Anyone need a condo? Cheapy. Cheapy.

So its almost been a month.  If there was  a vote for worst blogger I'm sure I'd be nominated and win. Oh well....

So I am officially done small animal medicine.  It was a crazy month.  Some weeks were nuts where I'd be at the school at 7am and wouldn't leave until 9:30 pm... or I'd be on call and sleep over.  Last night was my last sleep over and man was I lucky.  Not one call. Not. ONE! But I still woke up every hour thinking my phone was broken seeing that never happens.  Must be because its currently -47 and noone's vehicles can start.  Therefore I imagine there are alot of sick animals stuck inside right now.  Pooping on their owners instead of us.  Poor puppies.  Regardless, small animal medicine was great.  I learned alot of cool stuff and got to see alot of cool things.  I'm off to Calgary now to do a 2 week externship in emergency at the CARE Center.  

On to more exciting news... we officially put our condo up for sale.  I guess that means its more real that we are moving.  To Penticton that is.  YUP! I'm deathly excited.  Travis and I had originally wanted to buy a house but I chickened out.  And he did too a bit.  We thought that coming back from Europe, moving 2 provinces away, starting new jobs AND buying a house may have been putting too much on our plate.  So we've decided to rent.  Its not for sure, but we've found a great place on the water.. with a pool!  One of our dear friends is going to check it out tomorrow (apparently thats a rule before you are allowed to rent) so we'll keep you updated and see if we get it! 

We haven't told alot of people about Penticton yet mainly because I'm still working on getting a job.  Noone is hiring out there right now but I was able to visit a few clinics when Travis and I went out in December.  Travis, bless his little soul, decided the night before (after me spending months working on resumes, phoning references, setting up interviews etc.) that he needed his resume revised.  Luckily I made him look like Mother Teresa (don't ask me how) and he wandered into a pharmacy, had an interview on the spot and then got flown out there last month to make sure everything was hunky dory.  For me, on the other hand, it was not that easy.  I am talking to one clinic right now though that I hope will work out.  They seem like they would be wonderful mentors and I'm going out at the end of April to work there for 2 weeks to see if we 'mesh' well together.

So that is our plans right now.  We are headed to Europe.  Moving to Penticton.  And living in a condo with a pool (maybe).  So if you want to come visit us when we move to BC, remember the rule: you have to visit us in Saskatoon first (sucks to be you!... but actually right now it sucks even more to be us.... -47 UGH!) And yes, we are not kidding about this rule.

TaTa for now!

Just the SAMe old, SAMe old

Since I last posted I have now been harassed by Jodie to post more.  Believe me, my life is not that interesting that you want to know every detail.  Travis has been gone since the start of February and has covered half the province with work.  I'd have to say, the whole living apart thing is getting a bit old.  However, I have also started my small animal medicine (aka SAM) since I last posted and haven't been home much anyways.  I feel that Molly is suffering though, seeing that both of us have been fairly neglectful of her.  Either that or she's in her glory because we aren't bugging her all the time.

Anyways, I was pretty nervous to start this rotation.  Not only because I heard it's alot of work, but because I was nervous I wouldn't know the answers to 'simple' problems.  Well, it turns out I was right on both accounts, however, I realized that the reason I'm on the rotation is to learn and that I shouldn't know all the answers.  Good thing because sometimes I don't know any.

Things have been good the first two weeks though.  I started off having a patient in ICU which was pretty tiring seeing he needed to be monitored 24/7.  He went home though by the end of the week so it was nice to get a break.  I also like this rotation alot because the interns and residents let you make alot of your own decisions.  And if you wrong, they help you make the right ones.  Or they laugh at you.... which is not a bad thing either because sometimes I need to realize that some pretty stupid stuff can come out of my mouth.

Besides school, Travis will finally be home tonight, however, he's headed out to Kelowna tomorrow morning to visit his friends and go skiing.  He'll be back Monday and then he starts a week of graveyard shifts in the ghetto (the 22nd Shoppers on the West Side - for all you who don't know Saskatoon, that's where all the stabbings and robberies take place).  So hopefully he'll have his ninja skills up to par, or at least be able to quickly find the oxycontin if he gets robbed (which his pharmacy actually did - at gun point! luckily he wasn't working though).  Anyways, he starts that and I still have another 2 weeks of SAM to finish.

After that, I'm headed to Calgary at the start of March to do a 2 week externship in emergency and critical care.  So maybe, if any of you from home actually reading my blog (Jodie you better be seeing that you're on my back about me keeping up with this thing) would like to hang out.... please call :)

What? I have to get a real job?

     For the past 7.5 years I've been in University.  While most of the time it has been a pain in the butt, it has also been my security blanket.  I've never had to look for a 'real job' or had to worry about what I was going to do in the fall.  Now, its time for real life.  And I'm super excited because I feel Travis and I have had to miss out on things back home because we were in school.  So, the first of our big plans.....
.....Does not include me getting a job - but does include what we are going to do!
     We're going to EUROPE!
     I'm probably the most excited I've ever been about going to Europe.  After I graduated high school, I really wanted to travel but decided to be 'responsible' and go to university.  Not that I would say NOT going to university isn't responsible, it just seemed like the right thing for me to do.  I struggled alot with undergrad.  I didn't have trouble with the school, but I didn't enjoy it.  Not at all.  I found it hard to do well in something you didn't like or care about even if it was a 'means to an end' (as my mom would say).  Regardless, I was excited to graduate and then travel. But now, Travis convinced me that I would be alot happier if I just went to vet school instead of taking a year off and then travel when I graduated.  So that is what I did.  I like to think that I'm blaming him for ruining my travel career (or what I think could have been a great one) but honestly, he was right (I hate to admit that).  I'm really glad that I decided to go to vet school because now I can travel... and then hopefully get a job.
    So on to the travel business.  I promised myself that I wouldn't book our tickets or make plans until after the NAVLE.  For those of you who dont' know what the NAVLE is, its the North American Veterinary Licensing Exam.  What it is, essentially, is a cumulative test of 4 years of vet school; and its something that you need to pass before you can work as a vet.  I didn't want to book our tickets because I knew planning would be a distracting to studying and, as well, I didn't want to jinx myself. Also, Travis had also told me that if I didn't pass, he and Molly would go to Europe while I stayed home and studied to write again (obviously he was joking - Molly doesn't really like the French).  Thankfully I passed so we didn't have that problem.
   So YAY! I could finally start planning and that I did.  Right now our plans are to fly into Madrid in the middle of June (following Jills' wedding - horraay!!!) and spend a couple days there - then on to Malaga, Spain.  From there we are headed to France, Italy and then to the Greek Islands.  I'll update you more as we make more plans but finally, FINALLY, my dreams of travelling are coming true!

They don't call it the Sinister 7 for nothing

     Today I will be writing two blogs, one because I wanted to tell everyone how awesome the Sinister 7 was and two because last time I called home I heard my sister in the back ground telling my mom what a shitty 'blogger' I was.

So... the Sinister 7.

     Last fall, I was in a small animal joint tap lab when I got accosted by Heather, Danyse and Karen.  Whilst surrounding me and giving me menacing looks, they asked if I wanted to run a race with them.  Having run my first half marathon last summer, I said yes without asking what it was.  That was my first mistake.    Once I actually went to the website (this is after we registered), I realized it was an 148km (yes, it was that long) adventure race and began to question what the heck I"d gotten myself into. 

     My first clue to having got myself in over my head was that the mandatory gear  included a first aid kit.  The second was that my leg was called "Iron Ridge" and was 32 km long.  However, it was too late to go back; our $1300 entry fee had been paid and we were going to do this come hell (or high water as it actually turn out to be)

    The Sinister 7 is divided into 7 legs.  Each leg has a different degree of difficulty as well as a different length that ranged from 12km to 35km.  While some people chose to run the race themselves (do not ask me why) we decided to make a team.  Our team consisted of Heather, Danyse, Karen, Danyse's friend Karen, Jay (Heather's boyfriend), Tania (my sister in law) and myself.   The race begins in Blairmore, AB runs 16 km to Frank Slide, back to Blairmore, around a mountain, up into Coleman, up another mountain (this one with an elevation gain of 3200 feet), down the mountain and a leg back into town.  Because the race is 148km total, we were told that if we were not able to complete the race in under 14 hours we would be running in the dark.  For those of you doing your rapid math calculations right now, thats approximately 10km an hour.  While this is a fair speed if you are running on flat ground, I challenge anyone to run up a mountain (my leg started running up the Powder Keg ski hill) at 10km/hr.  We therefore knew we would be running in the dark.  In the mountains.  With the bears. And cougars.  Nonetheless, we were going to do this.

     The race weekend started off with us all arriving in Blairmore on a beautiful friday night in July and attending the pre-race supper.  We walked into for registration and were all in awe of people who had calves of steel (seriously, I wanted to go hug their legs they were so beautiful but I was told that would be frowned upon) as well as teams who had shirts made for them (I had bought shirts at Target and used Neon paint to decorate them).  Again, over our heads.  The race directors got us all pumped up as well as reminded us of what to do should we encounter a bear.  Super.  We headed back to our campsite, had a shirt giving ceremony and got ready for the morning.

     It was an early start the next morning when the alarm clocks started buzzing at 5:30am but we were all very excited.  Danyse was the first leg of the race and Tania had to get on a bus to head to the second.  Tania decided to down a hard boiled egg (she had read this was a good idea before a run - I thought it sounded good too but my bowels knew better that to do something that silly) and hopped on the bus.  We cheered Danyse off and excitedly waited for Tania to return.  

    Tania came in around 11:30am after Danyse' 16.5km leg and her 16km leg.  Danyse has been in the top 20 people to come in and Tania had kept up a good pace (despite her first 5km being climbing the mountain).  Karen was then off to run 35km and returned around 4pm for me to start my leg.  As I stood at the bottom of the ski hill I was so excited but at the same time was crapping my pants (seriously if you me).  I started off and thought it was going to be awesome.  Until I attempted to keep up my pace running the hill.  Have you ever tried to run up a ski hill?  Ya, I challenge you to do that. So about 30s later, I decided that I wasn't going to be a hero and decided to walk.  For the next 5 km it was up and down but easy running.  I met a running partner around then and we chatted and ran for the next 20 km (which included crossing multiple streams, running through a raging rain/lightning/thunder storm and running out of drinking water)  I finished just after 7pm, hugged Heather off and proceeded to collapse on a chair because my legs hated me.  

    Heather's leg of the race was rated 6/5.  Personally, I think they make rating scales so 5/5 appears to be the most difficult.  6/5 then would seem impossible.  But it wasn't - Heather had her ski poles and was off.  She came in around 12:30am (after running in the pitch black!) and off Karen 2 went.  Karen had to run through the night as well which I think she was amazing for.  I couldn't have done it!  Jay finished the leg off and we crossed the finish line 23hours after starting.  I was super proud of our team and decided it was one of the coolest things I had every signed up to do.  

    So, if you like to run - even a bit - I know this race may sound a bit intense but it seriously is amazing. The views are beautiful and the thrill of saying you were part of an adventure race is totally worth it.  

If you want to check out the website here it is:  http://sinister7.com/race_details.html