Cold, Color, Christmas and Continuing Ed Credits
It’s bitterly cold out there. I think I may be in a state of major brain freeze. Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be a positive thing, but considering some of the dumb stuff I’ve been doing recently, brain freeze just might be the best thing that could happen to me at the moment. It isn’t supposed to get out of the twenties today, and I understand that they predict highs to be in the single digits by the end of the week. Sorry folks, but a single digit number is not a “high”. For those of you who consistently live with this kind of weather every year, I tip my hat to you. I do not believe I would survive.
I had it confirmed today that I definitely get Christmas week off this year. Christmas Day tide pools, here I come. Yes, I know it’s eleven months away yet. But it gives me something to look forward to. Since the remainder of my scheduled events reduces to company meetings and doctor appointments, Christmas vacation is a welcome addendum to my sorry social schedule.
I’ve decided to go to the next level … I’m getting my hair professionally colored this Saturday. No more rinses, no more equivocating, no more timidity. Two o’clock Saturday, I commit to a hair color. This is going to mean a drastic life style change, since it now obligates me to see a hairdresser on a regular basis to keep things touched up. Since I have a very nasty tendency to put off getting my hair trimmed (it bears a strange resemblance to the wave tossed naturalism of an Alaskan musk oxen’s pelt at the moment) this should finally put me on a regular schedule of hair maintenance.
Next week should be a busy one. I am attending a veterinary conference on Wednesday and Thursday downtown for continuing education credits. My state just upped its requirements to 30 hours of continuing education every two years in order to maintain your license. Most continuing education courses that pertain directly to my work are out-of-state, and I’ve found it easiest to keep my credits up by going to the annual American Veterinary Medical Association’s meetings. This year the meeting is in Denver, though, and I simply don’t know if I’ll be capable of pulling off a trip to Denver this year (most mornings it’s all I can do to pull off a trip to work!). My alma mater hosts a continuing education conference every year within 20 miles of where I live, and even though it’s almost exclusively dog and cat stuff, I’ve decided to attend that instead. They are giving a couple of sessions on biosecurity/ag-terrorism, which does fit nicely in with my job, so at least it won’t be a total loss. Still, I dread sitting through the doggy dermatitis stuff. I’m going with Dr. Twenty Cats, and I let her pick out the rest of the schedule for us, so it looks like I’m going to be learning about dogs and cats in spite of myself.