Monday, April 16, 2012

The Beginning of a Healthier Life

Today was a good day. I had my first therapy session in years and I'm feeling really good about this psychologist. It's nothing super major or anything but there have been some things that have been sort of gnawing away at me for a while, and I think this is going to be very good for me. I went to yoga tonight. It was a detox class, which is very intense in a very different way from other classes I've been to. I like it. I'm going to try to go much more often, or go back to dance, or something. Just riding and all the barn work that goes with it is not enough exercise, even though I am tired when I come home. The yoga studio is right above Fresh Market so I stopped there on my way home and got ingredients for dinner tonight: locally made pumpkin tortellini and spinach salad with blackberries. I'm going to study for the GREs before bed tonight (actually, I've been sort of having fun studying so far. I haven't gotten to the math part, I think that will be less fun, but I just really love words). From here on out I am going to be healthier and happier and more positive and things are going to be wonderful. Not that there won't be missteps and bad days, but I think this is the start of something very good.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Life: Going Pretty Well, Actually

So this week has been pretty amazing so far. My mom came to visit which was lovely. She brought my bike which is also lovely. She bought me new books and got to see where I work. I got to be the one who knew where to go, which is incredibly rare. Overall, I was just really happy to see her.

Work is going very well, too. Well, today was not so great. I got stepped on, nearly bucked off, and two horses ran off (back to the barn while we were riding in the field, nothing terrible, but still scary and bad, because it made my bucking horse much worse), and I almost got kicked in the face. Not a great day, but also a great day if you look at it differently, because I didn't get bucked off (actually, I was fairly safe the whole time, I'm lucky to have a really good seat, but it was still scary) or kicked in the face, and my toes are not broken, just swollen and in pain. But in general, my job is becoming slightly more about learning polo which is very exciting and fun and complicated. Mostly I am happy because this is the sort of thing people (including me, if I had the funds) would pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to do, and I am getting paid to do it! Pretty awesome.

On Monday I headed down to Beloit for a quick visit and there had been hints of some sort of surprise. On my way down I got a call from Alexander saying he had been kidnapped by Plains Walkers and I needed to save him. When I got there Stitch and Brianna were cackling evilly and said they had stolen him and I must play them in Magic to get him back. Then Alexander appeared only long enough to toss me a small package and disappeared back into his room. It was my very own deck of Magic cards. I've been playing Magic occasionally for years, since I was little and my brother needed a partner when his friends weren't around. I've never been very good at it but recently I've been playing a lot more and having a lot more fun with it. I've never had my own deck, I've always just used other people's. So who would have thought that a Magic deck would be one of the most thoughtful gifts I've ever gotten? He picked out a playing style and theme I would like (it's elephants!), picked the best and the prettiest cards, play-tested it extensively to get it just perfect, and then orchestrated this whole tournament because he knew he'd have some homework and other stuff to do before he could hang out with me Monday night. Sooo lucky. So happy. :) And for the friends who played along! It was a lot of fun!

And finally, on Tuesday Brianna called our future landlord to find out if we got the apartment and he said yes! I am so excited! We will sign the lease on Monday and then I will absolutely positively have fantastic roommates and a gorgeous place to live for a whole year, and I won't have to go apartment hunting again for at least a year! So happy!