Well, this post is a few hours later than I had originally planned, but I guess that probably doesn't much matter to my one or two devoted readers...
 
I think that Iowa City has it out for me, either because I am leaving or because I have not yet left.  Three main reasons for this, the final being the one that prompted the title of this entry:
 
1) Carpenter ants have begun to invade my apartment, hanging out creepily on the ceiling, just out of my reach.  Now, if I were a few inches taller, like, say, Ryan, I could reach these guys and terminate them.  However, I am not and I don't really see myself growing much taller in the next three days before I leave Iowa City.
 
2) They put a new friend in my path mere weeks before I move.  A new friend that I fucking love to talk to.  We are world-class banterers, you should hear us, really.
 
3) Last night, following a peaceful, uneventful, delicious evening of supper (to help clean out my freezer-like space) with Daniel and Jory, I packed up my Lawery's, stewed rhubarb, sugar, large chopping knife and bottle of soy sauce and headed home about midnight-ish.  My eyes had not yet adjusted to the dark.  I was headed toward the street, when suddenly I ran full gait up against something that stopped the forward movement of my feet but not the rest of my body.  I found myself on the ground, my bag underneath me and dark fluid covering my knees and flowing down the pavement.  I thought, "Ohmigod! That is a lot of blood."  Then I realized it was way too much to have accumulated that quickly from any injuries that I may have sustained.  But I knew that I didn't have that much stewed rhubarb in my bag and it was in tupperware.  Then it hit me, "Soy sauce! glass bottle!!"  It was too dark, so I couldn't tell if it was soy sauce or blood covering my legs.  I figured it was soy sauce, but decided that, close as I still was to Jory and Daniel's, I should go back to use their light to see for sure.  Well, I did and, guess what? It was blood.  Fun, eh?  Daniel was like, "Holy shit! what happened?!?"  I explained, hopped into the bathroom carefully and quickly, so as not to leave a trail of blood across their carpet, dropping off my plastic bag, now in shreds and full of soy-sauce soaked items and broken glass, on the linoleum kitchen floor.
The boys were great about overreacting slightly and helping me get cleaned up.  I actually left pools of blood on their bathroom floor.  Amazing how much knee cuts will bleed.  After applying pressure to my left knee (cut up worse) for a bit, Daniel and I realized that it was not helping, but that raising it above the level of my heart would probably help.  The only way to do that, whilst remaining in the easy-to-clean bathroom, was for me to swivel sideways on top of the toilet, leaning back (into thin air), and prop both legs up on the sink.  Once the blood flow was stemmed from left knee, right  had to be dealt with.  There was a piece of glass lodged in my shin.  I thought that it was pretty darn small, cause it couldn't really be seen, but I could hear it in there when I probed with a pair of tweezers.  Scenery change to Daniel's desk, leg up, bright reading lamp trained on right shin.  Using a pair of swiss army knife tweezers (you know the kind I mean?) I was able to get one edge of the glass stuck up a little in the air.  There was a skin flap over the other edges, though.  So, I used a larger, stronger, though more cumbersome, tweezers to pull on the glass to remove it.  It took several tries to extract the shard.  It was rather larger than we had suspected.  Think tiny chicklet except roughly triangular.  It was lodged quite far into my shin.  The bleeding increased once it was removed, too.  Road rash on right palm and thigh, gonna have a nice bruise on the latter.  I left my mark on the pavement, too.  Broken glass and soy-sauce stain.  If anyone is interested in viewing the scene of the crime, so to speak, it is on the little pseudo-driveway leading to Dodge St. from 330 S. Dodge.

So, you see, Iowa City is definitely unhappy with me, though whether because I am leaving or still here, I cannot surmise.  What do you all think?

In a week, I will be sitting at my desk in Ames.  Not only will I be living in a new location, but I will be embarking on a new chapter of my life.  Maybe that isn't even a good analogy... more like... a sequel to a book that was not originally intended to be a part of a series.  You know, written down the road a few years or just in a different setting/situation, a few carry over characters, but others are present by name only and some are completely absent.  True, there will be many new characters entering the story, but you, dear reader, have always been in it for the characters, for they are the meat of a story, and will miss the regulars to whom you became so attached in the original volume.

The whole leaving town thing really has hit me pretty hard in the past week.  Ambivalence abounds...  the thing is, it is quite probable that I will never see many of these people again, especially those casual acquaintances that one doesn't even really consider until they are conspicuously missing and those people who are kind-of-friends but awkwardness intervenes when the thought of calling them up to chat or visiting them when in town (since there are so many people that should be seen).

The entire situation has been exacerbated by the entrance of a new friend interest in my life.  I have spent the past year of my life getting reacquainted with friends that I already had but had been put on the back-burner during a time-consuming relationship.  I have staunchly believed that I, really, had enough friends and too little time, so having to work to add another friend to my dance card was not only unnecessary, but also undesirable. I have neither actively pursued nor wished to do so any new friendships.  I have reinforced and deepened preexisting relationships, including mine with Me.  All-in-all, it has worked out very well for me. 

However, I have discovered, in the past three months-ish, that I really like some of the people that I work with, one in particular has been discovered mere weeks (two-ish) ago.  And, wouldn't you know it, he's really fucking awesome.  We click.  It has been so long since I have "clicked" with a new person and felt a connection like I feel with him.  I am a bit bitter about fate's decision to put him in my path so close to the end of my four year tenure in this town.  I have been obsessing about this situation.  I would really like to be friends with him, continue our conversations and interactions.  However, I worry that I am leaving at a very critical juncture in our friendship.  You see, the energy and resources required in order to maintain a friendship is quite different from those required in order to develop one.  Thus I fear that due to my leaving so early on will cause what could have been a significant and really fabulous relationship to fizzle and die.  And then what happens to that connection, that "click"?  Does it just disappear?  I don't know...

So, I just spent the past eight hours (!!) talking with him.  Funny how eight hours seems like a year whilst working, contrast that with how eight hours felt tonight:  during the conversation-like forever, after it had ended- like a moment.  Now I am not in a going to bed mood.  My body is crashing, but my brain is not in the mood.  I am oddly energized, especially considering the amalgamation of emotions that I am feeling. 

Alright, one final comment and then I will stop obsessing, for a while: One thing that strikes me about this friendship thus far is that I don't feel like I am recreating or trying to recreate anything.  It just is.  It is new.  It is what it is and doesn't try to be something that I once had with someone else.  I like that.  I think also that it is very healthy and exciting.

Well, this post has been very out of character for my blog as a whole, but I think that I like it, in general.  For those of you who are regulars: I do hope that you will stick with me through this transition and the excitement which will definitely ensue, expect to see posts of this and the simple informative type to appear in the coming months.  For those of you who are first-timers: Do come back and check out what this is all about, it promises to be an exciting ride.

will this one show up too, and will the comments and author tag be in yet another style??

Well, I have just spent the past few hours putzing around with html and template crap on this blog.  This post is more a test than anything.  I am trying to get this darn thing to place more that one post on the main page, but I am failing miserably.  I do feel less frustrated and less entirely incompetant with understanding little tiny bits of html now, though.

Since it was my final day at the library and I really, really love working on the desk (checking people out instead of sorting and shelving all day), especially on weekends (Saturday being an eight hour day), Mary, my boss, let me be on the desk all day even though that is no longer the way that the weekend schedule works. 
 
So, being my last day working at the Iowa City Public Library, I decided that it would be fun to keep a list of random thoughts, commemorating the experience, and anyone reading this post is the lucky recipient of the fruits of said labor.  The thoughts are listed as they occurred to me throughout the day. 
  

1) Feeling uncomfortable in one's own home, let alone in one's own room, inner sanctum, is unacceptable and one of the biggest violations.
 
2)Amish in the City - a new reality tv show on UPN, apparently.  Says their website: 

[Provides] a unique look into the Amish journey of discovery, known as rumspringa, through... five Amish young adults (three men, two women) and their six roommates from diverse backgrounds (three men, three women) as they come to Los Angeles and learn to live with each other in an ultra-modern Hollywood Hills home. From moments serious and significant to lighter and trivial, cameras catch everything as the Amish journey outside their quiet rural areas and are gradually introduced to both the delights and challenges of modern metropolitan life. At the same time, the Amish kids give their city counterparts insight into their beliefs, values and a lifestyle dedicated to faith, modesty and unadorned means.

Check it out on Wednesday, July 28 for the series premier. Hrm...

 

3) The Moonjely's of Lime Kiln Lane

(real last name, real street in Iowa City)

Although, to my knowledge, the Moonjely's do not live on Lime Kiln Lane, shouldn't they, I mean, really?

 

4) I love little kids who sing all the time, especially if it is well-meaningly done at the top of their lungs from time to time.  Several reasons for this love:

a) that is the type of kid I was.  Hell, that's the type of person that I sill am.  Who am I kidding?

b) music is important and they (the singing little kids) already have some sense of that and are acting on it, if not consciously.  This will affect so many things in their lives.

c)they do not have an empty, thoughless existance.  This gives me hope.

d) singing in public is activly changing one's surroundings.

 

5)Library patrons are some of the most irrationally passive-aggressive creatures on the planet.

6) FRAGMENTS!

7) Kelly Dick on chicken pot pie:  "It's made of thermo-nuclear fission." (prompted by the inexplicable heat that it manages to harbor when you want to eat it, thus explaining the burns of biblical proportions that are inflicted upon eage pot-pie eaters everywhere.

8)DVD's checked out to a single person:  63 "fiction" (checked out for seven days each) and 25 "non-fiction" (checked out for 21-days each). Selfish? yep. Excessive? MAYBE!!?! (sarcasm in that last bit)

9) If Mussolini checked out materials from a library, whould he alywas get them back on time?

10) PASSIVE!-AGRESSIVE! PATRONS!

11) DaVinci Code: 
Release date- 3/1/2003
Number of months it has been out- almost 17
Current number of copies at the ICPL- 44 (20 of them are EXPRESS)
Number of holds as of 7/24/04- 37!!
 
Now, don't get me wrong, I read this book with my ears a few months ago and really like it quite a bit.  It was an intriguing story with some great happenings and learning points, but, wow...

12) I wonder how many of my friends know the extent to which my devotion and protetiveness of them runs?  The thought of someone hurting these people or making them cry for negative reasons or violating them in really any way makes my blood boil and vision cloud with a red miasma.  I have been involved in few fist fights in my 22 years of life, but I would go to the mat for so many of the people that I know, even some who are little more than casual acquaintances but really get to me, into my head, heart and soul for whatever reason.

13) Another great road name, actually exists in Iowa City: Dingleberry Road.
It probably connects to Lime Kiln Lane.  I am sure that the Moonjelys (Moonjelies??) live on the corner of these two streets.
::music:: I'm being followed by a Moonjely, Moonjely, Moonjely:: (thank you, Cat Stevens) [note: for purposes of this blog and this song, the name is pronounced moon-jelly]

On that note (haha) ended my final day as a Circulation Page at the Iowa City Public Library, July twenty-fourth, twenty-oh-four.  I was there for four days short of exactly one and one half years.  The ICPL and its employees will be greatly missed.

In a week, I will be sitting at my desk in Ames.  Not only will I be living in a new location, but I will be embarking on a new chapter of my life.  Maybe that isn't even a good analogy... more like... a sequel to a book that was not originally intended to be a part of a series.  You know, written down the road a few years or just in a different setting/situation, a few carry over characters, but others are present by name only and some are completely absent.  True, there will be many new characters entering the story, but you, dear reader, have always been in it for the characters, for they are the meat of a story, and will miss the regulars to whom you became so attached in the original volume. The whole leaving town thing really has hit me pretty hard in the past week.  Ambivalence abounds...  the thing is, it is quite probable that I will never see many of these people again, especially those casual acquaintances that one doesn't even really consider until they are conspicuously missing and those people who are kind-of-friends but awkwardness intervenes when the thought of calling them up to chat or visiting them when in town (since there are so many people that should be seen). The entire situation has been exacerbated by the entrance of a new friend interest in my life.  I have spent the past year of my life getting reacquainted with friends that I already had but had been put on the back-burner during a time-consuming relationship.  I have staunchly believed that I, really, had enough friends and too little time, so having to work to add another friend to my dance card was not only unnecessary, but also undesirable. I have neither actively pursued nor wished to do so any new friendships.  I have reinforced and deepened preexisting relationships, including mine with Me.  All-in-all, it has worked out very well for me.  However, I have discovered, in the past three months-ish, that I really like some of the people that I work with, one in particular has been discovered mere weeks (two-ish) ago.  And, wouldn't you know it, he's really fucking awesome.  We click.  It has been so long since I have "clicked" with a new person and felt a connection like I feel with him.  I am a bit bitter about fate's decision to put him in my path so close to the end of my four year tenure in this town.  I have been obsessing about this situation.  I would really like to be friends with him, continue our conversations and interactions.  However, I worry that I am leaving at a very critical juncture in our friendship.  You see, the energy and resources required in order to maintain a friendship is quite different from those required in order to develop one.  Thus I fear that due to my leaving so early on will cause what could have been a significant and really fabulous relationship to fizzle and die.  And then what happens to that connection, that "click"?  Does it just disappear?  I don't know... So, I just spent the past eight hours (!!) talking with him.  Funny how eight hours seems like a year whilst working, contrast that with how eight hours felt tonight:  during the conversation-like forever, after it had ended- like a moment.  Now I am not in a going to bed mood.  My body is crashing, but my brain is not in the mood.  I am oddly energized, especially considering the amalgamation of emotions that I am feeling.  Alright, one final comment and then I will stop obsessing, for a while: One thing that strikes me about this friendship thus far is that I don't feel like I am recreating or trying to recreate anything.  It just is.  It is new.  It is what it is and doesn't try to be something that I once had with someone else.  I like that.  I think also that it is very healthy and exciting. Well, this post has been very out of character for my blog as a whole, but I think that I like it, in general.  For those of you who are regulars: I do hope that you will stick with me through this transition and the excitement which will definitely ensue, expect to see posts of this and the simple informative type to appear in the coming months.  For those of you who are first-timers: Do come back and check out what this is all about, it promises to be an exciting ride.

In a week, I will be sitting at my desk in Ames.  Not only will I be living in a new location, but I will be embarking on a new chapter of my life.  Maybe that isn't even a good analogy... more like... a sequel to a book that was not originally intended to be a part of a series.  You know, written down the road a few years or just in a different setting/situation, a few carry over characters, but others are present by name only and some are completely absent.  True, there will be many new characters entering the story, but you, dear reader, have always been in it for the characters, for they are the meat of a story, and will miss the regulars to whom you became so attached in the original volume.

The whole leaving town thing really has hit me pretty hard in the past week.  Ambivalence abounds...  the thing is, it is quite probable that I will never see many of these people again, especially those casual acquaintances that one doesn't even really consider until they are conspicuously missing and those people who are kind-of-friends but awkwardness intervenes when the thought of calling them up to chat or visiting them when in town (since there are so many people that should be seen). 

The entire situation has been exacerbated by the entrance of a new friend interest in my life.  I have spent the past year of my life getting reacquainted with friends that I already had but had been put on the back-burner during a time-consuming relationship.  I have staunchly believed that I, really, had enough friends and too little time, so having to work to add another friend to my dance card was not only unnecessary, but also undesirable. I have neither actively pursued nor wished to do so any new friendships.  I have reinforced and deepened preexisting relationships, including mine with Me.  All-in-all, it has worked out very well for me. 

However, I have discovered, in the past three months-ish, that I really like some of the people that I work with, one in particular has been discovered mere weeks (two-ish) ago.  And, wouldn't you know it, he's really fucking awesome.  We click.  It has been so long since I have "clicked" with a new person and felt a connection like I feel with him.  I am a bit bitter about fate's decision to put him in my path so close to the end of my four year tenure in this town.  I have been obsessing about this situation.  I would really like to be friends with him, continue our conversations and interactions.  However, I worry that I am leaving at a very critical juncture in our friendship.  You see, the energy and resources required in order to maintain a friendship is quite different from those required in order to develop one.  Thus I fear that due to my leaving so early on will cause what could have been a significant and really fabulous relationship to fizzle and die.  And then what happens to that connection, that "click"?  Does it just disappear?  I don't know...

So, I just spent the past eight hours (!!) talking with him.  Funny how eight hours seems like a year whilst working, contrast that with how eight hours felt tonight:  during the conversation-like forever, after it had ended- like a moment.  Now I am not in a going to bed mood.  My body is crashing, but my brain is not in the mood.  I am oddly energized, especially considering the amalgamation of emotions that I am feeling. 

Alright, one final comment and then I will stop obsessing, for a while:
One thing that strikes me about this friendship thus far is that I don't feel like I am recreating or trying to recreate anything.  It just is.  It is new.  It is what it is and doesn't try to be something that I once had with someone else.  I like that.  I think also that it is very healthy and exciting.

Well, this post has been very out of character for my blog as a whole, but I think that I like it, in general. 
For those of you who are regulars: I do hope that you will stick with me through this transition and the excitement which will definitely ensue, expect to see posts of this and the simple informative type to appear in the coming months. 
For those of you who are first-timers: Do come back and check out what this is all about, it promises to be an exciting ride.

Well, I have filled out my order form for books etc for the fall... Wow, this whole vet school thing just keeps getting more and more real...
Supplies and such was mostly very straight-forward. The list says, "you need these things, we suggest that you have these things" and you check the boxes next to the stuff you need and want. There were few decisions to be made. However, I did think long and hard about each decision that was required.
For instance, I am required to have one medical dictionary, they recommend three different dictionaries (one of the three in either hard or soft cover). I tried to get my hands on a copy of each so that I could compare format, layout, size and weight. Only two of them were available anywhere around here for me to test-drive, so to speak. I decided on Saunder's Comprehensive Veterinary dictionary, although it was the one that I could not get my hands on (amazon.com had some really great reviews of it by vet students). Then came another big decision: hard or soft cover!?!? Upon reflection and an informal survey of people that I trust, I decided on hard cover, due to the heavy usage it will no doubt receive and the lasting-potential of a hard-bound book.

Perhaps the most exciting decision I had to make, though, was which stethoscope to buy. I did extensive online research and thinking about this stumper. Four Littman models were suggested, I decided on the Master Classic II, 27", purple. Here is a picture:

Here is more info on the model itself, check out my new fun toy!
I any of you crazy cats needs hir heart a-listened to, let me know. ::wink, wink::