crazy dream

Whoa did I have a crazy dream last night! I dreamt that D and had to go back to Rockville for some reason, overnight. We still had the key to our old apartment so we went there to spend the night. It was one of those panic dreams where for some reason this seemed like a good idea at one point, but then as we're in the apartment, which at this point looks the same, yet different. The lighting was odd, like we hadn't turned any lights on and it was dusk out, maybe autumn. It was cold. I started panicking inside. D wasn't concerned at all. I was like "WHAT if the people that live here COME HOME!?! We have to get OUT of here!!" And the next second the door opens and in walks this couple with both sets of their parents with them, carrying tons of packages and a bunch of logs. We're like "uh...we used to live here..." Shaking their hands, introducing ourselves. I'm mortified, "so sorry, dont' know what we were thinking, we'll be out of here in a minute"... The whole time these people are just looking at us like, ok, let them leave and it will be ok. The parents are content to let the couple deal with us freaks as they begin to stack logs next to the fireplace, and make a fire - on the hearth next to the fake gas firelogs. A real fire inside. (what the hell am I dreaming?!?) So I'm trying to get our gear together to get out of there, and D goes to take a shower! I'm like what are you DOING!? I go in the bathroom to rush him along and I can hear the people whispering. It was horrible. I don't actually remember leaving the place.

Wound UP!

D and I are really wound up about tonight's LOST. It's become a special treat night when a new episode is on. I'm making tandoori kabobs and turmeric rice. Maybe even have a few beers. (I haven't been drinking at all since I read alcohol can cut your fertility rate by 50%. Funny, it's the reason behind plenty of pregancies) Anyway - tonight's episode is "Journey" and apparently it goes into even more back stories, but the previews show a certain someone getting shot. But should we hate him, or feel sorry for him? He can be quite pathetic. I actually think Locke is the mental power behind everything. Some people said they thought Walt conjured up the Polar bear. But I think Locke did. He created the situation for Walt and his dad to bond. I'm already dreading later tonight when the show is over. It's that good.

Last night was the first night the handicapped children were there to participate in the Ride with Pride program. (I hate that name - it is so hokey) The evening was quite a work out. Eight kids divided into two one hour sessions. Each kid gets a horse with a leader and a person on either side to walk next to them. It's a full hour of walking around the ring with one arm up in the air holding onto a saddle making sure the child doesn't fall. Wipes you out. The kids though were great! So excited about it. The first little girl I helped with had no outward sign of illness. Her cerebellum though was growing into her spine, not contained in her cranium. She'd had it corrected though. She'd never riden before and she was just thrilled by it. They practice doing stretches, touching toes, reaching up to touch the horses ears, things like that to help strengthen them while they're in the saddle. Later they'll work on doing this while the horse is walking. The second child I helped with was a little boy that had a type of retardation that is not visible. He came across more autistic. He was great. Very excited. His brother who has the same condition was there as well. So the boy I was with kept saying over and over for an hour "there's my brother, right over there". But he'd also say things like "That is beautiful, yeah that's great!" to a girl wearing a stetson. Some of the other children had more severe problems, like a little girl that had bad Cerebal palsey. Very hard for her to sit up straight. But she loved walking around on the horses. I basically decided to do this to get more volunteer time in at the stable, not really thinking about what it would entail. But I'm really pleased I have. Like you always say or think, I've like to help out with some noble cause, but never have time to?

Something else that struck me, why do so many of these horrible illnesses seem to happen to the families that are the least able, at least financially, to deal with it? It's very sad.

GOOB Update: just heard another store in the mall put up a G.O.O.B. sign.

G.O.O.B

D and I had to walk through our Mall this weekend. We go there about twice a year. There is nothing there. It's slowly being overtaken by Dollar stores. It will soon be called "The Dollar Mall". It's a horrible, pathetic little mall. Most of the people walking thru look so sad or beaten down. Or odd looking. Lots of retired "walkers" as well. D and I had to go from one end of the mall to the other. We walked by a couple of business that were closing/going out of business. We started joking around about how those stores were closing just because it's what stores "do" here. He said something about we should open a store and just call it "Going Out of Business". Then it hit me...G.O.O.B. I started laughing and told him what I meant. People will ask, "Are you Going out of business?" " Why yes, yes we are!" "Hey Floyd, Mabel said she got a good deal on lawn fairy reflecting garden globes at G.O.O.B. Ya reckon we should go to G.O.O.B?" "Where'd you buy that?" "I got it at G.O.O.B!".

Realizing someone might have thought of this alread. I'll look into it.

Sidenote: Dannon yogurt does not stay "ok" when you forget and leave it in your backpack over the weekend and stick it back in the fridge to eat for lunch Monday. I mixed it up and had a huge mouthful when I looked down and saw green in the cup. Yum.

Know those pics I posted of the bright sunny days? It SNOWED here this weekend! All weekend! It's APRIL, and it's been 35 during the day. A balmy 45 today.

I've posted a few very fuzzy pics of some of the horses at the stable. I did it really quickly cuz it was so cold. I'll take more on a sunny day. I got to ride Sunday for an hour. Arena work with a new horse that needs some work before we can put clients on him. Walk, trot, walk, trot. My form sucks. I need some work.

This is Heidi. She's my favorite! She's half Clyde, half Arabian. She's so sweet and good tempered. And I love how HUGE she is. But they might not keep her past next year. She's getting a bit old and they don't want to work her too hard for too long. Oh, her boyfriend is Dexter. She looooves him. Whinies for him if he leaves.

Photo of the barn aisle. I haven't hung out in many barns, but this one needs some TLC.

These are the two new geldings. Joe is on the left and Red is on the right. I rode Joe this past weekend.

Fuzzy pic of Cappy. Cap has a funny mouth. He always sticks his tongue out.

Dexter. This is the palomino that spooked the other night. He's very social, he kept sticking his lips on the camera.

Fuzzy pic of Fancy. She's one of the ponies, she's half Mustang.

Too good to last...

The sunny summer like weather that is. 50 and rainy today, 50 and thunderstorms all weekend. Yuck. Looks like I'll have an excuse to stay in and finish painting our bathroom. Here's a few random thoughts, things going on in life....

Drove D's car to work today as he got the interior of the truck muddy. Love his XM. Wish I had it. "Sausalito Summer Nights" by Diner played on the way in. One of those songs I love, yet never hear. Total memory of summer vacations in the 70's.

We have a work shindig tonight. A Caribean themed Chef's Auction. Not sure how that works, but apparently lots of great food. Looking forward to it. Nice night to socialize with work people. Like them all..but one.

N is avoiding my calls after acting cagey. I think either she's preg, K is preg, or S is preg. I think someone's probably preg and they're afraid I'll crumble if they tell me.

If I get excited one more freaking Wed night for a new Lost episode only to find out it's a repeat I'll scream.

ER last night was lame. For no reason they had a small side story about a kid with glaucoma and showed his eyeball out of the socket for much longer than necesarry.

Sent out invites for a the next Girl Night. Invited a much bigger crowd this time since we can have it on the deck. Should be fun.

April would not come in last night when I called her. An hour later she shows up. She kept licking her lip. I pry open her mouth and she has a huge hunk of deer flesh caught in her tooth. How come I get to find all the gross things? Blech.

Can't wait for today to be over. Starting to look forward to St mornings at the barn.

Daffodils! God I love this camera. All I did was point and click.

Grape Hyacinth.

Forsythia.

I love the forsythia bushes that line our driveway. Especially now when they're in bloom.

April!

I wish this was animated so you could see how fast her tail was wagging. She loves sticking her head in logs and through high grass looking for bunnies.

Sunny day, looking down at our house from the top point of the property, by the garden.

View of the Ohio River from the top of our property. Pretty soon you won't see it for all of the leaves.

You can see where the garden is going, it's outlined at this point.

The two giant stumps D is removing from the "garden".

Ride With Pride evening

I've mentioned previously that I've started volunteering at the stable nearby. So far it's been a great gig. I'm really enjoying it. Being around horses again has felt pretty natural. I knew it was something I was good at as a kid/teenager, but it's been ages since I've done anything horsey, wasn't sure how I'd take to it again.

Last night was the orientation night for a 6 week program at the stables called "Ride with Pride". Horrible hokey name, but it's a good cause. 8 children with various handicaps have been chosen to take part. The idea is that horseback riding helps with muscle development, behavior skills, etc. The children weren't there last night, it was just an overview of what we're to do. Things like lead the horses, stand on either side of the child to help/hold them up. The people that are running it are an odd bunch, but I can't wait to see what it's like when the children are there next week. Most of them have cerebal palsey, and have done the program once. Apparently they showed huge advances from the program.

Toward the end of the evening D showed up. He stopped by to see the stables and see what I've been doing and tallking so much about. D is so not "horsey". To him horses are very large animals that can probably hurt you if they wanted to. But I was so happy he showed up and got to meet the girls I work with and the horses. After their workout the horses needed put out in the field for the night. One of the girls gave him a horse to lead out with me. He was a bit hesitant, but did great. Funny bit was right as we walk out of the stable, I was leading Dexter, a big palomino, a bat flew by and spooked him. He half reared up and kicked. It only lasted a second and I was perfectly fine, but I think it spooked D more than Dexter. The good thing about it was that it was another example of me being ok with the horses that the owner saw, hopefully giving me more crediblilty. Oh, except he did step on my foot and it hurts today. Need to get some boots.

Remembering October, 1988

The other night I watched a special on VHI about U2. I behind the scenes thing about their preparations for their upcoming tour. I'm so glad I watched it. The set is really cool, giant curtains of light strings that created images, big, round stage. Just seeing them interviewed, singing, playing, the story behind some of the songs on Atomic, made me rememeber why I like them so much. One thing that sucks about getting older and spending more time at work, dealing with family, having a house, life stress, keeping up with friends, kids...is that you lose touch with music. You (ok I) no longer have the time to devote to finding new bands, or keeping up with what's going on with bands I like. I've tried really hard this past year to buy a cd a month, just to hear some new stuff.

But back to U2, somehow I've managed to buy all their cd's, but I haven't been "excited" about them since high school. Now what I mean? Excited. Can't wait to listen to them over and over. (Bono is no longer cute, he's handsome,but on a day I think it looks like he bathed. I still think he's hot.) Junior year in high school a bunch of us saw the Joshua Tree tour. Bono had just broken his arm so it was in a cast for the concert. It was amazing. It was a stadium concert. Still stands out as one of the most memorable concerts of my life. (first kiss with D at a DMB show wins)

But the reason for all this yammering on..me, Kerri, Neeta and Sheryl all got tickets to see them again. This is most of the bunch that saw them in High School. At first I was like, "tickets are HOW much?!?" I'm paying for them in installments. No shit. We could have gotten cheaper seats, but certain people didn't want to get mashed in the masses, apparently we're older now, so we paid $180 bucks a ticket. (I have to quit thinking about it cuz I keep thinking of everything else I could have bought with that...) Kerri got all the tickets a few weeks ago, and the concert is in October. Very honest I was just like, ok great, we're going, that'll be really cool. But since I watched the VHI show about the build up to it, I'm actually really glad Kerri kept riding us about getting the tickets and I'm very, very excited about it. Maybe it's cuz she teaches college, but of all of us she's always been the one to keep up with music. BTW - the part I left out about the concert in high school is that even though I could have driven us, my dad rented a huge car and chauffered us all up there and hung out in the parking lot while we went in. When you're 17 this is so not cool. But looking back it was sweet. Especially when he wondering why those girls at the car next to him had to keep sharing their cig.

Ok - I could have just written this. I paid $180 bucks for U2 tickets that I initially wasn't thrilled about because I've gotten old and bitter about money, but by some miracle I've been able to rekindle that tiny flame of adolescence to realize listening to them play loud and live is going to be another life experiece we'll all remember again for a long time. And Bono is still cute.

Hitchhiker

I've never read "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". It seems most people have. I've always wanted to, it definitely sounds like something I'd enjoy, just never got around to it. Think I will soon though. I've seen the previews that it's been made into a movie. Apparently according to this guys review, a horribly bad movie. I guess it's also been a TV series/miniseries? Haven't seen them. The review makes the movie sound awful, (read "Spaceballs without meaning to be) even more so as he keeps going on and on about what a great, funny book it actually is. Won't be seeing the movie, will be reading the book.

Muskrat Love

yeah, yeah, I know, said I was going to post pics...soon....

In the meantime, good wildlife story, brought to you by Captain and Tenile:

Since I got home on time for once, and had the house to myself, went for a long walk with Grape Ape. Decided to check out the pond in the woods. The spring peepers have started making noise at night so thought I might see a few frogs, probably a turtle.

You have to sneak up on it or everything hides. As I got closer there was a Mallard duck couple. Haven't seen ducks there before. I love Mallards, they mate for life. But they were nervous and kept swimming to the far side to stay away from me. I bet they had a nest nearby, and I was giving them a heart attack. So slowly walked around the pond. No frogs, no turtles. April is walking ahead of me. At the far side of the pond a hear a big "ploP!". Looked up just in time to see a muskrat swim away into the middle of the pond and do a back flip to kick underwater. Very cool. He must have a nest around as well. Haven't seen him here before. Now I'll have to be even sneakier to get a glimpse of him, and maybe take a pic.

Catchup

This is what happens when one post goes wrong....last Thursday I wrote a lovely long post about my three day trip to DC. And then lost it when I hit "publish". I thought I had outsmarted this problem by writing my posts in Word, then C&P into this editor. But I thought I was safe when I hit "publish" and promptly closed the Word file.

So disgusted I haven't felt like saying anything, and lots has happened. So I'll briefly mention what's up in my life right now.

Last Week in DC
In for a Photoshop conference. It was great, learned loads. Good to get away from your own habits and see what others have learned. It was gorgeous weather, Cherry Blossoms were out. Had lunch with my former CD which was great, hadn't seen him in over a year. Just being in the city felt great, busy, lots of people, sounds, smells, riding the metro, etc, etc. All so nice to be back in. To top it off got to stay with my friend G and her baby girl. Her husband was out of town so we got in some great girl talk time. Hated to leave, made me miss it all.

Last Weekend
Became the exact opposite of my time in DC. It was finally warm/hot/sunny spring weather here. All the flowers were out, daffodils, forsythia, lots of yellow. Tons of birds going crazy singing. We spent the entire weekend outside trying to create a garden out of a field. It's going to take forever, but it felt great being outside, the dog running around, sun shining down, diggin in the dirt, knowing we owned all the land we looked around at. This weather, this is the time of year when I love where we live and I feel I'd never want to live in the city.

Volunteering
Last weekend I also started my volunteering. Sat & Sun morning I worked 3-4 hours. Sat. was spent mainly being checked out on things like brushing down the horses, feeding, tacking up, etc. So they know I know how to do it correctly, Passed. Then got to help out with a pony ride. Walking the two ponies around the arena for two small brothers. This was great. One of the little boys was autistic and he loved it! His other brother was actually very timid and quiet, but I really enjoyed helping them get to experience horses. Sunday, did more of the same, pitch out stalls, blah, blah. But I got to ride. The first time we had to walk way out in the field to bring in the two horses we were riding on the trail. One of which is my favorite, Heidi. She's half Clydesdale, and HUGE. She stepped on my foot when I was cleaning her hooves, ouch! Anyways, she doesn't want to come in. We manage to clip both horses onto lead ropes, and the owner looks at me and says, 'you ride right? Let's just ride them back up'. Bareback, halter, lead rope. I love riding bareback, but I haven't done this in years! (Holy shit, I'm thinking) AND I want to look good in front of the owner. I remembered neck reining, using your legs to steer, so I did fine. But I had clipped the other horse, Cappy, who was really skinny and bony, which means I'm still sore. But later I did get to ride Heidi out on a long trail. Had a great time. I'm hoping they let me lead trail rides this summer.

Now
This week has been busy: getting taxes out, had a freelance job to do, working on the garden. Plus D is out of town for a few days. Also trying to finish my bookclub book by this Sunday. Yes - this month's book is the DaVinci Code. I am finally reading it. So far it's just really interesting fiction. Fast paced like everyone said. Something I'm glad I did was that I bought the illustrated version. This has photos of the places and artwork mentioned in the book. It's very helpful. I'm not thinking it will be a life changing read, but I think it'll lead to a good bookclub discussion.

Ok - there. Up to date. Now I'll post a few pics.

One Wacky Wedding

D and I went to a wedding this past Saturday for one of his college buddies. It was hands down the craziest wedding I’ve been to. It was also a lot of fun!

To start, I don’t know why they had the wedding in early April, because it’s still gloomy here, nothing green is up by then. They had planned an outdoor wedding, and it just poured the day before and the morning of the wedding. I felt so bad for them. The wedding was then moved inside the White Palace. This is a huge old building in the middle of one of our parks that a long time ago used to have dances and summer balls. Now it’s where a lot of wedding receptions occur. The wedding was on the first floor, which has a small dance floor area. It was actually decorated nicely with tons of flowers, but the problem was the concession stand nearby. The people didn’t quit working, and you could hear tin foil being ripped, and ice being poured through out the ceremony.

Then the Pope died. The groom comes from a very Catholic family so I’m sure this day was an upsettingly bad omen to be married on.

The ceremony was really nice. It was at 2pm (They included their dog in the wedding party. Remember that for later.) The bride, and even more so the groom, have been doing Weight Watchers and looked fantastic. Ed looked like he was 12. I bet he has a 22 inch waist. I am not kidding. He’s tinier than me.

Ok, so the reception. This is on the second floor - huge room. It was to start at 4, so we hit a bar for awhile, came back at 4. The food didn’t start flowing til I think 6. Somewhere around 5 they put out some cheese and crackers. I am not exaggerating when I say all the guests fell upon this like hyenas. (Most of them had been sitting around since 2:30.) When the crowd pulled back there was nothing but ornamental lettuce on the platters.The reception food, and the bar, were great. Hands down the best stocked bar I’ve ever seen at a wedding. You name it they had it. The food was standard wedding fare, but the HAM!! They sliced the ham about a half inch thick, and the slice was so big it hung over both sides of your plate. It was so funny to see people walking back to their tables with giant slabs of ham hanging off their plates. They were THAT big. Anywya, we had a great time with all our friends, good to see some people we hadn’t seen in a long time. Lot of laughing and drinking.

After dinner was the bridal dance. Remember the dog? Well he’s been running around this whole time at the reception just frantic, trying to keep track of his owners. Everyone trying to pet him, probably feeding him scraps, etc. Well the bride and groom begin to dance their first dance together. Dog is pacing nearby. Suddenly everyone starts giggling and pointing. People are rushing the dance floor to take pictures, but the cameras aren’t pointed at the happy couple. Yes, fido took a big poop right on the dance floor, during their dance. It was hysterical. Esp all the people photographing it. At least the couple thought it was funny as well.

More dancing, the dollar dance, some time passes, then suddenly a woman falls on the edge of the dance floor. I guess the people that saw it happen said she had a seizure. 911, EMT’s show up, she leaves on a stretcher. Very quiet at this point. Someone cue the music to change the mood….and then right back into dancing. We found out later that night the woman was the groom’s brother’s fiancé. She had blood clots in her hear and had to be taken to Pittsburgh. Truly horrible. Still haven't heard how she's doing.

You wouldn’t think it, but despite all of the craziness, it was a fun wedding. I’ve just never seen so many things go wrong and the bride and groom keep their spirits up. I’m actually still amazed the dog didn’t bite anyone. That’s the one other thing I could see happening.And DAMN IT. NO I did not take my camera. Why – I have no idea. Maybe cuz it didn’t fit in my tiny elegant purse.