Update on Optometry School & Nick's Work

Since our blog seems to be very "Herky-centered" I decided to post an update about the part of our lives that doesn't revolve around the puppy...I have been in classes for three weeks now, and I feel like we are definitely well into the material in all of my classes. We have taken quizzes in several classes already and I will have my first big test next week. I am usually in class from around 8 am to 2 or 3 pm everyday. There are a few days that I get to sleep in a bit and a few days I have to stay later, but it all balances out in the end. So far I like the classes, but it is a lot of general anatomy, systemic or body disease, and information that reviews and expands on what was taught in my undergraduate science classes at UNI. We are learning some clinical procedures, and I used a direct ophthalmoscope to look into a real person's eye today! Yay! (I don't really know what I saw, but it was exciting to do something that 'real doctors' do on a daily basis). This was so that we could get a feel for the equipment that we will have to order later this fall. We will spend about $2,000 on equipment this year and another $2,000 in our second year. And students get half off of the retail prices of the equipment! Hard to believe how expensive it is!

Nick is liking his job as an assistant property manager at Woodbridge Apartments here in Bloomington. He is still going through some training, but he is able to complete lots of tasks now. In fact he has leased three apartments since starting there (two in the first week!). Unfortunately, there will be no apartments to lease for awhile because they are at full capacity right now. So he mostly is doing file audits to ensure that the correct paperwork and documents are on file for each lease. He also does inspections to make sure that people are not violating rules of the community (such as owning a gas grill). A perk of his job that we just got this week is a major discount on our cable package. Since the apartment complex has such a large account, the company provides a nice discount to the employees of the complex. So we now have some HD channels as well as DV-R (which is like TiVo). We just got it hooked up today, but it is pretty neat - you can just pause the TV if you need to go do something (like take Herky out) and then you can skip the commercials! Well this post is probably getting pretty long, but I throw in a picture of the apartments where Nick works and of the optometry building as well!