Baseball Games and Southern Hospitality

Brown College

Part of my walk home from work!

Minute Maid Park

Augie Fam Cookout!

So, yikes... I think it's time for a new post! A lot has happened since I last wrote, but I'll try to highlight the good stuff...
For all of last week and most of this week, I spent time in my "healthcare" rotation at CLAMC. So that means that I worked with two of the vet techs, Carol and Jackie, to do basic care for all of the animals there (rabbits, mice/rats, dogs, monkeys). It always seemed to work out that I was with the rabbits a lot, so I learned how to handle them, give injections, and draw blood. Also, over the course of the past 2 weeks I've been taking a few Intro seminar things. Each one focuses on a different species and teaches how to handle them, any precautions you should take with them, and sometimes how to give injections, draw blood, etc. So, I learned how to do all of those things for mice/rats and rabbits. For monkeys (non-human primates), it was really just a warning against what not to do with them (like look them in the eye). Rhesus monkeys carry the Herpes B virus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herpes_B_Virus), which is almost always fatal to humans, so I learned why we have to wear so much personal protective equipment (PPE: gown, mask, gloves, shoe covers, head covering, face shield).
Also, starting this week, I've been working a little bit with my research lab. I met Dr. Meisch, who's in charge of the lab, as well as the people who help out (including Dr. Gomez, one of the CLAMC vets). I was given a workbook all about operant conditioning and a textbook about drug abuse that I'm supposed to read so that I understand what's going on with the research... Dr. Meisch studies cocaine addiction and how it works using Rhesus macaques, so it should be an interesting project.
I also see my mentor, Dr. Robinson, every once in a while. We go to a few lectures together each week, and I learned that I'm going to be doing 2 additional presentations other than the one I'm required to do for my internship. I'll be presenting a journal article of my choice to a Journal Club comprised of vets from all over TMC, and then I also get to present a case study to a similar group (both groups are probably comprised of the same vets... there aren't that many here!), so my subject will probably be Pink, a Rhesus macaque at CLAMC that they can't seem to figure out what's wrong with.
Aside from work stuff, we've been doing some pretty fun stuff on the weekends! We've made a few repeat visits to Rice Village, and then this past weekend was pretty busy when Bekah, one of the girls here with me from Augie, turned 21 and all 3 of her sisters came down for a visit. We went out to celebrate her birthday last Friday (after making her a birthday dinner and cake on Thursday). Then on Saturday we went to a Houston Astros game, which is in Minute Maid park, a stadium with a retractable roof... The stadium was covered, so it was really bizarre being at a baseball game and being able to feel the breeze of airconditioning too! On Sunday I spent more time out on our hammock (my new best friend), and then we had our weekly Augie family dinner (cookout!). After work this week has been pretty lazy, just cooking dinner and relaxing! Last night the pastor and a few others from a nearby church took us out to dinner for some delicious pizza and gelato, because they've known Augie student who came down here for past years and thought they'd show us some Southern hospitality!
That's about it for now!
A few random sidenotes:
Jason Mraz's newest album = amazing
People look at you funny when you bring rolling suitcases to the grocery store
Homemade guacamole is a great way to make friends in an elevator

jd