Still here....

...at school. :)

It's been 17.5 hours since I've been home! Wee!!! How fun is it being here writing my report?!? Sooooo fun!!! And I know that I'm spending too much time on it...but....weee!!!! Who cares?!? :) hahahahahaha

(So if you haven't realized it by now - I'm suffering from flourescent-light-induced-delirium right now)

The only thing that's making it ok is that I have our little cat sitting on the chair right next to me :) Yay. Kitty therapy is the best.

Also, I could really use a back rub right now. :) :) :)

Yay!!!

I had my very first surgery today!!!

Our little kitty did wonderfully and although the procedure itself took, oh, about three and a half hours, I felt like it went pretty well.

Cerissa and Jacob were so patient and supportive. :) I got super lucky with my group. Anyway, more to come...gotta write that pesky operative report now.

Snow Day

So much for my grand aspirations of posting from home...oh well :)

First of all, IT'S SNOWING! Now, I'd probably be excited about this 1) if I were in Oregon - where everything pretty much shuts down and you get to run around like a kid for the day 2) if I didn't have to drive in it in the dark for the next week (post-surgery checks are at 7 or 8 pm) and 3) if people didn't drive like freaking idiots around here. Geez. Put a bunch of college kids in a town with snow and hills and what do you get? Accidents. How fun.

Anyway, only 2 weeks and 3 days until I am home again!!!

Thanksgiving was WONDERFUL. I had such a hard time coming back...part of me thinks that if it weren't for Beth and Amanda, I might have called the whole thing off :) Speaking of Beth...SHE'S ENGAGED!!! Details can be found on her new wedding blog.

I'm now living out at the Beth-Kat Resort & Spa :) Life is good.

Ok..trying to be productive...will write after this week's surgeries! (But mine is next week, so I still have tons of time to worry :))

Ahhh...relief...

There is nothing quite like the feeling of being done with THE WORST WEEK EVER (note: there have probably been at least 10 "worst weeks ever"...the jury's still out on which one wins the official title).
Monday: Small Animal Medicine exam in infectious diseases
Wednesday: Theriogenology final
Friday (that would be today): Small Animal Surgery exam
And 3 labs...phew.
3 hours of sleep last night...still feeling a little dazed, but I am SO excited to go home tomorrow, that it makes up for the lack of sleep and head-hurting tests.

In other school-related news, my surgery group had our first patient this week - a little black lab mix that we named "Squirt" (for his extraordinary ability to do just that :)). We only observed the neuter this week and did anesthesia, but it was still pretty fun. I assured him that life would be SO much better sans "the boys" but I'm not too sure if he agreed with me :)

How exciting is it that my next post will be from HOME?!? :)

9 Days and Counting!!!

I can barely contain myself....

Thankgiving break is just over a week away!!! If only there weren't those pesky 3 tests and 3 labs to make it through before then :)

New pictures posted!

Sad Day...

...for 50% of the country.
Amazing how the United States is such a perfectly divided nation. And this election was about so much more than just who will be sitting in the Oval Office for the next four years... :(
And also, thank God that I didn't get that Army scholarship - or guess where I'd be going right now...and we all know how long Jaime lasts in the heat (NOT LONG).
Sigh...

ELECTION DAY!!!

I almost forgot to wish everyone a joyful and fun-filled Election Day 2004.
I certainly hope that you ALL voted. Or else, you do realize that the voting-gremlins will come and kidnap you in your sleep and sell you to the aliens for a very low price (and we all know what the aliens use non-voters for, right? :)) hehe...

Horrible blogger....

Alright, I realize that it's been way too long - life has been...busy to say the least :)
But for now I'm off to sleep - I did however post some new pictures (from the past few fun weekends!) - more to come soon!

Cramming...

Well, here I am, up at 5 am to cram for my surgery midterm, and what am I doing?! BLOGGING!! Geez Jaime...
Anyway, I realized that I hadn't posted in a while, so I figured I'd better do a quick update (being that I have absolutely NOTHING else to do at the moment :))
So midterm hell ended in a blaze of glory, so to speak - the swine test was AWFUL. But my small animal exams went very well, so hopefully I at least passed that agricultural animal one. We'll see. Left for Oregon on Friday (the plane ride from Spokane to Portland only takes an hour!); mom picked me up at the airport and then went home for a fabulous HOME-COOKED meal :) Saturday: saw Matt in Corvallis (he graciously drove me up to Salem); Greg and Kim's wedding was BEAUTIFUL and the reception was so much fun - it's always wonderful to see the WU choir crowd (makes me remember what I groupie I used to be :)); stayed with a friend that night (who also graciously drove me up to the airport the next day - wow, who knew that not having a car could be so much fun). Sunday: breakfast at Sam's Station in Corvallis and wandered the PDX "shopping mall" for an hour before my flight :) Needless to say, flying back to Spokane was the last thing on my list of things-I-wanted-to-do. It was a wonderful weekend.
This week has flown by - studying for surgery and well, studying for surgery. Boy, do I feel exciting. After 11 am however, it'll all be done! My mom, dad and Simon are coming up for the UO/WSU football game and to take Maia home (sniff sniff). So this is her last post from Pullman (she's curled up on my lap right now :)).
Anyway, there's my update. And I'm off to continue the cramming.... :)

Quote of the day (for Princess Maia...)
"Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want." -Joseph Wood Kruth

The First Exam

Well, tomorrow is Exam #1 of the year! It's on the Endocrine portion of Small Animal Medicine...so tonight, hopefully I'll be dreaming about how cats with hyperadrenocorticism usually present with diabetes and dermatologic problems and how dogs that are diagnosed with hyperthyroidism usually have thyroid carcinomas. Is everyone convinced of my nerdiness NOW?!? :)

Thursday is Equine Medicine and Friday is Ag Animal Medicine...but then I'm flying down to Oregon for the weekend!! Yay!! 3 days!!

Ok. Must sleep now. :)

Arrrrr!!!

Ahoy me hearties!
Almost forgot to remind ye landlubbers that Sunday be International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Be ye ready to follow the rules o' the day, er else ye'll be fixin' to find yerself in Davey Jones' Locker....
Arrrrr!!!!!

The Kat House Quarter-Century Birthday Bash

[beep beep crackle beep crackle beep beep] "We are broadcasting to you today from the land of Sickies-United, where having a cold is FUN and not being able to breathe is even more fun!" Yeah! So, I came down with this cold (I'm calling it the Beth/Brandon virus, because I think that they were the source of infection...hehe) after our FANTASTIC weekend in Seattle. So even though today was sit-in-the-health-center-for-2-hours-on-a-nebulizer-so-I-can-breathe day, it was totally worth it!

Anyway, the weekend was organized by the lovely Kat House (Beth's roommate, who has become a very good friend) in celebration of her 25th birthday. We left Friday afternoon in the Jaime-mobile (which now sports a beautiful windshield war wound from a flying rock on the highway) and got into Seattle at about 5. We set up shop at the house of one of Kat's closest friends, Dan, a 2nd year med student at UW, who lives with two classmates, Levi & Chris (and now another guy, the infamous unseen roommate who moved in while our millions of belongings were strewn across the floor). As weekend party favors, Kat made t-shirts for everyone (which we wore on Saturday): across the front - "The Kat House (Est. 1979)...We don't quit until you do" and on the back were our nicknames (although some of them were totally un-deserved!! :)).

The players: Kat (Ms. Kitty), Beth (Beppy), Brandon - Beth's boyfriend (Monkey Bradah), Dan (Dr. Bezoar), Paul - Dan's brother (P Diddy), Keri - Kat's best friend (Doobie Scout), Levi & Chris (no names as of this trip, but next time!), and me (The Maneater...don't ask :)).

For our first night, we went out to dinner at Palomino, in downtown Seattle - excellent food, atmostphere and service. I give it two thumbs up. Kat brought a box full of wine to the restaurant - no, not box wine :) but an actual cardboard box filled with some of the best that the Palouse has to offer (Kat is quite the connoisseur). After dinner, we went out dancing at this pool hall/dance club, which was great except for the mirrors surrounding the dance floor. Something about seeing myself dancing that just seems weird - I KNOW that I look like a dork, why do I need a reflection to remind me? hehe

So, Saturday: WSU/Colorado football game, Vietnamese Pho for dinner, drinking 40's (yes, Jaime actually did this) and a med-school party (they're like vet-nerds, but they only have to worry about ONE species - heehee) complete with beer pong.
Some of the funnier moments:
-Keri and Kat getting hit on by random-guy behind us at the game with the greatest pick-up line "So...how are those nachos??"
-The endless stares that I received because of the words written across my back (come on guys, it's just a shirt!)
-The sheriffs that Kat made friends with at the game, who decided to come over and...be friendly?? "So..." (to me) "Are you the mean one?? hehehe" yeah. weird.
-Dick's hamburgers at 3 am
-Keri, Beth and I diving under the beer pong table to cuddle
-Kat picking a new best friend
-Having the greatest time with some of my closest friends and some very awesome new ones :)

So, after attempting to clean up a bit on Sunday, we left the crazy party house and headed back east (after another stop by Dick's of course), back to the real-world. But you know, if life were a constant vacation, how could we ever appreciate times like these? Yeah... :) (and also, as most of you know, I'm definitely the type of person that likes to appreciate ALL - or at least MOST of the other times as well :))

Check out the Picture Page for a few from the weekend...

Quote for the night:
"Wherever you are, be there." -Jim Rohn

Britain for the weekend...

I know, I know. The blogging hasn't exactly been a regular occurrence for me! I'm sorry! Nothing terribly exciting to report over the past week, I suppose. But now.... :)

First off, school has been, well, pretty much the same. Still learning about renal function, pigs, and how to run the veterinary practice that we will all own one day (!?!?). Kirsten, Amanda & Beth had their first spay last week! Kirsten was the surgeon and did a fantastic job (yay Kirsten!). I wasn't there, but I saw pictures.

So, the weekend: (although I did not get to see Shelby this time, I'd have to say that overall, it ranked much higher than last year's Labor Day). Hamburgers at Kirsten's on Friday (Kirsten: "we like meat in this house!") and Shrek II ("Whatever happens, I must not cry!!") at the cheap theater on Saturday, followed by a fascinating (err, maybe I shouldn't go quite that far) few hours spent reading my surgery text.
Sunday was where the crazy weekend really started...I took a random spontaneous trip to The Dalles along the Gorge (now I've always wondered, is it THE Dalles or just Dalles? What ARE the Dalles? Where did they come from? How many of them are there?). The adventure began at 6:30 am, an hour that even Maia could not comprehend (you know it's early when even the cat continues to sleep on the bed after you've gotten up). Anywho, some of the highlights (aside from great company): the Maryhill Museum which is located off of Washington's SR 14, east of The Dalles and overlooks the Columbia. Beautiful area and some interesting exhibits (best of all, the chess sets from all over the world - perhaps slightly more entertaining for my chess-savvy friend, but I liked them nonetheless). The lawns surrounding the museum provided a perfect place for a nap-on-the-grass, and only once was I threatened by a bee (see post below). Word of the day with new meaning: scuttle (scut-tle) - verb used to describe the attempted "flying" of a peacock (demonstrated by the resident Maryhill Museum peacocks). The real excitement came when we drove up to Washington's very own Stonehenge!! Built as a memorial to the soldiers of Klickitat County who lost their lives in WWI, it is a full-scale replica of the original Stonehenge (and you can even rent it out to have parties, weddings, etc! Who knew?!). It was almost like being in Britain for the holiday... :) (well, I guess it wouldn't have really BEEN a holiday there, being that Labor Day is an American tradition :))
Very fun, unexpected weekend, for sure.

Today: class, a NAP (yay! I love naps!!) and then went to kickboxing and the abs class with Amanda. Ugh. Talk about being tired. A and I were trying to punch the bags but could barely get our arms up to hit them. It was almost like we were in some slow-motion scene in a movie - you know, when they edit it so the hit takes about 20 seconds to make contact. Yeah, that's us all right - "Kung Fu fighting...fast as lightning" :) But luckily we negated any positive effects that the working out may have had and went to Pizza Hut for dinner. And not only did we have pizza (but NOT naked pizza :)), we also ordered those so-bad-for-you-they're-good cinnamon stick things with frosting dip. Wow, do I feel healthy.

Last but not least, the quote-for-the-night (can anyone give me the origin? This one's pretty easy... :))
"Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;
Strike the bell and bide the danger
Or wonder, till it drives you mad,
What would have followed if you had."

The New Picture Page!!!

So, in an attempt to further obsessively organize my life, I have decided to start a "picture blog". I know - it doesn't REALLY change anything - but I was bored, and having fun playing around online pretending to know how to change what my page looks like. :) So - you will find this new exciting link under my links section! And also, Beth has started her own blog! And also, baby duck hat is good for parties (that one's for you Beth!)

First week of classes were, in a word, BORING. But I have hope. They'll get better one day. Might be the last day, but it'll happen. Taking Ag Animal Medicine, Equine Medicine, Small Animal Medicine, Small Animal Surgery, Small Animal Theriogenology (reproduction stuff) and Practice Management. My surgery lab doesn't start until November (phew) so I still have a little time to panic about learning how to spay a dog.

Oh. And I was brutally attacked today by a bee. I didn't even make a rude gesture or say anything mean to it to provoke it - it just charged. So now I HATE BEES (at least the vicious ones).

Amanda, Beth, Minnie, Kirsten and I anxiously awaiting the Lentil Fest Parade...

The Birthday Post

Well, after a week of being back in Pullman, it is starting to feel a little like home again (could also be the rain...nothing like a bit of liquid sunshine to remind you of Oregon). My Intro to Clinics class was for the most part alright. It is a little scary to think that we'll have to remember all of this information 4 months from now, when rotations actually begin, but the clinical faculty seem optimistic that it'll be no problem at all. All 36 of us (in the OSU class) spent a day "shadowing" senior students in the hospital. I worked with the Referral unit, which was actually pretty interesting, and I saw the most amazing Irish Wolfhound in the hospital. (I just figured out how to put links into my posts!!!) Tomorrow at 8 am I'll be back in the classroom for Agricultural Animal Medicine (I know, you're jealous). Actually I think that'll be interesting, as I have this newfound love for pigs :) and know virtually nothing about any of the other large animal species. My schedule is fantastic: for most of the semester, I am out of class at noon for four days out of the week!

Last night Amanda and I had a joint birthday dinner at this Mexican restaurant in Moscow, which was so much fun! There were about 18 people there, and it was just really nice to see everyone outside of school. We were of course serenaded by the entire staff with the make-everyone-look-at-you birthday song, which came with two shots of who-knows-what. Since when did a free ice cream get replaced with alcohol?!? :) After dinner, Beth, Kat and I went to Shakers (the local college meat-market) to dance. That place always makes me laugh...and feel kinda old. The highlight of the evening was probably Green-Skirt-Girl, who was wearing the shortest, flippiest (yes, this is a new Jaime-word) bright green Britney Spears skirt that I've ever seen. And she was dancing/flipping the skirt for the entire night, for all to see. Quite the show. We were slightly grossed out. In addition to girls-with-short-skirts, another pet peeve about places like that are the tall guys (or as Beth called one last night, "Sasquatch") that run over you every 5 seconds on the dance floor. I mean, come on. I know that I'm short, but WATCH WHERE YOU'RE STEPPING!!!! We had Dance-Floor-Rage a few times but luckily kept it under control.

Today was a very lazy day. Slept in (although not at late as Beth: 3:15 pm!!), ironed (my life is so exciting) and watched The-Best-Movie-Ever-Titanic. It just felt like an appropriate thing to do today and it had been awile. Totally brought back the memory of Shelby, Aaron, Jenny and I filming our own version 6 years ago. Aaron played Rose and Jenny played Jack. Ahh...good times.

Ok - off to the gym I go...perhaps I'll luck out and see Green-Skirt-Girl there and can ask her where she shops :)

Picture Posting Fun!

Shelby and I at Bepe & Gianni's (spelling?) in Eugene for my birthday...



At the Snake River...pre-top-falling-off-incident. FYI: My toes are actually touching the [natural body of] water (I HAD to get a picture to commemorate the THAT!)

The Carpet Cleaning Queen

Yes, Jaime Ueda, Ms. Anti-Domestic herself, has mastered the... RUGDOCTOR!! Yesterday was an exciting day for me, as I determined that I can now add to my list of skills: "Can pull an automatic rug-cleaning machine across the living room floor without tripping over the cord." Anyway, the Rugdoctor really did the trick and now the ghetto carpet looks a little less so.

Went down to the Snake River with Beth, Kat, Kirsten and Amanda this afternoon, which was VERY fun. I even went swimming (which as some of you may realize, is a BIG thing for me, being that I have some issues with natural bodies of water). It was great catching up with the girls and Beth and I even had a chance to pretend that we were cliff-dwelling alpacas (we can do their little sound pretty well) while we oh so gracefully hiked back to the car. Oh, and my swimsuit top just decided to fall down as I was getting up from my towel. Yeah. That must have been interesting for the truck that was driving by at the time.

Introduction to clinics starts tomorrow! I'm not sure if I'm ready to pretend to be a doctor yet. I am after all only fourteen :)

Cougars and Lentils

This is my first official post from Pullman, which is not only the home of yours truly for the next 7 months, but also the WSU football team, and other very exciting things such as wheat and the curious little lentil.
As some of you may know, the 16th Annual National Lentil Festival is coming up very soon and I for one am extremely excited about this year's festivities, which include the Lentil Parade, the Lentil Cook Off, the Tour de Lentil 100K bike race and of course, the cooking of the largest bowl of lentil soup. I know, everyone wants to come now, right? Not to worry; there will be enough soup for everyone (and it's free!).
Anyway, the drive from Eugene only took a little over 7 hours. 460 miles. Not bad for slow traffic AND a restroom break AND a Dutch Bros stop. Maia of course decided NOT to appreciate the carseat that I ordered and continually tried to jump off of it (despite the harness) while meow/howling and panting for added effect. It was great.

Tomorrow is Put-Away-Everything-That-Will-Just-Have-To-Be-Packed-Up-Again-In-7-Months Day. A mobile home is starting to sound more and more like a good idea.

It's pretty hot here. Maia and I are finding it difficult to move, which makes unpacking especially fun. So far, everything is still sitting in the middle of the living room. Personally, I think my bags would make excellent new furniture...

My beautiful cat Maia

"So...you're in highschool, right?"

Oh my gosh.
Do I honestly look like I'm still a backpack-toting, SAT-studying, college-planning, underage HIGHSCHOOLER?!?!
I've always known that I look younger than I actually am (the height, etc) but highschool?! I can't even tell you how many times I've been asked about this over the past 3 months. Have I suddenly visited the fountain of youth? Are people just now coming out and asking me, while before they just assumed?
The best one came from the innkeeper at the B&B we stayed at on the Cape last month...he wanted to fix me up with his FOURTEEN year old son. No, he wasn't trying to have me commit a crime, he actually thought I was that age. Sorry sir. That's a ten-year difference. And the decade rule most definitely does not apply in that direction.
Anyway, the reason for this short rant is that I was just asked *again* about this matter. Maybe I should just make a shirt that says "I'M 24!" (well almost).

The First Post

Alright, so as all of you know, I'm NOT a beauty school dropout (although if I HAD gone to beauty school, that most certainly would have been my ultimate fate) but for some random reason the title came to me...call it a flash of creativity or whatever (also may have been the fact that I saw the movie "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" in the video store last night and I saw that part in "Grease" on TV the other day, where Frenchy sings "Beauty School Dropout"...ok, so maybe I'm not THAT creative :)). Anyway, I realize that this should be called something a bit more appropriate, like "Vet Student Goes Crazy Due to Lack of Sleep" or "Vet School is Like Living in a Sorority/Convent" or "Jaime's Weirdness Published For All To See" but "Confessions..." just seemed funnier. Perhaps I'll live to regret that. We'll call it "bloggers remorse".
So, being that my best friend Shelby has had a blog for ages now, and I seem to be her only friend without one, I decided to join the ranks of bloggers all over the world. Makes me feel a little like I belong to some sort of blogger society. A secret society...with lots of members...and no private meetings...and public access from any computer with even the slowest of modems. All we need now is a secret handshake (that could of course be googled in .05 seconds) and I'd say this society would be complete.
A blog site is also a nice alternative to actually having a real (hard-to-create-for-non-computer-girl-Jaime) webpage. And being that my life is SO exciting (hey, even in vet school...it's possible ok?) I thought it would be fun to do...I'm hoping this won't be too boring.
Ok. That's my story. More to come soon (I know that you're all dying of anticipation) :)