No matter what you are doing,
keep the undercurrent of happiness.
Learn to be secretly
happy within your heart
in spite of all circumstances.-Paramahansa Yogananda
(I just really liked this) :)
Monday, September 26, 2011
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Ten Years Later...
I, like many, cannot believe it's been ten years (already?). There are few incidents that I remember happening in my life to which I can say, "Oh, that was a decade ago." But I remember this day like it was yesterday.
I was on the couch at home, eating breakfast. My mom was awake, and was ironing something not far from where I was sitting. My best friend at the time called -- at first I was more confused as to why anyone was calling us just after 6 in the morning on a Tuesday. "MEG! Turn on the TV... NOW!" said her shaky and very adamant phone call. I turned on the TV with her still on the phone and remember looking at my mom, who then looked up and saw what I saw on the TV. I hung up the phone, and just sat. I remember scrambling to finish getting ready for school, and spending the day walking from class to class, but mostly sitting in journalism class and just glued to the TV. Moving to English and history, and just gaping, listening, in awe. Not sure what I was supposed to say, feel... or do.
I remember getting home later that day, and soon after mom got home from her day teaching. Among story after story and news clip after news clip, the only footage I remember to this day is the entire House of Representatives singing "God Bless America" and my mom and I sitting and crying on the couch. I remember her yelling at the TV, "WHO WOULD DO SUCH A THING?" And from there, it was a blur. More stories, more heroes, more losses. As a junior in high school, what could I do? From across the country, I felt like all I could do was listen, read the heartbreaking stories, and just feel for all those who had lost.
It's interesting now, ten years later, realizing that so many of the students I work with were no older than sixth grade in 2001. For so many, post-9/11 is all they know -- they only know of the increase in security at airports, of "the war on terror" and all that's come to be... normal. While there are only so many things I can remember of "before" and "after", I remember my dad going to Boston for a soccer game I think two weeks after 9/11. We left for LAX almost four hours before his flight; through the entire drive home with my mom and sister, I remember being terrified until he called and told us he made it okay to Logan and was en route to his hotel.
I insisted to Kim during my visit in March that we go by the WTC and 9/11 Memorial. I am so glad we did, and I definitely want to go by and see the finished pools and gardens. For everyone who lost that day, I still feel. For those that served and helped, whether in uniform or not, thank you. You are who make us proud to be Americans and for helping keep a country strong in such tragedy and grief. God Bless America.
I was on the couch at home, eating breakfast. My mom was awake, and was ironing something not far from where I was sitting. My best friend at the time called -- at first I was more confused as to why anyone was calling us just after 6 in the morning on a Tuesday. "MEG! Turn on the TV... NOW!" said her shaky and very adamant phone call. I turned on the TV with her still on the phone and remember looking at my mom, who then looked up and saw what I saw on the TV. I hung up the phone, and just sat. I remember scrambling to finish getting ready for school, and spending the day walking from class to class, but mostly sitting in journalism class and just glued to the TV. Moving to English and history, and just gaping, listening, in awe. Not sure what I was supposed to say, feel... or do.
I remember getting home later that day, and soon after mom got home from her day teaching. Among story after story and news clip after news clip, the only footage I remember to this day is the entire House of Representatives singing "God Bless America" and my mom and I sitting and crying on the couch. I remember her yelling at the TV, "WHO WOULD DO SUCH A THING?" And from there, it was a blur. More stories, more heroes, more losses. As a junior in high school, what could I do? From across the country, I felt like all I could do was listen, read the heartbreaking stories, and just feel for all those who had lost.
It's interesting now, ten years later, realizing that so many of the students I work with were no older than sixth grade in 2001. For so many, post-9/11 is all they know -- they only know of the increase in security at airports, of "the war on terror" and all that's come to be... normal. While there are only so many things I can remember of "before" and "after", I remember my dad going to Boston for a soccer game I think two weeks after 9/11. We left for LAX almost four hours before his flight; through the entire drive home with my mom and sister, I remember being terrified until he called and told us he made it okay to Logan and was en route to his hotel.
I insisted to Kim during my visit in March that we go by the WTC and 9/11 Memorial. I am so glad we did, and I definitely want to go by and see the finished pools and gardens. For everyone who lost that day, I still feel. For those that served and helped, whether in uniform or not, thank you. You are who make us proud to be Americans and for helping keep a country strong in such tragedy and grief. God Bless America.
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| This photo has always been one of my favorites - it says so much. |
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Adventures in Midnight Trips to the Puppy ER
So, a few fun facts: the University of Georgia has a GREAT veterinary medicine program, both for undergrads and DVM graduate programs. With that comes a teaching hospital on campus and a really great community clinic. These are all undergrads and DVM students that are practicing, while being supervised by licensed vets. So one, they get the practice; two, it's cheaper than a regular vet! (Three, they don't do EVERYthing there, but close to it!)
Long story short, Molly looked all mopey and sad when I got home from work on Monday night; I thought, "Okay doggie depression is setting in now that we're getting settled" and I didn't really think too much of it, but took her to the park thinking she'd get to run around and feel better. We were there for an hour, I got ice cream and a movie on the way home so I could chill and feel better and thought it'd be a great night in. Not long after we got home, though, she vomited a little bit of red stuffs and a leaf -- so I thought she got into something at the park. I freaked momentarily then decided I'd watch her the rest of the evening before bed and if she kept getting sick, we'd go to the hospital. Well not much sooner that I was getting ready for bed and she got sick again -- only it was almost entirely blood (sorry for the grotesque details). So I freaked, ran down to the car, and hauled butt to campus. (Side note: a thank you to the DVM students I've befriended who told me to put in the phone numbers to the two 24-hour clinics in town, teaching hospital included!)
After two hours at the vet hospital and a follow-up appointment on Tuesday
where she stayed at the vet all day (they volunteered to keep her since I work all day and didn't want to come home to any 'surprises'), Molly is now on 4 different medications and a prescription food diet for a few days. One medication creates an extra lining in her stomach to help with digestion and her getting sick problem, one is an antibiotic, one is a live culture that gets sprinkled on top of her food and one is a deworming syringe just in case. The antibiotic-ish pill might be a life-r for her if it helps. :( Poor kid. The deworming medication is 11.3 mL so she's NOT happy -- I have to give it to her a milliliter at a time and after about 6, she locks her jaw and won't let me open her mouth.
It's Thursday though, most of her prescriptions wrap up tomorrow and she's already doing better.
Puppy pharmacy on my kitchen counter.
Long story short, Molly looked all mopey and sad when I got home from work on Monday night; I thought, "Okay doggie depression is setting in now that we're getting settled" and I didn't really think too much of it, but took her to the park thinking she'd get to run around and feel better. We were there for an hour, I got ice cream and a movie on the way home so I could chill and feel better and thought it'd be a great night in. Not long after we got home, though, she vomited a little bit of red stuffs and a leaf -- so I thought she got into something at the park. I freaked momentarily then decided I'd watch her the rest of the evening before bed and if she kept getting sick, we'd go to the hospital. Well not much sooner that I was getting ready for bed and she got sick again -- only it was almost entirely blood (sorry for the grotesque details). So I freaked, ran down to the car, and hauled butt to campus. (Side note: a thank you to the DVM students I've befriended who told me to put in the phone numbers to the two 24-hour clinics in town, teaching hospital included!)
After two hours at the vet hospital and a follow-up appointment on Tuesday
where she stayed at the vet all day (they volunteered to keep her since I work all day and didn't want to come home to any 'surprises'), Molly is now on 4 different medications and a prescription food diet for a few days. One medication creates an extra lining in her stomach to help with digestion and her getting sick problem, one is an antibiotic, one is a live culture that gets sprinkled on top of her food and one is a deworming syringe just in case. The antibiotic-ish pill might be a life-r for her if it helps. :( Poor kid. The deworming medication is 11.3 mL so she's NOT happy -- I have to give it to her a milliliter at a time and after about 6, she locks her jaw and won't let me open her mouth.
It's Thursday though, most of her prescriptions wrap up tomorrow and she's already doing better.
Puppy pharmacy on my kitchen counter.
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