New Leaves

Clothesline

I said I would update about my vacation.
here goes.

Thankfully, I had basics training the week before my vacation. I was gifted with a personal day... Not really gifted, since it was mine to use, but getting it before my vacation was very much a gift. I paid the 10 bucks difference and went a day early.

Greyhound stopped for dinner in some hole in the ground in West Virginia. The menu was meat, meat, and more meat, and after that, how about a side of meat dipped in sugar for dessert?! Needless to say, I am actually starting to not like french fries. I am tired of french fries. I can tell this by the fact that I will only eat enough at work to sustain me until I can sit down and eat something else.

Next time, I'm packing light. Being a female and a photographer is hell on luggage... Even if the luggage is on wheels. Get it? Hell on wheels... Ja, whateva, I thought it was funny. Or maybe I'll even try something else. I'll bring one change of clothes, and then I'll go to thrift stoes in the area and pick a new style for every city I visit. If I can be bothered.

My heart's desire was to spend time with my father AT the farm. The first day, My father and I went, we went on a lesson trail. My father lead the trail and we went on trail with the instructor, a pair of grandparents and their bratty grandchild.

Not to beat about the bush, but to get straight to it. The grandparents wanted to canter instead of trot. (go faster) I didn't have a good hold of the reigns because I was prepared to trot. Next thing you know, I horses were on separate paths instead of trotting single file, we were cantering. I was loving it. Until my horse started going for the trees, then my horse wouldn't steer away from the trees. And my horse was determined to get back in front of the other horses that passed her. I know we were galloping.... There's a sense when a horse changes stride. You just know they've kicked it up a notch.

Well my horse went under a low clothes line. My thought was , " I can't let this catch me about the throat, or this could be really bad." So I grabbed it. The clothesline had little or no tension so I grabbed it, slid off the back of the running horse and smacked the ground flat on my back, knocking the wind out of me. It sounds so dramatic, It happened so quickly.

This little incident had me advil laden, tylenol PM'g, epsom salt bathing, heating pad laying for most of the week. Except for when I was BACK at the farm riding and helping. That's right, I got back up on the horse. I wasn't 'hurt' as defined by the scary 'what could have happened', and I was trying to do the 'When in Rome'.

Anyhow. the update on the situation is that I will most likely have a dr's appt tomorrow morning, after finding an inflamed area in the center of my back where it hit me. I just want to be safe. The paranoia of a lump in the middle of my back is just not something I want to live with.

Moving on.

My brother is so grown. I can truly say I saw the man and not the boy. Even though I still woke him with a pounce and a wet willie in the ear. Ha.

But I watched him be 'Daddy' and it's a trip. It's a complete different dimension of him that I never realised. The little girl is almost four and she's sweet, and of course I love her. She looks so much like my sister did when she was little.

I watched my Daddy be 'Grandpa' and it was sweet.

I think the biggest disappointment was my sister and her boyfriend. I had so hoped that she had changed when she was so loveable and personable last year. But this year she was an absolute snobby bitch, and I nearly gave her tough love except I didn't think that it would help things. She always was selfish, and she's continuing it. I didn't want to make the rest of the family uncomfortable, but If I heard one more thing about a stupid fucking car part that her boyfriend wanted to look around in junkyards for... and didn't mind taking so much damn time to do it. Including having my sister arrive a whole day later so he can look for this stupid car part. It's a novelty part. and I don't want to say what it is because I don't want her to fucking look it up on the internet and come across my journal.

Not that I'm hiding, I just don't want to deal with her. I love her BECAUSE she's family. I'm not into blowing steam to make me feel better, because I wouldn't, I'd just be aggravated, and she wouldn't get it, and she would use it to justify her poor behaviour.

Anyhow. I rode 6 out of 7 days. I took a roll and a half of film. I've been doing something lately which is trying to relax and get out of behind the camera, and actually 'feel' my vacations too.

I did get to bond with the baby horses. I managed to get one shy one out of it's shell. It was my favorite. Funny how favorites happen. They are quite competitive over attention. The idea was to familiarize the horses with grooming, and human touch. I'd say there were eight babies. One of them was bottle fed, it had an adoptive mother after it's real mother rejected it after getting separated in the herd. So, I bottle fed the baby, gave crates of bread to them, and brushed them.

There were 2 shy ones. Milky Way, and Triumph. I made some headway with Triumph, but she wasn't really ready to be handled. Milky Way and I got along famously after he figured that he really liked the curry brush. The next day, he came right up to me. Then the next day he followed me. The last day he even approached my father who took some pictures. I have none of his pictures yet, but I hope to soon.

The good thing about my vacation is that the pulled tendon in the bottom of my foot that could never heal because I could never rest it. Well, I'm crossing my fingers that it's healed up.

I came back on Saturday and Mike and I went to the hippie retreat and spent a mostly blissful day together. Had I not gotten sick and MOST inopportune time, it would have been perfect.

Anyhow. He had bought us a tent and went 2 days earlier and set it up so that we could have our favorite spot and we could just relax.

So, we just hung out and had fun and I of course had to love on one of the baby girls. Mike told me that I needed to make sure I didn't have a baby on my hip when I came around him in a sarong. I did it on purpose. I knew he was going to help with the childrens' programs and I wanted to distract him. I love being a female.

Later on in the evening, when we had 'retired' I had to ask for some sierra mist, my stomach was flipping end over end. I didn't know what was wrong, except i needed tums or sommat. Mike and I donned clothes fit for civilization and went to the lodge to see if the first aid kit had tums or antacid. Actually, I was hanging over the railing trying not to be ill, and Mike was getting me tums. Thankfully someone had something heavy duty and some water to help me with it. It was foaming as soon as it hit the tongue. bleah. I was starting to feel like I would pass out.

It still wasn't taking effect fast enough. So Mike drove me to the nearest krogers for saltines and peanut butter. I was in the agony of 'either get something up, or let me sleep'. I was falling asleep sitting up in his car. In the morning I realized that it was a bad case of eating poorly while camping, low blood sugar, and a mouthful of bug spray. Note to self. No necking after bugspray. Actually we've agreed to get a natural bug spray. Wonder if there's a natural, edible, bugspray that is actually pleasant. I sense a market. The hippies would love it.

Right now, in regular life, Mike and I are talking about all the basics of moving in . About all the things having to do with the coming holidays and wether or not the kids are going to be ready to 'have holidays' with me and him together because things are happening so quickly in their eyes. The whole situation is enough make me ill.

I spent an hour at walmart tonight in the clearance aisle wondering which quilt to buy which kid, for their beds...that we will have to buy... and did i really want to buy a quilt for them when i was so terrified that they will just turn around and go 'oh, she got that for me? can I sleep under the bathroom mat instead?' Or something equivalent. In the end, I always over think things. But I got them each a quilt, they were on the clearance... Worse case scenario, I've got 3 quilts instead of one.

Oy. My poor head.

I was late to my asst mgr meeting because Tim gave me vague directions. I walk in, and I write on the test that I was not supposed to write on. Some days are better than others. When i told them, they were lucky I was dressed, I closed last night, Aka, in bed by 3 a.m. and in that stupid meeting by 9 a.m., aka not enough sleep, he started pointing at all the other managers that were in the room that closed last night. Well, I replied quite quickly (and splendidly), "That's okay for 'them' but I require 6-8 hours of sleep to look 'this' good.'"

Okay it's 1 a.m. I should be getting to bed.
I gotta keep looking this good. *snort*

Posted by hawkie at September 14, 2005 01:09 AM