D is for… Deadlines

As most of you know because I talk about it 99.999878% of the time (when I’m not talking about celebrity crushes that is), I’m currently doing my veterinary nursing degree. I am right at the time when you need to make a final push and for some reason most of the assignments are due in now. I have about five weeks to go. I can hardly believe it!

I remember when I first started, I was fresh and bright eyed. I was all like “This is not going to be like when I was at university. No siree. I am going to do my homework ahead of time. I am going to do my readings. I am going to do EXTRA readings.” That lasted about a month before I went back to my usual student-y ways of mad panicked study sessions and all nighters to get my assignments in on time. Oh well.

On Wednesday, it will almost be all over. I’ve just got a few more exams (scary, practical ones!) and the odd assignment or two and that’s it. This will really be my last week of full on panic mode. Wednesday is when I hand in my last big assignment. Not that the ones remaining aren’t full on, it’s just that I will actually have the time to do them.

I am not good at meeting deadlines. Well, I get it done but it’s probably due to the stress and anxiety. I can’t wait to be a normal person who doesn't spend her weekends locked in her room and isn’t a manic stress ball.

Today we were watching TV (it’s called a ‘study break’, mum!) and we heard this thump and I had this horrible feeling. I walked into my room and my computer had slid off the bed and landed on its side. BTW, we're talking about my brand new laptop that my mum brought for me. Luckily, it was fine. Probably because my poor wee USB stick had taken the brunt of the impact. It was shattered but was still bravely plugged in. It’s not supposed to be at right angles.

Let me remind you, this is my USB with all the giant assignments on it that I have to hand in. I almost started crying but roomies stepped in. Little USB was still flashing at me, so still working, so we put everything onto my desktop and then I got a loan of a USB from Girl Roomie.

Isn’t he the cutest?!

The opposite of Monday blues

Hello! The sun is shining although I apologise in advance to all those in my part of the world. Because of Murphy's Law, the weather will now be cold and rainy. I took all my winter clothes back to my mum's house on the weekend (including my electric blanket) and got all my summer clothes... and because of that, I can pretty much guarantee a chilly outlook with the weather :)

My weekend was good. I went home to the Gold Coast and cooked soup for my mum who just got home after 2 weeks in NZ. I've missed my daily chats on the phone with her! Watched the new episode of Doctor Who. Stayed up far too late reading a scary book and then couldn't go to sleep!! Had Father's Day with my grandparents. Ate too much food.

My talk went well today to my class. Everyone actually really enjoyed it and laughed in all the right spots, so yay! It was only in front of about 20 people and we've been in the same class for 8 months so it wasn't as terrifying as I thought it would be. The only downside is that the projector wouldn't work for me and we literally wasted about an hour of the class trying to fix it. In the end, I just gave my talk and people had to look at a tiny computer screen to see my pictures. But it was good because it meant I got to sit down so I didn't have to worry about my knees knocking together which they sometimes do when I have to do public speaking. I now know what will be 'E' in my alphabet series, haha!

Tonight I'm going out to celebrate my town's festival. No parades, though Ashley!! Hehe :) We are going to see this dance/acrobatic show in an outside theatre. Hope it doesn't rain!! And then on Saturday I'm off to a comedy show. Um... remember that post about BALANCE?!?!

Work & school stuff

Friday was exciting at work. I normally wear a purple scrub top to differentiate myself from the rest of the staff who wear light blue. It's supposed to show that I'm the work experience girl but unfortunately it usually backfires and people assume that I'm the vet! Which horrifies me- don't trust me with your animals!!!!

Anyway, my boss told me that he was now happy for me to 'upgrade' and wear the light blue scrub top!! Yay!!!!!! Who knew that changing outfits would be so meaningful and such a source of joy?! AND I'm getting my own name tag with 'VETERINARY NURSE' engraved on it. If I have a name badge, then I know it's the real deal.

I also assisted with my first real autopsy. It was gruesome and awesome all at the same time. Certainly makes me realise just how fragile we all are and what a miracle the body is.

I'm currently putting together a slide show for my Edinburgh talk. I wasn't nervous about it until this morning when I was semi-practising it in front of my mum and she kept interrupting. Now my stomach is churning... why is public speaking so hard??? Although I will have a much quieter audience on Monday, much less interference!!

Another Post About School!

I'm sorry, I know I must sound like a broken record when I talk about school! Especially when most of my recent blog posts have been about it. But at the moment, this is pretty much all that is happening to me. I go to school, come home, do my assignments. Thank goodness tomorrow is Blu Ray Tuesday and I can have a night off. Which means that in order to have my night off, I'm going to push through the sleepy barrier and hopefully finish my gigantic assignment tonight.

(And yes, I do realise that I am wasting precious assignment time by being on blogger! But man, I need a break from writing about vaccinations and behavioural enrichment!!)

I decided that Monday might be my 'hair post' day. Today I went with something sort of new, two loose fishtail braids.

I'm feeling a bit lost without my regular "Hair Posts". I don't really know what to say. I couldn't even come up with a suitable title for this post!!

I need a new strategy, and I know just the one. This is the one that I always suggest to my friends who are having trouble with coming up with blog posts. Start with the first letter of the alphabet and roll with it. So at least I have the next 26-ish blog posts sorted. Huzzah!!

I feel like I did so much today. I went to school- shocking, I know! Then in my lunch break I did my grocery shopping. I spent way more than I should because of stupid marketing. I have a rewards card with that supermarket and I know it's basically so that the supermarket can keep tabs on who buys what. All I get in return is a lousy 4 cents off petrol!! Anyway, today it was like my personal rewards card had come under scrutiny. Literally EVERYTHING I normally buy was on special, but it was the 'sneaky special' kind. Buy one, get the other one half price. Buy two, get one free. That kind of thing. And I fell for it!

I have a whole heap of new assignments dumped on me from yesterday. Yuck yuck yuck!! I don't think I'll be seeing the light of day for quite some time!! But I'm feeling positive about this. As boy roomie pointed out the other day (thanks to my fabulous wall calendar), only two and a bit months to go. I'm on the home straight!

Day 27: Vive La French (Braid) Revolution!

I'm continually impressed with my French braiding skills! I've tried this style before in the past but it took me so long and it never looked very good. Since starting this hair challenge, I've gotten so much better at doing my own hair. This braid took me about five minutes, where it used to take me 15 minutes and I'd have to redo it about three times. I showed my mum my blog on the weekend, just the hair pictures and she was a little sad because she was like "I never was any good at doing your hair when you were little". But we decided that ultimately it was a good thing because it meant that I had to learn how to do my own hair. Lol, it only took until I was 25 before I learned how to do nice things to my hair! It really is just practice.

I was going to do some fancy things with my hair but I ran out of time. August 1st, I promised myself that I would get back into running. It's probably been about three months since I last went for a jog and ooh, it was hard getting out of bed this morning. Because the last time I went running, the weather was warm, I only had my running shorts with me and I felt so silly wearing them this morning as I ran through fields with mist on them. And by 'silly', I mean 'freezing'. When I got home, I could hardly use my hands to get the key into the lock to open the door as they were so cold!

And so because I went running (and by 'running', I mean 'shuffling along the street'), I had much less time to do my hair, plus I had to wash it, so I just went with a good old French braid. I can't believe I haven't done that before!! And I only have THREE more days of my hair posts. I have to make them good. I sort of know what I'm going to do for them, but I'm going to actually practice them to make them perfect :)

I have a day off from school tomorrow and I have so much organisation to do. My desk is an absolute mess, I have paper everywhere and I have been getting tension headaches probably twice a week since I've been back at school since the holidays. I need to get my life into order!!!!! Fingers crossed, I actually do that instead of sitting on facebook all day. Also, girl roomie was home sick today... and I don't think she will be well enough to go to work tomorrow either. We are terrible TV junkies together so I hope she doesn't lead me astray!

Day 19: Herringbone/Fishtail Braid

I love this style of braiding! It looks super professional but is so, so easy to do.

And if you look somewhat carefully, you can see that I missed a giant chunk of hair into the braid. I am pretending that I am eccentric and whimsical :)






Second day back at school was so much better than the first day. Even though it was still information overload, it wasn't as daunting as yesterday. Today was tough because it was really cold and the teacher turned on the heater, which I sit directly under so it was basically like he wanted me to fall asleep in class. Then he was talking about how we all looked like we were falling asleep, he was like "I could do anything and you wouldn't notice" and then he waved our exam paper for next week under my nose AND I MISSED SEEING ANYTHING ON IT!!!!! Haha!!!

And I forgot to say, last week I got to help with my first pregnancy ultrasound! The mama looked like this, an absolutely gorgeous liver and white Border Collie. She had been mated but in my 'expert opinion', it didn't sound as if she was pregnant. Good thing I'm not the boss because mama had seven little pups inside!! I so hope I get to see more of her and that we get to follow her journey. I WANT TO SEE PUPPIES!!!!!!

Day 11: The Khaleesi

A day late but I have amazing fast internet that will never run out. I am now content.

‘Game of Thrones’ has all the best hairstyles. I always get at least one new hairstyle from each episode. Today it was my turn to wear the khaleesi’s hairstyle. Normally she just has it randomly braided although upon saying that, you never really see the back of her head so maybe she’s worn it before. Nonetheless, we have similarly lengthed hair and I knew I had to try it out for myself. However this evening when I went back to get pictures of her hair for the blog, I saw that I’d done it a little differently but it still looked good and you get the general idea. There is no way on earth I would be able to plait my hair like that singlehandedly anyway so this will just have to suffice.

My teacher said that he liked my hair and said it looked ‘very Maid Marion’, however my Maid Marion is from the BBC’s Robin Hood and she has short hair, so to me it’s not really very Maid Marion. I find it funny that my MALE teacher is the only one that has really commented on my hair. Maybe *now* he will remember my name?!

We have started a new class today, a unit all about fishes. It is exactly as fascinating as you imagine it would be. We have four sessions each lasting a day in which we learn all about fish. SO SO boring. I don’t think we ever have fishes brought in to us at work. I think it would be more useful to learn about reptiles because I could imagine people bringing those in to be treated by the vet. Fish? Not so much.

Luckily the teacher that we have for this class seems nice. He knows his topic isn‘t everyone‘s passion so he livens up the class with his sense of humour and he let us go home early- my favourite kind of teacher! I’m just not sure if I can take three more sessions of this. I wouldn’t mind if it wasn’t the ENTIRE day devoted to fish, I would prefer if the sessions were broken up. Oh well, at least I have a week’s break before the next session!

Day 9: Side Bun with a Twist

Today was a good day in so many ways.

I invented a new hairstyle. My side bun escaped from the clutches of my hair elastic and twizzled out into some interesting new design. I can also see thanks to the photo that I have so many smudges on my mirror... I should probably get around to cleaning it...

The hairstyle didn't last very long but it didn't need to.

Because, school finished early today! I feel like I write that a lot :) We had a practical exam that was supposed to be in the afternoon but the teacher swapped it to the morning. And then I had the 'luck' to be put into the first group to be examined. Less time to study BUT the teacher said as soon as we had finished, we could go home because they'd decided not to have the practical class in the afternoon. So I finished up around 11am.

But I had to stay behind and do my Pharmacology exam in the library. The one that only three people have passed so far out of about 20 people. I was one of the last ones to do it as today was the last day it could be done before students were locked out of the online exam. I read through my Pharmacology handout and thanks to luck (and a big thanks to prayer), everything that I had just read in my booklet was in the exam! Not only did I pass, but I did very, very well.

I only have exams left. Oh, as I write that I realise it's not true. One more teensy assignment too. So when I got home at lunchtime, I lay on the sofa and watched 'Tin Man', the Sci-Fi Channel's take on 'The Wizard of Oz' for the ENTIRE afternoon. It's quite a clever twist on the tale and stars Zooey Deschanel who is one of my favourite people to watch onscreen. The miniseries has been out for ages and ages but I finally got round to watching it today. I've still got a bit to go but I definitely recommend it. I should probably wait until the end before I go ahead and recommend it, but oh well.

And now to steal something from Danielle's blog because I hate being rude and not responding to comments.

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Abigail: Thanks for your support re: farty dogs :) I'm far too excited about this Medieval Faire! I've only been to one beforehand when I was about 8. I really want to get dressed up, I hope I can coax Jess into doing the same! Have you been to a Faire dressed up?

Day 6: The Side Ponytail

God answered my prayers and my Nursing theory exam has been pushed back to next week. Huzzah!!! As usual I am procrastinating on studying for my huge Science exam tomorrow and will have to fall back on prayer and adrenalin during the test. I usually manage to muddle through anyway.

On a side note, my teacher popped his head around the classroom door and told us that there would be a question on bull’s penises in the test, specifically what is in there that isn’t in any other animal’s so we should look that up before tomorrow’s exam. We were like “WHAT?!?!?”. Maybe you should have taught us that instead of telling us to find out what it is before the test. Then because we were all like “That is so dumb”, he ended up telling us anyway! So I have at least one mark going for me in tomorrow’s test :) It is a sigmoid flexture in case you were wondering. It makes me laugh because it sounds like it could be a posh kid’s name “Hi, my name is Sigmoid Fletcher” and we all vowed to call our children Sigmoid if we married someone whose last name was Fletcher.

And after my Pathology test was remarked, I passed. Phew!!

So, hair. Running late as usual. Plus we had a practical in the afternoon so hair must go up. Which means that it was side ponytail because I really can’t multitask first thing in the morning.

Nilly happened to be hanging around whilst the photos were being taken so she got in on the action. Although she looks embarrassed to being ‘paparazzied’. Never mind. She secretly knows how to work it for the camera. This is how she sits during the ENTIRETY of dinner. Girl doesn’t know when to give up.

In which I just vent...

After four days of sickness, I am starting to feel a lot better. All I did was work and then go to sleep, when really what I should have been doing was working on my Pathology assignment. Instead I ended up having fever dreams in which the Hawaii Five-O team were doing pathology tests on Timmy in order to solve a case but they kept messing up the tests. Cue me getting angry and yelling at Alex O'Loughlin. So then I would wake up and I'd be angry because the Five-0 team couldn't handle their specimen samples correctly and then I'd be stressed because I hadn't done any of my actual assignment, I'd just been dreaming about it.

Now thanks to fruit and many, many cold & flu tablets I am feeling so much better. My Pathology assignment is close to being done and I am off to a Greek festival today. Yummy Greek food will take my mind off all my terrible assignments and exams that are all due next week. I have a Science test on Tuesday (not that I've studied) and on Wednesday I have my Pathology stuff due, along with a Nursing theory test. I just wished they'd spread it all out a bit more because in the weeks that follow, we literally have nothing because we will have finished all the work needed to complete Semester One.

Timmy is now off my hands. I have so much desk space now I don't know what to do with it! The vet is looking after him this weekend and will see how he fits into the family. Fingers crossed :) I felt like a nervous mother entrusting my baby to someone else! I spent ages packing together all his food and toys. And then I properly sat the vet down and outlined Timmy's routine!! I think the vet was surprised and kept asking me "Are you sure you don't want to keep him??". I am sure. I will definitely miss him but I don't think I could keep him properly. The vet has promised to bring him in again so that we can see what his eye looks like once the hair has all grown back.

And now it's time to finish my Pathology assignment before heading off to the Greek festival. Baklava is calling to me. Yum! And souvlaki. YUM! (and maybe there will be cute Greek boys there too)

Let's start with the bad news...

I have an epic cold. Ok, it's not that bad but it is seriously messing with my life right now. All I want to do is drink cups of tea and watch Hawaii Five-0 (as if the warm weather on the TV will suddenly make me better) but in reality I have tons of assignments to do, not to mention exams to study for.

AND I failed my Pathology exam :( By 3%... I got 77% instead of 80%. Lame, lame, lame. However, it was an online exam and so the marks come through automatically and don't take into account spelling errors or slight differences in meaning. My teacher has said not to worry too much as he needs to go through all the exams. Am crossing my fingers and toes!

Good news though, and it's GREAT news- it almost cancels out the bad news. The vet who owns the practice has offered me work there when I finish my qualifications at the end of the year!! It should be full time work as it looks like one of the nurses is leaving soon, however even if she doesn't leave, he said he would like me to at least be part time. I'm so excited and happy and lots of other good adjectives. I really love the practice and the people I work with there. They have been so kind to me and I feel like I am growing as a nurse and as a person there. And also as a result of the nurse leaving, they would need me to cover her shifts starting in a month or so- and get PAID for it :) My bank account is running a teensy bit low and any money would be much appreciated. I don't have time to study *and* work, so this would be brilliant, getting paid to learn more about my job.

School's out for two days!

Today there was no school. My teacher told us last Tuesday that he was competing in a [some kind of sporting event, I forget which] and that he wouldn’t be coming in next Tuesday because he would be too tired. So in turn, we could have the day off. And then yesterday it was announced that all the teachers would be attending a funeral on Wednesday so there would be nobody to teach us.

Good news= no school Tuesday and Wednesday which gives me more time to do my assignments

Bad news= no more hair updates this week

I still went into school today and sat in the library for a couple of hours and did a lot of the research that I needed for my assignments. At home I am very tempted to check my email and sit around but at least when I have made the effort to go to the library, I then also make the effort to actually do my work.

Now I am sitting at home and writing a blog entry instead of going through my research and trying to write my essay. This definitely proves my point. And before that, I watched episodes of The Hills for like two hours.

On the way home, I stopped at our local Vinnie’s. Katie has inspired me with her talk of a Writing Hat and now I want a similar Writing Article. I decided on a brooch and went to go and find it today. No luck. But I did get a sweater, a t-shirt (that looks like a piratey bodice!) and another longer t-shirt. AND best of all, I found a belt that is definitely a cousin or half-sibling of my lucky belt that was lost! So I feel like I have replaced my lucky belt and I can swan around channeling Cap’n Renoylds! Totally worth the effort and the whole shopping expedition only cost me $17 :)