Not today :( - and other stuff

Rats, just when I decided to go see my horse, his leaser is riding him! I guess she changed her riding days again. And why can't I burn the dvd I downloaded to a blank dvd????? Two weeks til I go see a new shoulder dr. I think I see an mri in my future. New year's resolution which is the same as usual but which I will break immediately: To my sisters- "Don't tell anyone else, but . . ." hahaha. Parents will run out of money by the end of 2012 and then what?? Lose the 10 pounds I gained in the last 5 months. Must get out of the house today, maybe will go to the barn anyway but just a little bit later. My driver can deal with the traffic. Will I be able to take my band class or will my shoulder/arm problem be too much? I will sign up anyway and see. Trying to talk Dean into taking a French class with me. I gave him two German short story books for xmas and he can read them! There is an English translation on the facing pages so I just read Franz Kafka's The Judgement (in English of course) and now will read The Metamorphosis which I have not read in a long time. My fav short story is Conrad Aiken's Silent Snow Secret Snow. I think I could be Paul if I let myself. Lovely beach vacation coming up this year. Various relatives will have to be dealt with but the early morning hour on the beach when everyone is sleeping will be worth it. Big family reunion on Dean's side but those are strangely the people I really like. I just love everyone in his family even tho some of them are a little weird. Hoping that BOTH of my kids and their kids come. We rented two houses to accommodate everyone. Thinking of moving to Florida to take care of parents. We would have to sell this house but I don't want to buy one in Florida and I don't want to leave my horse even tho he is not mine anymore. The real estae market in Florida has totally cratered. There is a great house I would love that has been on the market for a while but u would have to pay $70K in club dues every year. as if. This is all one paragraph.

Wiz

Groomed my beautiful horse yesterday. He was just interested in eating grass though. It was hard to hold onto the lead rope and groom at the same time! U would think he had never eaten before.

Anyway, he was sweet and I was very happy to see him. The whole row of horses got some carrots except for the one horse I didn't know. :P poor guy. There was a horse's head sticking way out of every stall!!! Amazingly cute, but I was too dumb to get the camera phone out of my pocket to take a picture.

Concert!

Our band concert is on Wednesday night. The full band got together for a rehearsal yesterday afternoon. It is going to sound awesome. Nevermind that I am faking playing two of the pieces!! Next week we will start practicing for our Christmas concert and our mini concert at Old Town Spring.

Here are our concert pieces!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zOyi60e7Do

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WeytMAO06A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkEaMb8JLgo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnzWHTSEYKo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQNiqTTvcng

I really don't care for the super fast ones too much. Sounds like just loud noise!! Plus they are too hard and fast for me to play.

I'm not doing such a bad job though considering the fact that I have not really played since 1968. I got my flute in 4th grade (1959) and it is still going strong. I've had it overhauled twice but right now it seems fine. One key was sticking but all of a sudden it is okay again!!

My mother said hello to me last night.

That's about it, a few minutes later I could hear her snoring.

Oh no, I canceled my vacation!

I just don't feel like going to Rhode Island. Dean hates the beach and what else is there to do? I did want to go see Slater Mill, get clam cakes and chowder and walk on the beach early in the morning. Plus it will be cool there and you can smell the ocean and hear the waves.

But somehow, a nice clear stretch of time with no trips seems even more soothing this year. I can get stronger in my silks class, go to band practice and go see my very own white horse lots more.

I know I have to make a trip to Florida in December and I do want to go to SF in November. I'm just tired of packing and unpacking and being away.

There is something about taking trips that makes me gain weight no matter how much I swear I will not. I have gained 7 pounds in the last 2 months. That's why I had pizza tonight - to celebrate the start of a diet tomorrow!!! right.

I have not been riding or doing yoga since my two classes at my gym got canceled. So the lack of exercise is really telling. I will go up to the class in the Woodlands tomorrow morning. I did climb to the top of the silks today - all the way up to the ceiling of the gym!

Tonight I am half re-reading a trashy regency romance novel and half watching an Astros/Cubs game and in the meantime, Dean keeps muting the game and telling me about the German verbs he is having trouble with since he is half studying German and half watching the game. No one has to clean the kitchen since we had pizza-

Poem that I like

A dream is an apparition
A phantom of life in its most unreal moments.
It eludes you
It slips through your fingers
It is nothing.

I love my blog!

Not. I'm seriously super depressed. I don't really know why.

But enough whining about it.

I'm back to my silks class and still loving it. I started out the week (after a week off in Florida) with absolutely not strength or stamina and now am about back to where I was before. I can't wait til Laura comes and tries a class with me. I am learning some new tricks and maybe I'll take some new videos next week. I like to use the vids to watch myself partly to see my progress and partly to see what I am doing wrong. Right now I have gained some weight - only 4 pounds but it seems like more.

omg, what am I doing with my hair????? It looks so bad that it is almost funny! Hear me laughing?? . . .

I need to do some cleaning and grocery shopping. I will probably spend most of this week investigating possibilities for my parents care.

Also, I want to get my rings resized or buy a new wedding ring but sort of like not wearing any rings. One more thing to obsess about and not resolve. I guess if everything was accomplished, life would be just too boring.

shape!

I was told that doing the silks class would change my shape and I can't believe it, but in just 3 months, I have a smaller waist and a flatter stomach. I can see the difference and my clothes fit in a different way. Now lets just get some plastic surgery to get rid of all that extra skin from two pregnancies -haha.

However, I now have a pulled muscle in my chest (due to who knows what - stretching I think) and had to cancel my classes this week in silks and yoga. Also, I have not been riding in a month.

I started a new needlepoint project (with two others unfinished). These are going to be coasters, each one done is a darkish color and then a picture of this on it in a contrasting neon color.


We'll see how they come out!!!

Thoughts from another blog:

Be kinder.
Be more curious.
Be more aware.
Praise more.
Laugh more.
Be in the moment.
Be flexible.
Be humble.
Be grateful.
Be amazed.

Silks ahoy!

I am really progressing in my aerial silks lessons! I can do things I thought I would never be able to do three months ago.

I can now do a Russian leg wrap which involves hold myself up by my arms and then holding my legs out in front of me while they let go of the silks and one foot wraps the silks around the other. I can climb and let myself down using mostly arm strength. My favorite is now a leg wrap where I have one foot in the Russian wrap and then spin around one of the silks three times. I'm not sure what you call that move.

Here's my video from yesterday.

I was kind of trying to copy this amazing and truely beautiful routine:

beautiful

Music breakthrough

Preparatory to my first Lone Starr college band practice, I have been fluting around and seemingly getting nowhere but today, the nice sweet high notes came out without all the low tone creeping in. Miracle. My flute is 52 years old. I got it in the 4th grade. It has been re-padded twice over the years.

After a half your, I can't play anymore so we'll see how a 3-hour band practice goes. I can't wait to hear everyone tuning up. Band was the most enjoyable part of high school for me. A little clique that I kind of fit into. And All State band - heehee, the boyfriends!!!

The youth philharmonic was another romp thru a bunch of boyfriends, and these were not my sister's castoffs because she was not in that group!

Where are they now one wonders? But not for too long-

Miracle aides

Only time will tell, but I think we have the perfect combination of aides for my parents. My two sisters are going there (arriving today and Sunday) and then we will get a real picture of how things are going. My mother is more alert and is saying a few things. I tried to get her to say the days of the week and didn't hear anything but the aide said that she was moving her lips.

Boring

This is the most boring blog ever. Here's an example of just how boring. Yesterday, I spent the entire day cleaning my family room and never even finished. Most of the time was spent vacuuming cat hair off the furniture. Rearranging books. Scraping those little white spider specs off the dark wood floor and them polishing it by hand. That is the part that is not finished. Also, another area rug to shake out and vacuum. Then I have to drape all the towels and blanket over the furniture in the cats' favorite spots and put the zillion throw pillows back. So when I am done, it will look just as annoying and messy as ever.

The impetus for the actual cleaning was that I am finally going to get some drapes made and they are coming over to measure next week.

Ice Skating ****

I did fall and I do have a bruised elbow but I still want to go again. We skated about 45 minutes with lots of rest breaks. I got better as I watched other people - my body sort of automatically copies them. Talked to a teenager who was very nice and had asked OH if he needed any help.

It felt like a big strain on my shins for about the first half of the time but got a bit better as I started to relax. I suppose that if the foot of my skates had been tighter, it would have been a bit easier.

Anyway, I loved it and can't wait to go again. OH says he would not mind going again either.

4 stars

New activities?

Okay, I'm dragging OH to ice skating and bowling at some point soon! Ice skating sounds like the most fun. My sister is afraid that I will get hurt.

Well, I skated on a frozen pond near my house as a kid. I loved skating next to my mother, holding hands with our arms crossed in front of us! I also fished there with my father and once caught 3 little tiny unidentifiable fish. OH's high school had hockey teams and he skated there every winter.

Bowling is another story. Of course I was on a ten pin bowling league as a kid but have only used the large balls about 3 times as an adult and it was not pretty.

XOX

I love you Wiz,, but you are NOT supposed to follow me when you are with someone else!!!

Silks video

Here's me in my second class.

I went again yesterday but now realize that to really be able to do this activity, I need to be much stronger. For instance, I need to be able to hang my my hands and lift both legs out in front of me, be able to pull myself up with my hands (like a chin-up), and be able to bend much more, not to mention be able to do a regular split and a side split. Since I can barely hang by my arms from a rung, I see I have a long way to go.

However, there are lots of other things I can do on the silks despite not being able to do those things I mentioned. She is going to show me some when I go on Thursday.

Silks again

I am going for my second class in the silks today. I never had such a happy feeling as when I finished the class last week. Here is a routine I would love to be able to do!! I wanted to go right back and do the class again.

Silks

I want to try this today!

bad dream

I had an awful dream Tuesday night. My mother, Dean, J, and I were all sitting at her kitchen table in Florida and all talking and laughing and my mother was perfectly normal. She got up to do something and as she got up and took one step, we all of a sudden (my mother included) realized that she could not actually do that. In slow motion, she started to fall and we all just froze in horror. I woke up before she hit the floor. Did not even try to go back to sleep but just got out of bed at 4:30 a.m.

Wizard does not like to be in cross ties.

OMG, those trees!

I was back on Popcorn yesterday and we mostly trotted and cantered through the woods for two hours. It is kind of scary to be whipping around and between trees at that kind of pace on a narrow path with all kinds of twists and turns!!

In the past, I have done that kind of ride and ended up just hanging on to the saddle from being to scared and tense. But this time, I was feeling pretty good about it and able to relax, set my pace and feel in control. I guess that means I am getting better but still look at other people and think how much better riders they are. Maybe I need to film myself at a lesson and see how I actually look. But - maybe I would not like the results.

CT is such a zoo. People cancel their rides at the last minute or show up super late and mess everything up. Our 3:00 ride started 45 minutes late. The horse I had requested had been given to someone else and I almost had to LEAD our ride! That would have been disaster because I can't ever remember where I am out there. I mean you can't actually get lost and the horses are zeroed in on the barn, but I don't want to be the one responsible if something goes wrong.

Long canter!

I rode a really nice horse called Smurf out at CT yesterday. The cool part was that I cantered all the way down the long one-mile stretch by the creek without getting out of control. (read horses racing each other!) I have been avoiding cantering there be cause of some wild and scary experiences, but this one felt great.

Smurf was sweet when I groomed him. He has a long long mane and I found two big twigs tangled up in it. When no one was listening, I sang Somewhere My Love to him. I could tell he liked it because he was licking his mouth and putting his head down. Wiz loves this song too. Maybe it is something about the melody that is kind of soothing.

I have to ask though, why do I meet so many big men out there who say they have ridden all their lives, but who slunp back with all their weight on the back of the saddle? Thank goodness he was behind me and I didn't have to watch him the whole time.

Spent yesterday at the barn just hanging around with the horses. W was cool, I got there early to be with him because one of his riders was coming for a lesson so I knew she would want to take him. We went into the round pen for a few minutes and he cantered around. Otherwise, sun, friends and horses eating grass. Very relaxing.

prancing horse

After my lesson on W yesterday, I was riding back to the arena and W was curling his head (loose rein) and taking little jogging steps. So cute. I need to re-learn how to massage him. He was all relaxed and sweet when I was grooming him and singing to him. Too bad my singing has to be very private because I cannot carry any kind of a tune. You would not even recognize the song unless you knew the words.

lovely horsie

I saw my best friend Wizard yesterday. I'm happy but kind of desperately and quietly sad. I wish he was all mine. He lives in a nice place though and has good horsey friends and I know he loves his mom, who knows just how to take care of him. I fussed over him for a long time with the grooming stuff and he was doing his usual stare, which I am told is typical arab. We went through all his old clicker tricks (without the clicker) and he knows them perfectly. He got an apple, two mini carrots and some grass.

We walked all around the property, even the scary places. He's so funny when he gets a bit anxious and starts the heavy breathing. I just stop and stand there and he calms right down and is ready to go on. Head up, stop. Head goes down, go. He and new Pony went into an empty field and ran, ate, rolled and made a couple of new horse friends (in the next field). They came when we whistled and let us halter them.

Pony knows his new mom, I could tell. Watched KB do some magic with him and teach him to step sideways. I wish I knew all the things she knows about horses. Pony was adorable and seems to be a very fast learner and very willing to learn! Totally cute.

I still feel happy from yesterday and wish I could have stayed longer. He got a million hugs and kisses and gave me lots of kisses back, or what I call kisses which is nosing me all over the head, face and neck. And standing really close to me and breathing on me. Yuk, you might say but you would be wrong! And his neck DOES smell like peppermint-