I booked my Grenada flight for August/December awhile ago. I usually get at least a few emails stating that American Airlines has "changed" my flights in some way, but usually those changes are really minor. Moved something by a few minutes. However, today I received one and when I looked, it turns out a pretty major change had been made.
When I fly here, I try to leave late enough from my home airport that I don't have to get up at some ridiculous hour of the morning and fight traffic, but not so late that I will still have a few hours in Miami before leaving for Grenada. A good buffer zone.
Today I get an email stating that my original 11am flight had been moved back to 12:50pm. It's a 2.5 hour flight, so it was going to get me in just over an hour before my Grenada flight was scheduled to leave. Yikes. That is for sure no good - too stressful for me, too much room for error and missing the Grenada connection (the hardest part to reschedule because they're so booked). I also fly with my dog who is going to need to pee between flights which requires leaving security and returning. Yeah, not a good plan with just an hour total.
I called AA thinking it was going to be a huge hassle and fight to get the flight moved, but they were super nice and moved it no questions asked! Now I'm leaving with several hours in between Miami and Grenada - good for both Lucy and me!
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Adventures of a Naughty Dog Part 6
This crime spree has got to stop! In fact, the trash can has been conveniently relocated to underneath the kitchen sink in a cabinet in an effort to end the spree. There was no evidence when I got home today and no dog acting super guilty, but apparently my roommate came home to find that the trash had gracefully been individually plucked from the can (but not consumed). The one thing she did eat was the last couple of slices of a VERY stale loaf of bread, one that has been in the fridge for more than a month now. Guess she has a thing for stale, tasteless items? Who knows. Hopefully this doesn't happen again though!
It might be me making excuses for her, but she is on low dose prednisone at the moment due to extreme itchiness. One of the side effects is polyphagia (increased hunger). Whether or not this is playing a role, the behavior is unacceptable. She is drinking and peeing a ton (other side effects of the drug) so I have to believe that at least a little bit of her naughtiness is related.
In other news, I am SO sick of my food options here. I really need to make the effort to try new crock pot items now that I have one, but I just feel so lazy and turned off when it comes to food. Tired of cooking, tired of eating the same things. Blah. I really just wanted to eat snack food tonight, but since I hadn't had dinner (it was nearly 9:30p) I decided to be good and bake some chicken with BBQ sauce. Well I forgot about said chicken, and 40 minutes later at about 400 degrees, the chicken was dessicated and covered in a burnt layer of BBQ sauce. Oops. I wonder if I would have made an effort to eat the really dried out chicken had it not been covered in burnt sauce. It was only about 15-20 minutes over done...
It might be me making excuses for her, but she is on low dose prednisone at the moment due to extreme itchiness. One of the side effects is polyphagia (increased hunger). Whether or not this is playing a role, the behavior is unacceptable. She is drinking and peeing a ton (other side effects of the drug) so I have to believe that at least a little bit of her naughtiness is related.
In other news, I am SO sick of my food options here. I really need to make the effort to try new crock pot items now that I have one, but I just feel so lazy and turned off when it comes to food. Tired of cooking, tired of eating the same things. Blah. I really just wanted to eat snack food tonight, but since I hadn't had dinner (it was nearly 9:30p) I decided to be good and bake some chicken with BBQ sauce. Well I forgot about said chicken, and 40 minutes later at about 400 degrees, the chicken was dessicated and covered in a burnt layer of BBQ sauce. Oops. I wonder if I would have made an effort to eat the really dried out chicken had it not been covered in burnt sauce. It was only about 15-20 minutes over done...
Friday, March 22, 2013
Adventures of a Naughty Dog Part 5
This dog is going to quickly become a rug if this behavior keeps up! Yesterday was an opportunistic crime on behalf of the human stupidity. Today?? Grrrrrr.
Today I stopped home on my lunch break (an hour after my roommate got home). When I came in the door, I was greeted by a happy Lucy who then immediately went to hide when I walked into my room. On my bed, I saw MORE crumbs on my bed, but no evidence to suggest where they came from. When I called her into my room (innocently), she came slinking in with the "I've been naughty" face and sat in a corner. I'm of course very confused because other than there being more crumbs, there is no packaging evidence to suggest what she did. The crumbs looked like baguette crumbs.
It took me a few minutes to put two and two together. I had thrown out two 12" baguettes yesterday for having a couple of mold spots on them. On trash inspection, they were indeed no longer there. So while I was gone, she apparently knocked over the trash and dug the bread out (and hopefully nothing else).
What am I going to do with her?! One of my classmates has a crate that I'm now considering buying, but I really didn't want to have to crate her. But I kind of have no choice if she's going to insist on being so naughty!!
Today I stopped home on my lunch break (an hour after my roommate got home). When I came in the door, I was greeted by a happy Lucy who then immediately went to hide when I walked into my room. On my bed, I saw MORE crumbs on my bed, but no evidence to suggest where they came from. When I called her into my room (innocently), she came slinking in with the "I've been naughty" face and sat in a corner. I'm of course very confused because other than there being more crumbs, there is no packaging evidence to suggest what she did. The crumbs looked like baguette crumbs.
It took me a few minutes to put two and two together. I had thrown out two 12" baguettes yesterday for having a couple of mold spots on them. On trash inspection, they were indeed no longer there. So while I was gone, she apparently knocked over the trash and dug the bread out (and hopefully nothing else).
What am I going to do with her?! One of my classmates has a crate that I'm now considering buying, but I really didn't want to have to crate her. But I kind of have no choice if she's going to insist on being so naughty!!
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Adventures of a Naughty Dog Part 4
If you've been following along this semester, then you probably remember that I got myself a canine companion over winter break. You may also remember a post titled "Adventures of a Naughty Dog Part 1." Don't worry, parts 2 and 3 are still coming, but I came home to a spectacularly naughty display today so I figured I'd share.
Perhaps it was her way of retaliating for the bath yesterday or because she was displeased by the lack of unlimited belly rubs this morning, who knows. My normal day is 8a-1p with labs most afternoons that can go until 3:30 or 4:30 depending on the day and the lab. Today I was scheduled to have lab until 3:30ish, but I had actually made Lucy an appointment at the clinic for her chronic itchiness at 2:30p so I couldn't attend lab this afternoon.
I arrived home and was greeted at the door by Lucy - pretty typical when she knows it's just me at the door. We greeted, she went potty, we came in for lunch. Upon turning the light on in my bedroom (she has free rein of the bedrooms, bathroom, and kitchen when I'm gone), I discovered a box of saltine crackers and a bag of flour lying in the middle of my bed, surrounded by bits of plastic, cardboard, and a lot of crumbs. Lucy already knows she's been very bad so she's already in the corner with her "I'm sorry I was naughty" face. The box was empty, prompting me to search for package remnants. I found one intact row of crackers with a quarter sized piece of plastic ripped off of the middle near the window and a mutilated cracker wrapper with about 5 crackers at the end of the row left that had been smashed to pieces. Wonderful.
These crackers are not mine - my roommate left her food cupboard open this morning (which I noticed by thought nothing of it!). My roommate couldn't really give me a definitive answer on how many packs of crackers were in the box that can hold up to 4 rows. Initially she said there were 4 rows, then just two, but I found a third in her other cabinet so who really knows how many unsalted crackers this darn dog ate in my absence.
Perhaps it was her way of retaliating for the bath yesterday or because she was displeased by the lack of unlimited belly rubs this morning, who knows. My normal day is 8a-1p with labs most afternoons that can go until 3:30 or 4:30 depending on the day and the lab. Today I was scheduled to have lab until 3:30ish, but I had actually made Lucy an appointment at the clinic for her chronic itchiness at 2:30p so I couldn't attend lab this afternoon.
I arrived home and was greeted at the door by Lucy - pretty typical when she knows it's just me at the door. We greeted, she went potty, we came in for lunch. Upon turning the light on in my bedroom (she has free rein of the bedrooms, bathroom, and kitchen when I'm gone), I discovered a box of saltine crackers and a bag of flour lying in the middle of my bed, surrounded by bits of plastic, cardboard, and a lot of crumbs. Lucy already knows she's been very bad so she's already in the corner with her "I'm sorry I was naughty" face. The box was empty, prompting me to search for package remnants. I found one intact row of crackers with a quarter sized piece of plastic ripped off of the middle near the window and a mutilated cracker wrapper with about 5 crackers at the end of the row left that had been smashed to pieces. Wonderful.
These crackers are not mine - my roommate left her food cupboard open this morning (which I noticed by thought nothing of it!). My roommate couldn't really give me a definitive answer on how many packs of crackers were in the box that can hold up to 4 rows. Initially she said there were 4 rows, then just two, but I found a third in her other cabinet so who really knows how many unsalted crackers this darn dog ate in my absence.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
SCUBA
Whew! It's been quite awhile now since my last post. Here's what's been happening: panic and freaking out about midterms, studying and taking midterms, sleeping, and starting my PADI open water certification.
Midterms were...fun...yeah let's hope I don't find myself with 5 exams in a row again, that was just a little bit ridiculous. Anesthesia and path were the worst but it was uphill from there. If such a thing is possible, I studied too much for my exotics exam but I guess hopefully that just means I'm a little bit ahead of the game when it comes to knowing exotic pets and NAVLE questions.
After a long week of exams, I found myself staying up late Friday night to study for SCUBA lessons starting Saturday morning. Most miserable thing I did all week quite honestly! Yeah yeah, it's supposed to be fun, but it is less than fun when you are exhausted and have to stay up late reading, taking quizzes, and watching videos!
Saturday morning started a bit too early. We headed off to the dive shop (Eco Dive Grenada) to begin a new adventure. Our group consisted of my roommate (A), one of our friend's wives (B) (he's already super special certified - i.e. he has a lot of credentials past basic certification!), a 2nd term student who organized the whole thing (C), and myself. We started with some theory (the book for this class is over 200 pages!) and more quiz taking. When that was over, it was time to get suited up for pool lessons! You need a lot yet only a few items for basic diving. A wet suit, a buoyancy control device (basically an adjustable inflatable vest), a weight belt (for sinking), a regulator (to breathe from), and an air tank. It seems like a lot when it's all in bits and pieces, but once you assemble it into one big unit, it doesn't look so overwhelming. You should also have a mask, snorkel, and flippers too.
The first thing we did was assemble all the equipment. I definitely had absolutely no clue what I was doing the first time through. It all feels so clumsy and awkward! Then we had to put it on and waddle to the pool. All that gear is heavy! No as heavy as my backpack can be, but really large on your back, and then there's the weight belt doing what it wants to do - be on the ground embracing gravity!
We climbed into the shallow end of the pool with everything except mask and flippers on. (A) complained that the water was cold, but it felt amazing after sweating in the wet suit and lugging all of the equipment over! It was also a huge relief to alleviate the stress and weight on my back when the tank entered the water! The first thing we did in the water was sink down and sit on the bottom. Easy, right? Yeah, sure, if you're not silly and clumsy like me! It was comical how awful I was in the water! I could not stay up right! Always flopping over and getting stuck - there was much laughing to be done.
We started practicing basic skills such as breathing from our regulators underwater, mask flooding, and quite a few others. The first two listed are clearly the most memorable for me. (A) loved breathing underwater. She thought it was the coolest thing ever and was thrilled at the experience. (B) didn't really have much to say on the matter, but (C) and I both felt really weird about it. It wasn't really an exhilarating or pleasant experience honestly. As it turns out, there are varying degrees of resistance to breathing with each regulator, and (C) and I happened to have ones with a little bit increased resistance and neither of us particularly cared for it. The best way to describe it was there was a short pause between taking a breath and getting the breath, and it took more effort to get the same amount of air normally. Not quite a fan of that. I ended up trading my regulator for a different one in the afternoon after realizing that not all regulators are created equal and was much happier.
The other skill that left quite an impression on me was mask flooding. Here's the deal. I don't like water on my face or in my eyes period. There are no exceptions. Splash water at me and I will freak out and yell at you. Washing my face involves a gentle wet cloth and NO running water directly against my skin. I'm a bit of a freak. I've been this way for as long as I can remember, including a significant portion of my childhood. At some point in time, either something happened or I simply decided that I never wanted to experience the feeling of water in my eyes ever again. It's not so much because it's an unpleasant sensation, it's actually more of a control thing. I want to be able to see at all times and feel in control of myself and my surroundings. Something in my eyes and face presents a distraction and a temporary loss of visual control. I will not put my head underwater without some sort of goggles, and since goggles make me feel cross eyed and I don't like water touching my nose either, it has to be a SCUBA mask. I swam with one as a kid all the time. I can't/won't jump into water unless it is shallow enough that I won't get water in my face - I won't jump into deep water because it carries a risk of the mask slipping off and it just makes me nervous in general.
Now that you've read the above, you can already start to imagine that having to flood the SCUBA mask (let alone the other fun requirements such as taking it off for a minute and taking it off and swimming without it) went over really poorly. It's actually a big part of why I've put off certification for so long. I'm absolutely terrified of having to demonstrate this skill. Anyhow, the way skills work is that the instructor demonstrates above water, then below water, and then asks us to practice while she watches. As soon as she starts talking about it, I start to freak out. Quietly, because I don't like to show that emotion. Next we go under water to do it, and at this point I'm panicking, hyperventilating, and crying. Apparently you can't tell when a person is crying in a mask - cool little known fact for me! I'm sure the terror in my eyes and the quick short jets of bubbles said exactly how I felt though. On top of it all, remember that I wasn't fond of my regulator at this point so in addition to being really upset, I had to work a little bit for the air. Not fun. That will certainly add to the panic.
At the end of the pool session, the instructor held me back to work on the skill more. Learned my lesson then! Do it the first time or else more misery ensues! Enter all of the above listed fun, but I was eventually able to partially flood the mask and clear it. Oh by the way, the importance of this skill is so that when it inevitably happens on a dive (leakage, dropping of mask, total loss of mask) you can handle it and cope/survive. Lets all prey right now this never actually happens to me! I think the biggest surprise I have when I'm working on this skill is that I have to remind myself that I can still breathe. It is not quite the same as being in a pool underwater without the mask, I can still breathe freely and easily (I had exchanged the regulator at this point so it was much better).
We had a quick lunch break and then headed out on a boat with some snorkelers to do our first dive! Our first stop was a beautiful reef in Flamingo Bay where the snorkelers got to wander about while we completed our swimming test. It was beautiful to swim in the water over top this gorgeous reef and I really enjoyed it! Next stop was the sculpture park in Grenada where we suited up, dropped backwards into the water, and were off on a tour! Descending to the bottom for the first time was a really weird feeling. I thought it would be rather uncomfortable and painful (because whenever I dive down while snorkeling it really hurts!), but equalizing was really easy to get the hang of and when you equalize, the pressure doesn't really bother you at all - it's neat! We took a tour of most of the underwater statues, took lots of pictures, and enjoyed the surrounding reef. It was a little bit frustrating to swim about because I haven't mastered being neutrally buoyant yet, but I think when I get the hang of that I will feel much better. All in all a really awesome experience!
Sunday morning was just (A) and I, as the others had commitments for the day and couldn't attend. (A) and I had a different instructor for both the pool and the dive. I wasn't exactly thrilled with this because this is kind of an activity where you really have to trust the person teaching in order to feel safe enough to proceed. I had developed this with the other woman the day before, and so I was anxious about having someone else. She was just as great too, but I'm a spaz, what can I say!
We didn't have much to do in the pool. We had to do the stupid mask skills again, this time doing a full flood, removal for one minute, and removal with swimming. It went over just as well as it had the day before, except I exchanged crying for sobbing. They say sound travels 4x better in water so I'm not sure if the others could hear me or not, but there was plenty of it going on! I had to take my time and certainly didn't like it, but I did it all on the first go. Like I said, learned my lesson! They're not going to let me sneak by without performing it, so I might as well persevere through the first time and not have to repeat the whole sobbing/panicking/hyperventilating bit for longer than I have to. I'm sure I was quite a sight underwater sobbing with my eyes closed miserably!
For our afternoon dive, it was again coupled with snorkelers, but there were more divers of different levels this time. We had a guy doing his first dive, two of my classmates (D) and (E) doing their third dives, and even more of my classmates just logging dives for fun. This time we dove in Flamingo Bay. Unfortunately we didn't get the same free ride we did for the first dive, and we had to demonstrate some of our pool skills in the ocean. It was my lucky day - more full mask flooding for me! Same deal as before - I can sob like a champ in the open ocean too ;) haha. It's a bit of a buzz kill and mood depressant for the rest of the dive for me. I liked it and certainly enjoyed seeing hundreds of beautiful animals and corals, but it was not as fun as it was the day before with the stress hormones circulating. The last thing we had to demonstrate was at the surface, and it involved successfully taking our weight belts off and replacing them, and then doing the same thing with the whole SCUBA unit. As we do this one at a time, the instructor says "try not to drop your belts, we're in 80 ft of water and it would be rather difficult to retrieve them at this point." Thanks, no pressure or anything! The boat pulled up as (A) was finishing her skills. Even though the engines weren't running, the presence of the boat made us suck towards it and it was REALLY annoying when trying to get the belt off and on! It made it so much harder and extremely frustrating. Because of this, I didn't complete taking the unit off and on and we just headed back to the sculpture park for some snorkeling instead.
At the end of the weekend I was completely exhausted. I was both glad and sad to see it come to an end. We still have two more dives to complete before we will be certified and I am really looking forward to them over all. I find myself craving this activity, I want more! I want to spend more time in the water, more time observing beautiful nature, and more time hanging out with some really awesome people. My father is really into fishing and aquarium keeping (salt water), I think maybe my ocean calling might be through SCUBA. Our next dive is scheduled for a week from Friday, and I absolutely cannot wait to push myself a little bit further!
Midterms were...fun...yeah let's hope I don't find myself with 5 exams in a row again, that was just a little bit ridiculous. Anesthesia and path were the worst but it was uphill from there. If such a thing is possible, I studied too much for my exotics exam but I guess hopefully that just means I'm a little bit ahead of the game when it comes to knowing exotic pets and NAVLE questions.
After a long week of exams, I found myself staying up late Friday night to study for SCUBA lessons starting Saturday morning. Most miserable thing I did all week quite honestly! Yeah yeah, it's supposed to be fun, but it is less than fun when you are exhausted and have to stay up late reading, taking quizzes, and watching videos!
Saturday morning started a bit too early. We headed off to the dive shop (Eco Dive Grenada) to begin a new adventure. Our group consisted of my roommate (A), one of our friend's wives (B) (he's already super special certified - i.e. he has a lot of credentials past basic certification!), a 2nd term student who organized the whole thing (C), and myself. We started with some theory (the book for this class is over 200 pages!) and more quiz taking. When that was over, it was time to get suited up for pool lessons! You need a lot yet only a few items for basic diving. A wet suit, a buoyancy control device (basically an adjustable inflatable vest), a weight belt (for sinking), a regulator (to breathe from), and an air tank. It seems like a lot when it's all in bits and pieces, but once you assemble it into one big unit, it doesn't look so overwhelming. You should also have a mask, snorkel, and flippers too.
The first thing we did was assemble all the equipment. I definitely had absolutely no clue what I was doing the first time through. It all feels so clumsy and awkward! Then we had to put it on and waddle to the pool. All that gear is heavy! No as heavy as my backpack can be, but really large on your back, and then there's the weight belt doing what it wants to do - be on the ground embracing gravity!
We climbed into the shallow end of the pool with everything except mask and flippers on. (A) complained that the water was cold, but it felt amazing after sweating in the wet suit and lugging all of the equipment over! It was also a huge relief to alleviate the stress and weight on my back when the tank entered the water! The first thing we did in the water was sink down and sit on the bottom. Easy, right? Yeah, sure, if you're not silly and clumsy like me! It was comical how awful I was in the water! I could not stay up right! Always flopping over and getting stuck - there was much laughing to be done.
We started practicing basic skills such as breathing from our regulators underwater, mask flooding, and quite a few others. The first two listed are clearly the most memorable for me. (A) loved breathing underwater. She thought it was the coolest thing ever and was thrilled at the experience. (B) didn't really have much to say on the matter, but (C) and I both felt really weird about it. It wasn't really an exhilarating or pleasant experience honestly. As it turns out, there are varying degrees of resistance to breathing with each regulator, and (C) and I happened to have ones with a little bit increased resistance and neither of us particularly cared for it. The best way to describe it was there was a short pause between taking a breath and getting the breath, and it took more effort to get the same amount of air normally. Not quite a fan of that. I ended up trading my regulator for a different one in the afternoon after realizing that not all regulators are created equal and was much happier.
The other skill that left quite an impression on me was mask flooding. Here's the deal. I don't like water on my face or in my eyes period. There are no exceptions. Splash water at me and I will freak out and yell at you. Washing my face involves a gentle wet cloth and NO running water directly against my skin. I'm a bit of a freak. I've been this way for as long as I can remember, including a significant portion of my childhood. At some point in time, either something happened or I simply decided that I never wanted to experience the feeling of water in my eyes ever again. It's not so much because it's an unpleasant sensation, it's actually more of a control thing. I want to be able to see at all times and feel in control of myself and my surroundings. Something in my eyes and face presents a distraction and a temporary loss of visual control. I will not put my head underwater without some sort of goggles, and since goggles make me feel cross eyed and I don't like water touching my nose either, it has to be a SCUBA mask. I swam with one as a kid all the time. I can't/won't jump into water unless it is shallow enough that I won't get water in my face - I won't jump into deep water because it carries a risk of the mask slipping off and it just makes me nervous in general.
Now that you've read the above, you can already start to imagine that having to flood the SCUBA mask (let alone the other fun requirements such as taking it off for a minute and taking it off and swimming without it) went over really poorly. It's actually a big part of why I've put off certification for so long. I'm absolutely terrified of having to demonstrate this skill. Anyhow, the way skills work is that the instructor demonstrates above water, then below water, and then asks us to practice while she watches. As soon as she starts talking about it, I start to freak out. Quietly, because I don't like to show that emotion. Next we go under water to do it, and at this point I'm panicking, hyperventilating, and crying. Apparently you can't tell when a person is crying in a mask - cool little known fact for me! I'm sure the terror in my eyes and the quick short jets of bubbles said exactly how I felt though. On top of it all, remember that I wasn't fond of my regulator at this point so in addition to being really upset, I had to work a little bit for the air. Not fun. That will certainly add to the panic.
At the end of the pool session, the instructor held me back to work on the skill more. Learned my lesson then! Do it the first time or else more misery ensues! Enter all of the above listed fun, but I was eventually able to partially flood the mask and clear it. Oh by the way, the importance of this skill is so that when it inevitably happens on a dive (leakage, dropping of mask, total loss of mask) you can handle it and cope/survive. Lets all prey right now this never actually happens to me! I think the biggest surprise I have when I'm working on this skill is that I have to remind myself that I can still breathe. It is not quite the same as being in a pool underwater without the mask, I can still breathe freely and easily (I had exchanged the regulator at this point so it was much better).
We had a quick lunch break and then headed out on a boat with some snorkelers to do our first dive! Our first stop was a beautiful reef in Flamingo Bay where the snorkelers got to wander about while we completed our swimming test. It was beautiful to swim in the water over top this gorgeous reef and I really enjoyed it! Next stop was the sculpture park in Grenada where we suited up, dropped backwards into the water, and were off on a tour! Descending to the bottom for the first time was a really weird feeling. I thought it would be rather uncomfortable and painful (because whenever I dive down while snorkeling it really hurts!), but equalizing was really easy to get the hang of and when you equalize, the pressure doesn't really bother you at all - it's neat! We took a tour of most of the underwater statues, took lots of pictures, and enjoyed the surrounding reef. It was a little bit frustrating to swim about because I haven't mastered being neutrally buoyant yet, but I think when I get the hang of that I will feel much better. All in all a really awesome experience!
Sunday morning was just (A) and I, as the others had commitments for the day and couldn't attend. (A) and I had a different instructor for both the pool and the dive. I wasn't exactly thrilled with this because this is kind of an activity where you really have to trust the person teaching in order to feel safe enough to proceed. I had developed this with the other woman the day before, and so I was anxious about having someone else. She was just as great too, but I'm a spaz, what can I say!
We didn't have much to do in the pool. We had to do the stupid mask skills again, this time doing a full flood, removal for one minute, and removal with swimming. It went over just as well as it had the day before, except I exchanged crying for sobbing. They say sound travels 4x better in water so I'm not sure if the others could hear me or not, but there was plenty of it going on! I had to take my time and certainly didn't like it, but I did it all on the first go. Like I said, learned my lesson! They're not going to let me sneak by without performing it, so I might as well persevere through the first time and not have to repeat the whole sobbing/panicking/hyperventilating bit for longer than I have to. I'm sure I was quite a sight underwater sobbing with my eyes closed miserably!
For our afternoon dive, it was again coupled with snorkelers, but there were more divers of different levels this time. We had a guy doing his first dive, two of my classmates (D) and (E) doing their third dives, and even more of my classmates just logging dives for fun. This time we dove in Flamingo Bay. Unfortunately we didn't get the same free ride we did for the first dive, and we had to demonstrate some of our pool skills in the ocean. It was my lucky day - more full mask flooding for me! Same deal as before - I can sob like a champ in the open ocean too ;) haha. It's a bit of a buzz kill and mood depressant for the rest of the dive for me. I liked it and certainly enjoyed seeing hundreds of beautiful animals and corals, but it was not as fun as it was the day before with the stress hormones circulating. The last thing we had to demonstrate was at the surface, and it involved successfully taking our weight belts off and replacing them, and then doing the same thing with the whole SCUBA unit. As we do this one at a time, the instructor says "try not to drop your belts, we're in 80 ft of water and it would be rather difficult to retrieve them at this point." Thanks, no pressure or anything! The boat pulled up as (A) was finishing her skills. Even though the engines weren't running, the presence of the boat made us suck towards it and it was REALLY annoying when trying to get the belt off and on! It made it so much harder and extremely frustrating. Because of this, I didn't complete taking the unit off and on and we just headed back to the sculpture park for some snorkeling instead.
At the end of the weekend I was completely exhausted. I was both glad and sad to see it come to an end. We still have two more dives to complete before we will be certified and I am really looking forward to them over all. I find myself craving this activity, I want more! I want to spend more time in the water, more time observing beautiful nature, and more time hanging out with some really awesome people. My father is really into fishing and aquarium keeping (salt water), I think maybe my ocean calling might be through SCUBA. Our next dive is scheduled for a week from Friday, and I absolutely cannot wait to push myself a little bit further!
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Special Needs
Lucy is a dog. She is my dog. We haven't known each other all that long - just over 2 months. But since I brought Lucy into my life, I have learned that she is not an ordinary dog.
Lucy is a special needs dog. She needs the humans in her life to understand that she is extra anxious, that her anxiety triggers are low threshold. She needs her family to understand that she has not always lived with them, that she spent 5.5 years as someone else's dog, and was subjected to a different lifestyle. Was she abused at some point in her life? Unfortunately she can't tell me. Where was she born? What happened to her during the first 6 months of her life? How about the time span she spent with her previous owner? While she was in foster care? Her being an animal and me a human, I am not privy to the words she might speak if she could. I can only guess what tales she'd tell.
For instance, at some point in her life, she decided men were not to be trusted. She certainly could have been on the receiving end of abuse, but it could also be that she just didn't interact with men very much while she was young and so now she is sensitized to their presence. She seems to be more fearful of some men than others, but she has a generalized fear of all men no matter the shape, size, age, or color.
If Lucy could talk instead of bark and growl, I think what she'd say is this: when you move suddenly, it startles me. When you raise your voice, even if it's not at me, it scares me. When you pretend like you are being scary, you are actually be scary to me because my first thought is that you are actually going to hurt me. When you make quick jerky movements, I feel threatened because I can't predict what you are going to do next, and therefore worry that you are going to injure me. When you tower over me, I feel very small and helpless. General life makes me feel vulnerable, but because I can't talk and ask you not to do something, I have to bark and growl at you because it is my only way of saying that I don't like something. I don't want to hurt you, that scares me even more! I just want you to realize that what you're doing at the moment has made me feel upset. I can't help it. Anxiety is more than an emotional problem, it is a chemical and physical problem too. I want to be happy-go-lucky just like the lab up the street - I just can't. Maybe it's because I overproduce certain hormones or maybe it's because I don't produce enough. Maybe it's because something(s) happened to me in life that taught me that life is really scary and harmful things are lurking everywhere. Please try to understand. I really do want to be your friend!
My dog needs my patience. She needs my understanding, my time, and my unconditional love. Sometimes the first three are hard to have all the time, but I know that she really loves and needs me just as I love and need her. We need to work together to help her find balance and relief from her anxiety.
Lucy is a special needs dog. She needs the humans in her life to understand that she is extra anxious, that her anxiety triggers are low threshold. She needs her family to understand that she has not always lived with them, that she spent 5.5 years as someone else's dog, and was subjected to a different lifestyle. Was she abused at some point in her life? Unfortunately she can't tell me. Where was she born? What happened to her during the first 6 months of her life? How about the time span she spent with her previous owner? While she was in foster care? Her being an animal and me a human, I am not privy to the words she might speak if she could. I can only guess what tales she'd tell.
For instance, at some point in her life, she decided men were not to be trusted. She certainly could have been on the receiving end of abuse, but it could also be that she just didn't interact with men very much while she was young and so now she is sensitized to their presence. She seems to be more fearful of some men than others, but she has a generalized fear of all men no matter the shape, size, age, or color.
If Lucy could talk instead of bark and growl, I think what she'd say is this: when you move suddenly, it startles me. When you raise your voice, even if it's not at me, it scares me. When you pretend like you are being scary, you are actually be scary to me because my first thought is that you are actually going to hurt me. When you make quick jerky movements, I feel threatened because I can't predict what you are going to do next, and therefore worry that you are going to injure me. When you tower over me, I feel very small and helpless. General life makes me feel vulnerable, but because I can't talk and ask you not to do something, I have to bark and growl at you because it is my only way of saying that I don't like something. I don't want to hurt you, that scares me even more! I just want you to realize that what you're doing at the moment has made me feel upset. I can't help it. Anxiety is more than an emotional problem, it is a chemical and physical problem too. I want to be happy-go-lucky just like the lab up the street - I just can't. Maybe it's because I overproduce certain hormones or maybe it's because I don't produce enough. Maybe it's because something(s) happened to me in life that taught me that life is really scary and harmful things are lurking everywhere. Please try to understand. I really do want to be your friend!
My dog needs my patience. She needs my understanding, my time, and my unconditional love. Sometimes the first three are hard to have all the time, but I know that she really loves and needs me just as I love and need her. We need to work together to help her find balance and relief from her anxiety.
Friday, March 1, 2013
Furries, Feathers, and Scutes
Today vet school treated us to something extra special! As part of our Avian, Fish, and Exotic Animal Diseases class, we had an exotics handling lab. Today's critters included 4 guinea pigs (3 babies that were about 5 days old!), several red-footed tortoises, an 85 lb sulcata tortoise, and a beautiful parrot. Obviously my favorite part was playing with the guinea pigs! I miss my Penny! :( They were so sweet though and very collected during the whole event despite the fact that 70 eager vet students wanted to cuddle them, listen to their hearts, open their mouths, and palpate them. Can you tell they live with a our professors?
The tortoises ranged in size from small plate to dinner plate sized. They were also very cool about us poking and prodding them. Lucky for them, the physical exam didn't really go much farther than us examining them from the outside and using our eyes.
Dozer is one of our professor's pets. He LOVES to have his giant shell scratched and will wiggle just like your dog does when he's getting a good back scratch! He loves to just cruise around the room looking for the exit, ignoring everything in his path. He'll knock chairs out of the way, step on people's toes, and basically do whatever he wants.
And lastly, we got to hold Major. She also belonged to my professor as a pet. She was so gentle and calm with us! You can imagine the amount of noise a room containing 70 people has. She "stepped up" on command, minded her manners, didn't go after any jewelry, and didn't try to bite or peck us! Bird beaks definitely make me nervous!
The tortoises ranged in size from small plate to dinner plate sized. They were also very cool about us poking and prodding them. Lucky for them, the physical exam didn't really go much farther than us examining them from the outside and using our eyes.
Dozer is one of our professor's pets. He LOVES to have his giant shell scratched and will wiggle just like your dog does when he's getting a good back scratch! He loves to just cruise around the room looking for the exit, ignoring everything in his path. He'll knock chairs out of the way, step on people's toes, and basically do whatever he wants.
And lastly, we got to hold Major. She also belonged to my professor as a pet. She was so gentle and calm with us! You can imagine the amount of noise a room containing 70 people has. She "stepped up" on command, minded her manners, didn't go after any jewelry, and didn't try to bite or peck us! Bird beaks definitely make me nervous!
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