{Conversations}

I feel like I'm always reminding Matthew that preparing for a family can be costly. And I usually tease him for being so pro-family when he doesn't have any experience with children.

Me: Do you have any idea how much it costs to take care of a newborn? Do you have any idea of all the things they need?

Matthew: Yes I know what they need!

Me: Oh yeah? What goes in the nursery?

Matthew: A changing table, a crib, a dresser, some sort of storage unit for her/his toys, a place for Trooper to lay so he can watch over the baby, diapers, baby powder, clothes...etc.

Me: I...don't have a comeback.

Beach Volleyball

The beach volleyball tournament for Semester Olympics was postponed until September 16th. The VIPers, (the team I play for), lost in the second match against Purple Semester, but we still had a lot of fun under that hot Caribbean sun!

Beach*Fest

On Saturday, Matthew and I attended our very last Beach*Fest event. And it was a doozie. With all of the excitement of finding out everyone's clinical placements, and it being an ideally beautiful day, we had a lot to celebrate. I was surprised that I was able to walk, let alone think on Sunday. With that said, here are a few photos from the event.

The Dincaus Will Head to NC STATE

As I had recently mentioned, this was a big week for us. Not only did Matthew have his first cat spay surgery, we also found out where we'll be living come January. We are excited to share with you that we will heading to North Carolina State University for Matthew's clinical year. We feel very blessed/lucky/amazed/appreciative/surprised/thankful that he will be attending this school. If you'd like to know why, read the following email:

If you scrolled down and skipped the email, here's the summary: NC State is a sought-after school. Forty-six students listed it as one of their top choices. Only six from Matthew's semester were selected to attend. He's one of the lucky six.

Moving on. I have already spent a significant amount of time researching our soon-to-be home, chatting extensively with both Emily and Andrew who are both North Carolinians, and I have notified my friend, (and fellow VIP), Ryan, to start apartment shopping for us—since he and his wife, Kate, recently moved there from St. Kitts in August.

OMG! And Matty's twin, Rhiannon, who has been with him at RUSVM since Vet Prep, (May 2010), is going to NC State too!!! Which means that Sami will be there as well. I suppose Ryan, Sami, and I will just have to start our own SK-to-NC VIP group. Haha.

And regarding football, we will be called The Wolfpack and this is our mascot, Tuffy:

And of course, I had to google map the state as well as the driving distance (all pertinent information, you know):

It should take us about 15 hours from Manistee, MI to Raleigh, NC. 

And lastly, here are five interesting facts for you:

1. NC State is tied with CO State as the # 3 ranked veterinary med school in the US.

2. The capital city is Raleigh with the largest city being Charlotte.

3. A state culinary staple of North Carolina is pork barbecue. (Matthew is ecstatic about this, naturally.)

4. Growing Christmas trees has recently become an important industry (in NC).

5. North Carolina has 17 major river basins.

Spay Surgery...and Then Some

Matty and Sharon spayed a cat yesterday! And the surgery went well! I am so incredibly proud of them both. I continue to be amazed by the progress Matthew is making. I think it's time I start to credit myself for his career path. Yeah, you heard me.

Not sure if many of you know this, but Matty was going to be a dentist. A human dentist. Yeah, that's right. Then we got married. And then I begged and begged and begged and begged and begged for a dog. We weren't planning on having kids anytime soon, (six years later we still don't have any, haha), which was totally fine with me, but I wanted a damn dog...and he didn't. He claimed that we didn't have the time or the room for a pet. I told him he was being a buzz kill.

The more Matthew said, "No," the more my obsession grew, so I started to do some research. What kind of dog should I get? (I'm not saying 'we' because Matthew was still not on board and chose to ignore my pleas.) Anyway, our apartment was teeny tiny, so I knew we couldn't get a big dog, which is what we both grew up with and preferred. And for some irrational reason, Matthew was against getting male dogs. He was also against 'furry little shits.' So...I settled for a female furry little shit at the Humane Society. However, that dog slipped between my little fingers, and she was adopted by another family that got to her first. Wahhhhh. I was so upset! How could they take her from me? Matthew, of course, was delighted, although he would never admit this.

After a few months, I found a new dog to obsess over. Actually, he wasn't 'new.' I had seen him about eight weeks prior, but he was too expensive. His name was Andy, (dumb name), and he was another furry little shit at this run-down shack of a pet store. Yes, I hear your groans. Evil puppy mill pet stores. I know, I know. But this dog had been there for almost sixteen weeks already. If he didn't get purchased, he probably would've been euthanized.

One day Matthew agreed to go with me to check out the dog. Maybe he felt bad about the whole Humane Society situation...I wasn't sure. All I knew, was that he said, "Okay, I'll go look with you," which in my eyes meant, "YES WE CAN GET A DOG." However, I had a feeling that he'd still say no if he had tagged along. So I made the decision to fly solo and buy the furry little male shit dog. Coincidently, I was let out of class early that day, which I cleverly did not disclose to my husband. I drove to the pet shop, bought the dog, and then brought him home. It's not like Matty would make me take him back. Sure, he'd be mad at me for a day or so, but um hello—I can take that.

Upon entry, our old apartment had a set of steep stairs. When I brought the furry little male shit dog in, I expected him to know how to use them. I thought it'd be cute to have him climb up the stairs before me so Matthew could see him first. I figured if he'd see the dog before me, he'd realize how cute he was, and then I would walk in and be like, "What? We've always had this dog. Why do you act like there's something new going on here? Are you on meth?"

So anyway, furry little male shit dog couldn't muster up the energy/interest/knowledge to climb up the stairs. I mean, c'mon dog. You're a puppy. Isn't it your job to want to crawl up things? How do you not know how to climb stairs? By this time Matthew called down to me, "Hey babe. What are you doing down there?" To which I nervously and too loudly squeaked, "Uhhhh NOTHING," while I tried to usher the dog up each step. Eventually, we made it to the top because I about punted him up the last few steps.

And that's when it happened. Furry little male shit dog and Matty met. The rest is history...

Errr wait. Not really. Let me finish the story.

So Matthew was caught off guard but managed to smile and give me a look that said, "Omg. She is incorrigible. Completely out-of-control." I chose to ignore him and introduced him to our new family member. Matthew eventually succumbed and pet the dog. Then we decided to go to PetSmart to get the little shit a few toys, and parade him around like new annoying pet owners do. On the way home, we decided his name would be Teddy.

The next morning, Teddy and Matthew were up very early together, and I think that's when they started to bond. From then on, they were pals, buddies. It was pretty cute. Matthew finally had a friend who liked to be up as early as him, and Teddy finally had a home with a loving family.

A while later—we argue about when/where this actually took place—Matthew decided he wanted to be a vet. And now, here we are, in St. Kitts doing spays and shoving arms up cows' asses. Crazy where life takes you, right? And by 'we' I really mean him. Obvi.

So that's the story folks. If I had never brought home furry little male shit dog, maybe Matthew would still be trying to be a dentist. By the way, we now have two furry little shit dogs, both male. Ha!

RIP: Wilbur

When Matty and I first arrived on St. Kitts, we were brought to Reggae Beach by our orientation leader. This is where we first met Wilbur the Pig. At a jolly 600 + pounds, he was a sight to see! I'd even go as far as to say he was a bit of a local celebrity. Everyone knew who Wilbur was, and most folks I know have had a photo taken with him. When news of his recent death was released, it was no surprise that many were saddened by this. He was such a great pig and he will surely be missed. You can read more about his legacy and life story here.

7th Semester is Moving Right Along

Today was a big day for Matty because he experienced his first surgery rotation of 7th semester. I could tell he was excited about it because he woke me up this morning to get my opinion on his outfit. I could barely understand what was going on at first. Wake me up early to check on his outfit? WTF? Does he have a death wish? But then I realized he was serious when he was staring at me with a hopeful expression and pointing at his clothes. I told him he looked cute and rolled back over. (As far as I could tell without my contacts or glasses, he really did look neat and professional.)

Anyway, he was gone all day long, which is quite the change from 6th semester. Also, he and Sharon are surgery rotation partners, and they have to spay a kitten this Thursday! Talk about jumping right in and getting the ball rolling. (It's only week two.) Good luck to them; I know they'll do a great job.

In other news, it was not a 'big' day for me. I spent most of the day watching HGTV, hanging out with Milo and Trooper, cleaning, and gathering items to sell to other Rossies. Because life is so transitional down here, household items get recycled a lot. Things I purchased from former Ross students two years ago, are now being photographed and posted again. I actually kind of laughed out loud when I posted my 'Items for Sale' photo album on Facebook this evening. I know that all of my Ross friends won't think it's strange that I'm selling a Cuisinart mini chopper from 1998, but all of my other friends who are stateside probably think it's a little weird. It's just a different kind of lifestyle down here, and every semester, there are 7th semester students and VIPs who need to market their stuff to potential buyers (incoming 1st semester students who have nothing). It's quite the cycle...of recycling.

As I was walking around our apartment snapping photos of random things, our porch cat, Kitsy, decided he wanted a little camera time. Or at least was interested in what I was holding up to my eye. Such a funny feline.

I was trying to take a photo of the blue step stool behind him, when he leapt up to swat at the camera. 

Lastly, we will soon find out where we're headed for Matthew's clinical year. Supposedly, Friday is the day we'll be told of our upcoming location. When Matty submitted his preferences last week, he/we chose:

Colorado State University
North Carolina State University
Oregon State University

We do know that we will not be heading to Oregon because if he had been presented to that school, we would have heard from them last Friday, and we did not. I suppose our dreams of moving out West will have to be on hold for a bit longer. Unless of course we get into Colorado. That's West-ish. We've tried not to get attached to any one place because the clinical placement process seems complicated and a bit of a crap shoot. For all we know, we could be headed to Oklahoma. ;)

Mr. RUSVM—7th Semester

Normally, Mr. RUSVM is held at the Royal St. Kitts Hotel & Casino, but this year, Green Semester hosted the pageant and chose a different location. It was held at a place that we call The Dome, but I'm not sure if that's the official name. Actually, I just looked it up. The Facebook event page called it the St. Kitts Marriott Resort Golf Course Pavilion. Wow, what a mouth full. I'm going to stick with The Dome, mostly because it's easier to say and the building was shaped somewhat like a dome.

The brave contestants were:

1st Sem: Casey Bohn
2nd Sem: Jon Smith
3rd Sem: Diego Recinos
4th Sem: Nam Kim
5th Sem: Robert Rishwain
6th Sem: Tyler Caron
7th Sem: Greg Daggett

And the categories were:

Biggest Pet Peeve
Favorite Musical
Talent
Bring out Your Inner Superhero

Sharon's husband, Tyler Caron, from 6th Semester won Mr. RUSVM. He put on a great performance, and it was very entertaining. Greg, from Matthew's semester, earned second place. Congratulations to all of the guys who competed. Oh. Oh! I just remembered something funny. The opening performance was the 'Raining Men' scene from Magic Mike. Hahahaha. Unfortunately, I do not have any photos of this to share. So sad, I know. But I still had to mention it. Perhaps I will try to find a video of this nonsense...

And side note: I'm not sure if any of you have heard of GangNam, but Nam Kim used it for one of his performances. I thought to include the link to the ever-popular video. I don't know who came up with the idea to have Nam use it, but it was pretty clever.

Tyler and Sharon. :)

Semester Olympics—7th Semester

This was our very last Semester Olympics. Le cray cray. Soccer,  kickball, flag football, and beach volleyball were the sports we competed in...as usual. What was interesting though, was that Black Semester (7th semester students) won the soccer tournament. They're terrible at soccer so it was quite the upset.

Let's see, what else? Oh. Blue Semester and Black Semester got into a fight during flag football. Classy.

And the VIPs were knocked out of both soccer and flag football in the first round. Ouch!

Matty was the pitcher for his semester. Yes, he's in jeans...

Sophia and her boyfriend.

Seventh Semester

Tomorrow means back-to-school for Rossies, and it's Matthew's first day as a 7th semester student. I cannot believe that we only have about three months until we leave St. Kitts. As I've said countless times before, time has just flown by so incredibly fast. I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that it's already September! I think I blinked and August disappeared. In hopes of slowing time down a little, I tried to convince myself that the month of September would be a slow one. I even voiced this to Matthew the other day. His reply?

M: Hmmm...
C: What?
M: I think September is going to be busy.
C: Really? You think so?
M: Well, think about it. We submit our clinical placements next week. We find out the following week where we'll be going. Then you'll probably start selling the stuff we accumulated while here. And you'll need to start looking for a place for us to live. I know you'll want to start searching as soon as you find out where we're going. Not to mention that we also have Semester Olympics and Mr. RUSVM the first week...
C: Oh...oh right.

There goes that idea...