Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Kirsten's LiveJournal:

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Thursday, May 2nd, 2002
10:16 am	yes, still alive here Exams done, hopefully all passed...all I'm going to say. Move completed, now established here in Calgary (yay!) and start work on Monday. I'm doing lots of sleeping as I'm pretty tired from exams etc. The cats still hate each other. Would probably be better if Rei didn't wait on top of the litter box for Suki to come out and then pounce. They will just have to cope. Scott is doing well...we are going to play some more squash today. :) Last night we got to go and see an advance screening of Spider-man. It was really good...lots of fun. The science bugged me but they didn't screw it up as much as some. Until movies hire me to help plan their molecular biology moments...sigh. Or at least hire someone who can reliably tell the difference between a PCR machine and a sequencing gel. But the spider-man swinging and stuff was very cool, and the movie itself...aside from two scenes that we felt had poor script...was great. :) Scott even approved of the origin story tweakings. He told me about them in detail on the way home ;) He's a comic book geek, no mistake. Anyway. I'm hoping Cryo's eye feels better. Ouch! (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, April 22nd, 2002
2:34 pm	come to think of it, compared to studying that sounds right nice (Comment on this)
2:33 pm	perhaps I'd change my name to Beulah (Comment on this)
2:23 pm	I spend a great deal of my time these days whining endlessly about exams. For which I apologise, I know it is a giant drag. But, here I go again. What is the possible use of me learning how to be a hog vet? I don't really like pigs, and I have no intention of ever really going near them again (especially since they are mostly living in giant, closed off, shower in facilities these days). If I liked pigs and wanted to learn about them, I would have likely become a hog farmer. I'd be in the barn in my shitty coveralls hollerin' to Jimmy-Bob and Doug to bring round the boars as the gilts are standin' and they ain't gonna wait ferever. anyway back to studying hog medicine (Comment on this)
10:28 am	two down, four to go (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 20th, 2002
10:55 am	one down, five more to go (Comment on this)
Friday, April 19th, 2002
12:12 pm	we had champagne today to celebrate our last day of classes ever! (assuming no-one fails...eek) Pop!! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 17th, 2002
10:58 pm	well. I AM hanging onto my sanity with my fingernails just a little bit. I just want to live through these exams. I'm very stressed As ususal, i'm not bitchy stressed...just whiny. Also, I can't sleep anymore. I'm going to go and lie in bed soon, but I don't expect anything to happen. nope nope nope. (Comment on this)
Friday, April 12th, 2002
2:15 pm	so I was one of the class drawn to participate in the assessment meeting for large animal medicine. We had the meeting today. I got into a bit of a tif with the infamous Radostits. I told him that I did not feel it was appropriate to yell at students during the medical exercise exams, and that I thought it was unprofessional and uncalled for. I don't think he cares all that much, but it made me feel better. He got into a fight with me about it tho. "Were you there for those students? " "no" "well, how do you know then?" etc. etc. Everyone knows what he said to them. I'm done with you, you fail, get out of here....is that an appropriate way to end an exam? And the individual he said that to is most certainly not the type to have screwed up so badly as to deserve that. Whatever. So, ya. Some of the individuals that had this happen to them were there at the meeting. They told me afterwards that they were really happy someone said something. I felt that I could as I did well in his exam...so it didn't appear as sour grapes. I'll probably fail large animal medicine now. ;) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 9th, 2002
8:17 pm	first i'll take manhattan... leonard cohen is my study friend (Comment on this)
4:40 pm	Hmm waiting for something interesting to occur in my brain to justify writing something. Sadly, my brain is full of bits and pieces of medical info that I'm attempting to put together into something coherent in time for exams. I write my last exam on the 26th. Should be back in Calgary on the 27th, and I start work on April 7th. I am very, very much looking forward to the time off. After this year I'm more or less expected to be a vet. Functional and all that. I have one more year of school left. No more lectures, they are going to be putting me in charge of actual live animals and expecting results. Not to mention my summer job, during which I will be paid to take care of people's pets. I'm not really scared, because I'm a good student. I think I'm ok with people, and have the type of brain that can put stuff together for the most part. Also common sense. I'll screw up, of course, but everyone does. I just want to be very careful and...competent. I think I'm going to do some yoga to help my neck and then it is back to the grind. I hope everyone who reads this has a splendid afternoon/evening or whatever. :) (Comment on this)
Friday, April 5th, 2002
6:09 pm	My sink has been making an odd noise the past few days whenever water was running in the house. I mentioned it to Jane--roomie and landlord and wondergirl. Turns out she had forgotten to get the drain cleaner dude out in March. There's a tree in the front yard that has drain-clogging roots, so she gets the drain cleaned every 6 months. She was soooo happy I mentioned the sink making funny noises, as the next stage is geyser-like activity in the laundry room and floods. So drain-cleaner dude came today and the problem is fixed. He did, however, track mud all over the stairs. Jerky-pants. This is not that exciting of a story. (Comment on this)
4:57 pm	Took a mental health day today. Scott phoned last night to inform me that his Dr has reached a diagnosis, I'm a bit shaken up and all that. Didn't sleep well, so I phoned Good Friend Amy in the AM to tell her what's what. She said she'd call me if anything important happened, and I've noticed a distinct lack of calling today. Ah well. Scott is visiting me this weekend, which is good. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 3rd, 2002
9:02 pm	Thoughts today 24 days left here. I have to study a huge amount, but this will be my LAST set of finals. Then next year I just have to deal with boards. I'm a bit worried about these exams, but more from a doing well perspective than a passing one. I don't tend to fail exams. I'm very much looking forward to the summer. I'm way more of a whole person then. I'm not really meant to sit still very much. Damn, these frozen berries are good. Happy (Comment on this)
7:39 am	Over the long weekend we went and saw the movie Men With Brooms. damn That was some funny (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 21st, 2002
10:59 pm	jeepers jeepers feel better mfree! Hugs! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 20th, 2002
4:36 pm	So ya This afternoon was spent electro-ejaculating bulls and evaluating semen. Snore. I always feel sorry for the bulls...whoever came up with electroejaculation...I mean, really. Whatever. My hair smells like cattle now. I have my clinical exam for small animals tomorrow, I've been working pretty hard for it so it should (I hope) go well. Friday we have the switch draft, where people can try to trade rotations that they ended up with and didn't want. I did very well in the draft, got all of the electives I wanted, and very little large animal stuff. If you are interested, here's my year plan for my last year of vet school: Aug 26-Sept22--small animal medicine Sept 23-Oct 6--avian and caged pet medicine Oct 7-Oct 20--lab diagnostics Oct 21 to Nov 3--radiology (aka radiholiday) Nov 4-Dec 8--UPenn small animal emergency medicine Dec 9-Dec 22--Large animal surgery Jan 6-Jan19--opthalmology Jan 20-Feb2--radiology (aka radiation vacation) Feb 3-Feb 16--anesthesia and intensive care Mar 4- Mar 16--clinical pathology Mar 17-Apr 13--small animal surgery Apr 14- Apr 27--necropsy (cutting up dead things) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 13th, 2002
9:28 pm	Looks as if uPenn is a go. I will be there for 5 weeks, and I will be in the US during thanksgiving. Anyone nearby PA want to feed a vet student? ;) (Comment on this)
6:04 pm	Long day today Had another calving lab, this one involved more dead calves and the calving box. This time we did fetotomies--cutting the calf up into bits to remove a large fetus from the cow. There is 'the' way to do it, involves seven cuts in very specific places. To saw you use a wire passed into the uterus. Obviously this technique is used on dead calves. It is pretty hard work. I'm hungry. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 12th, 2002
6:06 pm	Today was a day. Had a lab on calving, was kind of fun. The school has these big boxes with a cow's pelvis inside and a big zip-up waterproof canvas bag inside. Stick calf inside bag and there's a hole to reach in, simulating calving. So you put the calf in all sorts of positions to practice manipulating the calf during delivery. Would have been nicer had the calf not been dead, cold and slimy, but what can you expect, really. Likely a live calf would not appreciate this. Just got back from the gym, and now I have a tummy ache for no good reason. Someone in my apartement has eaten my lucky bamboo tree that Scott bought me. Don't tell, but I suspect that the someone is brown, fluffy and has catfood breath. (Comment on this)