Left school early today because I wasnt' feeling well at all. Almost didn't go altogether, but decided I couldnt afford to miss double Anatomy.

On the way home on the bus, a tank passed us. *blink, look again* Another tank passes us. Even has the guy sitting with his head out of the turret on top. "man" I think "that must be cold" (it's about -17 celcius out there, never mind the wind chill that would have been created)

This is not somthing I am used to seeing, folks. *shakes her head* Wonder where they were comming from? Because I have to assume they were headed for the base. It's about 10 minutes drive past my house. I haven't been there since they stopped doing an anual air show there. That was the very first place I ever heard bagpipes. I fell in love instantly. *chuckles*

I'm beginning to think I have a secret following. A group of names keep appearing on my "last visitors" list, but they never actually say anything to me. Hmm...

Just wanted to share this because it made me laugh so hard. Perhaps wont have the ame appeal for the rest of you because you don't know the fellow, but I'm sure you can still appreciate the humor of it. It's a brief description of my friend Dan's last day at a job we both hated and extrordinary amount at a call center. I would have paid good money to be a fly on the wall that day, I tell ya.. I wish I could share his letter of resignation with you all too, but I think Dan's right that he would be swiftly sued by Tyco if it ever got into their hands, and I really dont' want that to happen to him.

..........................................................
I left ADT with the most juvenile series of stunts on the last day...goofy call answering and conversations, ridiculous account logging, the proliferation of my final letter to the boss and almost everyone else, and the coup de gras, I lit a cigar and started smoking it at my desk. Did I mention that I wore a tux on my last day? Yep, I burned my bridges bright on the last day. I don't care, I wish that building would implode.
..........................................................

I mean, really, isn't that the kind of theing we would all like to do on our last day at a job we hate? *chuckles* I can just picture Dan, sitting in his little quazi cubicle in a tux, feet up on his desk, and a lit cigar in his mouth. Oh dear *grins*

I love how he described me in the e-mail too. There were two Andrea's at the call center, and he thought he might have gotten out e-mails mixed up, so he wanted to know if I was " the Andrea with the cool hair and the impeccably industrial taste in clothing " He he.

Boy oh boy, I think my brain stayed in bed when I went to school this morning. I thought the day was going just fine. Was in fact applauding my self for how smoothly everything was going given my lack of sleep. And then I made a rather large and glareing blunder. I managed to get the schedule for the day confused. I knew that it was friday, and that I had 3 hours of MLT right after lunch. However, some how, at the same time, I thought that it was some day -other- than friday, and that there was a clinics class after lunch (which there never is on Fridays, btw) and that MLT didn't start till 2:00. Um, no. Not so much. I showed up for class an hour late, and was very confused as to how I could have managed that while being so blissfully un-aware. Needless to say, I was -very- red in the face. I had to scramble like mad to get everything that normally takes 3 hours done in 2. A complete CBC and urinalysis, as well as 2 extra seds, have never been accomplished so fast by me before. But I managed to get it all done, thank goodness.

Note to self. Do not go to school on Fridays on 4 hours of sleep, no matter how much you are enjoying the activity which is keeping you up.

We had the cutest little brachycephalic cat in our anesthesial lab on monday. Normally I think they're ugly, but this one was pretty cute. The best part was when it was comming up again after the anesthetic. It seriously looked like a little bobble doll. It's head was just going this way and that with that really smooth movement you see in drunk people. I dont think I'll ever stop getting a kick out of anesthitized cats.

I have a parasitology midterm on wednesday, and I'm having a very had time keeping all these different life cycles straight.. Gar..

Once again it seems not everything works out the way you want it to. One would think by now that would fail to come as a surprise.

I'm feeling blue this evening. I have to stay late at school for a special lecture, and all I want to do is go home. I'm hungry too, and that never helps. They're feeding us pizza though, so that will help. I've got about 25 minutes before I have to be there.

The big thing is an e-mail I recieved this evening. It was from one of the girls I worked with at the lcinic in Calgary before I had to move for school. The clinic cat, Sonny, was put to sleep yesterday. He had liver cancer. He had been diagnosed 8 years ago and given less than a year to live, so really, he did fantastic. He was doing realy well for most of those years too. It was just in the last 8 months or so, maybe less, that he started going down hill. Alison said he was purring as he went down. I'm going to post a picture of him when I get home.

So, i had this thought this morning. See, I'm having an conversation with Alain ([Silverbullet]) with just emoticons, and I was thinking that it would be neat to have ones that actually looked like me. 

So it's become a project. I am going to cartoon myself, and make my own silly little emoticons. Well, that's the plan, any ways. I'm not sure if my limited tallent with facial expression is up to it. But hey, one should challenge themselves in all things, right?

Ive been checking my e-mail obsessivly since tuesday night. I'm so not patient when I want somthing to happen...

Oh my god oh my god oh my god!

Ok, if you go back a ways, you'll remember an entry saying that I had finally tracked down an old friend of mine, Tanner (aka: Tam) through his band. Well, after all this time of not getting a reply to any of the 3 or 4 ways I had tried to contact him, I had dispaired of ever hearing from him. 

So, I just check my e-mail, and there's a message from him! *dances around her room* I found Tam!

But you know what just kills me? Apparently he's living in Calgary now! And where am I? Edmonton! Gar! *pulls out her hair*

Ok *calms down* Wow. Whoo.. Wow. I found Tam..

I'm antsy today. Went for a longish walk (a mile or so) and that helped for a while, but only for a while. I'm so sick of sitting at this computer and studying. I want to be active! It's starting to drive me a bit up the wall. The worst part is the fact that I dont feel like I can justify taking the time away from my schoolowork. There's just so much to do. I'm doing better at staying on top of things this semester, but it's still a running battle. It never ends! And even though I'm staying on top of making review notes, I feel like I dont have enough time to go over them and study them! *sigh* It never really ends, does it? Well, 20 days till reading week, and I get to go visit my dad and his new puppy in Kelowna B.C. And the semester ends in April. That's not -that- far away...

Gar! I've lost the bloody list I spent months compileing! *is very fursterated* Has any one seen 4 or 5 little pink peices of scrap paper stapled together with a bunch on music stuff written all over them? Anyone? Please?

The lengthening days have me longing for spring. We're having a bit of a warm spell, with temperatures around 10 degrees above zero during the day. Everything is melting. 

I'm sick of snow and cold and biteing winds. I want green buds on trees and tulips and dafodils pokeing their brave little heads up. I want to go for a long bikeride through Fish Creek with my camera. I want school to be over for the summer so I can go home. *sigh* Never satisfied, am I?

Ugg, dont' you just want to tell someone how disgusting they are when you see them pick their nose and then eat it? That, and wash your eyeballs...

Aargh! Oh no, I've been found! *grumbles* I've started getting a lot of stupid messages from random idiots cursing and hitting on me in net speak. Save me!

I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that I'm going to be putting what I'm learning into practical use in less than two years. 

All throughout my years of school up until now, everything I learned was, past elementary, mostley useless crap I would never use again unless I wanted to get into a related program. Now, suddenly, I have a massive amount of information being stuffed into my poor little brain, and a.) I will have to be able to recall at will for the VT&E in a year and a half, and b.) will have to be able to put all together in a cohesive, connected way in my brain so that I can do my job.

I know it won't be as hard as it sounds. Even after one semester, there is a tonne of knowledge that I just take for granted that I did not know 5 months ago. But when I look towards the future, realizing that I will have lives in my hands on a daily basis, its daunting and not a little bit frightening.

Aargh. I just took a look at my financial situation (somthing I had been avoiding doing) and realized just how low on money I am. I can't believe how quickly my bank account has been emptying. You know, I did some calculating before school started, to try and figure out how much everything was going to cost. I must have dome somthing wrong with my numbers, because the money is disappearing twice as fast as it should. It looks like I'm -just- gonna scrape through till the end of this semester. I'm going to have to be a -lot- more careful with my spending, or I'm going to run out. Talk about adding to the stress levle.

Well, today was the first day back to school, and I find I'm more tired than I would have expected. That, of course, may have somthing to do with the pain in my shoulders and neck *shrugs* About $300 worth of new books is heavy to carry. I'm determined to stay better organized this semester than I did last semester. I'm already working on study notes and reading ahead. I'm not going to delude myself into thinking I can stay totally on top of things, but I am determined not to get as far behind as I did in first semester.

We lost four girls. More than I was expecting. Unfortunately, three of them were friends, and I'm going to miss having them around. Three failed, one chose to withdraw fromt he course, deciding it was not where she wanted to be and what she wanted to be doing. *sigh* Oh well. I'm going to try and stay in touch with two of them.

Second semester is looking like it's going to be a bit easier than first. There are less courses. 7 instead of 10, so that means less finals in 4 months time. I dont' feel as much like a fish out of water as I did this time first semester. I guess I really did learn somthing *grins*

We dove right in in clinics this afternoon. One of our competancies for this semester is taking blood from the Jugular vein. I imagine we have to do cats and dogs. It's a bit nervwracking, because the carotid artery is just behind the jugular, and if we perforate it by accident, it's very easy for the animal to die of internal bleeding. Luckily, it's quite uncommon for that to happen because of the way you insert the needle. Didn't manage to get blood today, the dog just wouldn't bleed for me. *shrugs* Oh well, I'll keep trying. I dont' have a partner though. The girl who was supposed to be my partner was one of the girls that failed. Not sure how that's going to work out. I guess there will have to be some re-shuffling.

I suppose I should get back to work. Wish my luck on another successful semester!

You know, as much as I hated my job at the call center (and I really hated that job) I find my self missing it. At least I knew when my day started and ended. These days, it all runs together. If I'm awake, I'm working on schoolwork. And I can't keep regular hours, because I'm never sure how long it's going to take to complete the material I need to have covered for the next day. The only surety is that I will have to get up far earlier than I want to the next day (usually b/t 4 and 5am) and do it all over again. Even the weekends are like that. Sleeping in means not getting up until 7. I'm so sick and tired of studying.. I just want to go home.