"AreYou Still Listening?"

Want to know how I can tell my semester has gotten into full swing? As I sit studying at my desk with the warm New Mexican sun coming thru my window, my computer stops playing music. I pause to check the Pandora station only to find yet again, the annoying "are you still listening" message. Then I click on the "i'm still listening" and it continues to play Vitamin String Quartet or a classical composition. I return to studying laughing a little about the length of time I have been sitting at my desk engulfed in homework.

Lately, I haven't had an ounce of free time. I'm either in class, doing homework for class, working on club officer stuff for hall council and aggie P.A.W, or training Kodi. Classes are wonderful. My four Animal Science classes are my favorite. They have only a small amount of homework but I spend a lot of time working with the animals or reading up on current ANSC issues i'm interested in. Chemistry is mostly review, I have my first test next week. I'm not sure what the test will cover as the only thing we have gone over so far are measurements and significant figures. Chemistry lab starts this week and my daily visits to the horse farm to work with my horse will start next week. The honors class I am taking is a lot of work but it's all very exciting and interesting to me. I probably have spent about 6 hours doing homework for that class alone in the last few days. Life guarding class started yesterday. I passed the swim portion of the swim test but was unable to retrieve a 10lb brick from a 13 foot depth without sufficating. It probably would have been a good idea to have used my inhaler before I swam as I managed to have an asthma attack about 200m into the swim.Luckily the wheezing straw feeling went away quickly but I was left feeling like there was a knife in my chest for the rest of the class. I'm not the only one who couldn't get the brick, so I will work on it and retry in two weeks (no class next week because of the Superbowl).

Ballet is a lot of fun. I'm enjoying it even though it's painful for me to dance. Last Friday I landed funny and twisted my ankle, it's feeling a lot better but still sore. I need to be more careful. Last semester I didn't really have a fun creativity class so this semester I decided to take ballet. It's a very basic technique class, some of the students haven't ever danced before but a lot of them are like me, they haven't danced since they where younger and wanted to try it again. My legs are getting very strong even after two weeks I notice it. Being able to express myself in a visual form (theater, dance, music, dog trick training) is something I really feel like I need to have in order to relieve stress. Dance is a little complicated right now with my knee but it gives me the freedom of expression I need to feel every Friday night for 3 hours. I also love how ridiculously sore I feel on Saturday morning, makes me feel very accomplished.

I'm having surgery on march 11th, 44 days from today. Looking forward to rehab and then being able to training for triathlons again. It's the perfect time in my life to be training for long distance tri's or dedicating time to another sport. I feel like I have wasted to much time sitting out of the game. Hoping everything works and stuff feels a little more stable/less painful inside my knee.

Overall I'm really happy where I am in my life right now. Not everything's perfect but I feel mostly happy with the way things are. :)

That's All for Tonight,
Girl and Pup