Jackson is always super snuggly in the mornings.

I get ready to teach spin and eat a handful of Cheerios.

5:50am: Out the door

I have to get there early to set up.

6:15am: Class begins! It’s a surprisingly big class for early morning, during midterms, in a huge rainstorm.

7:00am: Class ends and I clean up. I always mix this electrolyte powder into 16 ounces of water and drink it right away because I really struggle with hydration after these morning classes.

7:20: Return home and make breakfast. I have some of my current favorite crackers and a protein smoothie with Chocolate Quest protein, a frozen banana, cocoa powder, and soy milk.

Animals have no rules in this house.

After breakfast, I pack my lunch for the day…with plenty of kitty help.

Again, no rules….

Then I get ready for class.

Right before leaving, I have a couple squares of 100% chocolate for a little caffeine boost.

8:45: Out the door!

9-9:50: Lecture on large animal viruses that are reportable to the USDA (meaning they’re serious enough the government wants to monitor them).

10-10:45: Group work on a group problem set. We actually have a full 2 hours allotted for this, but we finished pretty quickly! I decide to run home and take a nap with the extra time. I also get a spin sub request for that evening, and I accept. I like subbing evenings because I have a lot of friends that like to come to my classes but don’t like the early ones.

11: Crawl into bed with my nap buddy.

11:30: I didn’t actually sleep but I feel a little refreshed so I start typing up this blog post.

12: Lunch that I packed earlier, but since I’m home I get to watch an episode of Parks and Rec.

More veggie chips and a salad with chicken, pear, and blueberry chèvre. I also have a piece of dark chocolate.

I then studied a little bit with some kitty help.

(Which turned into kitty playtime.)

12:40: Leave for class again.

1-3: We had a group problem based learning session with a faculty member. The class we’re in right now is Infectious Disease, so the case was related to that.

3: Return home and eat a snack.

I study for a little bit, and then it’s time for spin round 2!

4:50: Leave for spin.

Yes, that’s the same shirt. Yes, I had to do a quick load of laundry at lunch.

5:15: Teach class! It was an awesome turnout, with a ton of my classmates! Vet students come to my classes a lot, especially when they’re not quite so early!

6:15: Return home and restart hydrating! I do another electrolyte packet, but I mix it with sparkling water. Fun fact: it fizzed like crazy and overflowed, so maybe not the best idea. Delicious though! Last time I taught a double day I rehydrated with beer and that was not the best idea I’ve ever had.

While I cook (i.e. throw together a fast and easy dinner), I snack on some carrot sticks and sauerkraut (not together).

6:35: Finally sit down and eat dinner. This is what I lovingly refer to as my Southern Taco salad, or the least authentic taco salad. When I was in Nashville, I ordered a taco salad at a Mexican restaurant and it seemed to be neither taco nor a salad; it was mainly meat and cheese! I made a queso-chicken type of deal with Bolthouse Salsa Ranch, shredded rotisserie chicken, and Mexican cheese, all heated up. I put that on top of lettuce with salsa and guacamole. Not authentic Mexican, but I like it!

I recently got Hulu, and lately I’ve been loving The Resident! I watched an episode with dinner. I consider my TV episode with dinner a non-negotiable, no matter how busy I get.

For dessert, I mixed vanilla Halo Top with a GF toffee cookie and caramel sauce. I mixed up the whole pint, but took a serving and froze the rest.

8:00: Finish up typing up this post. I need to spend some time studying for a test tomorrow so I’m going to sign off here. I might have a light snack later, but I think I’m more focused on hydrating for now. I’ll probably go to bed around 10!

5:30am: Kittens don’t understand the time change and start wrestling on my bed.

6:05: I finally get up.

I get ready for morning Crossfit and eat some Cheerios.

I was up earlier than I needed to be so I had plenty of time to snuggle kitties.

6:45am: Leave for Crossfit.

7:00: Crossfit. For strength, the rest of the class did cleans and I did snatches. My wrist has been feeling a ton better but cleans are going to be the last thing I’m able to do. The WOD was a long one.

100 sit ups

400m run

75 push ups

400m run

50 box jumps

400m run

Oof. I did push ups on a box because I am not strong enough and it’s easier only wrist! We ended up finishing class a few minutes late, and then I hit really bad traffic going back, so I was fairly flustered and rushed when I got back!

8:20: Arrive home.

8:25: Sit down to breakfast. I did a 9 mile race this past Sunday, and ever since then I have been so hungry! I was starving and had a few bites of chicken from soup that I made the other night because I knew my breakfast wouldn’t hold me over. This hunger will be a theme of the day, haha! Breakfast is cottage cheese with an apple from my Apple Hill weekend (where I did the race) with sunbutter.

8:45: Leave for class, more or less on time. We have lab today so I’m in scrubs, so thankfully getting ready is pretty quick!

9:00: First class of the day! We just started Reproduction, so I’ll spare you guys pictures.

After my first class, I actually ate a full size 3 Musketeers bar. Someone put out a big box of giant candy bars and I haven’t eaten a full sized candy bar in years, plus I was quickly burning through my breakfast so I just went for it. I only intended to have half but ate the whole thing and don’t regret that at all. I was expecting to feel sick afterwards, but again, my metabolism has been on fire since the race so I was more than hungry at lunch, after another couple of lectures!

12:00: Lunch at home. The handyman was supposed to come and I had a big gap between classes so I went home. On the menu was a big salad with persimmon, deli turkey (I recently started buying nitrite free deli turkey), cranberry goat cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette.

I also had a square of dark chocolate.

I watched an episode of Parks and Rec while eating. I don’t love it yet, but I’m still giving it a chance, and I needed a shorter show.

12:30: Study! With a side of wrestling kitties.

Marie’s current obsession is to climb on my shoulder and bite my hair.

Which usually quickly progresses to this:

1:45: I’m hungry (again) so I have my afternoon snack.

2:20: Take a short study break to start typing up this post.

2:35: Leave for lab.

3-4:30: Anatomy lab! Today is male reproduction.

4:30: Out of lab a little bit early, but it’s already getting dark!

4:45: Arrive home. I’m hungry (shocker) so I pick some veggies out of the soup I made.

Then it’s study time with the two babies!

5:45: Leave for soccer! We have a vet school team in the intramural league. Today’s game was against the 3rd year vet students and we sadly lost in penalty kicks! I still had fun and my ankle is not thrilled with me.

7:30: Finally sit down to dinner with an episode of Netflix ( I just started Riverdale). No matter how busy I get, I consider my Netlfix and dinner time sacred! On the menu is a stir fry of sorts. I microwaved some frozen stir fry veggies and then sautéed up tofu and spaghetti squash (Kind of weird, but sort of like chow mien!) with GF teriyaki sauce and served that on top of my veggies!

For dessert, I had a mini sunbutter cup and a GF snickerdoodle.

8:00: Have a few more Cheerios while icing my ankle.

8:20: Pick out an old spin playlist to teach tomorrow for Sunrise Cycle at 6:15am! I have actually a million old playlists to choose from. I teach 3 classes a week so I definitely don’t make a new playlist each time, but I have so many from years of cycling that no one will ever hear repeats!

8:25-8:30: Finish up this blog post. Before bed I’m going to try to squeeze in a little bit more studying or work on some emails, but on nights before I teach early morning spin, I try to be in bed reading a book and getting sleepy at 9, and asleep before 10!

5:15am: Alarm goes off

I take my vitamins and snuggle with Jackson.

Throw on clothes and then do a 15ish minute workout in my bedroom. I had screen shotted it a year ago when it was programmed for crossfit, and then it came up on my time hop last week so I gave it a go! I subbed push ups for kettlebell swings. It was nice to get a little sweat on!

5:45: Clean up and go make breakfast. Today I have a flapjack muffin and watermelon.

6:05: Give my roommate’s kitty his pill and feed everyone. Then, I get ready to go. I am actually running a little bit early, so I snuggle Jackson a little bit before I go.

6:40: Leave for work.

7:00 Start work. This morning I’m assisting with surgeries, which mainly consists of prepping patients and anesthesia monitoring for dental procedures. Today we ended up spending a really long time with a patient due to a difficult dental extraction so lunch doesn’t come until 1:30. This is super unusual. Usually lunch is at 12 on the dot. We are sustained by cupcakes—mini bundt cakes from Nothing Bundt Cakes.

In terms of gluten…it variably affects me right now. I didn’t have much issue with brain fog with this, but I did have a mini corn muffin after lunch and that hit me fast and hard with the intense tiredness. So I don’t really get it. I definitely didn’t feel my best from all the sweets today though.

1:30: Eat my packed lunch.

Salad with chicken, nectarine, blueberry goat cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette. Same lunch every day, with some form of GF cracker-y thing on the side. I usually eat lunch outside with a book (unless it’s 100 degrees. Only 90 today).

The snacks I bring for the afternoon are grapes (which I eat right after lunch) and a Luna bar.

2:30: Back to work! I finish some surgery stuff and run various labs, as well as clean. Later on I shadow some, and then do closing duties. I have my Luna bar around 4.

7:10: Off work! I come straight home.

7:20: Greeted at home by my baby!

I start to make my dinner while munching on some crackers.

7:40: Dinner came together super fast because my squash was already cooked. I heated up spaghetti squash with parmesan and garlic, and topped it with marinara sauce and mozzarella. Yum!

I’m currently watching season 14 of Grey’s Anatomy.

Dessert is a chocolate covered greek yogurt bar and a piece of chocolate.

8:30: I still want a little something so I go with a bar.

8:40-9:00: Work on this blog post. After this I’ll probably read and get ready for bed. I’m usually going to sleep around 10. Honestly, this is not my greatest day of food, but for 11 hour workdays it is what it is. Plus I only have a couple of weeks left here, so I’ll enjoy what comes!

Back at it again tomorrow!

Pre-workout: Handful of Berry Cheerios

Workout was 6am Crossfit. We did shoulder presses, and then a WOD with lots of dumbbell snatches and toes to bar. Big progress for me was having no issues with the snatches. Doing these last back home in California, the extra couple of inches closer to the floor with the dumbbell versus the barbell was a big problem, so that’s good!

Post-workout breakfast eaten in the car:

Chocolate milk drink plus some crackers. Can we talk for a second about that fact that Crossfit ended at 7, and I started work at 7:30? I got showered and totally ready to go in 10 minutes. One trick is to do (minimal) eye makeup that’s waterproof before Crossfit. It helps me look somewhat put together!

Lunch:

I’ve had roughly the same salad every day at work, but this was especially amazing. The nectarine was perfectly sweet and ripe, I used the last of my delicious fig balsamic goat cheese, and the chicken was amazing. It’s leftover grilled chicken from Hattie B’s; the original meal will appear in a later recap post but this was awesome.

I also had cotton candy grapes. I first tried these in St. Louis almost 2 years ago and became obsessed. I’ve never seen them in CA. I thought that they MUST have them somewhere here, and went to every grocery store until finally I found them at Publix!

I had to stop into Target to pick up a few things on my lunch break, so I had a few pieces of this:

Snack: I’ve been having a Luna bar every day. I haven’t had the Lemon flavor in a while, and after having it today, I realized that the last few of the Lemon bars I had months ago were probably stale because this was so good!

I was actually really hungry today, so around 4:30 I broke into another Target purchase, one of these new protein bars I found. I used to love ThinkThin bars in the days prior to my weird nut allergies, so I was excited to find a kids bar that didn’t have any! I actually liked this a lot. It didn’t have the weird fake sugar taste of some of the other ThinkThin bars I remember. This reminded me a lot of the Balance Cookie Dough bars I used to like when I was younger! Plus I love having a smaller bar option for when I want just a little something.

Dinner:

Since I’m impatient, I often snack while cooking. Today’s snack was some tzatziki sauce from Taziki’s leftover from some takeout I got earlier in the week, with some crackers.

Dessert:

Mint chip Halo Top.

And then a little bit later, I had some GF crackers with sunbutter.

And that’s a wrap!

I thought I’d recap what I’ve been up to so far before works starts getting crazy (I work pretty long days). I’m currently blogging from a coffeeshop, the Frothy Monkey, downtown. I have a drink with beet juice and cocoa powder. I didn’t think it had any coffee in it, but I actually am not sure if ti does or not…

I’m definitely not expert on Nashville, but I’m trying to get the most out of my time off!

Sunday was spent mostly settling in. Side note: when I got in Saturday, it was so late nothing was open so I went through the McDonald’s drive through. I got the Southwest salad with grilled chicken and it was actually REALLY good.

I went to Target on Sunday on pretty much bought one of everything. There are just a lot of things necessary to live! I also wanted to spend plenty of time with Jackson on my first day to make sure he was settling in ok.

Yeah, I think he’s fine.

The main event was Sunday afternoon. I researched spin classes in Nashville, and came across Cyclebar, which I’ve heard of. I wanted to go to a class on Sunday, and happened to find that they had an outdoor class at a brewery. Um, sign me up! We got to cycle outside, with a great view of the Nashville skyline. and then, we got a free beer at the brewery!

I also figured this was a step up from drinking alone! It was at Jackalope, and I had the Lovebird beer, which was a strawberry/raspeberry hefeweizen.

Afterwards, I went to dinner at the Frothy Monkey location in 12 South, an area I went with my friend when I visited Nashville a few years ago. (I think I will probably go back there and not come here to the downtown location, just because parking is RIDICULOUSLY expensive here). I got a sandwich with smoked turkey, cheese, and avocado on GF bread, and a salad with citrus vinaigrette.

Afterwards, I walked down the street to Jenni’s ice cream. I was hoping to try their Gooey Butter Cake flavor (#stlouis) but they were out. I “settled” for dark chocolate and salty caramel. You can do two half scoops of different flavors! So this was technically single scoop, but it was huge!

Monday morning I went into the clinic I’m going to work out to do some paperwork and get oriented.

I was home in time for lunch, and discovered a new quick and easy salad combo that apparently I haven’t take a picture of yet. Bolthouse farms Salsa Racnh dressing, deli turkey, and american cheese. The American cheese I got tastes a little cheddary so it works!

Monday afternoon I went to a new Crossfit! I had a comprehensive evaluation of my movements beforehand. I can tell the coaching here is really good. I’ve been to 2 classes so far and they’ve definitely been challenging! It’s really nice to go somewhere different and get pushed, plus it’s smaller so there’s more individual attention. For better or for worse, they have 5am classes. Which might become a thing when I start work at 7am and work until 7:30pm (ouch, we’ll see).

Because I work such long hours, I’m going to try to go as much as I can, when I can. Which means on my days off, I really need to hit it!

After Crossfit, I made myself a giant salad with salsa ranch, corn, tomatoes, Mexican cheese blend, and BBQ chicken.

This is a super easy dinner that will be on repeat this week. I’ve made this before with lime juice and olive oil as the dressing!

Tuesday and Wednesday I had off of work. Tuesday morning was lazy until I went to 11:30 Crossfit. It crushed me. We did RDLs for the strength, which I am definitely feeling now. Followed by box steps ups. I like the accessory strength work that we do as well. I think it’s important! The WOD was a 15 minute AMRAP of 15 cals rowing/15 wall balls/9 burpees. I finished just over 5 rounds. We also do some “cool down” work here, and today it was sideways leg raises which I am also feeling.

That morning, I went to Walmart (I don’t have one near me, but they have some awesome healthy food things! The new Peach Halo Top is fire.) which happened to be near a GF, nut free MUFFIN bakery. The Wild Muffin is a super small shop that specializes in GF muffins, and I’m obsessed because muffins are the superior baked good. I got a lemon blueberry and a pumpkin cheesecake, and they were still warm. They were both gone in a day, and this is going to have to become a weekly occurrence.

After lunch, I went to Radnor Lake to hike the trail around the lake. I figured I should do some outdoor things while it’s still 80s here! It was really beautiful, and the trail around the lake took me about an hour and 10 minutes.

Being outdoors like this feels like summer to me!

When I arrived home, I cleaned myself up and went to a Nashville Sounds baseball game! The minor league team here is the AAA affiliate of the Oakland A’s. The stadium is really nice so it’s a fun time!

Nothing like beer and baseball in the summer!

More to come soon!

How did Jackson do on the flight? Read on for more!

I’ll have a separate post up in a little bit with Nashville things, but this is enough for its own post!

Let me just start by saying that I was SO nervous for this. I was worried he would be super scared. He’s pretty scared of new people and new places. But I also sort of knew he would be just fine. He’s really good in the car, and rides 2 hours in the car fairly frequently. After some debate, I decided not to use any pharmacological intervention. I really didn’t want to because it just adds another variable, but I was worried he would be terrified. So how did it go? First, we flew Alaska Air. They had a pretty good pet policy: $100 for flying with the animal, and they don’t require any records or paperwork if he travelled in the cabin with me, which was something I DEFINITELY wanted to do anyways.

I was really nervous to go through security, because I wasn’t sure how that would work. They gave me the option of holding him as I walked through the metal detector and his carrier went through the machine, or taking him out in a private room for when the carrier went through the machine. I opted for the private room because I wasn’t sure if he would make a run for it. He was really good for this process. When I took him out he seemed scared but not terrified. As we walked around the airport, he meowed some. Not yowling, just reminding me he was there. The next few hours were a little bit of a nightmare, but he was a champ. We got onto the plane, and then immediately had to get off because there was something wrong with the plane. That led waiting an hour or so to get onto a new plane. Then, once on the new plane, we taxied for a while and then they brought us back to the gate because a warning light came on. THEN they had to change flight crews because due to the delays, the pilots had been working too many hours in a row. So MORE delays. I was a bundle of nerves at this point because it was 2pm, and he had been in the carrier since 8:30am, and we still had a 4 hour flight ahead of us. Meanwhile…he was fine. As soon as we started taxiing the first time (before we got called back to the gate), he curled up and fell asleep. And then was asleep through the whole delay and pretty much the entire rest of the flight. I was worried about the noise at takeoff, and that he would be terrified….nope, he was asleep. He didn’t make a single peep on the plane, and only meowed again when we were off the plane. I put my hand in the carrier a few times to check on him…he purred. So he was definitely not traumatized!

In terms of logistics, I brought a big tupperware container and a bag of litter (which 100% will get flagged at security if you do this), as well as some small paper bowls and a bag of his food. When we got to SFO, I took him out in a pet relief area by the gate and gave him an opportunity to use the litter, which he didn’t. I gave him the chance to drink water on the plane and I don’t think he did at all.

Due to the delays, we got to the house we’re staying at around 10pm…meaning he had been in the carrier for almost 12 hours. I had a letterbox and litter delivered to the place so it would be ready for when we arrived, but not only did he not urinate in his carrier, he didn’t use the litter for a little while.

I was also nervous for how he would be in a new place since he tends to be scared of new places. Nope. He was purring and flopped out on my bed pretty much right away.

He seemed very comfortable and was happy to explore a new place. He especially loves all the window sills! There are critters that he loves watching out the windows on the back deck.

And of course he has been loving hanging out in the sink. I don’t get it.

The one weird thing is that he didn’t eat really at all the first day. That’s really unusual for him. He’s usually constantly eating, and he loves his dry food! He didn’t seem stressed at all, and was behaving normally. And he ate a couple of treats. But then I was unpacking a can of his wet food, and he was instantly interested so I fed him that, and since then he has eaten normally! Kittens…

Overall, despite my own stress, we had a great flying experience. I’m so lucky that he’s so good about this kind of thing, and I think taking him in the car regularly from a young age was really helpful. It’s also SO nice to have him here with me!

Have you flown with a pet before?

Ingredients:

Trader Joe’s Lemon Pepper Grilled Chicken

Steamed or Roasted Asparagus (I steamed mine, and then for my last salad of the week when I didn’t have any broccoli, I broiled it)

Roasted Broccoli (I roasted with Trader Joe’s Everything seasoning blend)

Feta

Fresh Dill

Mixed Greens

Trader Joe’s Tzatziki Sauce

This salad screamed “spring” to me. Also, I got that bowl specifically to house large salads.

Just basically mix everything together. The Tzatziki is the dressing.

I’ve also had some other delicious salads lately that I thought I would share.

Granted this isn’t the best picture. But right now, aged balsamic massaged onto kale is my jam. This also has dried cranberries, creamy goat cheese, and deli chicken. I actually think I prefer deli chicken to turkey at this point.

Same idea but with honey goat cheese. I don’t have a picture, but I’ve also been doing blueberries instead of pears in my lunch salads this week. Partly because they were actually really sour and not the best to just have plain.

Avocado toast, plus an amazing salad that doesn’t look like much. Amazing thanks to the aged TRUFFLE balsamic vinegar that I used. I think aged vinegars are my current favorite thing. The kale was massaged with a little olive oil, aged truffle balsamic, garlic powder, nutritional yeast, and salt and pepper.

And since I claim to be a vet student, here are some fun things from these past couple weeks:

Learning how to locate abdominal organs on ultrasound:

New bffs:

My first client simulation lab! My school puts a lot of emphasis on communication in our curriculum, starting in first year!

6:45: I stayed in bed as long as I could, including getting up twice to try and kick Jackson out of my room.

6:45-7: Weight Jackson and snuggle. And take my (gummy) vitamins. He’s officially 10 pounds! Which means he’s tripled in size since I got him <3

Then I get dressed and eat breakfast.

A cracker, the rest of my blackberries, and a double chocolate protein muffin.

Pack my lunch. I pretty much always pack the same salad, but the fruit varies depending on the season. We’re not at peach season quite yet. Pear, goat cheese, chicken, with some GF basically cheezits.

7:45: Not really sure what to do since I’m awake an hour earlier than I needed to be, so I start this post and watch a youtube video, and then get ready for the day!

8:40: Leave for class.

9:00: First lecture is on imaging of the abdomen.

10:00: Lecture on anti-emetic drugs and gastroprotectants. We learn that long term omeprazole use can decrease calcium absorption. A couple of years ago when I was really sick with stomach issues, I was on omeprazole for probably a year, and broke my foot at the end of that time so I wonder if that contributed? I was training for a 10 mile race and doing a lot of other stuff, but I had also run like 6 half marathons while healthy without ever having bone issues so maybe!

11:00: Lecture on pathology of the stomach and esophagus, which I purposefully did not take much of a picture of because we looked at a lot of real images of the organs.

12-12:40: Lunch! I sit outside because it’s a beautiful day!

12:40: Change into scrubs and a lab coat for anatomy lab.

1-2:40: Anatomy lab. Today’s lab involved dissecting into the abdomen and seeing all the organs we’ve been talking about!

3:00: Return home to my little sidekick greeting me at the door.

Eat a snack while relaxing with a short TV episode, followed by Jackson cuddles.

3:30: Continue on this blog post.

3:45: Make some notes on today’s lab. Grab a handful of Cheerios before heading to Crossfit because I’m starving.

4:25: Leave for Crossfit.

I haven’t worn my ankle brace in a looong time but I wear it today because while my ankle is much, much better, I’ve already exceeded my use of it for the week and we have double unders. Usually my ankle is totally fine running once a week, and after that it gets sketchy. I ran 3 miles on Sunday and had soccer on Tuesday, so it’s sore. Which is an issue since I have a 5k on Saturday, so I’m babying it!

4:45: Crossfit. The 4:45 class is a 45 minute class but we still do the same stuff as the normal classes. Today is a longer workout so it’s a mad dash.

Part 1:

5 rounds:

30s assault bike MAX EFFORT (ouch)

90s rest

30s burpees to a target

90s rest

This was TOUGH because we were really encouraged to go all out on the bike! We didn’t have much time before heading right into the WOD, which was a fun one.

9 min AMRAP:

9 push jerk at 75#

15 sit ups

21 double unders

I finished 5 rounds plus 9 push jerks.

5:45: Return home and cook dinner while sipping on a lavender kombucha. Nothing unusual today. Zucchini noodles with pasta sauce and lots of cheese: regular and fresh mozzarella.

Dessert:

Enjoy life soft baked chocolate cookies in a new brand of vanilla cake “healthy” ice cream. I ended up really not liking the ice cream. I almost didn’t finish the bowl, and ended up just tossing the rest of the pint.

Then I go to ice my ankle while turning on the Giants game.

Watch the game a little longer before starting class work. This is his preferred position…

7:45: Snack on a bowl of Berry Cheerios.

And then this is the set-up:

Baseball (on mute), iPad with lectures, and then my notes.

8:30: Jackson wants to lay on my iPad…and play. So I do some clicker training with him. He’s been really bad about biting—play biting, not aggressive, but still a problem especially at night. I’m trying to teach him to “attack” this toy so I can try and redirect his behavior. I don’t appreciate dealing with teeth every night around 3am…

It’s about 9 now. I have another lecture I want to get through but it should be quick! I’m usually in bed with the lights out around 10:30.

And that’s a more or less typical day of GI in vet school!

5:55am: Alarm goes off

I start getting ready for the day, and try to keep my roommate’s talkative kitty quiet.

She actually settles down instead of following me around meowing this morning.

6:20: Quick breakfast before running out the door. I have a flapjacked muffin and a few crackers.

6:40: Leave the house and realize it’s trash day. Whoops. In vet school I never can keep track of the days. I take out the bins on my way out.

6:45: Arrive at the teaching hospital. This morning I volunteered for the treatment crew for kitties burned in the Sonoma/Santa Rosa fires. We’ve gotten a ton of kitties transferred to us, so students come in in the morning and evening to take care of them to help out the normal hospital staff.

8:30: Finish the morning treatments. We finished a little bit early, which means I don’t have to sprint to lecture! The kitties are the sweetest things.

9:00: Lecture. With a lollipop. We’re doing immune system/hematology right now.

10:00: Lecture.

10:50-11:00: Take a quick walk before our 11:00 lecture to get the blood flowing!

11-12: Lecture

12:00: Lunchtime! I packed leftover zucchini noodle pad thai with scrambled egg. I accidentally put too much sauce on, so I threw in some lettuce.

1-2: Lecture/lab. We’re looking at pictures of bone marrow aspirate and identifying cell types, and underlying diseases.

2-2:15: Meet with my group to discuss how we are going to attack our group take home test/homework assignment.

2:30: Home! This is the earliest we’ve gotten out in a long time, and it’s because the other half of our class has a 3 hour lab this afternoon (we have it Friday). I have a snack and watch a short TV episode. I usually take a break when I first get home because my brain is fried, although today was pretty light so it doesn’t feel as necessary!

2:50-3: Start typing up this blog post.

3-3:30 Random stuff around the house. I bag up leftover Halloween candy for our group meeting, keeping out some for a baking project!

3:30-4:15: Go over lecture notes and make a study guide. For each lecture, I go through the slides (I take notes directly on the slides on my iPad. That thing is my life.) and make sure I understand everything, and summarize it all into a study guide. Colorful pens are mandatory. I try to go through all the lectures on the day of, because it’s easy to get behind, but some days (like Monday when we had 5 lectures) that isn’t practical. I get through one lecture so far.

Everyone has to find their own method of studying in vet school, and thus far this has worked really well for me. When I’m studying for a test, I can read through my study guides fairly quickly, although I still go through the lectures as well. Right now the study guides are enough and I don’t need flashcards, but that might change . Flashcards are more time consuming and part of vet school is optimizing time. Our next unit is nutrition, so I may need to start using them with that!

4:15: Get ready for Crossfit!

4:25: Leave for Crossfit.

I wear running shoes because I’m trying to give my feet more cushion (my ankle bone has been hurting) and we’re not doing anything that involves squatting or any movement that would require flatter shoes.

Also: I really like this version of this song. The first time I heard it I thought it was the weirdest thing, but it grew on me.

4:45-5:30: Crossfit! I go to the 45 minute condensed class. It’s the same workout as the regular classes, but the pace is faster. We do 10 minutes of EMOM kipping pull ups, and I do 5 each minute. I feel like my strength would allow me to do more, but my hands get bruised and ripped.

The WOD was a 15 minute AMRAP of

30 sit ups with a 14# med ball

200m run

30 push ups

200m run

I only got to 2 and a half rounds!

When I get home, I make dinner right away and turn on Game 7 of the World Series! I can stream Xfinity, but what it lets you stream is weird. I can’t stream the World Series…but then I realized a couple of days ago, there is a loophole. I can stream the Spanish broadcast! I’ll take it! I know some Spanish, so I understood some things!

6:00: Sit down to eat. On the menu is Mexican style zucchini noodles. I season the zoodles with smoky seasoning, and then stir in Harvest salsa, chicken, and reduced fat Mexican cheese blend. Guacamole on the side.

For dessert, I pull a piece of pumpkin banana bread from the freezer.

7:30: Finally mute the game and get back to work. Normally I’d watch one show episode during dinner and then start studying, but Game 7 of the World Series is a special circumstance, clearly! Instead of going through the other lecture from today, I start working on making a giant diagram of all the immune system stuff we’ve learned this block. I really like putting everything together.

Somewhere in there, I snack on a granola bar. It’s so crumbly I have to eat it over the sink or I’ll make a mess. Annoying.

A cuddle break was taken also:

9:00: Astros win the World Series!

9:15: Break to blog. My diagram is done for now. Rina is snoozing. She often comes up and meows at me when it’s time for bed!

I’m going to sign off now. I’m going to take a crack at my immune system homework problems I’m meeting with my group about tomorrow, and then I might read for a few minutes. I’ll probably call it a night around 10:30!

One of the most heartbreaking parts about the wildfires are all the animals that are lost/injured/killed when owners have little to no warning to evacuate. Some amazing people have been doing great work to evacuate, rescue, and save countless animals. Here at the vet school, we are starting to get patients. I finally got the chance to help out, and I jumped at the opportunity. I spent Saturday morning helping out with some burn victim kitties, and I’m on call Monday night in case we get lots of patients.

The only bright spot in all this tragedy is seeing the community come together to help. The spots to help out with the fire victims at the vet schooled filled up SO fast. My classmates raised money to take donations into Sonoma Country. Many businesses and organizations are donating money and items to help the victims.

And through all the tragedy, we are starting to see traces of hope; dogs that stayed behind to protect the farm animals, and all emerged safe. People who returned to find their houses gone, but their pet, healthy, waiting for them. People doing incredible things to save lives.

That being said, the fires are still burning, so my thoughts go out to those affected.

I spent my Sunday morning volunteering at a pop-up clinic. It’s an amazing experience, because we get to work with clients in need and practice taking the lead on cases. This morning was my first opportunity to take the lead myself, without the aid of an older student! Things like this weekend make me so happy I’m going into this field.

Also this weekend: I played intramural soccer. I haven’t played soccer in 8 years, but I grew up playing it from the age of 5. WHEW. I consider myself a fairly fit person, but soccer running is a different kind of fitness. We ended up playing a shortened game, and I don’t think anyone was complaining about that!

ALSO this weekend, I tried out Davis’s newest brewery, Super Owl. I like it, but 3 Mile is still my favorite beer in this area!

Back to my weekend home. I drove Chloe back Saturday morning after a final walk around the neighborhood.

One of the first tasks was visiting the GF bakery for Saturday donuts! These are great because they’re baked, not fried.

Maple donut, orange donut, chocolate donut, and apple cake and a cinnamon roll.

That afternoon, I snuggled with kitties and then met up with a friend at Stanford who just transferred there. It reminded me of how hard undergrad was. It’s somehow easy to forget that…

On my way home, I picked up dinner to celebrate my dad’s birthday, a bit late!

I had salmon with a baked sweet potato and broccoli.

We also broke open the growler that we brought home from Kansas in January! That was a definite upside of vet school interviews! Even all these months later, it was delicious and fizzy. This was Reindeer Sweat, which was a holiday-themed stout. I believe it had notes of chocolate and cherry. This was one of the best stouts I’ve had in a while. Totally worth braving icy temperatures!

My mom made a German Chocolate Birthday cake:

My sister made Gelato and brought dulce de leche to put on top, so I had a bowl of that! Yum!

Sunday morning, I ran 4 miles at one of my favorite places ever.

I’ve mostly been running 3 miles over the past year, and it’s amazing how different it feels with that extra mile…overall it went well though!

For lunch, my dad grilled peaches and chicken (I took lots of leftover grilled chicken back to school with me…) and we made grilled chicken and peach salad.

I also brought a zucchini with me and backed another loaf of zucchini pumpkin bread.

People who let their bread cool, I understand you the least.

That afternoon, one of my friends from home (the one with the puppy!) came over for a little dog walk. They’re officially friends, which was such a good feeling after Chloe’s behavior the previous week. They were both pretty tired, so when they played, it was sort of in slow motion.

Then, it was time for me to return to school. When I got back, I had a text from my sister waiting, saying she has just adopted a kitten! Um, excuse me, you couldn’t have done that a few hours earlier?? Look how cute she is though:

Ok, I’m back to studying!