Utah Wild Horse & Burro Center

This morning we got to take a field trip to the Wild Horse & Burro Center at the mouth of Butterfield Canyon. We were supposed to lecture on beef cattle nutrition, but apparently while I was in the restroom, my teacher and classmates decided I could make the final decision whether or not we would go on the field trip. Uhhh...duh. :}

I've been around horses my whole life, but never wild ones. We obviously couldn't get too close to the horses, as they wouldn't hesitate to bite, kick, or bowl us over, but we did get to watch them interact. It honestly made me emotional. I have always loved watching a horse just be a horse.

We also got to meet and talk with one of the wild horse wranglers (read: real cowboy). He was great! I was totally enthralled with the whole process of "handling", vaccinating, gelding, hoof trimming, training, etc. He also had some great stories about crazy horses getting loose and causing some serious havoc! ;)

It was a seriously awesome morning! Made coming into my desk job a little hard. :}

Today is better.

Yesterday was a bad day.

I had a lovely vacation in San Francisco to come home to a mess. Did you know CHEVRON (SUCKS) will "ping" your debit card for $100 in San Francisco when you want to pay for gas at the pump? CHEVRON SUCKS. I only needed $7.39 worth of gas, but trying my card twice (or $200 in "pings") at the pump cost me lots more. CHEVRON SUCKS. Meh.

I made it to class last night. I almost didn't. I almost justified my way out of going, which would have been the first time since I started in 2008. Yes, toot my horn, I have a perfect attendance record.

I'm glad I went to class. I had signed up to go early to practice bandages, when in fact a dog got hurt and needed a real bandage. It was a tricky foot bandage that I'd never done before, but my teacher said my bandage skillz ruled. Oh and there was a baby bunny. Oh a cat named "Osmond" who I dubbed "Ozzy" that was fat and lazy and lovable and let me do a physical exam while he played with a paper towel. Oh and a kitten named "Pot Pie" that gave me kitten-high-fives, which in case you didn't know, are the best high-fives around.

Yes, I'm glad I went to class. It made today better and I have a hunch it will make my life a little more lovely in the future. And when I say "a little more lovely", I mean a lot more.

Blog with pictures on the San Francisco vacay coming soon... :)

And CHEVRON SUCKS.

I know you wanted to know...

Yes, I still listen to Miranda Lambert.
A lot.
As in, her new-ish album has pretty much occupied my CD player about 90% of the time since it came out...last year. :}

Also, Miranda is going on her own tour:
"Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars".
Love it!
No Utah date...yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Lastly, I just found out about this. Ummm...I need one. :)

Medicine Woman

So since the last time I blogged, life went...well...a little nuts! :}

I finished up with my midterms. I did rather well on them. And when I say "well", I mean I got all A's. Yes! HAHA! I actually felt pretty confident going into these ones. Some of the teachers have taken on the opinion that rather than just have us regurgitate information, they're going to give us related case studies and ask one simple question: "What would you do?" I happen to loooove this new approach. It's practical and I can literally think my way through it. I imagine an emergency case coming in, think about its problem, put together what might help to save the animal, then literally run through the clinic, the supply closet, and the procedure...in my mind. I had a lot of "Excellent!" and "Perfect job!" marks on my exams. WOO!

This last weekend I went out to Wendover with some friends. It was a fun little trip, but we had a minor issue on the way out there. As we were passing the small area of Delle, an SUV rolled in front of us. It was going East, we were going West, and it rolled across its highway, through the middle, over our highway, and onto our far shoulder. It was bad. Remembering the headlights flipping and rolling, over and over again, still makes my stomach churn. We immediately started pulling over when my sister-in-law yelled, "Is that someone on the highway?!" Sure enough there was a girl laying in the middle of the highway - she had been thrown out of the vehicle. In my normal emergency-mode manner, I didn't think - I just ran. I'm not sure if the car was even stopped, but I was already running up the highway shoulder and into the middle of the road. I stopped a semi and waved it around the girl, then screamed at some guy that thought it might be a good idea to pull her off the highway. She was dazed, scared, bloody and her left leg was twisted and turned in a scary, awkward way. Human stuff has always freaked me out. I cry, get nauseous, throw up and sometimes pass out. But, that night was different. I immediately flew into medicine mode, thinking about pulse, respiration rate, pupil dilation, pulse deficit, bleeding control... It was my animal medicine, but it was medicine nonetheless. I took control of the situation and helped. I am awesome. If it seems like I'm telling this story in an "epic" fashion, it's because I am. I am damn proud of myself. It was a scary situation, but I handled it. I can't help but think that I might just rock this medical stuff yet. :) Anyways from what I know, the girl is okay. Of course, as is normal with every situation in my life, there was humor involved. Like how I swore at and almost punched a retarded EMT, or how even standing in front of a massive semi and waving it around, I thought, "Dude! My dad would kill me if he saw me doing this!", or how I was ready to tackle some dude NFL-linebacker-style when he thought it might be a good idea to drag the girl out of the road. LOL! So yeah...I was HERE.

My brother, his wife and I are headed to San Francisco this weekend. It's going to be a bittersweet trip. I love S.F. It is one of my favorite places ever. But my cousins that live there make up a huge part of that. And this time, they won’t be there. :( Their grandpa died last Sunday, so they’re coming home to Utah, while we head to S.F. We’re still going to go stay at their place and take on the city, so I know we'll still have a lot of fun. But yeah...going to miss my cute cousins. Love them to pieces.

Oh...on the topic of S.F. I heard hottie Mike Rowe from "Dirty Jobs" lives there. If I ran into Mike, I wouldn't complain. I'm just sayin'. ;)

So that is my discombobulated life as of late. I've been sick the last few days. I don't know what's going on, but I've decided Parasitology has turned me into a hypochondriac. A couple quick urgent trips to the bathroom and I'm stressing over possible protozoan infection. LOL! We're going to the horse barn on Friday morning for my Production Animals class. Thank goodness. I need the quiet calm, familiar smell and fuzziness of a big pony right now. Either that or Lola. One crazy night in Wendover and I missed my bubs like no other. I’m not quite sure what I'd do without my little BT.

Love yaaaa'll. xoxoxAC

A letter...

Dear Blog,

Sometimes I get nervous and it shows in my skin. Stupid skin. I'm nervous about lots of stuff. I feel great responsibility to prove myself in so many different areas right now. I feel like my intelligence, my patience, my hair (hello, two-inch roots), my loyalty, my horsemanship, my physical prowess (I had to look that one up), my willpower, my tears, my steady hands, and my ability to survive on too little sleep are all being tested. Right now. It weighs heavy on my shoulders, but I understand. I know it is all a part of the Great Escape Plan and that someday it will be worth it. I can handle a lot, but seriously...I cannot handle my stupid skin. That's all.

A.C.

Some Stuff

First. Midterms are already here. Yep. Already been at this AWESOME quarter for six weeks. :)

Second. My equine teacher asked me to help out at a big vaccination clinic tomorrow. He said it wasn't that big of deal so I tried to hide the fact that I'm really, really excited to go play with needles tomorrow. BUWAHAHA!

Third. I love my family. Anyone who knows me or reads this blog should know that, but I feel the need to repeat it...a lot. It never escapes me just how lucky I am to have parents who love and SUPPORT my decisions and a baby brother that always laughs at my lame jokes.

Hey Blondie!

I love me. Seriously. I keep myself (and apparently others) very, very entertained.

So about a year ago, a very good friend passed away. In honor of his memory, his lovely wife Sally decided to throw a memorial of sorts at a local bar. I got off work yesterday and literally started running because of all I needed to get done before I went to the bar. I took Lola on a 3-mile jog. Yes, I jogged. In the panic of wanting to get all my errands done, walking was not fast enough last night. Go me. :) After that, I came home and threw together dinner. I always try to cook a big meal on Wednesday nights to eat for the rest of the week. After dinner, I ran to WalMart for some necessary household supplies, then sped home to get cleaned up. About half-way through curling my hair and putting on makeup, I texted my baby brother to see if he wanted to ride together to the bar. He wasn't sure and said he'd call me back. I continued getting ready, then about five minutes later, I got two texts:

Zachey Boy: "You're up in the night sweet pea...it's next week."
Calvin: "Cruzr's is next Wednesday AC!!"

Duuuurrrrr. Yep. I was getting dressed up for an event that's happening NEXT week. LOL! My friends thought it was so funny, they conference called me to laugh about it.

*sigh*
Me and my blonde-haired ways.
Life's never dull here at Space Camp.