Just another day.

So I went to work today (and may go to work tomorrow) despite being marked as off. Someone called in sick and I didn't have anything else to do so I didn't mind necessarily. It's amazing how much of a difference there is in working an eight hour day vs a ten hour day! I felt tired leaving but not nearly as exhausted as usual and I felt like the day moved faster instead of dragging out as it sometimes does, though it was a surprisingly light schedule for a Monday. Added bonus was I scheduled Ella's dental/microchip appointment for July 15. Another thing I'll be able to cross off that to-do list!

Anyway, I treated myself to Arby's for dinner because I was just too lazy to make myself dinner. Whoops. But I've been really good about not eating out/saving money AND eating relatively healthily (down to a weight ending in 6.5 on the scale - woo!) so I didn't feel too guilty about scarfing some junk food. A nice way to end a relatively nice day.

Crazy busy

I feel like a lot of my posts are just different ways of saying the same thing: I'm busy! I go to work (yesterday was probably the most insane I've ever seen it. I didn't leave until 7:45pm, which clocked me 11.5 hours of work), have my days off, try to get things done on my days off. Rinse and repeat.

So today, my day off, I did get a call asking me to come in but I declined as politely as possible. I just have too much to do and this week has been super hectic there and I honestly want to relax a bit. Which I think is fair, even though I felt guilty about it. Anyway, I got my FAFSA filled out and managed to spell my first name wrong. I felt like a major idiot. So I have to wait for them to process it and send it back so I can switch around two letters. Grr. But now that I've started on the financial aid stuff I feel better. It isn't even all that tedious, which is nice.

Anyway, I'm starting to get excited for school. Nervous too, but mostly excited for now. I hope all of my productivity on my days off pays off in the end!

Weekend...gone!

I feel like weekends just fly by lately. I think it's a combination of me sleeping in as much as possible (hey, I likely won't have that luxury during vet school!), switching my riding day to Sunday instead of Thursday nights, and working every other weekend. By the time I'm done with any of those things half of each of the day is gone. Fortunately, I still have time to get the necessary household chores done like laundry for the week, grocery shopping for weekday lunch stuff, dishes AND can fit in some reading and general laziness. I have the feeling August and all it entails will be here before I know it which is exciting and scary all in one.

No good subject ideas..

Yesterday was my first pay day - yay! It's going to really help my savings for vet school to work this job so I can't complain. I also can't complain in general - things are going really well for me this summer. I struggled at first at the new job (and missed the lab animals a lot!) but I'm definitely catching up and feeling more competent. I've been getting a good ratio of long, hard work days and days off (like today) so I don't feel overwhelmed or lazy on any given day. Except Tuesday. I read all day Tuesday :)

I'm going to scroll down to my vet school to do list and check some more things off, but I still have a lot that needs to be done. One of those things is compiling a list of classes/teachers for my supervisor from the lab. Apparently her neighbor's son wants to go to vet school but isn't doing so hot in classes. She knows I struggled in the same way so I'm hoping I can help him out a little. Anyway, off I go to be productive.

Sick dog

My dog, Ella, has had three instances of liquid diarrhea over the last three months. Found out today she's got hookworm. So she's got Panacur lined up and I'll get some more Heartgard for her on Monday. My guess is she picked it up from walking around the apartment complex where other infected dogs have left it. Poor pup.

On my day off: happy thoughts!

Work has been wearing me down physically and mentally. I don't like feeling as though I'm not up to speed on everything and it's frustrating when I have to go get someone else to help because I don't know where something is or how to do something. But it's only been (almost) three weeks and I've already caught back up on a lot, so that's good.

Anyway, today I'm off - yay! My brain is now programmed to get up early but I convinced it to let me go back to sleep. So I slept late then went grocery shopping, cleaned out the fridge, faxed a piece of vet school paperwork and attempted to follow up on my rabies titer results. The OH lady is on vacation though, so that may have to wait. I still have to clean some pots and pans and make a couple of phone calls but I'm feeling good about being productive :)

Vegetarianism?

The past couple of days I've been considering becoming a vegetarian. I've been a meat eater my entire life and so this decision is not one to be made lightly and not something my family or close friends really understand. I am aware of the conditions in which the majority of food animals are raised and if I'm honest with myself, I don't agree with that sort of treatment of animals. My thought then was that I should become a vegetarian, although there is not a huge amount of meat in my diet anyway.

However, I do not have a problem with raising animals just to be eaten. So where does this leave me? I think my compromise point will be to buy meat that I know was raised in conditions that fit my moral compass. After doing some research, I've found that Whole Foods carries meats that are ranked by Step (1-5+) by the Global Animal Partnership. I would have no problem purchasing these meats to eat because I know that they are certified by a third party with the animals' interests in mind.

The only problem is that the nearest Whole Foods is not exactly convenient for weekly shopping. So my tentative plan going forward is to visit Whole Foods every two weeks (or even monthly), stock up on some "happy meat" and go from there. PB&J will take the place of my turkey sandwiches for lunch and veggie burgers can be a substitute for meat so that I both limit my meat intake and don't have to spend a small fortune on this new take on meat. I will update you after my first visit and let you know how it pans out!