Fighting Hard To Make It Through
Surviving the week prior to APhA was an accomplishment in and of itself. Five tests in an eight day period is enough to drive anyone up the wall, to say nothing about someone facing courses in the same league as I am. I approached it in the same way I always have: put my head down and did the best I could to fight my way through. Its getting easier now that the number of days that I have to do it is rapidly dwindling, at least before I can go home.
The week following APhA it was difficult to get motivated to do anything. I was very grateful that it was a pretty quiet week all things considered. It was also shortened by the fact that Easter was the following weekend, so both Friday and Monday were short weeks. I don't think there was a day during Easter break that I didn't get at least nine hours of sleep. I had a wonderful time with the horses. Scotch was shedding like crazy, she loves being brushed anyway, but now she practically goes to sleep when you're doing it. That is, unless she is gobbling down her supplement. It didn't happen while I was home, but we decided to switch her from cyproheptadine to pergolide as her Cushing's treatment. Hopefully that'll do even more good in taking care of it. I'm not too worried though, other than the excessive fuzz, she seems very healthy, alert, and active and I haven't seen any infections in awhile.
My time with Stormy was pretty good during the time I was home. He was a little more spastic than I like the first two nights, but he was excellent the last two. It seemed like only yesterday that he crossed the tarp for the very first time and now I got him to do it at a trot on his own. I was very proud of him when he did it. I am exceedingly anxious to see what he can do in a few weeks when I have the opportunity to be home for the summer, even better will be when I'm home for good once school is done, whereever home may be at that point.
This is coinciding with an new surge of interest in my original source of inspiration to get back into horses. On a whim, I watched some of the clips for Gettysburg and Gods and Generals on Youtube. When I was home over Easter, I actually got out my musket again and did some of the maneuvers. Everything is still crisp and smooth, just like I had never quit doing it. I have very seriously considered contacting the folks at my old reenacting unit and seeing if I can participate for the summer. We'll have to see how I can fit that into my schedule first.
School has been a tiresome affair as usual, it was as hard to get on the game again after Easter as it was APhA, and regrettably that week was considerably busier. But I have survived everything thus far and am not in a position where I really have to worry about too much, so that is always good. And if I can find a much stronger motivation and with a little assistance from God, I may still pull a great victory out of this semester.
This last weekend was very excellent. Saturday afternoon was the ASP picnic at Dr. Hamilton's house. We have talked a little since he is one of the two professors in my OTC class and it seems like we share a great deal of common interests. We also played some football in the backyard, a very short field admittedly but made it work. I managed to make my quota of "one play in a game that doesn't suck" so I was happy about that. It was a good time and I got the chance to mingle with some of the folks in both the P1 and P3 class whom I don't see as often as one might think. Then, the next night, I had been nominated for chaplain of Kappa Psi. This is only the second time I have been nominated by someone else in any organization. I had given it a considerable amount of thought, particularly in light of last year, but I decided to accept the nomination. It seemed like a long time running through the various candidates, the new regent was elected on the second ballot, so there was a considerably amount of competition. Mine was the penultimate office that we voted on. I did have competition, which was exactly what I wanted. As I have stated, my previous elections have all been without any competition whatsoever. The speech I delivered on my behalf was the not best I have done or could do, but I did well with the jokes, mentioning my upcoming 30th birthday making me eligible for the US Senate. After a few tense minutes of waiting, I returned to the room to find I was the new chaplain. I was exceedingly happy at this, my election has gone a long way to restore my faith in my fellow students, my sagging morale, and provide me with a new opportunity. I went and celebrated after the meeting with a Blizzard. This has also been a restoring thing for my relationship with God; I have worked on being less crass than I had fallen in the habit of and I am looking to rekindle that relationship as well.
That's pretty much it for the last few weeks, so I think I'll wrap this up and start thinking about dinner.