guess, he’s warming up to the whole vet med thing, finally.  They always knew I was a bit animal crazy, but they think I have a purpose, now.

Man.  I’ve been working like a rented mule, lately.  I finished the last week of that anatomy course.  Some of it was information that I learned in undergrad.  I think I would have gotten more out of a fall semester version of it.  I felt behind, before I started the course. Don’t get me wrong.  I loved it.  I was making connections that I’d never made before.  It was a taste of vet med.

I’ve got to get the kids up early to get them used to the school schedule, which means that I have to get up early, too.  It’s a bit hard when I get home in the early morning hours, but I figure, they’ll be at school soon, and I’ll have an opportunity to take a nap. I can’t wait until 3 weeks gets here.  They are fighting me to stay in bed.  I know their father doesn’t put them to bed on time.

I will be moving my middle girl to another school.  I am hopeful, now that the school district is finally on board with her diagnoses (autistic disorder/aspergers syndrome), we can actually get her to learn something.  It is extremely frustrating to watch a child waste an entire year of school, and yet do well above average on the state exams.  Her grades were horrible, but I knew what was happening.  She’d checked out mid year, because the staff had checked out.  She’d been sent home so many times toward the end of the school year, I was worried one of us (hubbie or me) would lose our job.  I’m hoping this year will be different.  I’m working second /third shift, so it shouldn’t be a problem for me to go and check in on her during the day.

2 out of three kids now have braces.  I’m hoping the third one doesn’t make it a three-peat with this, like he did with the gifted program.  I actually understand what the orthodontist is talking about when he does the abbreviations.  Thank you, anatomy.  I was studying for the finals during our last visit.  He looked at my anatomy book and asked me what that thing was.  I told him it was a cow stomach.  He seemed surprised that I would be looking at a cow stomach while he was working.  I told him it wasn’t like he was working on my teeth.  He eventually told me that he thought it was cool that I wanted to be a veterinarian.  He knows about the rescue where I volunteer, which gives him some cool points.

I plan on taking another biochemistry course, to prove to myself that I could handle it.  This one will be through Iowa State.  It starts the last week in August.  One of these years, I’ll celebrate my birthday, and not be in school.  I’ve done it before.  I just haven’t done it recently.

Whoa, I should write more often, so that these things aren’t this long.  I’m gonna try for once a month.  I know for sure, I can NOT do once a week.  I’ve got a life.  Most of it is spent wrangling kids, working, reading, on SDN, on MSAPAS.net, studying, playing the Sims2.  Sorry, blog is way down on the list.