It's heeerrreeeee....

The beginning of the show season is equal parts awesome and terrifying. Kind of the equivalent of heading up that first hill on a roller coaster, knowing that you're about to drop so hard and fast that your stomach will take up a new location in your mouth. (Probably that's not the best example for someone like me to use. I only ride the little kid coasters, and only when forced, but you get what I'm saying.)

The first show is pretty much just knocking the rust off. Figuring out what we all forgot over the winter break, what the new pairings look like, who I have to have a mock beatdown with because they no longer know what a canter lead is, stuff like that. I'm lucky this year in that I have 3 pairs of kids/horses (or ponies) that are standard issue at this point. We're 3 seasons in, they know the game, and it's going to be months of really polishing everything up so that we can rock out at medal finals. The other 2 pairs just need some miles, so by mid-season they'll really be set and hopefully will qualify for finals as well.

We were lucky in some respects that the season started with three weekends of back-to-back showing. It's super exhausting to do it this way, but the kids really benefit from the consistent ring time. When we're showing every 3 weeks or so, they tend to forget a little bit about what they're supposed to do when it comes time to horse show. That said, I don't recommend coming down with the flu between week 2 and week 3 if you're taking 10 horses to the week 3 show. Thankfully I can occasionally function lower than 100% since I have Shelly to back me up (and vice versa), but it wasn't a pretty week. The kids made all my suffering worthwhile though, they came home with some serious ribbons in some HUGE classes.

And now we have a weekend off, which I plan to spend about as far out of the barn as one can get. Time for a little Broadway, family time, and old friends (who may or may not be horse people as well. You can take the girl out of the barn, and all that...)

Work is lame. Youtube is fun.

Literally just sitting at my desk until 4:30. No one cares anymore, they're putting up a wall outside my office window so it's loud as crap and nothing on my desk has a due date. Youtube videos are my saviors right now, particularly these:

Because Colin Donnell is pretty:

Because Laura Osnes may be the most worthwhile winner of a reality show that no one ever saw (seriously, only my mother and I watched it, and mostly we just watched to make fun of how bad Andrew Lloyd Weber looks):

And because Lin-Manuel Miranda is a genius:

Luck

One of our long-time clients (who has known me for about 15 years now) looked at me on Saturday, asked about Dundy, and then summed up the last couple weeks with this simple sentence: "Ellen, you have the worst luck."

It's true. Although I have hit the lottery in so many aspects (jobs, friends, family), it would appear that the balance has to be kept by ill/injured ponies (and a non-existent romantic life, but that's a story for a different day).

And as most have probably gathered from my Facebook of late, Dundy has been proving that concept in his own special fashion by needing surgery for an esophageal obstruction. Thanks to his actual owner (aka my boss), our amazing vet, and a top-notch clinic in VA, he is well on his way back to normal. I'm not going to lie to you though, it was a pretty shit-tastic week, as he was walking a pretty thin line between "going to be okay" and "will probably die." I spent the better part of it being of absolutely no help to anyone, as I was pretty much either crying or trying not to cry (not the person you all want in an emergency AT ALL), but thankfully Shelly is amazing in a crisis so she makes up for my level of crazy.

We are now on week 3 post-surgery, and life is slowly returning to normal. We have 6 weeks of rehab (for lack of a better term) and some long-term maintenance issues, but I'm riding him a little and he's feeling well enough to drive us all mental. I had been looking forward to really competing this spring (the day he came home from surgery was the day our entries were to be sent in for our first show), but obviously all those plans are on the back burner. We'll shoot for the fall after the kids' schedule settles down, and hope for a different sort of luck at that point.

Not so wintery winter

I look forward to winter. Not in the sense that I enjoy cold or snow (I hate both), but in the sense that I get a break for at least a few weeks since we don't have an indoor at the farm. Kind of like teachers look forward to summer vacation, I look forward to January and cold weather.

My brain and body needs a vacation in January/February and then again at the end of August. (It won't get the August break this year either since my cousin is getting married over Labor Day. Warning everyone now...) While we have dialed it back a few notches at the farm so that our lesson horses get a vacation, the boarders and active horse show-ers are still at full speed.

And I am tired. Like," I didn't realize how important this break was until I didn't get it and now I'm constantly irritated by everyone and everything and I feel like I'm dialing it in at both jobs" tired.

So this week I will not be at the farm at all, regardless of the fact that it will be in the 60s and sunny. I am giving my brain a brief chance to chill out in the evenings after I get done at the office, catch up on Downton Abbey, and possibly get a few extra hours of sleep. I will clean my apartment, go to the Visionary Arts museum, and maybe break my diet long enough to have a drink with friends.

And of course, I already miss being at the farm. Such is my life.

Teenyboppers on Broadway

We went and saw Darren Criss (from "Glee") in "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" on Saturday. When they announced the casting, I convinced my mother to buy tickets right away, which was good, we had fabulous seats on an aisle so my poor 6' father could stretch his legs. (Side note: most of these old theaters were not meant for tall people to attend shows. The worst was the time we saw Finian's Rainbow at the St. James - lots and lots of ridiculously tall Irish people crammed into tiny seats and absolutely no room between rows.)

I clearly misjudged what was going to happen that night. First off, the line wrapped around the block just to get IN. It was crazy enough that people were stopping to ask what was going on. And they didn't open the doors until almost quarter till, so it was a mad rush to get in, use the bathroom, and get to your seat before curtain. The theater was packed with 2 types of people: teenage girls (there for Darren, obviously) and their parents, who were all super excited to see Beau Bridges. When Darren Criss appeared on stage it was like I'd gone back to 2000 and was seeing an NSYNC concert again. Every time he said or did anything remotely funny, the entire theater would go ape-shit. Thankfully my parents and Kate found that almost as amusing as the actual show, so everyone was entertained.

It was pretty much the perfect part for Darren to play, although a couple times I wished he had more of a musical theater-type voice, as he tended to be too quiet in some of the group numbers, especially when there was dancing involved. The real show stealer was Christopher Hanke, who played the "villain." Every single thing he said or did was absolutely spot-on perfect. The only time I ever saw Daniel Radcliffe play the part was on Thanksgiving before the Macy's parade started, so I really didn't have a gauge on how much better or worse things were, and of course everything online is so skewed depending on whether they're a Harry Potter fan or a Glee fan, so it's easier to just take it for what it is in front of you.

I had also intended to go to the stage door, but as everyone can see from the photos I put on Facebook, there was no freaking way that was happening. There was police tape everywhere, and girls were climbing trees in order to get a better view. Absolutely nuts. I think I prefer it when the actors are just "Broadway famous", but it was still a fun night.

Apartment living

So as some of you know, I rent an apartment in a lovely section of town referred to as "Paradise." This might be true in some respects, but my apartment is trying very hard to make things less "paradise" and more "structured learning environment." Since moving in, we've covered the following topics:

1. What gas smells like. Fixing this led me to also learn about shut-off valves, seeing as how my gas line didn't have one. My new stove spent a good few days sitting in the middle of my kitchen (no small feat, it's a galley kitchen on its best days) since apparently Home Depot cannot install a new stove unless there's a shut-off valve.

2. How to patch cracks in the paint. They're everywhere. I'm hoping to paint the entire place this spring. 

3. Which mouse traps work (only the old-school ones where you can see the dead mouse). Also, it's useful to go around and try to fill in every single tiny hole in your apartment walls and cabinets (around the water pipe under the sink appears to be the favorite for the mice in my neighborhood). Also, mice are apparently allergic to peppermint. Not allergic enough to keep them out permanently, but it did deter them for a couple days.

4. How to deal with roaches. Yes, really. Thanks sketchy neighbors! This also taught me interpersonal skills relating to dealing with not only the people downstairs, but also the houses on either side of us who also have bugs. I just set traps out again this week, I think they're coming upstairs to get warm since I'm the only one living in the house right now. Funny how my neighbors were supposed to have an exterminator in months ago...

5. Those little battery-operated lights are quite useful when your neighbors stop paying their BGE bill and their power is shut off. This is only applicable when your front porch and hall lights are attached to their meter. It's so much easier (and safer) to be able to see where your locks are.

That said, I do adore my little apartment. It's cute, (very) cheap, and close to both jobs, which is really all I need. Also, my landlord loves me. Something about how I pay my rent on time makes me the favorite even though I'm high maintenance... ;)