Vermont road trip

Here are a bunch of pictures from mine and Oscar's weekend trip to Vermont. There's not much of an actual blog written, mostly due to my current lack of coffee.

 Saturday night -- Yukon Kornelius in concert

In this picture, from left to right:

Rashawn Ross (Dave Matthews Band)

Jerry DePizzo (OAR)

Adam Gardner (Guster)

Ed Robertson (Barenaked Ladies) - on the drums

Stefan Lessard (Dave Matthews Band) - yes, playing the keytar

Eric Fawcett (Spymob)

 Later that night, joined by none other than Dee Snyder (Twisted Sister)

 The next morning -- up early to visit Killington for a bit of snow tubing

 Leaving Killington, heading back home (but not before stopping at Long Trail Brewing Co.)

This is a highway in Vermont, no joke

I can't go anywhere without finding something horse-related. I'm so lucky to be with someone who not only understands my obsession, but is willing to stop the car and take a picture for me

Way too much going on

It's already been established that I am a slacker of a blogger, so we'll gloss over that fact and move on.

I took my nursing board examination a few weeks ago, and passed (obviously). Tomorrow is my first interview for a real-life RN job.

A cake from work! Berri thought it was delicious

Berta sold, as I said last entry, and she left the farm last week. I still can't really write about it. I need to do it justice. I will say that she is very happy, and I couldn't be more relieved.

I showed at IHSA Zone 1.5 Regionals on Saturday and placed first in the Alumni division. I got myself some nice swag, as well as a ticket to Semi-Finals in Syracuse in two weeks. I'm kicking my own butt at work in preparation for this -- trying to ride at least once a day without stirrups -- I'll let you know how that works out.

This horse was named Roberta, no joke

I started watching Downton Abbey and I am obsessed. Seriously. The story is amazing, the setting is beautiful, and the costumes are to die for.

This dress will be mine

I played the Citadel DLC portion of Mass Effect 3. Sad that the series is now over, but it ended on a phenomenal note. I'll try not to spoil any of it, but it was perfect and funny and everything I ever wanted from ME3. 

Berri has been doing wonderfully under saddle. She participated in a lunging clinic with Jen Ford last week, and was a superstar. Our canter still needs a lot of work (as in, bucking and letting all four feet leave the ground is probably not acceptable in the dressage ring), but we're getting there!

Another long-winded update

I slacked off again. It's so hard to keep a blog updated while you're busy being wildly successful.

Or something like that.

So let's go in chronological order, starting with last Wednesday.

Wednesday morning I got the news that Berta (the horse I had been leasing/working with for the past two years) sold. She'll be going to a Morgan breeding farm up in Maine. I'm happy that she's going to a really great place, but I'm going to miss her a lot. I'll write more about all of this some time in the future.

 Berta and I after our first blue ribbon together

Thursday was Valentine's Day (or VD-Day as my mother likes to call it). I couldn't find any cards that I liked, so I unleashed my creative powers and drew one! Nothing says Valentine's like a zombie-themed card.

The inside says "I do love you for your brain!"

Oscar surprised me by showing up at my house with roses and a really sweet card. Major points.

Over the weekend I had two IHSA shows. Saturday was at Mt Holyoke, where I placed 3rd in my class (eh). Sunday's show was hosted by UMass, and I placed 1st, which qualified me for Regionals. WOO! 

What was really nice about Sunday was that I rode the same horse as I had ridden for the first show of the season. I placed dead last then, because my horse was a tough ride (did not and still does not steer) and I completely fell apart and freaked out. This time, I was prepared and I rocked the class. After the class, the judge said to me: "You had a great ride. The only thing I want you to work on is to keep your chin up and look like you're having fun out there!"

Things that also happened over the weekend: I received a Valentine's card from Chandler, tried a buffalo burger, yelled at a bunch of buffalo, and got Oscar hooked on The Newsroom. Not bad.

In which we survive the Snowpocalypse. Sort of.

I've often said that my hometown of Wallingford exists in its own little bubble. The laws of physics, weather, and common sense are either altered or missing completely.

Murphy's Law, on the other hand? Completely intact.

High school roof gets blown off in a freak gust of wind?
Wallingford.

KKK gives a speech at the local library?
Wallingford.

Traffic gets held up on CT-68 because someone's truck lost a load of hay?
Wallingford.

35" of snow in one storm, ranking 5th in New England for most snowfall?
FREAKING. WALLINGFORD.

For reference, my mother is 5' tall. Okay, okay. 4'11". 

And 3/4".

 This was a four-way intersection. Except the only person getting through was a random dude on snowshoes. I've never seen him before. Not even sure if he actually lives here.

 

 I tried getting through this. I sank up to my armpits in the snow. So then I tried waddling after the dude on the snowshoes, but he kept giving me worried looks and snowshoeing away faster.

 "HI I TRIED TO FOLLOW YOU BUT THERE WAS A SHOVEL IN MY WAY AND I GOT SCARED, SO I JUST STOOD IN THE SNOW AND CRIED INSTEAD."

I thought about being creative and making some New England style clam chowder for dinner tonight, but upon closer inspection found that the cans of clams in the cupboard had expired. In May, 2010 (I'm serious, we're never going to survive the zombie apocalypse if these people don't get their shit together).

So it was chili instead. Delicious, and with a much lower chance of everyone developing botulism.

Preparing for Snowpocalypse 2013

Okay, the title is a lie. I didn't brave the crowds at the supermarket in search of the essentials (a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread) -- someone else took care of that!

My only preparations involved eating breakfast (twice), eating lunch, going to work, eating dinner, and reading a book. One must be sure to eat plenty in preparation for being snowed in and therefore having nothing to eat other than a gallon of milk and a single loaf of bread (seriously, who went disaster-preparedness-shopping? We'll never survive the zombie apocalypse if this person is in charge)

Work is great, as always. Berri is so much more relaxed now than when I first started riding her, and we're getting some sustained moments of brilliance. It's slow work, but very rewarding.

One of the new horses, a Quarter Horse mare named Chloe, is really growing on me. We're figuring each other out more and more each ride. She's smart, sensitive, and I swear she moves more off of my thoughts than my actual physical directions. Gotta love riding a real western-broke horse.

In other news, I had an IHSA show at UConn last weekend. I had a pretty spectacular ride, placed first, and moved up to second for alumni regional standings (I'm only two points out of first place). I need ten more points to qualify for Regionals, and have three shows left in the season. Wish me luck!

I'm a bad blogger!

Okay, okay. I haven't written in a week. There's a good reason, I assure you.

It's because nothing has been going on.

Well, that's only partly true. The other reason is it's been so cold here that I haven't been able to feel my fingers in about a week. Ditto my face.

If I'm walking around looking like I had forehead botox, it's actually because my eyebrows are frozen in a semi-rigor-mortis state. It's a well-documented side effect of the cold in New England.

Over the past week or so:

• I signed up for my testing slot for my nursing boards examination (scary)
• I started applying for a bunch of real-life nursing jobs (flat-out terrifying)
• I rode in a Western Horsemanship clinic with Jennifer Seymour (wicked cool)
• Oscar came home from Argentina after being away for five weeks (...eh)

Most of those things are actually relatively important, I suppose.

I mean, I got to ride Ellie in my clinic group!

Beautiful day

Trying to keep things light after yesterday's post. I'll be sure to put a tear-jerker disclaimer on the next sad post, promise.

The arena at work was plowed and graded after the snow yesterday, so it was perfect for riding this afternoon. All of the horses at work got their feet trimmed/shod and they had chiropractic adjustments yesterday as well, so it all came together to make for a very good day today.

Berri, the dressage pony, was the first to be ridden. We're working on training level dressage, so it's nothing super-fancy yet (none of Stephen Colbert's so-termed "fancy-prancing", but we're working on it). That doesn't mean that I'm not excited about every little thing that goes right, though. Because I absolutely am.

Today was the first day that I managed to get Berri to engage her back and lift in real collection for more than two steps in a row. I was praising her like she'd won at Devon, and I think she was pretty pleased with herself too.

Me and Berri, two weeks ago

Zoe was next up, and we had a similar breakthrough in our communication. Something along the lines of her realizing that she can't counterbend or go crooked around the entire arena. Either that or she just got dizzy from all the circling.

Carlos, the saint of a horse that he is, is worth his weight in gold. I hopped on for a quick warm-up and then he was off teaching beginner lessons both on and off lead. There's really nothing like watching a new rider, grinning from ear to ear as they walk around the ring on horseback (without a leader or side-walker) for the first time. And there's no better horse for that job than Carlos.

Carlos and I, August 2012; like I said, he's a saint