my smile goes from NY to Australia

My day has been absolutely amazing so far. I woke up and was all grouchy because I was sleep deprived and stress-sick and was basically just exhausted. So I dragged my butt out of bed and got dressed for riding. Keep in mind that I hadn't eaten since 2:00pm Thursday afternoon. Before that I hadn't eaten since 9:00am Wednesday morning. I was too stressed to eat. So moving on.... I was tired and slightly hungry but more than anything my body and mind were just exhausted. I go to the barn after turning in my paper (YES IT'S DONE WITH!!!) and see who I'm riding. Lady Cate for my 12:00pm lesson. Great.... the laziest, brattiest, snippiest horse at the barn.... not to mention the hardest horse to canter in the history of ever!!! No one can canter that horse. She runs away with you, she doesn't move at all... there's just no winning with that horse. So Karen tells me that I'm not being punished, she is. Yea... Right... like I could punish this horse. I'm not aggressive enough to punish her! But whatever, no complaining, at least I'm riding. So after tacking her up and trotting around a little bit I'm feeling pretty good. Then Karen shouts, "drop your stirrups!!!" Man I thought I was gonna fall off my horse. In the middle of the lesson I started to feel a little dizzy, probably from the lack of food in my body. So I take a moment to stop and collect myself together. Then Karen yells "one, two, three, CANTER!" Low and behold, Lady Cate cantered PERFECTLY. She didn't break more than a couple times on the right lead and she didn't run away with me. Now I had to really hold my body together and keep her AND myself organized but I did it!!! I got the gold star for the day and the blue ribbon had that been a show. I got the gold starred blue ribbon! Everyone was impressed because, let's face it, Lady Cate's a pain to ride. I was so proud of myself.

When the lesson was over I got off and looked to see who I was supposed to ride next hour in Cindy's lesson. UGH!!!! Nicky G. He's the meanest horse to tack up. So much fun to ride but the meanest, nastiest horse to tack. He kicked me once and stepped on my foot while I tried to put his halter on. He also attempted to bite my shin when I was putting him on cross ties!!!! That damn horse made me soooo mad. I didn't have the energy to put up with him so I punched him as hard as I possibly could in the stomach and he mellowed out. Then I rode him and had a fairly decent ride but my legs are definitely going to hurt tomorrow.

Then I decided to go to Dunkin' Donuts for lunch. I got a ham and swiss flat (delicious sandwich. highly recommended if you're ever looking for a light lunch at 3 in the afternoon). I also went grocery shopping so that I could continue to eat now that my stress from the week is going away. ICE CREAM!!!!! was at the top of my list :) I bought a few snacks and then of course I got my usual sandwich making things for quick bites when I'm running late for class. Hopefully I don't get too stressed out on my next few assignments.

I have 3 weeks until Spring break and 4 assignments before I go on break. I managed to get in touch with Swigman and will be visiting her at her home for a week :) No worries Aussies. We will be taking heaps of pics and tagging you in them so it'll be just like second semester '09 :D Btw Sorry for being so short-fused lately. The stress gets to me. I'll be talking to you more often now that I'm not as stressed out. Thanks for being so patient with me. Not even just the Aussies but all of you who have been so understanding of my craziness. I honestly don't know what I would do without all of you there encouraging me every day that I can pull through this semester. LOTS OF LOVE!!!!! Xx <3 until I update you again..... Laters!