March Running Calendar

I more than doubled my mileage! 

Total Miles: 35.85

Strange

Friday evening, I went out for dinner with my older brother’s family. On the way home, my 8 year-old niece rode with me, and she started asking me about animal stuff since she knows I am a veterinary assistant and has visited me at work.

“What happens if a dog only  has one front leg?” she asked.

I patiently explained that sometimes dogs injure themselves so badly that all we can do for them is take the entire leg off since it’s better for them to not have a leg rather than dragging a leg that doesn’t work.

“You cut it off?” she asked.

I agreed, thinking I knew where she was taking the conversation.

“What do you do with it?” she asked.

I told her that we usually just throw them away.

“You thrown them away? You just throw them in the trash?”

Still thinking I knew where the conversation was going, I asked her what else we would do with them.

“They would be GREAT for making MUD PIES!”

***

Yesterday, I recounted this story to one of the veterinarians I work with, and he laughed and told me that he always knew my family was strange. We both laughed.

***

Later that day, I took a ride on a mule out through the woods. The day was cold and dreary, and the ride was nothing special until I found a dead cat in the woods.

“I’ll keep an eye on that. Once the flesh rots off, I can add that skull to my collection,” I thought.

Afraid of falling...

Don't get me wrong. I love my job. I like working there. I like the animals. I like the people. For the most part, I enjoy getting up to go to work every single day. I have worked there so long it's like my second home. 

At the same time, I hate my job. I hate that I work at a job in which the owners believe in super conservative principles. I hate that I end up feeling inadequate as an adult because I still live at home with my parents. I hate that I work at a part-time job that has no chance of upward mobility in a field that is not even anywhere in the neighborhood of what I spent SIX years learning in college. 

I suppose my problem is less with the job itself, and more with my situation in general.

At the same time, I am unable to do anything about it. I have no idea why, but I cannot bring myself to apply to ANY job. I currently have found seven jobs I am qualified for and interested in that are better paying full time jobs with benefits. I cannot apply for them.

It has to be fear. I know that I am scared of leaving my comfortable job and my comfortable family. I know I am scared. I need to take a leap. I need to take a leap and actually be the adult I want to be. I need to find a new job, and I need to get a new life.

I might have a case of the crazies.

I quit smoking in January. Once I decided to quit for realz, it stopped being an issue. I just don't smoke. I don't exactly know how that works, and I know that it doesn't work like that for most smokers, but for me, it just kind of happened that way. 

So that's one important thing that I've done this year. 

I started running in February. I am not exactly sure what possessed me to run, but it may have been a bit of the same divine intervention that made quitting smoking so easy. It is also entirely possible that I would hate to have paid money to participate in a Warrior Dash at the end of April and not actually participate. Whatever the reason, I started running in February, and just today finished a 2.25 mile run. Progress.

Running makes me feel... Really good. It hurts, and it's hard, but it makes me feel that I have accomplished something. I don't know anyone, aside from my faithful canine sidekick (the little one in the above picture), who ran 2.25 miles today. Running has also brought back the passion for life that I lost somewhere along the way. It is giving me something to work toward. I love it. 

I worry that running is going to be one of those things that I embrace for a minute, and then give up as quickly as I found a passion for it. I've been putting off blogging about it, because I don't want to lose it. Running is happiness. I found it. I don't want to lose it again.

November is the month of my first half marathon. Hopefully, 2014 will be the year of my first marathon, so I can prove that I haven't simply caught a case of the crazies.

“All crazy people have pets”

 

“Not all pet owners are crazy, but all crazy people have pets.” Anyone in the veterinary field will smile and nod knowingly, (or possibly even wince as if in pain) if you mention this little known fact. Please, whether crazy or sane, if you have pets, read this article and pass it on to any other pet owner you know. You’ll be doing me a favor.

How Not To Be A Dick At The Vet Hospital

Love,

Kate (your friendly neighborhood veterinary assistant)