I had my first A&P class yesterday, and while it's going to be a hard course, I'm feeling slightly less panicked than I was. I was mainly worried about not understanding or grasping concepts, and I the first lecture helped to calm me a bit on that score. The prof is good and consistent with explanations and wording, so I was finding her pretty easy to follow. The memorization for this class will be insane, but I think I can handle it. I hope I can handle it.

I made about 100 flash cards last night and studied them for a while, and after class today a few of my classmates and I got together for an impromptu study session. I'd had pig duty today, which was pretty easy. The three of us on shift today met after lecture and checked their food and water and then mucked out their pen. We let them out for a few minutes to sniff around and explore, but they seemed more keen on trying to devour our boots so we put them back pretty quickly. On my way back from the barn I saw a couple of the girls in the dog runs with some dogs so the three of us went over to join them. We ended up sitting down with the dogs and practicing finding body parts (coccygeal area, inguinal area, crural, stifle, aghhhhhh!) and various planes (dorsal, ventral, cranial, caudal, rostral, oblique, transverse, etc). It worked pretty well and the dogs loved the attention, so well try to do it more often, at least while the weather holds.

Class ends at 3 tomorrow and then we have a dog training class from 3:30-4:30 and then, if we're not exhausted, a few of us are going to go play the "name that part" game with Dave, the horse. Out of the 5 of us today I'm the only one with horse experience, so I figured we could get some practice in grooming while we're at it (cradle the "pastern" while you pick the hoof, he bent his leg at the "tarsus", the mane you're brushing ends at the "withers", etc). It's a fun way of doing it, especially compared to studying flash cards, and much more practical. We also get some enrichment time with the animals, who are thrilled. I've done a bit of practicing already with Merlin (who loves the attention), but doing it in a group is nice too.

I decided to drop yoga today. The instructor is nice enough, but the class is not really working for me right now. It's a very energetic class and by the time I'm done, I'm all blissed out and just wanting to drift for a while. Instead I have to quickly shower, grab some lunch (and I *hate* eating right after yoga) and then run to my animal science class. By the time I get there I'm tired, unfocused, and stressed. Given how much information she's throwing at us in lecture (we covered the entire bovine digestive system today...wow) I really need to be able to pay attention. I figure I'll make time to walk dogs or use the exercise bikes for exercise, but the morning yoga just won't work. I'll try again in winter term, especially if I can find something for after class, since that'll allow me to just leave campus and crash at home. I'll be less likely to want to do long walks with the dogs at that point anyway.

Tonight I'm going to relax for a little bit and then study some more. I want to review the bovine digestive system, pre-read the nutrition unit for next week, finish my medical terminology homework, go over my flash cards again, and then crash. I also want to work on a scarf I started last week, if I have time, but I may just save that for the bus-ride to school tomorrow.
Busy? Me? Nah.