Must Love Dogs

I've been being a good little doggie mom lately and trying to socialize Dixie with other dogs. (The vet told me that she's behind on her socializing because she was in the shelter during her formative months...I'm pretty sure that's a little dramatic, but I'm trying anyway.)

I invited a friend and her little papillon/poodle mix over to the house the other night, and Dixie scared her to death. Instead of playing, Paisley spent the entire night on the couch (because she figured out that Dixie isn't allowed on the couch) trying to avoid Dixie's big paws. In Paisley's defense, Dixie is about 5 times her size. In Dixie's defense, she was really bummed that she didn't get to play.

My next thought was my friend Clayton who has a Weimaraner/Lab mix named Radar. I figured that Dixie might act nicer around small dogs if she knew what it felt like to be the little one. I would guess that Radar weighs around 100 lbs., so Dixie was definitely dwarfed by him. Their introduction was a little rocky, but after the first 20 minutes they were friends and spent the rest of the night chasing each other playfully around the yard.

Socializing? Check.

Clayton and I have been talking at school about getting the dogs together again for a play date, but he told me that Radar's been really busy studying for dental school...

After Clayton sent me those pictures, I told him that I really like pictures of dogs acting like humans. Like this one I found on the internet:
He told me he had a picture of our friend Richie's dog, Mocha, acting like a human who doesn't care for green beans.
Mocha REALLY doesn't like green beans. Poor Mister Ticklebritches. Doesn't like green beans...

Those dogs are doggone funny. Know what else is funny? Mexican Santa wearing a sombrero.
Courtesy of our local Goodwill. Can you believe someone wanted to get rid of that treasure!?!?

Googled

Today during lecture I decided to update my grade sheet. Every semester I make an excel spreadsheet of each of my classes, their respective hour values, and insert the formulas so that I can just plug in my grades as they are given and the spreadsheet will calculate my GPA. Also every semester, I forget how to do the formulas on excel. Usually I can figure it out, but this time I just couldn't remember how to do it (am I getting dumber?), so I had to resort to the best reference ever created--Google.com.

I love the little "fill in the blank" function of google. When you start to type in your query, the program gives you choices below of the most commonly searched terms with those words.

For example, if you type in "Who is the best...", Google will offer: Who is the best soccer player in the world, who is the best rapper alive, who is the best dermatologist in san antonio, and who is best character in borderlands."

It's always interesting to see the search terms that come up because they are based off of things that people are actually searching at the time.

This morning when I started to type "How do you make formulas on MS excel," Google listed:

How do you make a heart on facebook
How do you make a penguin on myspace
How do you make a series on youtube
How do you make sure you're not pregnant
How do you make a resume
How do you delete your facebook

I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing out loud, because I couldn't help but imagine that the same person typed all these questions. Well, just in case it was the same person googling away their troubles, here's a little advice...

If you're really serious about looking for a job, why not delete the facebook, delete the myspace, nix the youtube idea, don't have unprotected sex, and contact the nearest college's career counseling center to help you with your resume. You google too much (oodles of googles)! And what in the world is a myspace penguin?

I wonder what would happen if you googled "google"...

Probably the world would implode.

In other news, I'm still trying to teach Dixie how to be still to pose for pictures. Once she's got that down, I'll post some more. Expect them around December of 2012. We took her to her first vet appointment last week and found out that she had gained 5 pounds since coming home from the shelter. The vet was concerned that she still looked too skinny, so he recommended that we increase her food. Now she's probably gained about 7 pounds and I've lost 3 from taking her on so many walks. Puppies have a lot of energy to burn off!

The fun part is that she's already learning tricks. She can sit, stay (sort of), shake, lay down, roll over (halfway), high five, crawl, and fetch when she feels like it. Not bad for a four month old, right?

Speaking of 4 month olds, I'm doing a rotation in pediatric dentistry this week and next week...there will be stories--get ready!

Halloween Hubub

Jeffrey and I met some good friends for dinner tonight, and on the way home we started discussing some costume ideas for a Halloween party coming up next week. This is how the conversation went:

Lauren: We could be Snooki and The Situation.
Jeffrey: I really don't want to spend the whole night wearing just a wife-beater.
Lauren: We could be trauma patients in the ER
Jeffrey: OR MEXICAN GANGSTERS!
Lauren: I don't think we should do something where we have to be a different ethnicity...it's too hard to change skin colors.
Jeffrey: We could be Michael Jackson and propofol, the pills he overdosed on
Lauren: Again, I don't want to try and change ethnicity.
Jeffrey: Michael Jackson was white at the end!

(long, thoughtful pause)

Jeffrey: WE COULD BE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES!!! (He begins humming the theme song)
Lauren: Yes, we could. But we'd have to make shells.
Jeffrey: You could do that. I CALL LEONARDO!
Lauren: I'm putting this conversation on the blog. You should be embarrassed.
Jeffrey: Whatever, you're stuck with the loser turtles.

Dixieland Delight

I have two important things to tell you, my faithful blog readers, and both are equally true:

The first is that we have officially adopted a dog. The second is that it is exceptionally hard to take a good picture of a puppy. Valid proof of both statements shown below.







Introducing Dixie Belle Edwards, our sweet little rescue pup. She is 3.5 months old and the vet thinks she is a weimaraner/hound mix. She weighs about 20 lbs now, but she probably won't be little for long. She's a very good girl who loves being outside and wants someone to be petting her at all times. We got her from the Bexar County Humane Society, which is a fantastic shelter that we would highly recommend!

Reverse Psychology

These days I've been realizing that my Type A personality is actually starting to work against me. Usually it's good to be aware of deadlines, but sometimes (e.g. the 3rd year of dental school) being aware of your deadlines can make you hyperventilate.

The hyperventilation method was effective for a little while as a coping mechanism (you can't be stressed if you're unconscious from irregular breathing), but in order to protect my brain cells from hypoxia, I'm searching for new ways to deal with the pressure.

There have been many prayers and more scripture reading than normal, and those things help to keep life in perspective (this morning I read some chapters from Philippians and was reminded that there are things equally or slightly more stressful than dental school--like being chained to the wall in a Roman prison because of your religious beliefs).

Even so, I've still been pretty stressed, so the next form of stress relief comes in the form of backward or upward thinking. Upward thinking is just about escape. I call it upward because the escape place I always think of is climbing a mountain.

*Little known fact about me: I've climbed 5 mountains in Colorado on Wilderness Trek.
There's just something about the idea of leaving all these deadlines and stresses and escaping to the mountains that sounds so appealing. The way I would smell after a week without showering while climbing a mountain would be so appalling, of course, but the trip would be lovely. The longing for that quiet hiking experience has been so strong lately that I'm considering planning a trip in the summer. If you've never climbed a mountain before--you should come with me!

The backward thinking is fun, too. Jeffrey actually started this stress-reliever. He'll often ask, "Think of us X years ago...what were we doing? What were we thinking about? What were we worried about?"

The answers are often hilarious.

What were we doing 6 years ago? Making jack-o-lanterns at Jeffrey's parents' house, of course. What were we worried about? Getting into dental/medical school. We brought all our books and computers and notes on this "vacation" to Jeffrey's house so that we could study the entire time. The pumpkin carving was only a little break we took.
Clearly this isn't the best picture of me. (Was I on some kind of make-up strike?) Even so, I look so young, and so skinny! Nothing makes you feel skinnier than a picture of your face next to a big round pumpkin.

What were we doing 5 years ago? Marching in the Homecoming parade. What were we worried about? Worried about getting into club and finishing our pledge duties.
The smiles you see are just a cover--this picture was taken at the ACU Homecoming parade and neither one of us was very happy to be there. Jeffrey had stayed up all night working on their float, and I was wearing 4 pair of panty hose under that hideous yellow skirt as a punishment for someone being late to our pledge meeting. (This is probably where my propensity for hyperventilation began--4 pair of panty hose puts quite a strain on your diaphragm.)

Looking back makes me realize that "this too shall pass." And so will I. I will pass 3rd year. I will pass 3rd year. I will pass 3rd year.