June 24, 2006
You should probably know that I wrote the majority of this post in the car on the way home from work. Of course, by "wrote" I mean "scribbled down notes for". Don't judge me- you know you get all your best ideas while driving, too! Sometimes I think that they should teach you the *real* driving skills in driver's ed: mascara application at red lights, writing while driving, the fine art of driving with your knees, how to write down a phone number while you're on your cell phone on the freeway, etc. If nothing else, I'd like to see my self-invented "universal signal for You Left Your Blinker On, Dumbass" become popular. (Stick your hand out vertically, fingers all together, and click it back and forth. If you happen to be an Adventurer's Club Regular, you may recognize it as the beginning of the Club Handshake.)
Um, what was I talking about? Oh yeah. I was going to write a journal post here! Speaking of the car, I was listening to "Breathe" (2am) by Anna Nalick on the way home, and it made me realize how much I miss Grey's Anatomy being on every week! I am a sucker for a good story, and it feels like I had to return a great book before I was finished reading it, because the library wouldn't let me renew it. Can't wait for the next season! I'm so sucked in.
You may be lucky enough NOT to remember the phase I went through where I was obsessed with photographing the reflection of light on water. I have eight zillion pictures of the lake in different lights. Eight frickin zillion! My new thing, lucky you! is the way sun and clouds compliment each other. I am obsessed. Because photographing a *sunset* is so very original. Right.
Anyway, what better place to photo the sunset than the roof? Okay, yeah, I also just like having an excuse to climb up on the roof at work, but seriously, you get better pictures up there! Here are a few from today:
I've been playing with shutter speeds and dusk photography, which amuses me in a very nerdy way. "HEY!" I'll shriek to whoever is around, "Look what happens if I change the shutter speed to 1/125! Oooh, so cool! I wonder what happens if I..." Oh yeah. I'm cool.
The only thing I HATE about the roof is getting back down. For some reason, the ladder back down to the 5th floor freaks me out. I have no idea why- I'm not at all afraid of heights, but this thing freaks my freak! It takes me a few minutes of freaking out before I can actually get back down, and it drives me nuts that I freak out, because hardly anything scares me. I need to just go up there and climb back down the damn thing fifty times a day until I get over it!
The Ladder of Doom:
It wouldn't be so bad, except that there is no easy way to get your leg from the roof back onto the ladder! You have to stand to the side of the hole (the bottom of the photo), kinda squat down (yay for crazy straddle-squat thigh muscles!), stick your leg into the hole, and find the step with your foot without being able to really see it, while holding on to the top of the hole (near where my feet are in the pic.) It looks like it should be easy, but so freaking hard in application! Once you get ON the ladder, it's easy peasy, it's just getting there that sucks! Oh well, playing on the roof is worth it!
At the ol' hotel a few days ago, Helen and I were discussing how much fun it would be to drive around to other hotels and claim we were planning a family reunion or something (I vote for llama farmers retreat), and ask to see rooms. Because we're nosy, and want to check out what it's like at the other hotels. It kind of worries me that this is our idea of a rockin' good time. Also it worries me that I just used the phrase "rockin good time."
I'm off to Mexico in like two weeks. HOORAY! I am SO ready for a week spent doing nothing but sitting on the beach with a bag full of books, free drinks, and a whole lotta ocean! I haven't been to Mexico since I was like 8, and it has been a few years since I've even hit the beach, so I'm super excited! I do, however, need two things from you! I need a) good books to read on said week spent lazing on the beach, and b) Song suggestions for some sittin on the beach cd's. I figure I'll give in to temptation and Margaritaville it up on one CD, and then make a few others for the eight zillion hours on the plane. So give me songs for both!
Also speaking of music, tonight while I was driving home, that "You're Beautiful" song was on, and it made me think about how there are some songs that it pains you to like, but you can't help it. I wish I could hate this song. First of all, it makes NO sense. NONE. "...But I've got a plan... You're beautiful... blah blah blah..." Your plan is that she's beautiful? WTF? No wonder you can't get the girl, dude! I should hate the song, and I really want to, but I just can't. Ditto on Nelly Furtado's "Promiscuous Girl" song. I wish I could hate it, but I keep listening to it. Arrgh!
I've been trying to find somewhere to take some basic ballet and/or jazz, because the cross training would be really helpful for bellydance. Our training already includes a lot of ballet and jazz, so I have a start, but I really want to take a class on the side to improve my posture, turns, arms, etc. Sounds easy to find, right?
Let me tell you this much to begin with- if you are over the age of 12 and want to take ballet, you're screwed.
So far I have talked to two different places. When I asked the first about a beginner adult ballet class, they said "We have an intermediate jazz class- you can come to that!"
Okay, people, the whole point is that I need you to pretend that I am five years old, and explain *exactly* what the hell my arms are supposed to look like in 2nd position. Yes, I could show up to the class and probably keep up, because seriously, if I can do our class with all the crazy layering, I can probably keep up with whatever they're doing. I could keep up, but I don't think I'd actually be *learning* anything. I want basics here!
So, back to the point- someone from the 2nd place I called is supposed to call me back about private classes. Yay!
The really funny thing is that I almost went to the jazz/ballet class there, just to check it out. When they told me about it, they said "It is actually a class we just set up for the people from Dixie Stampede." HEY! That's my people! Okay, I haven't worked there in like four years, but still! Of course, I don't even know if there would be anyone still there that I'd know. Still, Dixie people are always fun!
And ahh, here we go. Dixie brings us to the topic of horses, or my horse to be specific. I'm sure I've posted more than once in the last several months that I've been considering selling him. This is something I have *agonized* over. Sleepless nights, lots of inner dialogue, lots of debate in my head. I LOVE my horse- I've had him since I was 18, and he's all I ever wanted as a kid. You can dig out any of my letters to Santa, and most of them just asked for a horse. He is the greatest horse ever, but as an owner, I have sucked lately.
Back when I kept him in a field where I had to personally go feed him every day, things were great, because I saw him on a daily basis, got to ride a lot, etc. Eventually my schedule changed, and it became really hard to get out there every single day, especially in the winter. So, I moved him to a place where someone else would feed him- yay! I was still riding him a lot there, but it was mostly limited to whenever friends could come ride with me, because just going out by yourself gets old really fast. Plus there was no ring there- nowhere to set up barrels or jumps or cones or anything else, which left me with just the trails. Luckily at the time Monica and I were going riding pretty much every weekend, so things were still great. Then Monica got pregnant, and I no longer had a riding buddy.
Then came the crazy drama that was a friend of the family, my dad, and two of my cats all dying within a few months of each other. Hopefully this has never happened to you, but you can probably guess that that kind of thing will really screw your life up for a while. When you're visiting your dad in the hospital every day for months, going to see your horse drops way down on the priority list.
And so by the time I was finally getting my life back together (Yeesh, this has gotten depressing!), hanging out with my horse was no longer a habit, and it was really hard to work into my schedule (It takes about 45 minutes to get there from where I live, so it's not like I can just drop by). I'd occasionally think things like "Man, I haven't ridden Emmett in a while, he's going to be a handfull next time I get there!" Then it was "Wow, I haven't ridden Em in a year. A year! That's insane!" Then I started thinking about sending him to a trainer for a while, since he was basically just green broke when I got him, and a little work would make him way more manaable now.
Eventually, I started feeling really guilty. I was one of those kids that would lecture you that if you don't have time to clean your tack and groom your horse every day, you have no business owning one. Twelve year old me would totally kick my ass if she knew I had a horse and sucked so much at paying attention to him. And I'd let her, because I deserve the ass kicking.
So, I knew I needed to sell him. I really wished I still had the number of the guy who called me up shortly after I bought Em, wanting to buy him. He'd owned Em's full sister, and she died, so he tracked me down via the AQHA, and offered me twice what I'd just paid. Of course, at that time there was NO way I was giving him up, so I said no way. Now I found myself wishing I had that number, because those people would obviously appreciate him and take great care of him.
I started casually mentioning to the people who take care of him that I might sell him to them, and they were interrested. Finally, this week I gave in. I just have to send them his papers, and they send me a check. I'm selling him for half what I paid, but I feel weird about any money changing hands. I know it is totally not the same thing, but imagine that you've just had a baby, and you're putting it up for adoption, and the new parents hand you a check. What the HELL do you DO with that money? Paying bills with it seems wrong. I need something tangible for it. I'm tempted to just stick it in an envelope and hang on to it until something feels right.
The good thing money-wise, is that I'll be saving $720 a year now that I won't be paying board. If you are me, $720 is a LOT of money in a year. I'm so used to writing that check every month, it will be weird to have the extra money.
I did work into the deal that I still get to visit him, and that if they ever plan to sell him, they have to tell me first so that I have the option of buying him back. These conditions are the only way I'm able to go through with it. I'm tempted to go out and visit him now, but I know I would freak out and back out of selling him. I do NOT want to sell him. It breaks my heart, but it's the responsible thing, and as much as it sucks, I need to do it. They can give him more attention than I can right now- they can make sure he gets his feet trimmed on the right schedule, gets wormed, gets his shots, gets regular exercise, etc. Giving him up sucks, but I know I have to. I just wish it weren't so hard!
Annnnd since I can't end on something THAT depressing- I started uploading some of my photos onto Kodak's Easy Share gallery while watching Passport to Europe on the Travel Channel. I decided to start out with some old Disney trip pictures, and I'm surprised at how many things I forgot about! I'm also surprised at how few photos I used to take! I guess that's the big difference between digital and film! I'll post links here as soon as I figure out how.
Speaking of digital, I have my eye on a new camera! Another Nikon Coolpix (I'm on a roll!).
It is really about the same price that I paid for my first Coolpix on Ebay, which totally justifies buying it soon, right? Right? Humph. I know I really don't need to even be *looking* at a new camera while my old one is still in great shape and I've only had it like a year, but... the new one is so preeeeeetty! And has almost twice the megapixels! And so pretty! And... do you think I can get Best Buy to increase my credit limit? (HAH! Out of curiosity, I went to my best buy card's website, and clicked the "increase credit limit" button, and it increased me by $100. Sweet! Too bad they didn't raise it $400, because then I'd totally be getting a new camera. Ah, financial responsibility, not my thing!)
Holy crap, this has turned into a long post! I should probably give up here and get back to my crazy Saturday night activities (reading Mo's book blog from the past three years. Oh yeah, I'm crrrrazy!) Tomorrow is my first day off that I don't have a dance thing in Twenty-One days, so I have exciting plans to sleep, sleep, and sleep. If I want to get really crazy, I might go grocery shopping. Whee! I just wish it were a weekday so I could go to the library.
Okay, I'll stop typing now before you faint from my descriptions of such wild and crazy ways to spend a day off!
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