welcome to my horsey kingdom of internet delights?

THE BIG BLOG NEWS!

i'm going to share this with people, GASP!

I want to be able to show everyone what i'm doing when i'm doing it on my trip. mostly so everyone will be super jealous of my serious dream chasing/vacation times (where i just happen to be gone for most of february. sorry walt)

Anyway, I would like to officially welcome you, if you are reading this, and update this with the info necessary:

On the 3rd, I am leaving for Costa Rica to ride/relax/ride with the Carter family. It's something i've wanted to do and have been meaning to do for quite some time.
Then, in the 15th, we are all going to go to Guatemala for a horse show, where we will meet up with Other parts of the family and generally we will all kick some serious butt (i read fortunes did you not know?)
Now I am finally going down, thanks to my two wonderful jobs and my amazing boss' who are, however begrudgingly, encouraging this crazy trip.

(and also the never-taken-for-granted support of momma j, daddy dave, warrior princess, and of course; h. gold)

SO. here I go. My goals are:
**to do better than last year, aka: prove that i really can ride
**make my trainer, Amy, super proud of me and not let all her hours of ring time go to waste. (make everyone proud of me )
**NOT fall off.
**have loads of fun (i can't wait to see the kids!)
**soak up tons of vitamin D

See, every horse show/ stressful and exciting horsey thing i've ever done, my mom has made me make three goals. one seemingly super easy, one as a goal i can almost certainly achieve and one that wa always "have fun!"

anyway, i'm going to miss kittens and admiral, as well as some people. but i really, just can't wait.

this is my picture from last year:

pretty ok, but sloppy reins, thrown upper body, and loose leg. (super grumpy horse that bucked the whole first course) But this year... it'll be better!

cross my heart and hope not to die.

food

it's a family trait that we describe our trips by the food we eat first and foremost and what we do as an afterthought.

it is on this premise that i am putting together a super delicious dinner date for h. (we have a new dining room table, plus rug which is perfect for a super tasty/amazingly romantic dinner in our very own house!

the menu:

butternut squash soup with whit and sweet potato croutons






followed by crepes!
i think a savory one with sauteed kale, fresh parmesan chunks, onions and garlic.

followed by the classic nutella crepe. i have to look and see what else i can put in them... hmmmmm

yum yum yum.

of course i'll take pictures of the ones i make, which will of course look far more scrumptious.

and be so tasty its rediculous.

i'm going to make h. pick up some wine on the way home for the finishing touch on the meal. (i promised myself i would not leave the house today, it's my day off, and i'm feeling under the weather so i feel it's completely justified.)

oh dear i can't wait for dinner.

I love planet earth. and many other things too.

I mostly love watching tv with my housemates. there are few things more hysterical.

Anyway, the reason i wanted to post this one was because many exciting things have happened.... one my mom got me the most amazing trunk which has made it's way to the foot of my bed.
(notice the amazing floor that is no longer covered in stained stinky teal carpet.

Also. I've been eating some super nice food lately:

such as this brooklyn feast when visiting h's friends from school this weekend.

 

the above chairs were down the street from this amazing little brunch spot we went to that i would highly recommend called EGG. you should probably go and eat yummy food. BUT i mostly wanted to steal these chairs. i think they are just amazing.

we had an amazing time seeing old friends, eating far too many (who am i kidding, just the right amount) of cupcakes of which i didn't take any photos of cause they were not in my possession when my camera was around. though i tried. and then there were cupcakes in my belly. whoops.

I also spent a lot of time both making fun of and admiring peoples choice in clothing.

it was fun. and relaxing. but right now i am conning my immune system into fending off this horrible feeling of sick that i feel coming on.

UGG!

(but those chairs............)

going to new york....

has always always always been occasion to dress up, and this is no different.
h and i are going to be glamorous. with a capitol G. let's try it again:
G.Lamorous. fo. sho.

and maybe someday soon i will break the barrior and post a photo of how we looked. but probably not :) sorry!

from the broken camera...

comes new life.

lets take it as a blessing BECAUSE when i went to get a cheap canon (far superior) replacement for my stupid-never-trusty-now-broken- nikon i couldn't find the cheap one i wanted, and ende up finding a miss-priced canon that is a whopping 12megapixels or wow power and LIFE IS DAMN GOOD.

i'll show you....

this is from today, when i stole a friend's dog, Odin, for some adventures at the barn.

oh boy did he go home tired and smelling like poop, but in the best way possible.

unrelated note:
my dad is a photographer, and i inherited his computer, and with it most of his photos from the digital age and those that were scanned on here before the hand-me-down-ness happened.
and as i was waiting for the above picture to load, i got thoroughly distracted by deleting all the unwanted photos. the ones of skelator look alike doctors and bankers and such, keeping all the best ones of course.

i deleted over 3,000 photos just now!
(don't worry, he has them all triple backed up thanks to me)

3 bloody thousand!
geez.
and i still have over 5000 left on here. pretty impressive. but the moral of the story is that with all the photos on this here computer, i could make myself a pretty convincing portfolio for modeling, heh heh, whatdya think?

loads of beach shots, glamor shots, business shots, commercial shots, gala shots, party shots, gallery opening shots, famous people shots... strolling down the street in NY NY the city so big they named it twice shots.... man. i'm pretty famous as far as this computer is concerned.

and man oh man does my life look glamorous.
well, i guess it kind of is. i mean, i do ride horses and have a famous dad after all!

wanted

are things.
i want a snazzy camera that will take amazing pictures and not break when i leave it unattended for 15 minutes.
and something i have not found yet but would pay love, affection and money for:

this jacket or one similare. aka faux. warm. long enough so it's not a stupid belly jacket.

cause my herringbone jacket is falling apart, despite my best attempts at making it stay together with patches and love.

HELP!

fortunate events:

I'M GOING BACK TO GUATEMALA!

So the story goes as follows: Last year around this time (i can't believe it's only been a year) Iw as working at this riding facility, teaching lessons, training horses, attempting to manage the chaos that was... and loved the work, but hated the job, with a fiery passion that would have rivaled the seven levels of hell. While subbing for one of the other instructors, I had the immense pleasure of meeting a very shy but talented little girl named julia and her mom. I was asked if I wanted to accomany Julia to Guatemala for a horse show..An F.E.I (International Equine Federation) CSI* rated show.. and that was the beginning.

so what happened you ask?

well, i thought about it, desired a vacation, and agreed. Everything got worked out, I rode a million horses, organized a jumper clinic, and then was asked to not come back to my job after I got back. (which was both a blessing and a curse... I am so much happier now, I learned alot, but I miss my students, sometimes, and only a few of them)

Anyway. I ended up getting sick the week before we went, and couldn't ride (cause of course i still had to work my 60 hours a week) and lost all my leg strength and stamina.

However, the stress of my job lifted paired with the warm weather and vitamin D healed more than I could have ever asked for, Julia and I had sososososo much fun riding and spending time with her costa rican friends. Although i rode horribly (embarrassingly so), I came home with a ribbon and a trophy in the 1 meter division (yeah out of 50 riders! in my first international/rated competition) and  a family who i had fallen in love with.

not that i told them that, because that might be conceived as weird or something along those lines.

So. I've been in touch with the Aunt and Grandmother of Julia. Beth, Julia's aunt is an f.e.i. judge and travels all over the world judging jumper shows (what a job) and they have a facility in Costa Rica. So when I was asked if I would like to visit them/ come down and ride, OF COURSE i wanted to go. What an amazing opportunity.

so i'm going! first to spend time with them in Costa Rica, and then go to the horse show in Guatemala, where we will meet up with julia and a parental unit of hers.

just to boot, if i get super super lucky, h. will come down as well. which would be a perfect ending to a wonderful trip.

the best part besides the actual trip... my jobs has given me their blessings, so when i come back sunburnt and happy as a clam, I will still have my jobs!

yeah for amazing people in my life.

i am so lucky
(ps i tried to post photos... but they failed.)

promises...

because thats what you do when it's the new year.

but i try and peridicly do it anyway, and make promises to myself of the things that i will do to make me and the people around me happier.

recently h and i have been doing it together.... telling each other what we are going to try so so hard to do, so that we can be accountable to someone besides ourselves. i think it's working.

but right now i need to write these things down as they are super important for how i am going to move through the world, to the best of my ability, for as long as i can muster.

without further adieu...

•  i will be more active and train so that i can feel better about the way i move through the world and so i can give my all to each horse i ride.
• i will be grateful for all the amazing people in my life, and all the things they contribute to it.
• i will be thankful for work and how much closer i get to my dreams every day because of work.
• i will move with more purpose. i will try and use yoga and pilates and bellydance to open my body and soul to it's potentials.
• i will adventure with those i love.
  

all the little things i want to do fit into those catagories. for instince: there is one of the most amazing people i've ever met, who is a huge and important part of my life, who is a completely beautiful person, who radiates warmth and love, who can adapt to most any situation, who has the singular ability to make me emerge from grumpdom, who can make the weather change, who people uncontrollable fall in love with (i'm one of those people), and who always seems to know the right thing to say. and i want to shower this incredible person with all the love i can and make them as happy as i can, and realize that they always have the best of intentions.

this is ryley. she is the cutest kitten i've ever met. her brother is the nicest kitten i've ever met.
together, they make me a super lucky kitten momma.


ok. so some other items of importance...

since i wrote about wheat intake, i've been trying to do a super good job of not eating wheat in large amounts. and it's been working, i think for two reasons. 1-it's the act of being thoughtful about what i put into my body and making sure i have enough of everything. and i've been making more food and eating more whole foods, like quinoa instead of pasta and rice instead of bread and brown rice pasta when i want to eat what everyone else is eating... or if h makes and amazing fake chorizzo sausage pasta sauce with a side of tofu cutlets topped with fresh mozzerella. oh geez, i'm getting hungry.

i've also been spreading out my meals, and eating smaller amounts throughout the day, and... well, i just started doing that bit. i only slipped up when the h.gold family come and we all went to the local taproom which just so happens to have the best mac and cheese on the planet, topped with swiss chard and marinated red onions, filled with melty cheese and feta cheese. it's a big huge bowl of perfect. and i ate a whole one with a really nice beer, a winter warmer. oh was it good.

OH the other reason this whole deal has been working 2- i really do think i have a little wee bit of a wheat issue of some kind.

here is the crazy part of what's been happening: i can wake up straight away.... no grumpmonster. i've been waking up in the middle of the night to pee, or h wakes me by talking in her sleep, or whatever, and as previously stated.... i'm UP.
and can't go back to sleep. sleep happens after a while. then in the morning my body just wakes up! seriously? i'm the worst waker -uper in the world.
i've been able to choose to go back to sleep if i only slept a few hours cause of work, and then wake up again later and still feel great.

it's crazy. i don't know what to blame on this new change of events. but it's cool. i like not being grumpy and having loads of energy in the morning with coffee as an option instead of a necessity.

but i could do without the sleepless nights. i'm hoping that doing more athletic and physical activities every day will help with that.

SO. that's been alot of blathering on about things. i think it's time to do a project... maybe some sewing of the projects that have made a mountain near my sewing machine. or maybe i'll do laundry. or both! oh how domestic this afternoon will be.

(will i be forgiven if i have one of these? ;)  )