My First Ever Affair....

I had a riding lesson the other day; a riding lesson over fences that made me go "Oooff-umph-FUCK" a number of times. I think my coach was a little offended at one point. I'm starting to realize that in normal social settings, the F-word isn't one that should come out simultaneously with every other word.

My coach offered me a lesson at her house because she thought that Zydo had a little too much life for me. Which is really one of the best compliments a person can give because A) He's seventeen frickin' years old and he still has some life in him and B) I have yet to be pitched into the dirt.

I rode a Chestnut Trakheiner named Stetson, which is a wonderful name for a horse and I'm kind of pissed that I didn't think of it myself. Like that Taylor Swift song, 'Teardrops on My Guitar'. Like, HOW did I not think of that and get famous before her?! Sheesh.

My lesson on Stetson was wonderful, mostly because I stayed with one leg on either side of the horse despite a crazed canine leaping after Stetson's tail in the ring. We circled three times with this dog charging around us like a mad thing, and oddly? I stayed in the saddle, did not wring the dog's neck, and did not develop a case of hives.

I felt like I should have gotten a medal.

As soon as I got home from my lesson, I had a totally irrational urge to wash my breeches, scrub my boots, and burn the shirt I was wearing because I was certain that Zydo would smell the unfamiliar horse and know that I had strayed from him. Of course, washing, scrubbing and burning would have required the expenditure of energy, and that is not one of my strong points.

I'm going to be working on lessons regularly throughout the summer and I even have a tentative show schedule set up. I'll just be going in some amateur competitions, to see if horse and rider can remain as one with an audience, a judge, and an objective for a period of three to five minutes. The goal itself seems simple enough, but in reality? Putting it all together and keeping it that way under the scrutiny of professionals?

Ouch.

Other points of interest:

-- I am still working thirty hours at one location and forty hours at another each week. I hope one day to only have to go to one location, and that day should be on or around the sixth of June.
-- I am doing only one week of berry season this year; the Berry Queen assures me that the dude she hired to run berries hither and yon is quite attractive, blonde, and tall.
-- Zydo has an abscess on his foot, and my father is once more soaking it in a mixture of epsom salts and breakfast cereal. Since it worked last time, I'm going to have faith that it will work again this time.
-- My bedroom has become such a disaster that my mother and a cousin have both offered their services to clean it. I'm fresh out of socks, but the hum of the dryer in the background as I type brings me comfort.

Introducing the Latest Members of the Family...

Here is my new niece, Brooklyn Lori Elizabeth. Her features are fine, she is dainty and looks like a perfect lady.



Here is Tristan.... I love this picture. He looks so much like the Precious Boy did when he was born, almost EIGHT years ago. I love the family resemblance here, how even though so many years have passed by, our genetics don't seem to change at all.



Here is The Princess, kissing her new baby brother.



I was very distraught to leave the babies and The Princess last Saturday. I have the long weekend off, the whole thing, four whole days, and I was planning on going down South to see Mal for the weekend. But when I left the hospital, and again when I left my brother's house, I felt like weeping for hours on end.

I never get to see my brother's family, in part because of the ridiculous hours I work, and in part because they live so far away. My niece has her first ballet recital this coming Saturday, and I'm going to be on a train to drink my face off?

Of course, I love Mal. I need Mal. I feel empty when Mal is not a regular presence in my life.

But those babies, that toddler...

They are my family, and I need to see them.

So this weekend, instead of drinking my face off down South, I plan to go up to visit the newest members of my family, to smell their perfect, velvety soft baby heads, to hold them in my arms and kiss them and admire them; I plan on watching my niece dance her little heart out; I plan on seeing my brother and their wife and I plan on being happy with my decision.

Two Points for the Good Team....

For those of you dreading the world's end due to overpopulation, I have some bad news.

The rest of us, however, are quite thrilled.

Today was the day, and the twins have arrived safely and soundly. Tristan weighed in at a whopping seven pounds, two ounces, and Brooklyn was a little less at six pounds, fourteen ounces. Tristan is going to be quite the little acrobat because he decided to do a somersault and come out backwards, but other than that, no surprises in the delivery room.

SuperNan was there the whole time (Yes, actually IN the delivery room) and apparently a grand time was had by all.

Hopefully by tomorrow I will have some pics to put up.

Hooray for babies!!

Riding, the Canadian Way...

I came home from work today and decided to ride my horse. Now, most of you know by now that there aren't enough words in the world to describe how much I love my horse, so I won't preface this post with a one hundred word ode to the joy I feel in my soul when I spend time with my horse.

I've been impatiently awaiting the riding ring in my front yard to dry up so that I can once more start perfecting my leg yields and ten metre circles. As it was today, I managed to walk awkwardly from the quarter line to the track a couple times, and we weaved around in a shape that might be the equivalent of a cirle in some cultures: Sadly, they weren't circles in this culture.

I was pretty excited to ride today because I thought that for sure the ring would be dry enough, the footing would be grand, I could work the horse and myself into a lather-y sweat, and come in exhausted. But the moment we stepped foot in the ring, the much squooshed up beside Zydo's feet and he began slip-sliding around. It wasn't any better once I was on him, either. I ended up tearing up the track where he rides, he stumbled every three steps, and whacked my knee into a fencepost.

And the horse? The horse was perfect, because that's what my horse is, PERFECT. I was all hot to trot (HAH, I just said hot to trot while I was making reference to riding my horse. Hee.) and the wind was low, the sun was out.

But because of the eighty six freaking feet of snow we got this year, and the on-again-off again rain we've had this spring; because of the lack of winds and complete dearth of warm weather...

I CAN'T HAVE AN ENJOYABLE RIDE ON MY DAMN HORSE.

Dammit. I need to move to like, California or something. But I hear the cost of living is higher there, and I can't imagine what it would cost to trailer a horse from the ends of the Earth to California.

Sigh.

I'm Starting to Get Why I Have Nothing To Write...

I think I can safely blame my work schedule for my overwhelming inability to think of anything coherent to say to the Internet.

Friday I did fourteen hours, Saturday I did eight, Sunday I did fifteen, today I did another fourteen.... This week is looking much the same.

I didn't take anything mathematical in school; quite the opposite, I took Sociology. And so, I'm not going to start adding. Partially because I hate math, and partially because I'm too damn lazy to put down my beer and pick up the calculator.

The thing is, that by the time I get home at night, cease wearing appropriate pants, and sit down for thirty five seconds before I pass out....

Well, I was going somewhere with that.

I think.

I'm really struggling right now to not resent my decision to go back to college. All those double days? Would not be double days. I'm really kind of irked because I could be doing the job I'm doing without the college diploma, and while I know that the diploma probably will help me in the future -- Dear God, let it help me in the future -- as of right now, its just stressing me out that I have to complete this work placement.

I know. Its only six weeks. On Friday, I'll be down to five weeks. Shortly, I'll be posting about how bored I am that I just go to one place and do one thing. I'll be longing for textbooks and lectures.

For tonight, I'm whining about how busy I am.

And its my blog, and I'll whine if I want to.

Blog? What blog?

So, its been 20 days and I haven't written a damn thing. Its not that blogging has not been on my mind, but I've been working and playing and trying to maintain some of my sanity....

I'm on my way to being done college, PRAISE BE TO GOD, and I only have six weeks left to go. I've secured a final work placement/co-op type dealy, and I look forward to JUST doing ONE thing once I'm done. I can't imagine a life where I work forty hours at one location, and don't have to run/drive like a mad thing to my next location. (Although, really, who's kidding who? Like I've ever run anywhere in my life.)

I've been working on getting my physique presentable for tank top and short weather, which, PLEASE, SOMEONE, tell me is coming soon. Its not that I don't adore lazing around the house in layers of oversized jogging pants and sweaters, but I'm starting to feel a little weighed down and I would like to comfortably don a tank top. The racer back kind.

SuperNan is away for the time being, which brings with it some bonuses and some pitfalls. For example, I can do laundry my way (The way that involves clothing strewn about the house for days before I actually get around to washing any of it. But it's piled near the laundry room, so I feel like I'm on my way to accomplishing something). However, no one is here to FEED us and as a result, I'm sitting by the computer eating salami on dry bread with no one to talk to. Hmph.

You might be wondering WHY SuperNan is in absentia, and that reason is that the twins are due momentarily. Actually, its looking like the twins won't be coming out any time soon, much to my sister-in-law's chagrin. It seems that her belly has outgrown all of her maternity tops and she can no longer see her feet or tie her shoes (Another reason members of my family are impatiently awating warmer weather.)

I swear, I'm going to try and update more regularly....