The 12 mini posts of vacation

Well, it has been a long week, but definitely not long enough. Vacations never last as long as you want them to. But, sigh, back to the old grindstone tomorrow. Last weekend I had a lesson, then barn clean-up day Sunday. Worked quite hard. Raking. Ick. Then was forced to go home and do yet more yard work. Then went back to the barn to sleepover, but realized that I was sick and had to go home. Monday I went shopping with my sister and helped her pick out her clothing for the next three years. (Seriously. The girl would wear her clothes down to shapeless brown masses if she was allowed.)

My Tuesday was pretty much killed by having to go to practice at 8 in the morning, but we did go bowling in the afternoon. I don't know why I subject myself to that, ever. I must be the worst bowler in the country. Small children that wear light up sneakers can bowl better than me. Sigh. We were supposed to have a scrimmage on Wednesday, but it was raining, so they couldn't line the field Tuesday, so the scrimmage was pushed to Thursday, which was the day I was supposed to have my lesson. So that was all up in the air.

Wednesday, because efforts to reschedule the lesson had not worked out, my mom and I had lunch and went shopping with my friend Natalie and her mother, who is a friend of my mom's. That was fun. Then we were told that the scrimmage was cancelled totally, so that left Thursday free for my lesson.

On Thursday, I had my private lesson. Yay! I now ride completely differently, but that's okay. I had fun. Thursday at practice, again at 8 in the morning, we were stuck running laps around the field for HALF AN HOUR. We were supposed to only be running for 2o minutes, because the plan was for us to do 10 minutes of Indian Sprints, then 10 of running at our own speed. After our sprints, our coach left to sort out our warmups, then proceeded to forget about us for an additional at least 20 minutes. Gah.

On Friday, we had practice again, then went to a local scrimmage, supposedly as a team, but hardly anyone else showed up. After that, my family went to play mini golf and eat an ice cream, a family tradition for April vacation.

Saturday, it was 92 degrees. We had our lesson anyway, and it was quite fun, just grievously hot. It had been about mid sixties all week, and then just, out of the blue, ninety. My sister got heat stroke. But we had our Saturday night outing anyway, because my parents were gone out with my aunt and uncle. I felt bad for missing Jess's birthday party, but my parents needed me to stay home so that Jenn wasn't all alone. We ordered a pizza and scoured the entire town to find season 1 of Chuck (best show ever) and couldn't find it anywhere. We were even forced to enter the sketchiest establishment ever, Bull Moose Music, but we were rewarded, because, to our surprise, they actually had it. Hooray!

Now, today, I did more lawn work. Most of the day. And watched Slumdog Millionaire, which was an incredibly good movie. You should watch it. Now, I am going to go to bed, and sadly, be forced to go to school tomorrow and confront the fact that I have not finished my math test from Friday, and have forgotten everything.

Almost Vacation!!!

There is only one more day before vacation!!!! Wheee! I am so ready, too. On Monday, we ran over three miles, mostly uphill. Ooof. And I fell down, scraping my knee rather nastily (is there such a thing as sidewalk burn?) and then re-scraped it on Wednesday on the grass. So I have now gone through about four layers of skin. Also, I was awoken this early morning to the delightful sounds of my darling kitty cat vomiting especially nastily on my very bed. At 2:45 in the morning. Then, once I kicked him off, he proceeded to yark all over my floor. The smell, as well as the fear of waking up with it on my face kept me from ignoring it and waiting until morning, which I desperately wanted to do. So, at the lovely hour of 3, I got up and spent the next fifteen minutes searching for individual chunks of cat vomit, as well as stepping in it. Once finished de-pet-staining and febreezing the daylights out of my room, I promptly climbed back into bed. Then my mother showed up. What superb timing she has.

I also had a lacrosse scrimmage today. It went pretty well, even though it was surprisingly cold over in jolly old Wells on the seacoast. At least it should be flip-flop weather tomorrow. Fingers crossed. I miss the Beastie. I did not get to ride her Wednesday. : ( But I should have an interesting ride Saturday. I might also get to do my private sometime over vacation! Yay!

Horseshows are around the corner! Happy thoughts.

Ugh. Soreness

I am currently lying spread-eagle on my bed and nearing a sugar coma from all of the cookies I ate in a desperate quest for comfort food. I am grievously sore from the past week and a half of running. I have never run so much in my life!!!! And, I am pretty sure that I am going to experience significant hand and finger trauma from all of the luke warm to dead frozen to toasty warm to dead frozen transitions that I make playing lacrosse. I bought special gloves today in order to prevent further damage/eventual removal of the damaged appendages. I mean, they turn white, and when I warm them back up they swell up like sausages and itch like mad. That cannot be good for them, especially in a repeated cycle... right? Anyway, we ran about 2.5 miles today, on the road, at the beginning of practice, then my fingers got cold and I started droppping everything, and then I absolutely butchered (in a bad way) a scrimmage. It was not a great practice. But now, here I sit, convinced that I will never have to rise from my bed again unless it is to pee or eat. : ) Or maybe ride the beast. I feel bad for having neglected her for 2 weeks already. I think that she got her feet done yesterday, but I don't even know if she is still sound from her escapade Saturday. She was a WILDWOMAN! I wouldn't be surprised if she went out into the nice, muddy field and broke all four of her little legs galloping up an down and up and down. But goodness I love her. I am slightly (maybe more) afraid out of my mind to ride her Saturday, though, if that is the plan, because she has not been ridden in so long, and she has been inside for eons. We shall see. I think that it is funny that I asked you last time to be there with a camera and ambulance, because this time I think I'll really need them. Possibly with a medical team, stretcher, and helicopter in attendance to air-lift me to the nearest hospital, where there will be a blood transfusion and a donor organ of my choice standing by. : )

Random lesson Pictures

These are just some pictures from the past couple of lessons.

Super action shot! Beth getting on. : )

I rode around bareback while Beth lunged doodle. I hadn't done that since Breezy hurt her eye.

Cutest picture ever. Ak and Jaxson.

Just hanging out with Breezy

I got to the barn a few weeks ago and there was no one there, and I really try not to ride when No One is there, just in case I fall off and die or something, so I had some time to kill. SO, I spent an hour or so in Breezy's stall, just bugging her and taking pictures. I think she was pretty annoyed by the end. She was like, "Why are you still here? You know I don't do kisses" but she got some treats out of it, and I brushed her really good, so she shouldn't complain. She is sweet but evil. : )

You can see her eylashes. They are all droopy. : )

I'm not sure why I like this one. Maybe because her forelock is covering my eyebrows. Stupid eyebrows.

It took a few tries before she would let me do this. I have a few pictures of me being thrown through the air when she moved her head. : )

This one is the background on my computer. I love it. This was before she decided she hated me. (Aka, when I ran out of treats.)

A good post! Finally!

Well, people, we may just have a visually appealing post on the way. It is picture time! Just wait one more... I have to categorize them all. Enjoy.

Just a classic update...

Well, as it turns out, the lesson with Phil did not go at all. I got to the barn Friday, all excited, only to find the darling beastie with a gigundous bump on her shin. That meant that I couldn't ride her, obviously, and I didn't want to just ride on someone else, because I really don't get t have that many privates, and I wanted to work with Breezy. At least I found it, though. Anyway, I rode little Doodle on Saturday, then slept over. It was pretty uneventful. The horses all took a huge group gallop up and down the field several times during the afternoon, and I got some amazing pictures/video of it. Lizz should have them up soon, (maybe she already does) because I took them on her camera. Now a bunch of them are lame. : ( But Breezy was inside, so she couldn't hurt herself more. We also went on a really cool trail ride, all the way to Mr. Edgerly's. It was quite muddy, but we made it through, me on trusty Gossip, who is SUCH a trail horse. She is so good. On monday I started Lacrosse. We ran the mile (7:33) and a 40 yard sprint (5.9 sec). But it was sooo cold. The next day, we went for a 2.5 mile run at the end of practice, which was interesting, since I have never done a road run before, except for the 2 mile this fall for field hockey. But I did okay. I was, like, maybe 6th back. Out of 45 or so. Then, on April Fool's day, my coach said that we were going to have to do a 6 mile, and even made us start it. We got all the way to the stop light, and then they told us it was a joke. I was so happy. It was SOOOO cold. about 10 degrees colder then the first day. My hands got all frozen and purple, and I couldn't feel them anymore. (Metal lacrosse stick shafts get fiercely cold, for all of you who don't know!! ) On Saturday there is a scrimmage that goes until midnight (isn't that RIDICULOUS?) but unless I make varsity (which I do not in any way expect) I will not have to go. So I should see all of you lovely people at the barn, where I will get to ride the super hyper pony who hasn't been ridden in a week and a half. Glory. Be there with cameras and an ambulance. : )