NEW BLOG

Heya- so we moved our blog to:

http://dougandlindsay.wordpress.com

situated

We successfully made it to CoMo and have gotten quite comfortable, even though the extreme consistent sarcasm amongst columbia residents is getting old, very quickly (not to mention the horrid drivers and housier townies-but it's like that everywhere I guess). Besides some minor complaints and the general "getting-used-to-a-new-place" feelings, things are going well. We really like our townhouse and are having fun exploring all the state parks, nature areas and dog parks. We went fumbling around in Connor's Cave for our anniversary. If we could just find some part-time jobs to pay the bills, everything would be just fine. So, we're quite stressed about that, naturally, but we'll keep trying. We better get something soon though, the money stash is getting frighteningly low!

finalizing things

Okay, so the grad school plan for next year went down the drain. My gpa just isn't good enough, plain and simple. So, I'm going to fix it. I've applied to MU to spend next school year taking upper-level biology courses to prove to grad. schools and vet schools that I can handle the course-load and get A's. I know I can, especially if not at Truman (becuase Truman is INSANE and the profs seem to think we're grad students). My disorder is doing pretty well; much better than I would have ever thought while not being on any kind of treatment (no anti-anxiety meds, either). 

As long as I don't get wrapped up in thinking about WHY I'm not being treated for a chronic medical condition, I can handle everything pretty well. If I dwell on how screwed up this country is as far as health care, then I get in a rut and just get worse. 

Keeping with the positive, we have 8 days left until graduation and 17 days until we start moving boxes into our townhouse! YAY! I'm so excited to get out of here. It's going to be so sad in a lot of ways but so exciting too. 

So the plan is to apply to 2 grad schools and 2 vet schools this fall and see what happens. It might take 2 years of getting all mostly A's to get accepted anywhere but you gotta do what you gotta do, can't change things now (just try not to think of spending 2 extra years getting into debt with no degree to show for it).  

I'm just going to try to enjoy taking the classes for what they are and be proud that I'm a Truman graduate, in biology, nonetheless!  I can hold my head high knowing that I have already earned a degree and that the courses should be easier for me. 

I'm going to try to not think of next year (or the next 2 years possibly) as a "hold up" or a "limbo land" of my life...that things are being put on hold because I got a few too many C's at Truman (some of them undeserved, rrrrr). 

I need a break, so-to-speak, so the next year or so will be that, a break. I'll still have to work really hard to reach my goals but I'll be in a new city, with a new home and no longer trying to earn a degree. I can just take my classes, go to work and enjoy myself. 

-Linz

pitiful

I'm pitiful. Doug is going to be leaving for NCUR (National Conference for/in Undergrad. Research) in Wisconsin tomorrow morning and won't be back until Saturday around 8pm. I'm not looking forward to 4 days alone. ugh. ah well. I don't know how he made it a month last summer when I was in Africa. I'm glad he gets to go to NCUR, it's quite a big deal. It'll be great for his resume. 

I'm still waiting to hear anything back from Dr. Wildhaber about being his grad student next year. It's awful sitting around wondering if he got my stuff and if I'm still "good" enough. I should just call but I hate calling people. I will if I don't hear anything  by the end of the week. If I get into grad school at MU, I'll apply to CSU's master in zoology program and try to get in there. Then assuming I get in, I'll move to Ft. Collins, Colorado. If I don't, then I'll stick around and finish up my master's program at MU and then apply to their veterinary program (at CSU). If I don't get in, I might just move to Colorado anyway. 

3 weeks of classes left (including this week) and 1 week of finals, then graduation! hanging on by a thread...

good news

I've been contacting professors at MU like crazy since I heard about my rejection from MU's vet school. I need one of the Fisheries and Wildlife professors to take me on as their grad. student next fall. The problem is that there isn't much funding for research and if there is, then a grad student has already been placed on the research. So the trick is to find a professor that has funding and space/time available for me. Then, only then, I can apply to the master's program at MU. It had been a couple weeks and everyone (including my top choices) got back to me saying that they either didn't have funding, weren't doing research, or had too many grad students already.

Then, just when I was starting to really get worried, one got back to me. 

A Dr. Mark Wildhaber (below),

 who works with riverine fishes, said that he agrees with my interests and that he has a few projects (research) that I might be interested in. He said to send him my cv and transcripts. 

So, I cranked out my new cv that night and sent it Friday morning. I still need to have my transcripts sent, but he hasn't responded to the e-mail containing my cv, yet. I'm anxiously awaiting a response....

-Linz

America treats it's young adults horribly

* you're 13, and you finally decide to spill the beans to your folks that you're bleeding from your intestines and you're terrified because you've been hiding it for a year, hoping it would miraculously go away.

*You're diagnosed with a chronic illness, relieved you have a diagnosis for the pain you've endured since elementary school, but heart-broken at the thought of being a sick, pill-popper you're whole life. Also, feeling like a 90 yr. old doesn't make anything easier- on top of medication side-effects.

* After much time spent in a hospital and much medication, you hold yourself together through high school and dream vividly of the future- of moving on and being happy with a career you've earned and enjoy. 

*You get accepted to a great university and struggle through with your disorder and though times are rough, you're proud of yourself for sticking with it and keeping up with all your healthy peers.

*You're about to graduate and move on into the big world of graduate school or work...proud of yourself yet aching inside from the daily pain and frustrations of your disorder but you keep heading forward.

*then, you realize, that America treats it's citizens awfully..including it's young adults who are trying to gain educations to contribute to the economy. You've just been dropped off your parent's welfare fund insurance plan, a nice little loop-hole around the new 25 year old limit placed on insurance companies. See, if you're lucky enough to have parents who are with an insurance company, then you've got until you're 25 to get a job and buy you're own insurance, which even having a disorder with insurance costing $400/month may be doable then...but if you're family is with a welfare fund, you're on your own at 23.

*So, now you're 23 with a flared-up chronic illness that you've been diagnosed with for 10 years and you're still a "young-in" to a lot of folks. You definitely don't feel like one when you wake up every morning feeling like you're 80, and the problems you face daily are those that an 80 year old would (bowel problems, health insurance problems, money problems, body aching and tired..) It gets quite depressing. Then you get to wake up everyday knowing that no one gives  a shit. In other countries, I would be treated now, maybe have to wait in a line but I'd be seeing a doctor and I'd have medication to myself from bleeding out my intestines. I'd be able to go to classes regularly and not be behind all the time. I would be young and enjoy my youth. 

*Here are some options for you, the 23 yr. old with no insurance who has a pre-existing condition: go on a clinical trial which only lasts from months to a few years that you have a 50% chance of receiving saline instead of medication and if you DO get medication, the reason they're testing it is for side effects and results- sounds fun huh?

Another option is to try to receive funding from the maker of the medicine- have fun with that. One more option is to get help through medicaid- much easier said than done. If you're even approved, the most you'll likely get is enough to cover a broken arm or regular cold and flu checkups. 

* So you're left to your bed to cry and feel like the world doesn't care and the people that DO care, can't do anything for you and it makes them feel awful. 

*How can such a developed country leave it's young adults who are responsibly trying to make a life for themselves in such a mess? In such despair?? 

And this is just me...what about Doug? who has MS? Far worse than my ulcerative colitis...

the future

I found out yesterday that I was not accepted to Mizzou's Veterinary School. If you aren't aware already, it's a very selective profession. I honestly wasn't expecting to get right in, as my gpa is not what it should be, but I thought I'd be on the waitlist and have a pretty good shot at getting in later this summer. I wasn't put on the waitlist either. I'm taking the news better than I thought and I think having to rush my sorority 3 times (we draw from a hat) to get in helped me prepare for being let-down in such a fashion. I'm taking this "rejection" as an opportunity to consider my other options and possibilities for the near future. 

I am going to apply to Mizzou's master's program and boost up my resume, get my disorder under control, and just be happy for 2 years. I need that; bad. During that time I'll decide to either 1. continue my program and obtain a Ph.D., 2. apply to vet school at Mizzou again, or 3. apply to vet school at Colorado State University and move to Fort Collins, Colorado (near Estes and Rocky Mountain National Parks, Colorado Springs, and Denver).

 I like option #3 the best right now. I would like to live in the Pacific Northwest, ideally, but Colorado has always appealed to me and it does to Doug as well. He has no qualms with this idea as mountains and national parks sound quite appealing to us both (as well as our dogs). 

I always thought that if I didn't get into Mizzou's Vet School this year that it might mean that I should rethink my plan, that maybe I could find a path more exciting or enticing for the next few years. I think that might just be the reason. I've never been one to enjoy doing what everyone else does (ie: applying to undergraduate schools in Scotland and completely intending on going there), so not going straight into vet school in missouri right after undergrad. might just be a good thing for me. I might have experiences in the master's program at Mizzou that I'll be thankful for, or that might lead me down a different/better path. Who knows, but for now, I'm resolving to be content with my mizzou rejection letter and say "fine, I'll get a better plan".

-Lindsay

at the lake

My camera is pretty much attached to my hand at all times so it's no suprise I have lots of pictures. I just took these tonight and I thought they were worth sharing.

Things Lindsay Learned in College

An Abbreviated List

1. When you give a mouse a cookie, he'll ask for a glass of milk. When you give Doug a cookie, he'll just eat your entire dinner when you're not looking.

2. When you pretend to be an animal, such as a puffin, iguana, bear cub, cricket, or lamprey, Doug will give you lots of attention.

3. Time flies, even when you're not having fun.

4. Confidence goes a long way, even when you're faking it.

5. Always be on the look-out for that special someone, they might just show up at 9am in an airport when you haven't brushed your teeth, fixed your hair, or put on anything but pjs. It'll be okay though, because they won't have done any of those things either and they'll love you for it.

6. Do something you might be scared to do, ie; watch a train coming at you in the dark on a bridge at 2am (aka The Train Bridge), go sledding, pee on a tree in the middle of the African bush while watching giraffe eat acacia trees (okay, maybe that one's a little hard to do), let your boyfriend pull you around science hall on roller blades, and go ahead and work with snakes, even if they're a little scary at first (that also goes for cattle and frozen dead rodents)

7. Stop marking days off the calendar in hopes that time passes faster...life might just pass you up.

8. My luck is horrible (it took 3 tries to get into a sorority that randomly selects it's pledges) and Doug can't paint walls.

9. Sometimes, you have to quit on a dream (thinking it wasn't really a dream) to realize that it is exactly what you wanted all along (Vet School).

10. It's perfectly okay that the "best time of your life" hasn't happened yet, it just means that it's saving up everything for later, into one big ball of "best". 

-Linz

Things Doug Learned in College

 An abbreviated list 

1.) Don't procrastinate; i.e. you can't cram a month worth of learning into one night even if you clearly had better things to do with your time.

2.) If you live anywhere close to Iowa don't expect spring to arrive until May. "Darn you Kirksville and your April ice storms!"

3.) Your dog will always be there to offer sympathy when you're feeling down. Just make sure that you're there to walk him, or he'll poop on your coat! That goes for feeding him on time too, "Darn you mutt for eating my hamburgers....... cinnamon rolls..... snickers..... rat poison...... $150 vet bill......" Its clear why I appreciate this rule!

4.) If you give a mouse a cookie, he'll ask for a glass of milk. If you eat your girlfriend's cookie, it better not be a chocolate one! 

5.) A second in Lindsay time is an hour of Douglas time. All the same I love spending my hours with Linz, even though she only has 24 seconds in a day.

6a) Do your dishes; the roaches know where you live! And they're mean ones! Guard your appliances too!

6b) Suprisingly roaches are tolerant to microwaves even when they're being used.

7.) Don't ever ever ever underestimate valentines day! I learned that the hard way one year.

8.) Never take the word of a truman student when he says a class is easy.... in reality the class will break you.

9.) Never stand behind a horse, you might get kicked in the head.

10.) Never stand behind a horse you might get kicked in the head.

11.) Never.... um...... horse?....... Truman farm...... droool.

12.) You should know when I'm just kidding.

13.) Don't ever touch Lindsay's macbook, no matter how crappy your computer is.... BEWARE!!!!

14.) The most important thing I've learned in my six years (yes six) of college is that the best things come when you least expect them; Meeting Lindsay Rudolph was the best thing that happened to me in college and it changed my life. I love you forever honey! Happy almost 5 years together!

-Doug

70 degrees

It got up to 70 degrees today and its only the beginning of March- wow. I watched Doug talk with a friend outside our apartments for about 30 minutes today. He had the dogs with him and they were chasing each other around the picnic tables and all over the place. It was so nice to just watch them have fun in the nice weather. Alex has never been in weather this warm yet, since he was born at the end of October. I can tell he's anxious for spring- he's getting more hyper and restless. I can't wait to see if he swims with his brother in the lake. I would love to clean our apartments today but that'll have to wait 'till tomorrow- too many things to do for my courses. poo. 

-Lindsay

-our lives-

We decided that we wanted to have a blog together, to journal our lives, activities together, etc. If you ever get curious as to what we or one of us is up to, just check out our blog and it should be up-to-date with what's going on in our lives. We hope you can get a little bit of entertainment out of this as funny things happen to us quite often and we'll be sure to write them down, for memory's sake (ie: one day I walked into a large glass window, and one day Doug wore his sister's boot cut jeans to a graduate exam in Ladue, and didn't realize it until I jokingly asked if he was wearing girl pants).

-Lindsay