I don't know all who are reading this, but I get the most demand for new entries from Michelle, the girl I've been doing projects and such with for the last couple years. So, this one's for her.
I'm not going to go back and touch on everything that's happened in the last month. Needless to say, I've been busy with school work, real work, and friends. Plus, the weekend after my last entry I had my first dressage show.
The show was held in Williamston, MI at a barn affiliated with Michigan State University. It was a nice enough facility, though it--like most barns now--paled in comparison to the Albion Equestrian Center. I think I'm becoming spoiled. It was a gorgeous weekend. I wisely wore layers, but was down to a t-shirt and thin lounge pants by the afternoon. We brought five (?) horses with us, so in the morning I spent a lot of time being a horse mommy. This entailed walking the horse around, putting saddle and bridle on and holding the blanket while he was being rode. It was a fun job and made the day seem not as long. Still, after being out there from 7ish in the morning (being awake since 5) to after 5, I was dead by the time I returned to campus. I'm really glad those shows don't happen every weekend.
My tests went well enough for it being my first show in a long time. My boots didn't fit, so I had to use other peoples and no one on my team has a shoe size even close to mine. It's rather difficult to have any affect on a large animal when you're feet are swimming in leather. I had also forgotten that I freeze up whenever I enter the show ring. My warm-ups would go great, then I'd get in the ring and suddenly I couldn't function. It wasn't that I stopped thinking or anything like that, it's that I tensed up which prevented the horse from relaxing and me from thinking about anything other than the test and the things my old trainers spent several years drilling into my head: corners, rising and falling with the correct leg. I didn't place either day, but my team as a whole did. We got sixth the first day and second the next day. Our next show is this coming weekend. I'm determined to do better. In fact, I'm determined to place. I just have to remember to breath.
I like the show environment. I love spending an entire day with my team and supporting everyone, however, I really hate how I only get one chance. I'm out there all day, but you get in the ring and that's it. If you screw up, you're done. When I showed before I would always have at least three classes. I'd do a group class first. That was my screw up class, my chance to go in and get my nervousness out of the way. In intercollegiate, I don't have that option. So, I have to find a different way to settle my nerves. It doesn't help that I have this weird thing where I can't tell if I'm nervous or not. Oh I'll have butterflies, sweat, and all the other typical symptoms whenever one of my teammates go in the ring, but when I'm up on the horse...nothing. I can't tell, so I can't fix it. This weekend, I'm just going to assume and go with that. We'll see what happens.
Okay, my laundry's done. Time to go to bed. I have a paper I need to write tomorrow (two, actually). I'll do my best to write next weekend when the show it over.
14 November 2010
11 October 2010
The not-so-mighty river
The colors here are gorgeous. I'm not entirely sure when the leaves began to change. A week ago they were green or brown and my friends and I were wondering if it would ever get warm enough to allow the trees to burst into the full spectrum. Then, Saturday, I was walking back from the dinning hall and suddenly I noticed them: yellows, oranges, reds, browns. It's absolutely stunning. I'll take a picture tomorrow and post it.
I spent most of the day inside today, but finally my stomach (and the lack of snack food I have in my room) drove me to the dinning hall. The place was basically deserted. Since I got here, my friends have complained about the food, but until this weekend I thought it was fine. This weekend I think the cooks were trying to scare the stayers away. Definitely leaving campus for all future long breaks--or having better snack food that will last me.
Anyway, after I ate I didn't really feel like going back to my room. It was a beautiful day and there was still at least an hour before sundown. So, I just let myself wander. My feet took me to the 24/7 computer lab where I figured I would be able to go in and print out my dressage test for this weekend. I want to practice it as much as I can this week. However, the vending machine distracted me and when I reached the lab, it was very dark and uninviting. So, I took my Sierra Mist and hit the trails again.
My feet took me across the train tracks and into the frontage road beside the athletic complex. Now I knew where I was heading: Whitehouse Nature Center. The 144-acre nature center was one of the reasons I chose this college, but until now I hadn't actually been there. I tried to get there the second weekend I was here, but I ended up going the complete opposite direction. It was nice to finally go there. The Kalamazoo River isn't nearly as impressive as the Mississippi or even Minnehaha Creek, but I could be bias. It was nice being near the water again. I've been so filled with city smells, college smells, people smells. It was nice to be out in nature, hearing squirrels, birds, the water. I forgot how quickly the air temperature can change when you're walking over a marsh. It would be hot to the point of stuffy, then I would pass over a trickle of water and suddenly the air would be downright cold. It was tantalizingly refreshing. I'm going back with my camera as soon as possible. The whole place reminds me of Minnehaha Park and the river.
I finished my walk by sitting at the river's edge and just watching the leaves float by. Then darkness began to creep across the grass. So, I returned to my dorm, not missing home quite as much as I had.
I spent most of the day inside today, but finally my stomach (and the lack of snack food I have in my room) drove me to the dinning hall. The place was basically deserted. Since I got here, my friends have complained about the food, but until this weekend I thought it was fine. This weekend I think the cooks were trying to scare the stayers away. Definitely leaving campus for all future long breaks--or having better snack food that will last me.
Anyway, after I ate I didn't really feel like going back to my room. It was a beautiful day and there was still at least an hour before sundown. So, I just let myself wander. My feet took me to the 24/7 computer lab where I figured I would be able to go in and print out my dressage test for this weekend. I want to practice it as much as I can this week. However, the vending machine distracted me and when I reached the lab, it was very dark and uninviting. So, I took my Sierra Mist and hit the trails again.
My feet took me across the train tracks and into the frontage road beside the athletic complex. Now I knew where I was heading: Whitehouse Nature Center. The 144-acre nature center was one of the reasons I chose this college, but until now I hadn't actually been there. I tried to get there the second weekend I was here, but I ended up going the complete opposite direction. It was nice to finally go there. The Kalamazoo River isn't nearly as impressive as the Mississippi or even Minnehaha Creek, but I could be bias. It was nice being near the water again. I've been so filled with city smells, college smells, people smells. It was nice to be out in nature, hearing squirrels, birds, the water. I forgot how quickly the air temperature can change when you're walking over a marsh. It would be hot to the point of stuffy, then I would pass over a trickle of water and suddenly the air would be downright cold. It was tantalizingly refreshing. I'm going back with my camera as soon as possible. The whole place reminds me of Minnehaha Park and the river.
I finished my walk by sitting at the river's edge and just watching the leaves float by. Then darkness began to creep across the grass. So, I returned to my dorm, not missing home quite as much as I had.
10 October 2010
Friends, exams, and now a break
It's been a while. Since my last entry a lot has happened. First, I spent the weekend at Alyssa's house, I attended and helped out at the college's first jumper show of the school year, I survived the four papers I had to write and mid-terms, and now I have four days completely to myself.
Okay, starting at the beginning. The last weekend in September, Alyssa invited me to come spend the weekend at her house in Clarkston. She was going home to celebrate her birthday with her family. It was a lot of fun. She has three horses right in her backyard (essentially) and the weather was perfect for trail riding. It was so nice to get on a horse and just ride. I haven't done that since I stopped going out to the hobby farm I used to ride at. I've missed the simplicity. After riding, we went to her mom's boyfriend's house for food and fishing. Alyssa's boyfriend was out of town, but his brothers lived nearby and I got to meet them. The way Alyssa interacts with them reminds me exactly of my relationship with the three boys I spent several years babysitting. I've added hanging out with them to my list of must-dos when I come home in November. All in all, it was an awesome weekend, even if I did end up getting a cold. Though I think that cold had more to do with the four papers I had due that Thursday/Friday before. I survived them, despite that the British Literature paper I thought I had until midnight to finish was actually due at 5. So far, I've only had the Faulkner critique returned to me, but I'm not entirely worried about the others. I feel like I did well on them.
And moving on. The following Friday I had my first midterm (October 1). It was for this reason that I chose not to take my Brit Lit professor's offered extension on the paper. I could've e-mailed him and asked for another week to do the paper so that I wouldn't have four papers due so close together, but I decided I didn't want to worry about writing a paper while also studying for the mid-term. I had never taken a midterm here before and I decided I wasn't going to rely on Century College's midterms as an example because Century is a two year college with a lot lower standards then I'm expecting Albion to have. Anyway, I didn't study a lot for this test because I would just be trying to fill my head with too much information since I had no idea what to expect. I did know that I would have to know the titles and authors of the pieces we read and that there would be vocabulary questions. So, I skimmed and went into the test feeling minorly unprepared. For good reason, it turned out. I knew only two of the five vocabulary questions, but I did get all the rest of the test done fairly well. The reason we had to know the title and author was because the professor put quotes from the different pieces we read and we had to identify their source and explain the context. I nailed that, so that was good. I got my test back last week and got an 85 without the curve, a 90 with it. Not too bad for not knowing what to expect. It did teach me to take better notes in class, though. A couple of the vocab I didn't even have in my notes. Oops.
That same weekend was the first Winter Series Jumper show. A jumper show is pretty self explanatory. Competitors ride their horses over brightly colored fences. The idea of a jumper show is to clear the first round (as the rider does in the video). Riders clear the round if they get over all the fences in the right order (you might be able to see the numbers leaning up against the jumps, these mark the course), then get the best time in what is called the jump off without knocking down any of the poles. The jump off is a shorter version of the original course (and not shown in this video). The show started Saturday morning with cross-rails. Cross-rails are jumps where the poles form an X. These are beginner jumps either for horses or students who haven't done a lot of jumping or as a warm-up for the classes with verticles (like in the video). As the show progresses, the jumps get higher. The rider in the video is probably jumping 2'3''-2'6''. The show I was at ended up at 3'3''-3'6'' by Sunday afternoon. Olympic show jumpers can jump as big as 6'. Next year, when I bring my horse up, I'm going to try to compete in show jumping. I do love Dressage, but there's something about being on a jumping horse that makes you feel like you have wings.
Anyway, at the beginning of the video, you may have noticed the woman running through the course. She was part of the jump crew, which was what I did. The jump crew goes out and sets up any jumps that the horses knock over. I had a really good time, but I'm looking forward to being the girl on the horse for the next show (NEXT WEEKEND!!!!!).
This past week was midterms. I only had two because I did the Brit Lit one the week before and because I don't have one for my Faulkner class. I had a better idea what to expect after Brit Lit, so I actually spent time Wednesday and Thursday night studying. I was most worried about my philosophy one because the history class I'm taking is a first-year class containing mostly freshmen. So, I stayed in the library going back through all my philosophy notes and the handouts I received until 1:30 in the morning. Alyssa kept me company, which was really nice. We chilled in the older half of the library because the lights aren't super efficient and go off every half hour there isn't mass movement. Jolly Ranchers, Oreos (for some crazy reason I can eat Michigan's mini oreos. They don't contain soy or dairy.), Pepsi, and BBQ chips helped keep us going. Alyssa had to move her car before 2, so we ended up leaving before I got all my studying done. Alyssa completed all her homework for the following day, though, so at least I'm a good role-model. : ) I went back to my dorm and found that Alesha was still up, so I stayed up another hour and finished all my notes. I went to bed feeling very prepared for philosophy, but also very happy I didn't have to get up until 9:30. In the end, both of the midterms felt like they went well. I won't know how I did until Friday when grades are due, but I feel pretty confident.
And now I'm on Fall break and the campus is deserted. I've never seen so many empty parking spots in the entire time I've been here. All of my friends have gone home, so I have a huge amount of time on my hands that I've been spending trying to remember what I did before I acquired a social life. For the last three weekends I've had something to do. There was the parade, going home with Alyssa, and the jumper show. I was hugely looking forward to this weekend because I would finally have a chance to sleep in (which I did), but once I woke up I couldn't remember what I used to do. Yesterday, I spent the entire day in my dorm room watching an NCIS marathon. That was enjoyable. I do love NCIS, but the whole time I kept checking my e-mail accounts and Facebook for someone to talk to, and I couldn't stop thinking how much more fun watching NCIS would be if Kate were there to watch it with me. Today, I woke up earlier (not before noon, of course) and absolutely had to get out of the dorm. So, I wandered over to the Student Center in pursuit of snacks. The center was open, but the convenient store and the bookstore were closed. I couldn't help but wonder what exactly was the point of having the center open if nothing inside it was open. From there I headed toward the library intent on raiding the student-card-accepting vending machines, as well as checking out some movies for my history class. Then I sat down here, logged into Facebook and Blogger, and started this post, more than happy to be interrupted by the flashing tab that told me Jemma had sent me a message on Facebook.
For all I love this campus and love studying, I've come to realize with each weekend that consists of my friends going home, I miss my own home. I miss my cats, my dog, my horse. If I had a car up here, I absolutely would've gone home this weekend. I had planned on doing that even when I couldn't bring my car up (the brakes died two days before I left for school), but it takes two days to get home cheaply and I don't have the money to fly. Two days to get home and two days to come back means I'd be spending more time in Union Station in Chicago or on a bus than I would be at home, which rather defeats the point. So, next semester, I'm absolutely bringing my car up so I have a chance to go home.
Okay, starting at the beginning. The last weekend in September, Alyssa invited me to come spend the weekend at her house in Clarkston. She was going home to celebrate her birthday with her family. It was a lot of fun. She has three horses right in her backyard (essentially) and the weather was perfect for trail riding. It was so nice to get on a horse and just ride. I haven't done that since I stopped going out to the hobby farm I used to ride at. I've missed the simplicity. After riding, we went to her mom's boyfriend's house for food and fishing. Alyssa's boyfriend was out of town, but his brothers lived nearby and I got to meet them. The way Alyssa interacts with them reminds me exactly of my relationship with the three boys I spent several years babysitting. I've added hanging out with them to my list of must-dos when I come home in November. All in all, it was an awesome weekend, even if I did end up getting a cold. Though I think that cold had more to do with the four papers I had due that Thursday/Friday before. I survived them, despite that the British Literature paper I thought I had until midnight to finish was actually due at 5. So far, I've only had the Faulkner critique returned to me, but I'm not entirely worried about the others. I feel like I did well on them.
And moving on. The following Friday I had my first midterm (October 1). It was for this reason that I chose not to take my Brit Lit professor's offered extension on the paper. I could've e-mailed him and asked for another week to do the paper so that I wouldn't have four papers due so close together, but I decided I didn't want to worry about writing a paper while also studying for the mid-term. I had never taken a midterm here before and I decided I wasn't going to rely on Century College's midterms as an example because Century is a two year college with a lot lower standards then I'm expecting Albion to have. Anyway, I didn't study a lot for this test because I would just be trying to fill my head with too much information since I had no idea what to expect. I did know that I would have to know the titles and authors of the pieces we read and that there would be vocabulary questions. So, I skimmed and went into the test feeling minorly unprepared. For good reason, it turned out. I knew only two of the five vocabulary questions, but I did get all the rest of the test done fairly well. The reason we had to know the title and author was because the professor put quotes from the different pieces we read and we had to identify their source and explain the context. I nailed that, so that was good. I got my test back last week and got an 85 without the curve, a 90 with it. Not too bad for not knowing what to expect. It did teach me to take better notes in class, though. A couple of the vocab I didn't even have in my notes. Oops.
That same weekend was the first Winter Series Jumper show. A jumper show is pretty self explanatory. Competitors ride their horses over brightly colored fences. The idea of a jumper show is to clear the first round (as the rider does in the video). Riders clear the round if they get over all the fences in the right order (you might be able to see the numbers leaning up against the jumps, these mark the course), then get the best time in what is called the jump off without knocking down any of the poles. The jump off is a shorter version of the original course (and not shown in this video). The show started Saturday morning with cross-rails. Cross-rails are jumps where the poles form an X. These are beginner jumps either for horses or students who haven't done a lot of jumping or as a warm-up for the classes with verticles (like in the video). As the show progresses, the jumps get higher. The rider in the video is probably jumping 2'3''-2'6''. The show I was at ended up at 3'3''-3'6'' by Sunday afternoon. Olympic show jumpers can jump as big as 6'. Next year, when I bring my horse up, I'm going to try to compete in show jumping. I do love Dressage, but there's something about being on a jumping horse that makes you feel like you have wings.
Anyway, at the beginning of the video, you may have noticed the woman running through the course. She was part of the jump crew, which was what I did. The jump crew goes out and sets up any jumps that the horses knock over. I had a really good time, but I'm looking forward to being the girl on the horse for the next show (NEXT WEEKEND!!!!!).
This past week was midterms. I only had two because I did the Brit Lit one the week before and because I don't have one for my Faulkner class. I had a better idea what to expect after Brit Lit, so I actually spent time Wednesday and Thursday night studying. I was most worried about my philosophy one because the history class I'm taking is a first-year class containing mostly freshmen. So, I stayed in the library going back through all my philosophy notes and the handouts I received until 1:30 in the morning. Alyssa kept me company, which was really nice. We chilled in the older half of the library because the lights aren't super efficient and go off every half hour there isn't mass movement. Jolly Ranchers, Oreos (for some crazy reason I can eat Michigan's mini oreos. They don't contain soy or dairy.), Pepsi, and BBQ chips helped keep us going. Alyssa had to move her car before 2, so we ended up leaving before I got all my studying done. Alyssa completed all her homework for the following day, though, so at least I'm a good role-model. : ) I went back to my dorm and found that Alesha was still up, so I stayed up another hour and finished all my notes. I went to bed feeling very prepared for philosophy, but also very happy I didn't have to get up until 9:30. In the end, both of the midterms felt like they went well. I won't know how I did until Friday when grades are due, but I feel pretty confident.
And now I'm on Fall break and the campus is deserted. I've never seen so many empty parking spots in the entire time I've been here. All of my friends have gone home, so I have a huge amount of time on my hands that I've been spending trying to remember what I did before I acquired a social life. For the last three weekends I've had something to do. There was the parade, going home with Alyssa, and the jumper show. I was hugely looking forward to this weekend because I would finally have a chance to sleep in (which I did), but once I woke up I couldn't remember what I used to do. Yesterday, I spent the entire day in my dorm room watching an NCIS marathon. That was enjoyable. I do love NCIS, but the whole time I kept checking my e-mail accounts and Facebook for someone to talk to, and I couldn't stop thinking how much more fun watching NCIS would be if Kate were there to watch it with me. Today, I woke up earlier (not before noon, of course) and absolutely had to get out of the dorm. So, I wandered over to the Student Center in pursuit of snacks. The center was open, but the convenient store and the bookstore were closed. I couldn't help but wonder what exactly was the point of having the center open if nothing inside it was open. From there I headed toward the library intent on raiding the student-card-accepting vending machines, as well as checking out some movies for my history class. Then I sat down here, logged into Facebook and Blogger, and started this post, more than happy to be interrupted by the flashing tab that told me Jemma had sent me a message on Facebook.
For all I love this campus and love studying, I've come to realize with each weekend that consists of my friends going home, I miss my own home. I miss my cats, my dog, my horse. If I had a car up here, I absolutely would've gone home this weekend. I had planned on doing that even when I couldn't bring my car up (the brakes died two days before I left for school), but it takes two days to get home cheaply and I don't have the money to fly. Two days to get home and two days to come back means I'd be spending more time in Union Station in Chicago or on a bus than I would be at home, which rather defeats the point. So, next semester, I'm absolutely bringing my car up so I have a chance to go home.
20 September 2010
I should be starting those papers, but...
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| Courtesy of Kate Sexton |
Something I completely failed to mention Saturday is that I was in a parade! Members of the equestrian club marched in the Festival of the Forks parade. The Festival of the Forks refers to the fact that the Kalamazoo River forks in Albion. Beyond that, I don't know why they celebrate this fact, but it was a fun time. Last weekend (not this just past, but the weekend before), Greer, Alyssa, Kate, and I watched Monty Python and The Holy Grail. Naturally, that gave us clever girls (I think Greer gets most of the credit) the idea of getting coconuts and banging them together while marching in the parade, since we weren't bringing actual horses. It was fun. I'm glad we did it, though carving out coconuts is a tedious task. I think we were quite the hit, because we got our picture in the Jackson Citizen Patriot. I tried to find the picture online so I could post a link to the article here, but apparently it only exists in print. Sorry.
The other thing I didn't say is that I have a job. I'm going to be tutoring at the local elementary/middle/high school. I went to the first training session yesterday, and I'm supposed to start sometime this week. I'm both looking forward to it and feeling a little nervous. High School--real high school--is new to me. It will be good to have money again, though, especially with all the show clothes I still need.
Now I really need to get off the computer and do homework. I'll do my best to report on my very long Tuesday tomorrow.
18 September 2010
The side effects of a social life
Well, so much for writing every day. However, I feel I should mention that the day to day details are rather tedious, because it's a lot of the same. Still, it's been too long. The problem is that ever since I found out that Kate, Greer, and Alyssa live two floors below me, my evenings have been spent chilling with the ladies until much too late at night. Outside of that, I'm doing homework, class, and I joined the dance club. So, yeah, things are a little crazy.
Anyway, enough with the excuses. Life is good here in Michigan. Fall has struck. Leaves are changing color and dropping. The wind has that clean Fall bite to it, and the weather keeps fluctuating between too warm and chilly. You'll hear no complaints from me, though. This is my favorite kind of weather. It's perfect for riding and makes me miss my pony.
This week was the second week of lessons. I haven't rode the same horse twice yet which makes sense, because Danielle, the coach of the Dressage Team, is seeing how I do when on different horses. So far, I don't have a favorite. I'm unlearning a lot of the hunter tricks that I was taught the first several years of my riding career and relearning how to put my leg on correctly and sit right. It feels weird, but I'm not getting the back pains that I used to get, so I must be doing something right.
Classes are good. I have three papers due on Friday. Yikes! One of them is for philosophy and has an eight page minimum. I'm supposed to take the public policy theory that this guy Ellis takes 200-pages to tell you is impossible to do in our current government and then apply it to a different public policy. I've decided to write about the child-killings that have been occurring on Daytona Beach. It's this place where cars are allowed to drive on the actual beach, and despite that there have been an increase of children hit and killed by the cars, the city has decided to keep the beach open to autos because of the tradition it stands for. It's an interesting article, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have trouble lengthening it into eight pages. I haven't written anything that long in my entire college career. If you have any advice, pass it on, please.
The first Dressage show is the 16-17 of October over at Michigan State University. I think I'm excited. For those of you who know me, you'll understand my confusion. For my newer readers or those who just don't know me as well, I have a hard time showing emotions and on the rare occasion that they do show up, I don't usually recognize them. I say "I think I'm excited" mostly because I figure that a normal person would be excited for their first show. Anyway, yeah, first show in a couple weeks.
I went to a rodeo last weekend. The equus club was going and I wasn't going to go, but I was drawn into it by the ladies. I'm not a fan of rodeos. Oh, I like barrel racing and reining, but I'm not a huge fan of the rest of it. My mom rubbed that off on me. Beyond that, though, I'm also not a fan of rodeos because despite that they claim that they are not affiliated with any political party, you walk in as a moderate or democrat and you feel like you've just crossed into no man's land. Needless to say, it was a little uncomfortable, but it was fun chillin' with the ladies.
Then last night I was met with my first opportunity to play drinking games. Sorry to disappoint some of you, but I turned down the chance. For one, I was getting motion sickness just from walking around. For two, I'm just not the drinking game sort. For all you How I Met Your Mother fans out there, there's that one episode where Marshall and Lily decide to be mature and have a wine tasting while Barney and Ted go out to a club with Robin. Well, I would be the "boring" people sitting on the couch waiting for the wine to breath and playing trivial pursuit. So, don't expect any wild stories, though I promise that if there ever is a wild story to tell, I will blog it. Instead, I chilled with Kate, spending the time I should have been writing down Sam (R)'s birthday present talking about my stories. Basically, I've gained another fan before I've even had anything published. My books better live up to all your expectations or I'll feel pretty dumb.
In a little bit, I'll be off to go design T-shirts for the equus club to sell at our barn shows, then we're tie-dying the club shirts. I helped design the logo for this year! I'm not the artist though. I can draw, but this girl Megan is incredible, so her design won but we paired it with my idea. I'll take a picture when I get my shirt.
And there you have it. I'm all caught up. I'll try to do better about writing more often, but no promises. I have four papers and a presentation due in the next two weeks, plus these stories I'm working on outside of my novel and planning the outline of the Loft class I want to teach next Summer. Plus, there's this whole problem about having a social life! *sigh* Things were so much simpler when I was an anti-social study freak. (That would be sarcasm, btw.)
Anyway, enough with the excuses. Life is good here in Michigan. Fall has struck. Leaves are changing color and dropping. The wind has that clean Fall bite to it, and the weather keeps fluctuating between too warm and chilly. You'll hear no complaints from me, though. This is my favorite kind of weather. It's perfect for riding and makes me miss my pony.
This week was the second week of lessons. I haven't rode the same horse twice yet which makes sense, because Danielle, the coach of the Dressage Team, is seeing how I do when on different horses. So far, I don't have a favorite. I'm unlearning a lot of the hunter tricks that I was taught the first several years of my riding career and relearning how to put my leg on correctly and sit right. It feels weird, but I'm not getting the back pains that I used to get, so I must be doing something right.
Classes are good. I have three papers due on Friday. Yikes! One of them is for philosophy and has an eight page minimum. I'm supposed to take the public policy theory that this guy Ellis takes 200-pages to tell you is impossible to do in our current government and then apply it to a different public policy. I've decided to write about the child-killings that have been occurring on Daytona Beach. It's this place where cars are allowed to drive on the actual beach, and despite that there have been an increase of children hit and killed by the cars, the city has decided to keep the beach open to autos because of the tradition it stands for. It's an interesting article, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have trouble lengthening it into eight pages. I haven't written anything that long in my entire college career. If you have any advice, pass it on, please.
The first Dressage show is the 16-17 of October over at Michigan State University. I think I'm excited. For those of you who know me, you'll understand my confusion. For my newer readers or those who just don't know me as well, I have a hard time showing emotions and on the rare occasion that they do show up, I don't usually recognize them. I say "I think I'm excited" mostly because I figure that a normal person would be excited for their first show. Anyway, yeah, first show in a couple weeks.
I went to a rodeo last weekend. The equus club was going and I wasn't going to go, but I was drawn into it by the ladies. I'm not a fan of rodeos. Oh, I like barrel racing and reining, but I'm not a huge fan of the rest of it. My mom rubbed that off on me. Beyond that, though, I'm also not a fan of rodeos because despite that they claim that they are not affiliated with any political party, you walk in as a moderate or democrat and you feel like you've just crossed into no man's land. Needless to say, it was a little uncomfortable, but it was fun chillin' with the ladies.
Then last night I was met with my first opportunity to play drinking games. Sorry to disappoint some of you, but I turned down the chance. For one, I was getting motion sickness just from walking around. For two, I'm just not the drinking game sort. For all you How I Met Your Mother fans out there, there's that one episode where Marshall and Lily decide to be mature and have a wine tasting while Barney and Ted go out to a club with Robin. Well, I would be the "boring" people sitting on the couch waiting for the wine to breath and playing trivial pursuit. So, don't expect any wild stories, though I promise that if there ever is a wild story to tell, I will blog it. Instead, I chilled with Kate, spending the time I should have been writing down Sam (R)'s birthday present talking about my stories. Basically, I've gained another fan before I've even had anything published. My books better live up to all your expectations or I'll feel pretty dumb.
In a little bit, I'll be off to go design T-shirts for the equus club to sell at our barn shows, then we're tie-dying the club shirts. I helped design the logo for this year! I'm not the artist though. I can draw, but this girl Megan is incredible, so her design won but we paired it with my idea. I'll take a picture when I get my shirt.
And there you have it. I'm all caught up. I'll try to do better about writing more often, but no promises. I have four papers and a presentation due in the next two weeks, plus these stories I'm working on outside of my novel and planning the outline of the Loft class I want to teach next Summer. Plus, there's this whole problem about having a social life! *sigh* Things were so much simpler when I was an anti-social study freak. (That would be sarcasm, btw.)
07 September 2010
A Horse Named Petoskey
Today I had my first riding lesson and it was the day that I found out for sure whether I made the team or not. As of last night, I still hadn't heard anything and was beginning to tell myself, "Well, I didn't make the team . . . guess this means I don't have to spend $400 on show clothes!" Despite my up-beat, always-a-silver-lining attitude, I was feeling both worried and disappointed. I have never not made a sport I tried out for. And for all that I love Albion just as a school, the whole reason I came here was to compete on the equestrian team. So, what would happen if I didn't make it?
Well, my alarm went off at 6 a.m. this morning. I rose only long enough to turn it off before rolling over and sleeping for the next half hour before the second alarm sounded. This past weekend had not been especially productive. I spent the whole time in my room watching t.v. shows. I didn't start doing homework or laundery until Monday. This meant that despite my goal to be in bed early last night, I didn't get to sleep until around 2 a.m.. Ouch. Nonetheless, I was excited when I finally did pull myself out of bed and got ready for my lesson. Excited and a bit apprehensive.
I ran into Greer in the cafeteria when I slipped in with the first batch of much-too-awake early birds. We sat together and talked of classes while we waited for the food to take effect and our brains to wake up. Greer is one of the people in my Tuesday lessons, but I hitched a ride from campus security to the barn. That early in the morning, I guess the campus police don't have much to do, because my ride was waiting out front of the dining hall exactly when I asked to be picked up. I arrived at the barn with plenty of time to spare.
The first thing I did was locate the white board that told me what horse I was riding. Petoskey. Not a horse I was familiar with, but I've never met a horse I didn't like, so I was excited to meet this gelding. Next, I obediantly checked the card on his grooming box to find out if there were any specific instructions I had to follow when dealing with him. There weren't. Now, since I still had a little time before I needed to start getting tacked up, I went in search of Danielle to ask her whether the teams had been picked and the riders informed. As I passed the huge bulletin board outside of the indoor arena on my way to find Danielle, the word "congratulations" caught my eye:
Congratulations to the 2010-2011 Dressage Team!
Second Level
Kjirsten Sneed
Nicole Howey
First Level
Greer Clemons
Johnna Serydynski
Training Level
Alyssa Olsen
Sarah Morris
Introductory Level
Samantha Green
Nora Cox
That's right, peoples. I made the team.
Well, my alarm went off at 6 a.m. this morning. I rose only long enough to turn it off before rolling over and sleeping for the next half hour before the second alarm sounded. This past weekend had not been especially productive. I spent the whole time in my room watching t.v. shows. I didn't start doing homework or laundery until Monday. This meant that despite my goal to be in bed early last night, I didn't get to sleep until around 2 a.m.. Ouch. Nonetheless, I was excited when I finally did pull myself out of bed and got ready for my lesson. Excited and a bit apprehensive.
I ran into Greer in the cafeteria when I slipped in with the first batch of much-too-awake early birds. We sat together and talked of classes while we waited for the food to take effect and our brains to wake up. Greer is one of the people in my Tuesday lessons, but I hitched a ride from campus security to the barn. That early in the morning, I guess the campus police don't have much to do, because my ride was waiting out front of the dining hall exactly when I asked to be picked up. I arrived at the barn with plenty of time to spare.
The first thing I did was locate the white board that told me what horse I was riding. Petoskey. Not a horse I was familiar with, but I've never met a horse I didn't like, so I was excited to meet this gelding. Next, I obediantly checked the card on his grooming box to find out if there were any specific instructions I had to follow when dealing with him. There weren't. Now, since I still had a little time before I needed to start getting tacked up, I went in search of Danielle to ask her whether the teams had been picked and the riders informed. As I passed the huge bulletin board outside of the indoor arena on my way to find Danielle, the word "congratulations" caught my eye:
Congratulations to the 2010-2011 Dressage Team!
Second Level
Kjirsten Sneed
Nicole Howey
First Level
Greer Clemons
Johnna Serydynski
Training Level
Alyssa Olsen
Sarah Morris
Introductory Level
Samantha Green
Nora Cox
That's right, peoples. I made the team.
03 September 2010
No news
It's Friday. Alyssa and Kate both told me that I'd know whether I made the team or not today, but it's 12:45 and there is still no word. I'm not worried. I'm not disappointed. Just because Alyssa thought they had to have to roster for the teams turned in by tonight, doesn't mean she was right. It also doesn't mean that I didn't make the team, if she was correct. There's plenty of reasons why Danielle didn't notify people tonight. So, life goes on, and the long weekend is here. I have my dorm to myself, because Alesha and Edwin went home for the weekend. Tomorrow is a new day. I've got a new Faulkner story to read, as well as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. There's plenty to keep me occupied while I await the verdict of Thursday's tests. And when I know, no matter what the news is, you will be one of the first to know.
On a separate note, I was assigned my horseback riding lesson times today. I'm riding Tuesdays from 8-9 (and that would be a.m. . . .) and Wednesdays 4-5. Look out sore muscles and sleepy class days, here I come!
On a separate note, I was assigned my horseback riding lesson times today. I'm riding Tuesdays from 8-9 (and that would be a.m. . . .) and Wednesdays 4-5. Look out sore muscles and sleepy class days, here I come!
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