Greetings. It’s been a while. Looks like business as usual.
Between craziness at work, busting my hump on 12 credits this semester, and tackling commitments pertaining to a leadership position for a student organization at school (because I wasn’t busy enough?), I decided to grab the love of my life and our two world-class travelin’ pups and whisk them off for a weekend getaway to scenic Blacksburg, VA.
The purpose of the trip: to attend the Open House at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Wow. That’s a mouthful. VMRCVM at VA Tech? Nah. Too alphabet soupy. All that junk will be hereafter referred to as “Vet School.”
We stayed at the Clay Corner Inn – a really great B & B right in the heart of Blacksburg. We were upgraded to a king suite from a standard king room because some other customer wanted the room we originally reserved. Our suite was located in one of three small houses that make up the entire B & B facility and, as if we weren’t already lucky enough, it turned out that we had the entire house to ourselves the entire weekend. Way cool. Little miss Diva Dog, Zoie, could bark to her heart’s content and we didn’t have to stress about who would get annoyed. And, if you are at all familiar with our super-cute-and-cuddly-but-deaf-and-imbecilic dog, Tucker, you will not be surprised to hear that he managed to christen the house in his own way within about 30 seconds of walking through the door, prompting a hurried emergency trip to the nearest Target to pick up carpet cleaner and paper towels. Sigh. We really do love that dog…
At any rate, if you ever find yourself in the Blacksburg area and need a place to stay, this place is highly recommended. The owner, Joanne, was a really sweet lady. A horse owner herself, she definitely had a fondness for the Vet School, so she spent time with us at breakfast giving us a resident’s perspective on what the Vet School means to the surrounding community. She was also able to hook us up with a local teenage girl to watch the dogs during the Open House, so we could both go and enjoy it.
Since we completely neglected to take any pics of the Inn, here’s a pic of the common area in the main house from their website. Both the location and food were awesome. We’d stay there again in a heartbeat. It was only a 20-minute walk away from the vet school, so we decided to get a little exercise and hoof it to the Vet School.
There’s definitely something to be said for checking the weather before you leave for the weekend and packing accordingly, which we failed to do. The beautiful 70 degree weather that we had all last week did not make the trek to Blackburg, a town all nicely tucked away in the mountains. It was definitely 27 degrees that morning – and we only had sweatshirts – brrrr. This, of course, inspired the unintended purchase of a souvenir – a jacket with the Vet School logo on it. I’ll model it off in an upcoming pic. As an aside, I’d just like to note that for someone who shows up to every event absurdly “prepared,” I sure do manage to forget all the important stuff. Seriously, I’m like a walking blonde joke...
The Vet School itself was pretty awesome, but I won't bore you with the details. It's pretty hospital-y, except it has cats, dogs and horses instead of people. Since we were visiting for the express purpose of gaining a better vision of our lives with me as a veterinary student, we didn’t bother going to all the kitschy displays and labs they had set up for the general public. I figure I’ll see that all in due time. Instead, I attended a lecture on putting together the perfect Vet School application. We also took a tour of the veterinary hospital and, just for kicks, watched a police dog demonstration given by the VA Tech police department.
Above are a couple pics of K-9 Boris and his handler, Officer Something-Or-Other. He didn’t say his own name loud enough – and, really, once this dog has your arm in his jaws, you wouldn’t care about the officer’s name, either. This dog was pretty cool. The cops demonstrated Boris’s unparalleled sniffing capabilities as well as his marked ability to kick your ass. It’s amazing how much these dogs love to work. While the decoy officer assisting in the demonstration was suiting up in the Kevlar bite suit, the dog was visibly shaking and panting in anticipation of getting down to business. When they released Boris to apprehend the “criminal,” he jumped up and latched on, grunting and growling like he was Cujo, with no immediate plans to let go. Then, like a switch, Officer Bumptyscratch yells “Boris! Leiderhosen!” (or some command in German; I kind of missed what it was) and just like that, the dog lets go and sits patiently for the next command, like nothing ever happened. All I have to say is, if you have K-9 Helldog chasing after you, you’d better be able to morph into a squirrel on the fly and climb tree-to-tree because that’s the only way you’re getting away from this beast.
Since the Vet School is the primary veterinary choice for service dogs in the state, this is a natural location for a monument to fallen K-9s and K-9 cops. There were a few names engraved in the granite block, but thankfully not many.
And, of course, who can visit VA Tech without getting a pic with the mascot, Hokie-bird? As one of my very intelligent readers, you might be asking yourself just what in the heck is a hokie? A hokie, I’m told, is a castrated turkey. Huh. Interesting. The VA Tech website insists quite vehemently that a hokie has nothing to do with a turkey; that it is, in fact, some kind of rally battle cry. I don’t know, though. I can see the logic of a nutless turkey as a mascot. I mean, if I were a castrated turkey, I’d be so pissed off that I’d feasibly become instilled with a mascot-worthy, vengeful warrior spirit, to the tune of “you stole my balls; I’ll kick your ass in football!” Either that, or I’d be singing show tunes with Barbara Streisand. Whatever. Anyway, there I am with “Hokie-bird.” And, more importantly, there’s me with my newly acquired Vet School logo jacket. I really wasn’t going to get a souvenir – I didn’t want to be a poser since I’m not there at the vet school YET, but it was SO COLD outside, I had no choice really. So I might be a poser now, but I’m a warm poser, dammit.
After the tour, we met up with a friend of mine, M, and her husband, also M – together, M&M. They are every bit as sweet and fun as the similarly-named candy, though I will not cast aspersions to their meltability, by mouth or by hand. That is SO none of my business.
M1 is currently a vet student at the school, who I met through her own blog, which details her life in vet school hell. Also from NOVA, she agreed to meet me, sight unseen, and let me pepper her with a million questions pertaining to everything vet school. In return, I answered some puppy training and indoctrination questions as she had acquired her first pet as a member of the veterinary field. The girl’s not even out of vet school and she’s already raking in the fur-kids. I’m so doomed. Well, T-man is doomed; I’ll be happy as a pig in mud. (Oooh…I wonder if I can score a pet pig…)
I’d not yet met her husband, M2, but as soon as we did, it became apparent that T-man and I would hit it off with the couple immediately. What was instantly notable was how ridiculously similar these people were to T-man and me. M1 and myself – markedly nerdy and proud enough to own it, with a pronounced love of the critters (duh); T-man and M2 – laid back, funny, and friendly, sharing a love of fantasy sports and a philosophy on lottery tickets. I think my favorite part of the mirror vision was the fact that T-man and I got a first-hand glimpse of what life would be like for us as a couple should I get accepted to the Vet School. Moreover, we liked what we saw. This bodes quite well for my decision-making as it pertains to vet school, since I’m doing everything I can to not make my plans in a vacuum.
Anyway, we met them with the dogs for a sporty play session at a makeshift dog park. (Blacksburg doesn’t have any official off-leash dog areas, but there are plenty of wide open spaces to make impromptu dog parks) Once the dogs were sufficiently tired we left them at M&M’s apartment and headed to a keg party for current and prospective vet students. Wow. These people can party! There must have been 100 people there, a grill so large that it had to be brought in on a trailer, cooking up plenty of pork BBQ (there went my pet pig), and plenty of booze, complete with a beer pong match in full swing. And, of course, since these are vet students, there were plenty of animals running around. I’m pretty sure I saw a dromedary camel in a Hawaiian shirt, running around with a plastic lei around his neck, trying to avoid the drunk 2nd year vet student who kept chasing him around, attempting to plant a keg tap in his hump…all this after my first beer. I’m a little ashamed to admit that, at 31, I’ve never been to a college house party. However, it is comforting to know that, should I get accepted to this Vet School, I’ll be able to make up for lost time if I so choose. Nice.
We were only there for a couple of hours, but I can only assume that the festivities were taken to a whole other level after we left (isn’t that the way it ALWAYS happens?). The next day we saw this horse with internal body parts painted all over her. At first I thought her buddies pulled a prank on her when she passed out after tossing back one too many, but since horses can sleep with their eyes open, she’d have to have seen that coming. I decided, then, that she must have lost a drunken bet and had to walk around like this for the next 24 hours. Ha! What a sucker! Everyone knows Barbaro was a Thoroughbred.
Just kidding…she was actually painted up for the Open House, presumably to make the kiddies (not kitties) laugh and point.
That said, we had a really great weekend and now I am THAT much more excited to get my butt accepted to the Vet School. There’s something about actually seeing the place that seems to make that goal attainable. Not sure why, that doesn’t even make sense, but there you go.
Additionally, as a result of this trip, I am “unleashing” (hardy har har) a new blogging concept called “Tucker In A Bag…” We’ve recently discovered that the aging super-cute-and-cuddly-but-deaf-and-imbecilic Tucker has increasingly become super-cute-and-cuddly-but-deaf,-imbecilic,-and-decisively-immobile Tucker. He’s an old man and, apparently, his distance walkin’ days are over. As such, we brought with us an old hiking backpack into which we stuff Tucker and walk around with him on my back, his head poking up adorably out of the bag. It is really, sickeningly, painfully cute. If you saw this you’d “awwww” till it made you “owww.” So here you go my friends, “Tucker In A Bag…in Blacksburg.”
Till next time…Stay tuned to this blog for more “Tucker In A Bag…”
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