Hey everyone! Sorry I went MIA for a while. I officially graduated with my Bachelors in Equine Science! I passed with As in all of my classes except one, where I got a B+. That last week was very stressful, but the final weekend was nice. I worked at Garden State Horse Show that Friday and Saturday (5/5-6), and it was a great experience. On that Saturday I was able to watch a few professionals competing. They were jumping jumps that were biger than I am! (I'm 5'7"). The awards ceremony for the equine department was pretty dull. Senior Week wasn't terribly thrilling, but the President's Ball on Thursday was pretty fun. I went with Tweedledee, Tweedledum, and two other friends. They had two of their friends, as well, so there was a good-size group of seven of us. They played decent music for about half an hour in the middle of the dance, but the rest was obnoxious ghetto thug music. How on earth are people supposed to dance to that? It seriously felt like we all should have been riding around in cars with lights under them that did wheelies to the music. I did have fun chatting with my friends, though, and we piled into a photo booth for some fun pictures. Overall, it was a nice evening to end on. The next day, Friday, I packed up. I was planning to head home on Saturday when everyone was busy with graduation on the other side of campus, but they were supposed to get a big storm in the middle of the night that wasn't supposed to let up until Monday. I ended up heading out late Friday night. Thankfully, I managed to make it home shortly before midnight.

On Saturday, my middle brother and his wife came over for dinner. We were celebrating Mother's Day a day early since my sister-in-law's parents were having a crab feast on Sunday. I also started strawberry plants in some planters to hang around the property. Hopefully the birds don't take them. Sunday was an adventure. We found a little red eared slider (a kind of turtle) in our swimming pool, just hanging out. We put him in a tupperware container and took him down to this little stream at the bottom of our property. I named him Terrance the terrapin.After Terrance was released, Mother showed me where all of the wildlife cameras are on the property, and we collected the SD cards. When we replaced the cards we tossed some bird seed for the animals. Apparently, they get a ton of animals around here, and have gotten some really good pictures and videos. After that, I wandered over to Urgent Care. I thought I had a sinus infction. Turns out, that turned into strep instead. Yaaaaaaaay. My doc at the Urgent Care place actually offered me her horse. For free. No strings attached. Pretty awesome deal, if I only had a place to keep it. Figure I'll ask around and see if anyone is interested. On the way home I stopped at Tractor Supply and picked up seeds for cucumbers and baby watermelons, the two things Mother hasn't started yet.

Today has been a pretty productive day. I was thinking of starting to unpack, but opted to work in the yard instead. I did a lot of weeding in the front yard, swept the entire driveway, and weeded Ponderance Place (a part of the yard I plan to decorate and make it nice to sit there... Hoping to get a hammock for it, too). Got to drive the Polaris to drop the weeds in the woods. I still have more weeding to do in Ponderance Place, but it already looks a lot better. When Father got home, we weeded around the pool and trimmed a large hedge back there. Overall, it was a nice, productive afternoon.

How has everyone else been?

I realized I haven't made a post to celebrate! Here are my stats for my old journal, and for this one.




I have a third journal that I used for writing, but since it wasn't personal I didn't feel like adding it. My old one, I used to post every once in a while, not regularly, but I was very active in a few communities, and I stayed active for a good 4 years or so. Ah, I miss the old days when I was still kind of new to LJ, but I have to say, I do like how it has been since I've come back. Every friend I had on my old account has since left the site, but I like my new friends :)

Happy 18th, LJ!

I know, Sunday came and went and I didn't put up a post. My weekend didn't really go as planned, and I didn't have time to put one together yesterday.

We have three full weeks left of classes (with one hanging monday). It's nice to finally have the end in sight, but with everything left to do, it feels so far away. For the major, in order to graduate, we have to fill out a "Practicum Book", where we have to do specific tasks a certain number of times, and management or a professor has to sign us off for it. It's general horse-related things like cleaning stalls, applying poultices, cleaning equipment, etc. None of it is terribly difficult, it's just time-consuming given how much we have to do, and I transferred in, so I have half the time to do everything. I have about 1/3 of the book left, and I am trying to do at least a few more things every day. I made myself a little calendar and wrote a couple things in every day, and if I stick to it I will have most of the last full week free to work on my thesis presentation. The presentation is another thing stressing me out. It has to be a 15 minute (exactly) presentation on one study I used to write my paper. I have been trying to plan it out, but the people around me are taking up so much of my time, I don't get to work on important things.

My biggest stressor comes from the people around me. Everyone is under a lot of pressure given it's the end of the semester and half of us are graduating, but I have been trying to stay out of it. I don't like being involved in drama, especially when I have more important things to be doing. Unfortunately, they all know where I live, and find me to throw me in the middle of their petty problems. All they have to do is knock, and my roommates let them in, regardless of what I say. They have kept me up way too late every night this weekend. It's exhuasting. I have chronic insomnia already, and I am getting older. I can't fully function on just three hours of sleep every night. Not anymore. Plus, I definitely caught a cold. It's been building up for the last couple of days. As much as I want to spend time with them and enjoy the last few weeks, I also need to get work done so that I can actually graduate. I have tried being around them and working on things, but they can get very obnoxious and loud, and will help themselves to my laptop to close out of what I am doing so that I can give them my full attention. It's aggravating. Just because you don't care about your own grades doesn't mean I don't care about mine. This is hopefully my last semester for my last piece of paper. I don't want to screw it up now.

I haven't had a chance to game or really watch anything this week, so I'll skip those sections this time around.

April 17-23 is Penguin Random House's #ProjectReadathon Million Minutes campaign! I am so excited and going to do my best to read at least 20 minutes per day. Here is the description of the event: "From April 17 – 23, the week leading up to UNESCO’s World Book Day, you have an opportunity to #ReadWell and to help young readers in local communities throughout North America. All you have to do is read. Browse and read the free, timed excerpts from our books and authors on this site – from Biography and Memoir, to Health and Wellness, and from Sci-fi & Fantasy, to Young Adult and the Classics – triggering book donations from Penguin Random House to Save the Children, up to 300,000 books." You don't ned to sign up for anything, you just pull up the page, click on a book that looks interesting to you, and start reading! You can sort by genre and average read time (anywhere from 5 minutes to over an hour). If you are interested in participating or want to know more, you can check it out here!

Hope everyone had a great weekend, and a happy Easter if you celebrated!

It's Sunday again! I thought this day would never come. Geez, it's been a long week. I'll skip most of the boring details.

My riding lesson on Tuesday was off. Everything was just off, and I can't pinpoint any cause. I almost fell off over a jump, too. We were going over an oxer (two jumps one right in front of the other, and you jump them both at once, if that makes sense. Here is a picture if you want to see what one looks like), and Kip took off way too far ahead, and landed way too far behind it. Instead of a nice half-circle of an arc, it was more like the long side of an oval. I ended up slamming my jaw into his neck, biting my lip in two places, losing one of my reins, losing one of my stirrups, and very nearly ate dirt. And of course Kip just cantered away like everything was going great. The rest of the lesson wasn't much better. My lesson on Thursday wasn't too great, either. I was supposed to ride Zanga, so I was looking forward to a straightforward, uneventful ride. While I was tacking up, I went to pick his feet and found out he had lost a shoe when he was turned out earlier in the day... What bothers me the most is that the working students are supposed to pick horse's feet when they bring them in from turnout. If they had, they would have noticed then that he was missing one and the whole mess of what happened next could have been avoided. I had to take him to the main barn to get his foot wrapped, which took time. Then I had to get barn management and my instructor, and we spent over 10 minutes trying to find a horse for me to ride. All of the horses had already gone, and only a very select few are allowed to go twice in one day. I ended up being put on Jebb, a pony that we lease from a summer camp. When I rode him at the start of last semester, he was really well behaved. He doesn't know much, but he would give his all and try, which is all I can ask. I haven't ridden him since September, and I can honestly tell you the horse I rode Thursday was not the same horse I rode back then. He fought me the whole ride, with his head up in the air, very stiff and not bending, would run away at the trot instead of canter, and didn't relax for even one second the entire ride. Plus, I was fifteen minutes late. It's a shame that this pony came to us so willing and kind and over just a few months we have made him into a tense, misbehaving, avoidance-prone animal.

On Wednesday, I recieved a call about the Barn Maager position I applied for. I think the phone interview went decently, but I am not entirely sure that I am what they are looking for. Plus, the woman knows that I am still in school, due to finish in May, so I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm only around 20. No, sorry, I'm almost 25. She gave me the speech about how barn managers work long hours every day, don't really get benefits, have a high risk of injury, don't get vacations, etc. All stuff that I know. Why do I know this? Because, like it says on my resume, I have been in the industry virtually my entire life, and I have managed at barns before. I don't know, I like the job, it is right down the road, and it would be a decent job to start at, but I don't see myself staying there terribly long-term. I have also been looking around for more office-related work in the industry, since I think it would be nice to have a normal 9-5 job, which comes with more benefits (health insurance, dental, vision, etc, whereas most barn jobs don't offer any), and would provide normal hours, weekends off, and evenings free. Since I have been pretty much living out of my car for the past two years, living across 3 different states, I really want some stability and predictability for a little while.

Yesterday, I had a nice outing with Dragon Age Girl. We went to Dover Saddlery, where I picked up some new half chaps. We had lunch at this Italian joint in the same plaza as Dover. I absolutely love that restaurant! It is a bit pricey, but you get enough food to have an entire meal's worth of leftovers that is still delicious reheated. Plus, they have these softball-sized ice cream truffles that are to die for <3 Over this weekend, I have spent a lot of time with my little group of almost-friends. I have to say, it has been nice having company and people around. I don't care for the drama that comes along with it, I just like the company when a certain few drama-creating brats aren't around.

Gaming: I played FFXV:Episode Gladiolus a couple of times. I enjoyed how they wrapped so much story into just a couple few-minute long dialogue sections. I also liked that there are game modes to it, which means added replayability. I feel like it was pretty short, though, and focused more on Cor than it did on Gladio. Don't get me wrong, Cor is cool and all, but I was hoping to learn more about the King's Shield. All it really did was reiterate that Gladio is really good at beating things up, even though the Big Baddie kept saying he needed to have brains, too. I would have liked to see a few puzzles to show that he used his head and not just his muscles. That being said, I am looking forward to playing it some more and beating my times and scores.

I played some Horizon Zero Dawn the other day, when I was hanging out with the group of acquaintances. They actually wanted me to bring my PS4 over, and they all voted on watching me play Horizon. I found it pretty funny. They started getting really into it, too, voting on quests to do, dialogue options to pick, etc. It was really fun!

Destiny's latest and final event, the Age of Triumph, started on Tuesday! I have a love/hate relationship with Destiny, mostly because people suck. For the last few months I have been flying solo, though, which has been nice. The event, though, means grouping up with people for certain activities (because who really wants to take on the Challenge of Elders solo?), so I have been getting in touch with the Dames of Destiny (I joined a few years  ago because I kept running into too many guys who acted like shitheads and I wanted some fellow chick gamers to fight alongside), and I applied to join Safe Gamers. I am on Planet Destiny, too, but most people I have run with from there are very competitive, and I prefer to put enjoyment over scores. I spent a good chunk of Friday on the Destiny LFG board and was, for the most part, having a good, successful time. I ran into a few unpleasant idividuals that I peaced out on, but overall it was a successful day.

TV/Movies: I am close to giving up Gossip Girl and I think I have only finished three episodes. That's what, one a week on average? Painful. I don't like quitting shows, but I am just really not feeling it. I binged Stranger Things yesterday while I worked on my Warlock characte in Destiny. I thought it was good, but I'm not sure it's the "best thing ever" like so many people keep telling me. Maybe it's because it was just like tons of scifi movies I have already seen. I also watched the first season of Cooper Barret's Guide to Survivng Life. I started it when I used to have Hulu (rip Hulu's golden years), but didn't get to finish it. It is pretty funny, and a decent show to watch.

Anyone have any suggestions of shows or movies that I should see on Netflix?

Missed a week, I know. I can assure you that nothing terribly thrilling has happened in my little corner of the globe. My last week of classes before break was average, though my last riding class was a lot of fun. I was the only one who showed up, so it was a private riding lesson. I was on Kip, who is very well behaved and well mannered, even if we don't quite communicate well (long story short, we are both crooked, which makes us go sideways a lot). My instructor worked a lot on my lower leg position and strengthening, then we had some fun with music. She put on the Game of Thrones theme and had me cnter around. The goal was to get my horse to canter to the beat, and I managed to accomplish it by the end. It was so much fun! I was exhausted by the end, but it was very much worth it.

I have been on spring break since two thursdays ago. I go back to school tomorrow. I really don't want to. It's been so peaceful and uneventful this past week and a half. No elephants living above me, no roommates filling the air with nauseating smells, no annoying children calling me to complain about each other... I'd say it was close to Heaven, but I would be lying. Living with the family has its own set of problems. These problems, however, are more familiar and I have learned how to cope over the years, so I will take it over the school situation.

We moved into this house two summers ago, less than a week before I moved for school. My belongings are still in boxes from the move, because I have not stayed here for more than 2 consecutive weeks since then. Since I will be moving back in come May, I started trying to at least sort my boxes and tidy up what everyone else has dumped into my closets over the years. Apparently my rooms have become storage for things no one knew where to put... Last I checked, we had a guest room, so I don't know why they didn't put this stuff there. I have very little furniture, and 2 rooms to fill. When we moved, I was given a bedroom that is half of a jack-and-jill thing, so there is a bathroom connecting my two rooms, if that makes sense. The second room is more of an entertainment room, and where I spend most of my time. It has my computer, all of my game systems and games, and all of the DVDs I have. I have some books, but only one bookshelf. I am hoping to get more shelving for in there, and at least a night stand for my bedroom when I finally move in. Really, the second room is mostly for my gliders to play in. Since I can't take them to school with me, Mother has been caring for them for me, and that is the one room in the house that they are allowed to run free in. I managed to glider-proof it, but I still want to make it more glider fiendly when I move in, and add platforms and stuff for them higher up. Right now they are mostly stuck on the floor... not a natural place for tree-dwelling ceatures. Decided I will also be donating quite a bit of my wardrobe to GoodWill in May. Most of it either doesn't fit or I don't want to keep it. I really would like to overhaul my wardrobe entirely once I get a job. Maybe get a new shirt or two per week for a few weeks until I have more clothes I will actually wear. Most of my wardrobe in my closet is stuff I have had since high school. I graduated seven years ago...

Gaming: Between bouts of cleaning and organizing, I have managed to get in a fair bit of gaming. Since I have had my desktop for a bit, I sarted Stardew Valley on Steam. I really enjoy farming games. I know, I'm a loser. But at least I am a happy loser. I got a fair bit into it, but decided to set it aside until May because it requires a fair bit of note-taking on my end and I will probably forget what I'm doing by then and will have to start over. I have also been playing Horizon: Zero Dawn and am truly, madly, deeply in love. The game is absolutely gorgeous! Don't believe me? Check out my media tab in my gaming twitter: https://twitter.com/Gamerfly793/media No spoilers, don't worry. I have managed to get just about every collectible, and have finished most side quests. I think that I am probably 3/4 through the main storyline, but I don't want to look it up to find out because I don't want to find spoilers. I will say that the story is frightening, but very intriguing. It is scary-close to reality, but also provides hope in a way? I know that doesn't make sense, but if you play the game it does. I keep getting lost on purpose just to find places to take photos of the gorgeous landscape. I am also loving the main character, too. They gave her a believable and unique personality, not the usual heroine stereotypes where she is either upbeat and high-strung, or all serious. She is humorous and about what you would expect form a 19 year old who was raised an outcast by a very caring father figure. It has led to some amusing bits of dialogue with a certain male character.

Another week come and gone. Another list of events that have ocurred.

I really need to start jotting down notes of what I do every day. I've been staring at this blank entry screen for the last five minutes or more trying to remember anything that happened earlier this week, and I'm drawing a blank.

( Recap of my week )

TV/Movies: I am on S3:E15 of One Tree Hill. Things are starting to get dramatic in regards to suspects in Dan's attempted murder. They finally said who it was, and I was actually a bit surprised. I am getting annoyed with the whole Nathan/Haley marriage thing, and I know I'm a horrible person for wishing they would just split up. I'm also getting increasingly frustrated with the Brooke/Lucas situation. I really don't care for Brooke. I haven't since the first episode. But at least I have someone on the show I dislike more than her. Rachel. Come on, Mouth, you can do so much better than her!

On the Supernatural front, I ams on S6:E17. I think I am almost out of the Armageddon arc, which is nice. I was getting bored of it, if no one could tell. It only took a few months to get through season 5 and most of season 6. I gotta say, though, the soulless Sam arc was just dumb, in my opinion. Seriously? His soul was just stuck down there in hell with Lucifer and Michael and his half-brother, and then Death could just waltz in and get it? And now he is fine as long as he doesn't think too hard about it? Ugh, th writers really need to do better.

Today, I watched the movie Spectral. It. Was. PHENOMENAL! It managed to have some realistic science/physics, just the right amount of action and explosions, and a pinch of the supernatural. I'll admit, in the beginning I wasn't too sure and I wasn't very into it, but by the 40 minute mark I was glued. Though I do think that they picked some more complicated, less ideal plans of action at points, and left a pretty big question at the end of "WHY?!" Putting that aside, though, I walked away thoroughly happy with the movie and I recommend it.

I also watched Good Kids. It was ok, I think. It was reminiscent of the mid-2000s summer coming-of-age comedies a la Michael Cera, but was a bit less fulfilling. It had me laughing a good chunk of the time, but for some reason I felt like it was missing something. It just seemed tame to me, but was a good attempt. Not a bad movie, though, so I gave it 4/5 stars.

Books: I finally finished reading The Boy with the Cuckoo Clock Heart by Mathias Malzieu. I am madly in love with the animated movie musical based off of the book (Jack and the Cuckoo Clock Heart). Basically, it is the story of a boy who was born on the coldest day on earth. His heart was frozen solid, so the midwife replaced it with a clock, and he had to abide by three rules, including not falling in love, because his heart wouldn't be able to handle it. Well, when he is 10 years old, he falls madly and passionately and hard for this girl, and a few years later travels across Europe to find her. It's a roller coaster love story filled with a unique cast of characters. The movie has a fantastic and catchy rock score not typically found in musicals. My favorite line from the book: "People might be fascinated by your wounded heart, but that won't make them love you for who you are."

Gaming: I played a little more Destiny. I even caved and joined Planet Destiny in case I need a fireteam or want to raid again. I really do love this game, and am excited for Destiny 2, whenever that decides to finish production and become a thing. OH! And I am SO EXCITED!!! I preordered Horizon Zero Dawn!!! It looks like it is going to be such a cool game~ It is set to unlock in 24 hours! I am probably going to start playing it Tuesday evening or Wednesday since I will have a lot more time. Shameless plug: if anyone wants to watch me play it, you can catch me on Twitch.

Got myself a massive head cold. I am on day 4: the beginning of the great tissue massacre. Here is hoping this cold goes away quickly x.x

The beginning of the week was pretty uneventful. At least that's what I'm going with. This cold is making it hard to remember what I even did that long ago. Wednesday, according to my fun little calendar, was "Extraterrestrial Culture Day", so I celebrated after classes by sitting outside enjoying the nice weather and writing more of my story. I don't get to write much lately, especially since this is my last semester, so it was nice to take some time and work on it.

Wednesday night they preemptively cancelled everything for Thursday. We ended up getting only a couple inches that stuck, since the weather the day before was so warm. Since it snowed the temp hadn't gone above 40 degrees. I really don't care for winter. If I could find a climate where the temp was 50-75 year-round, I would never leave. Anyway, since I had the day off I tried to get more research and planning done for my thesis. My acquiantances pestered me throughout the day, but I managed to get at least a little bit read. Friday was much the same.
( Mini rant about spoiled adult children )
Saturday was an awesome day. I went to visit my best friend again. The plus side of being up here for school is that now she is only an hour away, so I can visit her once in a while. We went to a mall near her, and wandered around. I learned about art markers and had fun coloring with gel pens (I'm not an art person, but I am easily amused by gel pens~). We went to Barnes and Noble and I got two new books (Apocalypse Now Now (Human) and The Light Fantastic (Pratchett)) and a mini desk aquarium.

World, meet my new pet fish, Fred and Ginger! 🐳🐬🐟🐠🐡🐙🐋 pic.twitter.com/rDdU4uWJUt

— Nephere Evans (@VishualChase793) February 12, 2017

At Hot Topic I picked up a couple of the mystery box figures. I got a Gir plushie keychain, a cute little Deadpool statue, and an adorable little comic Deadpool button. I'm pretty excited because they were all the ones that I wanted! I usually have really horrible luck with the mystery boxes. I also got myself comfy Assassin's Creed guys pajama pants and a Lego Batman tank that says "GO TEAM ME" that I very much enjoyed. I'm hoping to see the Lego Batman movie soon. We wrapped up the mall trip with a stop in the amazingly wonderful candy store, where I got myself some snacks. After the mall we hung out and chatted for a while. She even showed me the demo for For Honor, and it looks pretty fun!

TV Shows/Movies: During Wednesday and Thursday I rewatched most of Firefly, my favorite show. I don't think I will ever get tired of it. I am also just about finished with Glee. I am on season 6 episode 12. It's getting a little better, but less realistic with every "plot twist". I also kind of miss them doing classic songs more often. I feel like now it's once every 4 episodes or so. On the Supernatural front, I am on season 6, episode 2. Making slow, but steady progress.

In terms of movies, the only notable one I have watched recently was Kingsglaive. I finally got around to watching it and... *dreamy sigh* I have a new favorite FFXV character. Sorry Gladio, but Nyx... yep. I refuse to believe what happened to him happened. Nope. He is out there somewhere being awesome. Shhhh don't tell me different.

Gaming: I haven't had much time this week to play, but I did spend a little time in Destiny. I miss being in space, and it was nice to bum around again. I don't have a fireteam anymore, which means the difficulty has been upped, but I don't mind. They must have changed some of the rules for drops, which is nice because it means I won't necessarily have to hop into LFG and raid a ton just to get better gear. I also spent some time in Thief at some point, but I can't remember if that was this week or last week. I am a couple chapters in and looking forward to continuing it.

Hope everyone had a great week!

Ever feel like holding on to someone, knowing they're slipping away, but don't because you don't want to be seen as needy or clingy and end up chasing them away?

Well, I think I'm coming to terms. I'm not happy. Nowhere near, in all honesty. However, I am getting better adjusted to the quiet. It's a painful, lonely quiet, but it hurts less now that I have more things to do to fill my time. That's the plus side of the semester finally kicking in. I have to write my senior thesis paper this semester, which will take up plenty of my time and help me stay focused on something other than the silence.

We have had two weeks of classes already. My riding class is really small, with only 3 of us, which means more individual instruction. I am really happy about that. Our instructor also wants to give us horses that we enjoy riding, and has ideas for musical rides, drills, and creative jumping lessons. I am really interested to see what she comes up with. She seems like the type who will push us hard, but will cheer us on while doing so, which is rare to see in this competitive industry. As for my other classes, I am taking Fundamental Theories of Riding, Management of Equine Activities, Equine Nutrition, and Senior Seminar. Management is pretty dull. It's pretty much all about running hunter/jumper horse shows... It's like this school forgets there are more disciplines than that. Nutrition is pretty cool so far. THe other day we spent the entire class weighing every horse in the barn (all 96 of them). We were also assigned project horses for the semester. We will be doing a semester long small group project where we analyze the horse's health and create a feeding plan to get them to a proper weight and maintain it. My group is doing a horse that just arrived a couple weeks ago. His name is Leo ("A Midsummer Night's Dream"), and he is a gorgeous bay warmblood who is only 12 years old. He is a tad underweight at the moment, but fit, so our goal will be building up what muscle he has and maintaining his condition while packing a few more pounds on him.

Last semester, Dragon Age Girl adopted herself a freshman. Let's call her Lamb for now. For most of last semester, Lamb was very quiet and went to great lengths to avoid interactng with people. Towards the end of last semester, I officially brought her into my little group of mionions, as I like to think of them. They call themselves my ducklings, and now there are 3. Well, the poor unfortunate Lamb is stuck in a riding class with the Tweedles, and Tweedledum, specifically, has been aggravating her. Lamb, having no social skills and plenty of anxiety troubles, immediately demanded to her advisor that she get her scheduled switched. Trying to be a supportive older friend, I explained to her that in life she won't be able to pick everyone around her, and this university is a better place to learn to deal with people than out there in the real world. I offered her skills for dealing with them, because since I've known the two of them I have had to come up with plenty. She shot down every single one in favor of simply demanding to her advisor and to the department chair that she be allowed into other already filled classes just to get away from them. I'm sorry, honey, but the real world won't just move to oblige you because you don't like someone. Coping skills are vital to learn, and better now than later when your job and income depend on your interactions with others. Well, her advisor told her the exact same things that I did. I guess advice only matters when it comes from someone who is tenured. Or maybe it was because she realized her little tantrum would get her nowhere. She is now avoiding them like the plague when she isn't in class. The down side is that she has been messaging me an average of 14 messages an hour for the past week and a half since I gave her my google name. The reason I gave it to her, and I told her this flat out, was that it was the quickest way to get ahold of me if she needed a ride back from the barn after her riding lesson (she rides directly after I do and the shuttle doesn't always run that late). That was it. In case of emergency. Well, she has been abusing the ever-living hell out of it, messaging me to bitch and whine and complain about Tweedledum. Like, I get it, you don't like them. Fun fact: No one around here does. But we don't have a choice, so we cope, put up with what we have to, ignore the rest, and carry on with our lives. Besides, you asked me for advice, shot it so far down it downed in the Indian Ocean, and acted like a spoiled brat who thinks the world should bend to suit you. I don't like self-entitled brats. Get over yourself, learn to have an actual conversation instead of a 24/7 bitch session, and then try talking with me again. I like to converse when it goes both ways. I'm happy to give advice if you ask for it and I can. But I have better things to do than humor your petty childish whining. I'm not sorry.
TL;DR: This freshman is really getting on my nverves by constantly whining to me and thinking the world revolves around her.

Last weekend I was super excited because I got to see my best friend. I really needed to see her and relax with a friend for a while. I don't get to see her often, as we always seem to be a state away, but when I am at school she is only an hour away, so I can visit her once in a while for a day. We hung out and chatted for a bit. She is madly in love with Prompto (FFXV), so there was plenty of teasing~ (ilu and I will ship it for as long as I feel like it). We hit up an outdoor mall by her, which was a lot of fun. I picked up the book The Color of Magic (Pratchett), which is the first Discworld book. There was an awesome little candy store where I got more than I should have >.> I regret nothing when it comes to my candy store purchases. There was even a Peeps store! You know the marshmallow peeps? They had GIANT plushie bunny peeps, tons of marshmallow-y goodness, and Mike-and-Ikes galore. I picked myself up a super comfortable zip-up hoodie that says "Chillin with my Peeps" on it. Cliche, I know, but I have a secret love affair with peeps and I geeked pretty hard when I saw the store. Anyway, I had a ton of fun with my bestie and I am hoping to visit her again sometime soon.

Games: I haven't gamed too much lately. I've been trying to focus on schoolwork. I have played some FFXV though! The Moogle Chocobo Festival started on Mon Jan 23, and it is so freaking adorable!!! I managed to knock out all fo the quests and I have done all of the activities at least once on each difficulty. I want to grind some of them to get the chocobo racing trophies and buy the car decals and paint colors.

Books: I set aside The Ocean at the End of the Lane for a little while. I got to a lull that I was having trouble focusing through. Instead, I have started The Color of Magic (Pratchett). I have about 40 minutes between clsses on Mon/Wed, so I manage to knock out about 20 pages at a time between all of the interruptions. So far it is quirky, but nothing exciting yet. I have heard great things, though, so I plan to stick it out and see if I feel the same as others.

TV/Movies: I have made it to Supernatural S5:E13. Progress. I am definitely not as into it as I was in the first few seasons. I am trying hard to stick it out, but the writing makes it difficult. It realy did, in myopinion, lose a lot of its charm and what made it uniquie when they decided to go the Angels route with it. I have also been watching Glee, for something out of my usual genres. I have to admit, I went in with a lot of skepticism. Some of that skepticism was justified, it seems, but a lot of it was also proven wrong. Most of the actors have truly incredible voices. I am very impressed (It helps that they were all about a decade older than the characters that they portrayed). The show does get very "after school special" way too frequently. I'm on season 3 episode 14 and so far it has felt like every other episode gets in your face with a moral issue. I get it, television is a platform for moral issues, and it's a show for teens so go out there and accept yourself and be you. But there are plenty of shows who have managed to get the same message across without being so... overwritten.

That's the latest in my little fragment of the world. Hope everyone has a wonderfully lovely week!
-NF

Hey everyone! I know it's been about 3 months since I've posted. Been a VERY busy summer, which I will hopefully have more time soon to write a proper post or 2 (or 20) about. Just wanted to post and say hello and that I miss you guys! I was hoping to post over the summer, but even my one night a week off was always busy with either going out with my coworkers, visiting an old friend, or enjoying the company of my mother or the boy coming to visit for a night. So for now you will have to just accept a list of highlights from my summer (and hopefully I can get a picture post up next week when I have a few days free).

• Going from 10 kids in week 1 to 44 kids in week 3


• A demon-child I dubbed Spitfire who convinced my entire section that she was possesed. Not kidding, we were having a staff meeting at 10:30pm and a CIT walked in to say the girls were flipping shit. My co-counselor and I walked in to find girls screaming and crying, and Spitfire smirking and pretending to sleep through it all.


• A counselor quit after one week of kids because she was just the worst.


• A self-centered, "always right", entitled princess of a supervisor.


• We had two 2-week sessions that ended in horse shows. It was so cool to see the kids I taught perform in a show, jumping and everything, and earning ribbons.


• I taught Orange Ride every week for 9 weeks! They are all beginners who have usually done maybe just a tiny bit of trotting, but still didn't know much of anything yet. And every week by Friday they were trotting independently and jumping! (6-9" jumps, but still. It counts.)


• Week 1, I had this amazing 11 year old girl who made my summer. She squealed when she got to go over her first jump ever. When she went over the last one of the week she went "WHEEEEEEE" all the way down the long side over it. Most precious and wonderful child of my summer right there.


• The same girl's 14yo sister cried because she was so proud her sister went over 10-15 jumps that week. The sisters were so adorably perfect.


• River rides. The kids got to swim in the river and ride a few horses bareback while in the water. I got to be photographer every week except for 2. The last week I had a different job occupying a bunch of kids who didn't want to go in the river. The week before that (week 8) we went on a day after a huge rain storm (stupid idea) and I got a black eye when I slipped on the steep bank and the camera hit me in my left eye. It's been almost 2 weeks and it's finally almost gone.


• Finding one of my favorite horses ever. We got to ride one night a week, and one week early on I requested "someone fun". I was given Devon, an OTTB who is around 18 or so but acts 30 most of the time. He was a national champion on the east coast eventing circuit, back in his day, and you wouldn't really believe it looking at him anymore. He is very prissy and acts grumpy, but loveloveloves attention. When I rode him for the first time, he started off slow, but as soon as I asked for that first trot he threw his head and tried to run off. You could almost hear him shouting "WOOHOOOOO", hahaha. That same ride we trotted over some ground poles, and halfway through he dropped his head, kicked up his heels, and took off cantering, happy as can be. I laughed so hard I almost fell off. It was love at first ride <3. I'm definitely going to miss him when I head back.


• Chip cup. I was told by my supervisor "You might get a little wet." I came back drenced, and determined to exact revenge on one of my co-counselors for dousing me repeatedly with cups of water. This grudge may take years to be set right, haha.


• My daily 1:40-2:30pm free swim nap. Plus side to not being a lifeguard: I was never on for free swim.


• Chipwiches. Mississippi Muds. Champ cones. All the delicious ice cream!


• The fun graces we would say before meals. Popular ones included Tony the Tiger, The Addams Family, Johnny Appleseed, and the Flintstones.

I'm sure there are a ton more things that I didn't mention, but I had a long (but relaxing overall) day working Day 1 of Family Camp week! Taught a couple families the basics of riding, cleaned some tack, organized some spare equipment, cleaned up the barn, and even got to ride my darling Devon! Plus side of family camp is that we in riding camp get the evenings off as soon as barn work is finished (which is usually before dinner)! So I am kicking back and wanted to post a quick-ish hello! Hope you guys are having kick-ass summers! Miss you guys! <3

-NF