Purple Tiger Stripes???

Yesterday was one of the most emotional and bittersweet days I can remember.

To start it off, I was up until 3:00 AM with Irene and Gaby at Steak n' Shake, studying for our micro exam.

Then, at 9:59, Dr. Ronnie Elmore from K-State called with the news I've been waiting for... I was accepted to Kansas.

Which, of course, was exciting and terrifying and confusing all at the same time. I asked for a while to think about it; he gave me until Monday. I cried.

Then, I made it through the last day of undergrad classes, and my last day of classes at LU.

I finished 101 of my 200 question take-home micro final.

Then I went to the LU Biology graduates' dinner. Of course, I'm not graduating, but I am leaving for grad school, so the faculty invited me along. Everyone is being so nice. And I cried a little.

And then I went home to discuss this whole K-state vs. Mizzou thing. All day yesterday, I really couldn't decide. I talked to everyone and everyone had a different idea or view or point to make. On one hand, Kansas is my dream school. On the other, MU is practically in my backyard (if my backyard extended for 2 hours). MU is cheaper. KSU gives out tablet PCs and microscopes. MU has a 2 years lecture/2 years clinical curriculum. KSU lets second years do spays and neuters.

I've definitely lost sleep over this and cried and prayed and thought and discussed and basically made myself sick. Part of me wants to be rash, accept K-state, move to Manhattan, and live on my own for 4 years. The other part of me still is set on moving to CoMO and being with my friends.

This morning, I knew what I needed to do. I'm headed off to make the phone call to close one door...

What is this feeling?

Indifference, I think.

I should be uber-stressed and panicking about now... but I am just chilling. I have a clinical microbiology exam tomorrow and I simply don't care. I've studied a bit, here and there, all week, so I may just be more prepared than I consciously think I am. But the fact remains, I should be doing something productive.

I think I'll go to Mobil On The Run and get a 25 cent drink. Love my Cardinals.

I just want to go HOME and be done with this school. I think my indifference is tinged with irritation. I am ready to move on. Mentally, I've quit school and am in the summer mode. Which isn't as relaxing as you might think... once I'm out, I'm allowing myself a couple days to recuperate. Then:

Figure out housing ASAP. <<< This is stressing me out, majorly
Figure out financial aid
Figure out my summer schedule
Apply for jobs
Go through everything I have acquired over the past 20 years and 11 months and see what goes with and what stays behind (this includes animals!)
Make money, make purchases. I'd love to get a road/street bike and cut down on gas (not to mention get fit) by biking as mush as possible. And I want an ipad/netbook/slate/whatever for taking notes in class. And I need a new phone. Too much, too much.

Well, I suppose I should head to MOTR and get myself a drink. Then it's really back to studying and cleaning. One more day of class! Then three days of finals and it's over.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

YAY I'M ALMOST THERE!

I can see the end... it's close... really close.

The end of undergrad, that is. I can't really believe it's almost over. I feel like I've not had the chance to really live the college life. I'm definitely okay with it, just a bit melancholy. I'm a little sad about leaving my friends... the other rising seniors who I am leaving behind, and my fellow leaving-students who are traveling to all ends of the earth. Obviously, there's Facebook, and I'm going to make new friends, but it's just... weird.

So as far as my list of to-do items. Here's an update:
Biochem take-home test, due tomorrow.
Microbio exam in-class, Friday
Seniors' dinner, Friday night
Cards game, Saturday evening
Work, Sunday
Microbio take-home exam, due Monday
Lunch with Amanda and Mrs. Cole!! Monday
My last day at Dr. Little's (Definitely going to cry a little over that), Monday
Biochem gene annotation paper, Tuesday
Biostatistics final exam, Wednesday.

And there is the Cards game on Sunday, and my lunch date on Monday, and then on Wednesday, on my way home, I think I'm gathering up the greatest little five-year-old in the world and keeping her for a couple days.

Oh yeah... my room... bleh. It needs HELP. It's bad.

On the home front... The goats are doing great... we are going to try a new homeopathic treatment on the whole herd and see if it makes a difference. I'll keep you updated on that.

AND... THIS happened last weekend:

Baby Shakespeare!! He's out of Teri's doe Noel and our old buck Toby. He's HUGE and has white spots on his neck!

Cute cute cute. He's a keeper, for sure.

Ginger Belle and Ladybug continue to improve. I am not sure Ginger Belle ever ate grass before she came to us... she didn't know quite what to do with it at first. Then she started munching away greedily on the dark, thick chunks of grass while the other goats nibbled on the tender, lighter shoots far away. I think they were making fun of her for eating the grass growing out of the poop piles. Both girls have gained about 15 pounds each since their arrival.

Time to get back to my homework. I do have a presentation today but I don't think it is that big of a deal. Once that is over, I'm dedicating the afternoon to this silly biochem take-home and studying for my micro exam. Probably ought to spend about an hour or so on my room, too. We'll see what happens.

Help, I'm running out of things to distract me...

It's so hard to be motivated right now. I can get a C in all my classes and vet school will still be waiting for me in August. Right now I'm rocking an A in everything but Microbiology, in which I have a B+. Soooooo....

Rather than do homework in this lovely 9 hour block of time, I have thoroughly inspected all craigslist ads, researched show rails for my goaties, studied up on some agility equipment plans, drawn up plans and materials list for said equipment, and basically procrastinated my life away. I also made up a list of everything that stands between me and summer:

3 tests
2 quizzes
2 presentations
2 projects
2 scientific papers
2 journal entries
1 epic
2 final exams

Totally do-able. But I need to get motivated... I'm about 1/4 of the way finished with one of the presentations, 1/4 finished with the epic (it's about a peacock named Padmakar), 3/4 of the way finished with both projects, and... that's it. I'm going to try to get the journal entries done tonight so I can feel good about myself.

I think I need to get up and retrieve myself some peanut butter M&Ms and life will be good. It's sort of tempting to just go to bed, though... you know, that whole the-earlier-I-go-to-bed-the-earlier-tomorrow-gets-here sydrome. I also have a very BRIGHT blanket that I am crocheting for Melodie and I would much rather cuddle up in my bed, turn on some music, and relax. But since I've sort of squandered the day anyhow...

Welcome to Dr. Tora's Goat Hospital... would you like a cave tour?

So I started my job this weekend. I love my job dearly, but it is exhausting. Basically, I lead groups of people of all ages through the cave while chatting with, talking to, talking at, or screaming above them. I only take groups of sizes up to 30 people, normally. It's interesting and I meet a lot of people, and anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE to talk.

So why was I ready to quit this weekend? Because I am soooooo sore. And tired. We walk at least 3 to 4 miles a day, up and down hills, on a concrete path, BACKWARD. Remember that we face the group...

So try it one day. Two, actually, Saturday and Sunday, and see how your legs hold up.

On top of that, I trimmed Heather's horses on Sunday and Summer sort of smashed my toe. So I am pretty achy.

But I feel better by now, so I've psyched myself back up for another weekend of work. Plus I have Friday off school and off work (Thank you, Jesus!-- I'm being literal, by the way) so it's all good.

But the main point of this post was an update. We ran a regular hospital in our shop this weekend. Here was the list of patients:

The foundling-- I believe we are calling her Ladybug-- apparently has no owner. At this point we're holding on to her indefinitely. Anyway, just continuing with supportive care/maintenance. She looks fantastically better and is shaping up to be a pretty nice doe.

Ginger Belle-- we already have a Ginger Spice, so when "Ginger" arrived, we had to add a surname-- bleh. She came to us severely anorexic, moderately-to-severely anemic, and mildly hemorrhaging. We got the hemorrhage to stop and her red blood cells on the upswing, but she still had hardly any interest in eating. But she's on the mend.

Quinn-- presented mild dystocia. She progressed for awhile and then, despite hardy contractions, nothing was happening. So I clipped my nails and scrubbed up. I went in and just had to tip the baby's nose down and search for a leg.

And the two neonates-- Sam and Reese. They are bouncing and happy in their playpen in our kitchen. Unfortunately they are both bucks, but they are darlings, too.

So by the time the weekend was over, I was so exhausted I made the decision to drive back to school on Monday morning. I made it through class, 7 hours at Dr. Little's, drove to Zach's to pick up some stuff from the old house, and made it back to my dorm and fell into bed. I feel lots better today and am ready to take on this week! Just two days and one presentation between me and Thursday night... and back to my caprine hospital :-)

Bleh

Let's just say, senioritis has kicked in. But since I'm a senior (by credits) but a third-year student and not graduating (just merrily skipping away), I think I have "I'm-outta-here"-itis. I have no motivation to write an epic, or put together a presentation on the role of Christian values in world literature of the western hemisphere (so basically, it's not world lit, right?). And I particularly don't want to give my speech on pet actors tomorrow, or put together a paper on a bacteria whose identity is so far eluding me. Let's not talk about annotating base pairs 52,000-58,000 of fosmid 12 of the long arm of the third chromosome of Drosophila erecta. (It's fruit fly, and no, I'm not sure why I care to annotate its genome).

So I have been looking up agility equipment plans. I want to get our current equipment up and working, and then start on some new. I have found a fantastic site:

http://www.instantagility.com/

It has great instructions for making good-quality agility equipment on the cheap. A lot of it isn't exaclty regulation, but for home use, I think it's great. I think it's best to expose your dogs to lots of sizes, shapes, and colors anyway.

And if all goes right and we welcome Moxie to our home (SHHHHHHH... it's a secret!!! More on that later!), we are going to need a lot of doggie stuff (like we don't have a ton already!).

I worked with Nike last weekend, and I swear, she's ready to walk into an obedience ring and score a 198/200.

(this is an old pic of her creeking)

 She has definitely sharpened up in her old age (just kidding, she's only four!). I worked a tiny bit on rally and she's smoking hot there, too. I'd like to get Gonzo into doing something he loves, but he is a mess. More on him later. Agility may be his best bet.

So I am NOT going to K-state's open house this weekend... I have to work! I am looking forward to working (read: MONEY), but I wanted to go to Manhattan or Teri's rabbit/poultry show. Phooey.

And on the home front: We are acquiring another goat, another commercial doe, and this time it's my fault. If you know me and my herd well, you know I ALWAYS push to move our herd towards the Fullblood side.


 A tiny side-trail to edjemacate you on goats:

For Boers... there are different "levels" of purebred-ness.

Fullblood South African (abreviated FB SA): Absolutely 100% Boer, all ancestors came directly to America from South Africa with no detours.

Fullblood: Absolutely 100% Boer, but ancestors may be from Australia or New Zealand or Canada.

Purebred: Anthing 96% or higher. So these could have other breeds in them a few generations back.

Percentage: Anything 50% or higher.

Commercial: Some amount of Boer but no proof (basically, not registered.)


So, back on track: I like the FB SA goats. FB at minimum. Buuuuutttttttt.....

A long time ago when I was free with no worries or responsibilities and we had dairy goats, I had a lovely wonderful crazy fantastic doe named Tammie. Tammie KNEW she was special; she was delivered by c-section and was a pretty nice doe to boot. Then her udder was torn up as a first freshener and we did surgeries and blahblahblah... unfortunately Tammie died after her second kidding. She only ever had buck kids, but one of them was named Brett. Brett and Belle (out of our dear doe, Annabelle) had a bouncy baby girl named Adelle. I kept Adelle for about a year but had to sell her when we cut back on our goats. But I always wanted her back, because she was a Tammie granddaughter and to my knowledge the only one.

Unfortuantely Adelle passed away last year. BUT-- she has a daughter who just happens to be half Boer. So guess who wheedled and whined to get her.

Her name is Ginger and she just kidded, but isn't doing so great. The Goatherdess Mother loaded up the GoatMobile and went to get her. Hopefully we can bring her around!

Well I suppose it's time to gather my dog jump instructions and my materials concerning Christianity in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and go study some more.

Eish! An Update!

Well, I'd say it's been a bit too long. ESPECIALLY because I have good news!

I GOT INTO VET SCHOOL!!!!

Really, I'm more excited than that. This has been my dream forever, so the fact that I've finally reached it? Pure heaven. Now there is just a ton to do.

I received my acceptance from the University of Missouri-Columbia's College of Veterinary Medicine on March 26th, 2011. I mailed my $100 deposit and acceptance form the Monday following.

Yippee! So here's my list of things to do:

Rock at least a C in all my classes (check! First time I've not had to worry about my grades!)
Check out housing... my bestie and I are hoping to find a place together.
$ave $ave $ave.
Figure out finanacial aid.
And have fun this summer.

I got my summer job back, as a tour guide. It's going to be fantastic again. Really, that job made my summer 2010 the best ever, and I hope 2011 is better! I want to kayak a bit and backback some, and get Nike to some trials to get her CD and RN titles (obedience and rally competition awards, for those who aren't aware). 

So that's the news on the school front. Just have a few more exams, a couple papers, finals, and 4 1/2 weeks of undergrad!!!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... we have a lovely crop of kids on the ground. Actually they are just ready to be weaned, which means that our whole herd dynamic is about to change. Not so fun.

The babies go in the weaning pen, but so does Misty, so her boys will have to stay in the field with all the other mommies. And of course some mommies are crazy and try to jump fences, so we've got to keep an eye on that. Yay children.

Quinn, my older Nubian doe, has been stringing us along for several weeks now. We don't have an exact due date on her, so we are just impatiently waiting.

And, I guess word has gotten out around our new town that we are a family of goatherdesses. Someone called the Goatherdess Mother about some loose goats. So, what do we do?

Why, we load up in the Goatmobile and go searching. Unfortunately we were only able to get our hands on one. We're still searching for the others. We brought the captive one home and gave her plenty of water and some food. She is very dehydrated but doing better. Now, to find her rightful goatherd/ess... that is the trick.

Well, I'm off to go work on my speech for Friday. My topic is "How to make your pet a STAR." So far, it's pretty excellent, I must say.