Well it's certainly time for an update. Last weekend was very busy, but fun-filled! Saturday, I went with Brooke and Kim to Norris Lake, about 45 minutes north of Knoxville. Brooke's Bible study group rented a double-decker pontoon boat and a small boat for skiing/tubing. We arrived around noon and had a cookout with lots of yummy potluck items and desserts. We then boarded the boat and went out into the lake. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was very warm. Perfect weather for swimming! Not to mention, the water temperature was perfect as well, nice and cool! I am pretty sure the last time I swam in a lake and went tubing was about 8 years ago when I went with my aunt and uncle and family to a lake down in Georgia. It was not hard to get used to tubing again, but I was surprised at how much work it is on your arms! I am currently still a little bit sore even today. I fell pretty hard the first time and the second time practically lost my bathing suit bottom :o !! It was really fun and Brooke, Kim, and I had a great time hanging out, chatting, and enjoying the day.
After the lake, we went to a party at Schrick and Edwards's house for one of the PhD students who is moving. We had yet another cookout here and enjoyed more delicious potluck snackies and desserts. Brooke made a heavenly peanut butter pie (which I now have the recipe for). I enjoyed hanging out with lots of the people from the lab and the department in a non-school setting.
This week has actually gone by pretty quickly so far, which is great because I am really looking forward to going to the mountains Friday to spend the weekend with Justin!! I will be having dinner with my grandparents and parents Saturday, so it'll be great to see them too! This week has been pretty easy going. I rode Essau bareback Monday, have been going to classes as usual, and I gave blood Tuesday. So that is a whole other story.
I guess Knoxville doesn't have an American Red Cross center, so I went to Medic Regional Blood Center. Everyone there was super nice and it was great to give blood in a place that is permanent and set up for that purpose. I usually donate at blood drives where everything is brought to a location. This place had super comfy chairs to lay in for donating and everything was well-organized. I think I surprised the nurse with my vitals...106/72 BP, 46 pulse, 96.7 temp. When I told Justin these numbers, he said "are you dead?". Haha, I actually felt just fine, except a little bit cold. The donation itself went slow, as usual. My veins apparently have shrunk over the past few years because they never used to have a problem with them. This time, the vein was the same size as the needle, so I did bruise a little bit. I was running very slowly and the nurse kept coming to check on it. She found out that if she put pressure on the needle, my blood flowed faster, so she stood there holding it down for a good 10 minutes. This gave us some time to chat and I found out she is from Lenoir, NC and her mother used to live in Durham. Small world.
Today was my first hands-on Therio lab. We went to Cherokee Farm which is actually right behind JARTU. This is where the vet school does a lot of their labs on horses and cows. Our lab today was palpation of the cow and mare. The group was split in half and we palpated one or the other. Next lab, we will switch. I decided to go with the mare today. It was really awesome because I had only palpated one mare before. They are much different than cows. It is a lot easier to feel the cervix in a cow because it always feels the same way, like a chicken neck. In a mare, her cervix can relax and go flat when she is in estrus, so some of the mares did not feel like they had a cervix at all. This makes palpating more difficult because when you do not have a "landmark" to start from, it can be hard to find the other structures. I was successful in finding the uterus in each mare and in almost all of them I was able to find both ovaries. I look forward to palpating the cow next time because it has been a while since I have done that.
Tomorrow will most likely be a long day as I do not have much going on. I have 420 lecture in the morning (TA), a meeting at 10:00 with Edwards, Voy, and Ben, and BCMB discussion at 3:40. I hope it goes by quickly so Friday can go ahead and come so I can leave! My next update will most likely be after the Labor Day weekend.
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