These past two weeks have been insane! In my last post I mentioned how I had been sick. When I went to the health center that Wednesday morning (over a week ago), I had a fever of 103 F! Tuesday night and Wednesday were the worst. I was taking tylenol, but didn't want to take too much; my husband the medic said I should only be taking the tylenol every 6 hours (they were very high strength), but they were only keeping the fever down for about 3 hours. So I was trying not to overload my liver with fever reducers, but I was desperate for relief. We didn't have a thermometer, so I don't know what my temperature was at that time, but I bet it was around the 103 it was the next morning. I didn't get a note to get out of classes, but they did run tests to confirm I had the flu, and not something else like mono (since I've never had it before). My friend from back home came in Wednesday, and I picked her up from the hotel where the conference was being held, after she checked in. We both came back to my apartment and fell asleep for like 4 hours! She was jet lagged, I was sick. Wednesday was supposed to be my riding lesson, but I was in no shape to go, no matter how much I wanted to. Thursday I was feeling better (it helped that my husband came home that night), and Friday I didn't have a fever, although I was still sick with stuffy nose and very draggy. I only went to one class Friday -Physiology - and we had a pop quiz! I hadn't done the reading, but I got full points on the quiz, from using my common sense and memory from Anatomy class.
My friend and I went into DC on Saturday, and spent all day there. We went to the International Spy Museum and the National Art Institute. The Spy Museum was very cool, although maybe not worth the $18 to get in. National Art Institute was free, of course, and very educational. I felt so sophisticated. I was still recovering from being sick, though, and was completely exhuasted by the end of the day. My friend and I were worn out and falling asleep at my husband's friend's house, where we went for dinner and watching movies. Sunday I took her to the airport (awwww, so little time), then started studying. I had a biology test Monday, which I think went well despite not having been to class all the week before (on account of being sick). I had two tests today - one in organic chemistry, one in physiology. I don't think I aced either one, but I don't think I bombed either one. Organic Chemistry was worse, of course, but there will be a curve at the end - everyone's in the same boat as me... Organic Chemistry is VERY hard! I am so relieved that those two tests are over, I was very stressed about them. I didn't have enough time to study. Wednesday I had my riding lesson (the first one where I got to ride, yay!), and so didn't get home until almost 8. Then I had to do my biology and calculus homework. Monday and Tuesday I had done some studying, but not much, so most of my studying for the two tests were last night. And that's not exactly good study habits!! It's over now, though, I'm so relieved.
So Wednesday was my first riding lesson, it was so much fun! I almost always have fun riding, but this was an extraordinary day. I jumped for the first time! I've never jumped before... except that one time in my western saddle... that was just bad. I didn't do amazing, but I didn't fall off, and my instructor said I did "good." She was just so happy that the 4 of us in the lesson know how to ride decently well. That's why we're in the B lesson! Ha ha. I'm still sore, though, two days later... I haven't done that much two-point since I was playing polo!
Well, I'm all caught up, and hopefully life won't be so crazy the next couple weeks, and I'll do a better job of keeping up with my blog.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Technology!
So I'm really enjoying these new phones that have internet on them. No, I don't have one. But my husband does. And my lab partner in Organic Chemistry does, too. Which is why I am writing this post.
So a few posts ago I complained about being sick... well guess what, I still am! Going on 9 days now. By Friday afternoon I was no longer having such a runny nose and teary eyes. Saturday and most of Sunday I felt good (Sunday was the one-week mark for the duration of my sickness). But then Sunday I started feeling really loopy and out of it, and I started getting a fever in the afternoon. I don't know if this is a continuation of the previous sickness, or I just got unlucky enough to get 2 in a row! When I woke up this morning, my fever was better (I don't know exactly how much better, we don't have a thermometer), but my eyelids were VERY puffy. Not the rest of my eyes, just my eyelids. It was very weird. I tried putting a cold wash cloth on them, but I couldn't hold it on there forever. After all, I had to go to class... and I had forgotten to finish my Organic Chemistry lap report, so I quickly did that before I went to class.
I decided I wanted to go to a doctor, the puffy eyelid thing was freaking me out a little bit, and my husband had told me that there is a clinic at Walter Reed starting at 7am. It was already 9:30, though, and those usually fill up. I called one of my husband's friends, and he said he thought they were filled up, but he wasn't sure and he would call me back. Of course he didn't! I thought I'd try stopping by the health center on campus after class, but I know that they only see people strictly with appointments, unless its a real emergency. So I was talking to my lab partner about this (yes, I'm finally getting to the point of the story), and she says, well you can make an appointment online (here I am thinking, yeah, which I can't do until I get out of lab anyway...), or call them. I don't have their number, and tell her so, and she says, I'll find it for you! She has one of those iphones with internet, so we got onto the university website and found their number. I could just click on the number and the phone gave me the option to call it. So I did! Unfortunately, they only had an opening at 2:15 today, and my lab goes until 3:30, so I couldn't go then. I made an appointment for tomorrow morning, though. Hopefully I'll be feeling better and/or they will be able to help me out.
Oh, the wonders of technology! It helped that the TA didn't care that I was on the cell phone. He didn't say anything, even when he walked right by me while I was talking on it, and I wasn't going to bring it up. I like my TA. He'll get a good review from me at the end of the class, lol.
Another wonder of technology is that my husband was able to IM me from his cell phone. He has a full keyboard on his cell, which means he can text a lot faster than I can on my cell. So when I got home and signed on to the messenger, I could IM back and forth with him, when he isn't able to be talking on his cell.
Ugh I'm getting the chills, feels like the fever is trying to make a comeback. So I'm off to get more tylenol...
So a few posts ago I complained about being sick... well guess what, I still am! Going on 9 days now. By Friday afternoon I was no longer having such a runny nose and teary eyes. Saturday and most of Sunday I felt good (Sunday was the one-week mark for the duration of my sickness). But then Sunday I started feeling really loopy and out of it, and I started getting a fever in the afternoon. I don't know if this is a continuation of the previous sickness, or I just got unlucky enough to get 2 in a row! When I woke up this morning, my fever was better (I don't know exactly how much better, we don't have a thermometer), but my eyelids were VERY puffy. Not the rest of my eyes, just my eyelids. It was very weird. I tried putting a cold wash cloth on them, but I couldn't hold it on there forever. After all, I had to go to class... and I had forgotten to finish my Organic Chemistry lap report, so I quickly did that before I went to class.
I decided I wanted to go to a doctor, the puffy eyelid thing was freaking me out a little bit, and my husband had told me that there is a clinic at Walter Reed starting at 7am. It was already 9:30, though, and those usually fill up. I called one of my husband's friends, and he said he thought they were filled up, but he wasn't sure and he would call me back. Of course he didn't! I thought I'd try stopping by the health center on campus after class, but I know that they only see people strictly with appointments, unless its a real emergency. So I was talking to my lab partner about this (yes, I'm finally getting to the point of the story), and she says, well you can make an appointment online (here I am thinking, yeah, which I can't do until I get out of lab anyway...), or call them. I don't have their number, and tell her so, and she says, I'll find it for you! She has one of those iphones with internet, so we got onto the university website and found their number. I could just click on the number and the phone gave me the option to call it. So I did! Unfortunately, they only had an opening at 2:15 today, and my lab goes until 3:30, so I couldn't go then. I made an appointment for tomorrow morning, though. Hopefully I'll be feeling better and/or they will be able to help me out.
Oh, the wonders of technology! It helped that the TA didn't care that I was on the cell phone. He didn't say anything, even when he walked right by me while I was talking on it, and I wasn't going to bring it up. I like my TA. He'll get a good review from me at the end of the class, lol.
Another wonder of technology is that my husband was able to IM me from his cell phone. He has a full keyboard on his cell, which means he can text a lot faster than I can on my cell. So when I got home and signed on to the messenger, I could IM back and forth with him, when he isn't able to be talking on his cell.
Ugh I'm getting the chills, feels like the fever is trying to make a comeback. So I'm off to get more tylenol...
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Singles Awareness Day
Oh, my poor friend.
I got my friend Mallory addicted to the TV show "Heroes" last weekend. It's one of my favorite TV shows, and she came over to watch a movie last Saturday. Well, between us not being able to figure out the TV/speaker/DVD set up (as you know, my husband is gone), and the movies we DID want to watch not working... we ended up watching Heroes last weekend. Of course, I had to talk to my husband before we could get it to work... but we did. Mallory had never seen Heroes before, but had heard good things about it, and I had gotten the first two seasons on Blue Ray as a Christams present (from my husband who knows me oh-so-well). Long story short (too late), she came over again tonight to watch more Heroes. This is not why I say my poor friend. That was just a way to work in Heroes, which I like very much, but which has gone downhill in this third season.
I digress.
She came over as a girl's/movie/lonely night tonight, seeings how it's Valentine's Day, she doesn't have a boyfriend, and my husband gone. That she wanted to watch more Heroes helps as well. She's the one who called it Singles Awareness Day, and now I am finally getting to my point of why I feel sorry for my friend. I don't feel sorry for my friend because she's single, I feel sorry for her because it got rubbed in her face today!
She came over to my apartment tonight already saying that she was very aware of her single status today; two of her roommates have boyfriends. Well, the plan was we weren't going to talk about it much. But then I was so excited to show her my beautiful new necklace (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you can read my gushing in the previous post), and I told her the story about that. She didn't seem as excited, and then I realized I might be being a teensy bit insensitve about this... gah! I rubbed her singleness in her face. Oops.
I have been all whiney about my husband being gone, and not even being able to talk to him today, since he was on a field mission and couldn't have his cell phone on him. He called. Right in the middle of Heroes. Very good for me... but Mallory... My poor friend. Of course I was all excited to talk to him, and went to my room so she didn't have to hear me. But I'm pretty sure I was glowing for being able to talk to him. I have been dreaming about him the past couple nights (good and bad), which makes me miss him even more. Then he called back. Twice. The third time he said he called just to say he loves me again. Awww (*puppy dog eyes*). Insensitive me I tell her this after I get back from talking to him. Well, she didn't say anything, but I think that the girl's/movie/lonely night didn't quite work out the way it planned.
I did make her tacos. She'll get over it. I blame Halmark for the overmarketing of the holiday.
Meanwhile... I got to talk to my husband! hooray!
I got my friend Mallory addicted to the TV show "Heroes" last weekend. It's one of my favorite TV shows, and she came over to watch a movie last Saturday. Well, between us not being able to figure out the TV/speaker/DVD set up (as you know, my husband is gone), and the movies we DID want to watch not working... we ended up watching Heroes last weekend. Of course, I had to talk to my husband before we could get it to work... but we did. Mallory had never seen Heroes before, but had heard good things about it, and I had gotten the first two seasons on Blue Ray as a Christams present (from my husband who knows me oh-so-well). Long story short (too late), she came over again tonight to watch more Heroes. This is not why I say my poor friend. That was just a way to work in Heroes, which I like very much, but which has gone downhill in this third season.
I digress.
She came over as a girl's/movie/lonely night tonight, seeings how it's Valentine's Day, she doesn't have a boyfriend, and my husband gone. That she wanted to watch more Heroes helps as well. She's the one who called it Singles Awareness Day, and now I am finally getting to my point of why I feel sorry for my friend. I don't feel sorry for my friend because she's single, I feel sorry for her because it got rubbed in her face today!
She came over to my apartment tonight already saying that she was very aware of her single status today; two of her roommates have boyfriends. Well, the plan was we weren't going to talk about it much. But then I was so excited to show her my beautiful new necklace (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you can read my gushing in the previous post), and I told her the story about that. She didn't seem as excited, and then I realized I might be being a teensy bit insensitve about this... gah! I rubbed her singleness in her face. Oops.
I have been all whiney about my husband being gone, and not even being able to talk to him today, since he was on a field mission and couldn't have his cell phone on him. He called. Right in the middle of Heroes. Very good for me... but Mallory... My poor friend. Of course I was all excited to talk to him, and went to my room so she didn't have to hear me. But I'm pretty sure I was glowing for being able to talk to him. I have been dreaming about him the past couple nights (good and bad), which makes me miss him even more. Then he called back. Twice. The third time he said he called just to say he loves me again. Awww (*puppy dog eyes*). Insensitive me I tell her this after I get back from talking to him. Well, she didn't say anything, but I think that the girl's/movie/lonely night didn't quite work out the way it planned.
I did make her tacos. She'll get over it. I blame Halmark for the overmarketing of the holiday.
Meanwhile... I got to talk to my husband! hooray!
Friday, February 13, 2009
Phew!
I wanted to write another "TGIF" post, but since I already used that title I thought it might be boring... but nonetheless... TGIF!! Today was a two-test day. I was looking through my schedule (where I have all my tests and paper due dates written down), and I will have a few more of those yet to come. I survived this one, now I just have to make it through the rest of the term.
Today I had a Calculus II exam, and an Animal Physiology exam. I tried to focus on the Calculus exam, because that is the subject I struggle more with, but I was much more interested in studing for Physiology. Even if it was mostly at the cellular level, and like biology. I like biology a whole lot more than calculus! I think I managed to do allright in both of them. Surprise, surprise. I didn't feel prepared for either one (that's what happens when your studying gets split), but when I sat down to do the calculus test the equation just flowed out of my pencil on some of them... Of course, on other questions I stared blankly and wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. But there was more of the former than the latter, so I'll call it a good test.
I skipped the class I had between Calculus and Physiology (Organic Chemistry), so that I could get in the Physiology mindframe. It seemed to work, because I knew most of the information, at least basically, on the test. I was upset about the matching section, though. The professor decided that we were supposed to know the dates associated with different important people in physiology. I don't remember what years Galen did his work! seriously! I thought this was a physiology class, not a history one... but I attempted answers based on process of elimination, so hopefully I got some of those right.
That was my last class of the day, so now I'm home winding down. And missing my husband. I can't even talk to him, because he left for a field exercise yesterday morning, and won't be back until sometime Sunday. So not only do I not get to be with my honey on Valentine's day, I don't even get to talk to him. I was at least able to talk to him on Valentine's day when he was in Iraq. Oh, well. There is good news, however...
Yesterday when I checked the mail I saw there was a UPS slip on our mailbox. I thought that was strange since I wasn't expecting any mail from UPS (just the general post). So I picked it up from the front office at our apartment complex, and saw that it was addressed to my husband. Well, ok. I opened it up, since he won't be home for another week, and I wanted to make sure it wasn't important. It was! He bought me a DIAMOND heart pendant necklace!! 3 little DIAMONDS nestled in there. Oh WOW!! I have never owned anything with diamonds before! It is so beautiful. So thoughtful. He bought it for me before he left so that I would have it by Valentine's day, completely as a surprise to me. Oh I love my husband (and not just because he bought me expensive jewelry, of course). Sorry ladies, he's taken. I can't stop looking at it, and touching it. Quite the treat for me. Now I'm afraid to wear it all the time, since I have the habit of losing and breaking things. But I will have to find an excuse to wear it soon. Maybe tomorrow, get all dressed up and try it on, to see how it looks. :)
Today I had a Calculus II exam, and an Animal Physiology exam. I tried to focus on the Calculus exam, because that is the subject I struggle more with, but I was much more interested in studing for Physiology. Even if it was mostly at the cellular level, and like biology. I like biology a whole lot more than calculus! I think I managed to do allright in both of them. Surprise, surprise. I didn't feel prepared for either one (that's what happens when your studying gets split), but when I sat down to do the calculus test the equation just flowed out of my pencil on some of them... Of course, on other questions I stared blankly and wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. But there was more of the former than the latter, so I'll call it a good test.
I skipped the class I had between Calculus and Physiology (Organic Chemistry), so that I could get in the Physiology mindframe. It seemed to work, because I knew most of the information, at least basically, on the test. I was upset about the matching section, though. The professor decided that we were supposed to know the dates associated with different important people in physiology. I don't remember what years Galen did his work! seriously! I thought this was a physiology class, not a history one... but I attempted answers based on process of elimination, so hopefully I got some of those right.
That was my last class of the day, so now I'm home winding down. And missing my husband. I can't even talk to him, because he left for a field exercise yesterday morning, and won't be back until sometime Sunday. So not only do I not get to be with my honey on Valentine's day, I don't even get to talk to him. I was at least able to talk to him on Valentine's day when he was in Iraq. Oh, well. There is good news, however...
Yesterday when I checked the mail I saw there was a UPS slip on our mailbox. I thought that was strange since I wasn't expecting any mail from UPS (just the general post). So I picked it up from the front office at our apartment complex, and saw that it was addressed to my husband. Well, ok. I opened it up, since he won't be home for another week, and I wanted to make sure it wasn't important. It was! He bought me a DIAMOND heart pendant necklace!! 3 little DIAMONDS nestled in there. Oh WOW!! I have never owned anything with diamonds before! It is so beautiful. So thoughtful. He bought it for me before he left so that I would have it by Valentine's day, completely as a surprise to me. Oh I love my husband (and not just because he bought me expensive jewelry, of course). Sorry ladies, he's taken. I can't stop looking at it, and touching it. Quite the treat for me. Now I'm afraid to wear it all the time, since I have the habit of losing and breaking things. But I will have to find an excuse to wear it soon. Maybe tomorrow, get all dressed up and try it on, to see how it looks. :)
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
6 months cancer free!!!
Nope, not me, my husand, or one of my animals...but my dad! He had surgery 6 months ago to remove bladder cancer. And yesterday he got the most recent test results back... no more cancer!! He just called me and I had to share the great news.
Back to the books...
Back to the books...
Tears of joy? pain? no... just plain sickness!
Ugh I have that nasty cold again. It seems like it must be the exact same one I had over Thanksgiving, but I'm supposed to have antibodies to that one, right? I got sick Sunday and it's still hanging on. First it was sore throat and general fuzziness... now it's congestion and fuziness (thank goodness the sore throat was gone yesterday). After I got back from classes today, my eyes started running like I just had my heart broken. This might even be worse than what I had over Thankgsiving... I don't remember my eyes tearing up this bad! At least it waited until after I was away from the crowds of school, and I didn't have people asking if I was ok.
Can you tell we were having fun in the mud? This was when I was home for 10 days in Alaska last summer. I went on a trip with my mom to Ninilchick and a group ride they were doing there. This picture is courtesy of my mom. Check out her website:
http://www.mtaonline.net/~docdent
I have my first riding lesson tomorrow (yay!), so I hope that I'll be feeling better. Although the first week is only ground lessons, so maybe a little less tiring. I ended up getting placed in the B level, and there are only 3 other girls in the lesson with me. Nice and small! Most of the lessons are 3 or 4 people, since the club only has 7 horses and want to keep them sound. Last term most of the horses went lame! I hope this doesn't happen this term, poor babies.
I finally got a profile picture up! My lap top died while I was home on Christmas break, and it had to wait until I was back in DC to get it fixed. Well, I (my husband) got it fixed. It's still under warranty so we took it to a shop. I got it back last Friday, and this weekend I backed up the files and restored it to factory settings. It had been running very slow even before it crashed. Well, that all went well, but now I can't get the interent to work on it! I keep forgetting to ask my husband about it during our daily phone calls, too. Maybe I'll remember tonight... Fortunately, my husband has a very nice PC I've been using. Since I backed up my files I can put a picture of my horse up. This is the horse I got for my 12th birthday, that my mom is taking care of back home in Alaska while I'm at school.
Can you tell we were having fun in the mud? This was when I was home for 10 days in Alaska last summer. I went on a trip with my mom to Ninilchick and a group ride they were doing there. This picture is courtesy of my mom. Check out her website:
http://www.mtaonline.net/~docdent
It hasn't been updated in a while, but it still has some interesting things on there.
In this one my horse is actually being good and not trying to eat grass while we pose for a picture...but I look like I'm about to scratch my nose or sneeze or something. I wish I were good at photoshop, because then I could just combine the two and get one amazing picture! The view was very beautiful.
Enough procrastinating on reading for physiology... back to the books!
Sunday, February 8, 2009
That went well
No, really, it did! No sarcasm intended. I am talking about my riding evaluation, of course. I was all worried about picking up the correct lead, but I managed to do that alright. I also demonstrated my two-point (at trot and canter) and rounding at the walk. That would put me at the B level (A is the highest, E lowest), except I've never jumped before. The woman who did my evaluation said that B-level riders know how to do small cross rails. So she'll put me in B or C depending on where it would fit better into the schedule. I'm happy with that!
The Sigma Alpha rush lunch went well yesterday, too. There were only 2 of us rushes, and 16 or so other girls, who are already part of SA. My friend L (who is already in SA) calmed my fears about SA putting another big time commitment on me. It would mostly be meetings once a week, on Mondays. So I'm thinking more seriously about doing it. There are two more rush events that I could go to: one Monay at 5, a greenhouse tour; and one Wednesday at 5:30, Valentine's Crafts. I would like the one Wednesday better, so I could make my husband a Valentine's day card, but I also have a meeting at 5 that same day (for collegiate 4-H) that I don't think I'll be out of by then. We'll see.
I'm sick today, so my brain is very fuzzy. I still have lots of homework to do that I didn't get to yesterday... So enough (fun) writing for now... back to the books!
The Sigma Alpha rush lunch went well yesterday, too. There were only 2 of us rushes, and 16 or so other girls, who are already part of SA. My friend L (who is already in SA) calmed my fears about SA putting another big time commitment on me. It would mostly be meetings once a week, on Mondays. So I'm thinking more seriously about doing it. There are two more rush events that I could go to: one Monay at 5, a greenhouse tour; and one Wednesday at 5:30, Valentine's Crafts. I would like the one Wednesday better, so I could make my husband a Valentine's day card, but I also have a meeting at 5 that same day (for collegiate 4-H) that I don't think I'll be out of by then. We'll see.
I'm sick today, so my brain is very fuzzy. I still have lots of homework to do that I didn't get to yesterday... So enough (fun) writing for now... back to the books!
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Confession
I have a confession to make: I don't know how to ask a horse for the correct lead! I think I know, but I'm not sure... I've grown up riding, but don't know how to ask for the correct lead. Some horse person I am, right? Well, I can explain.
My family always did trail riding and packing, which does not involve a lot of cantering, let alone caring about the correct lead. All the horses I rode, until I went to OSU and played polo, did not know the cue for the correct lead, just the cue for "canter." When I got to OSU and played polo on the club horses, we didn't care about the correct lead too much, either, as long as they had stop and go down pretty well (some of them didn't).
I got a green horse for my 12th birthday, right around when I would have been learning more of the finer aspects of riding. So my horse and I learned together. However, she is three quarters Arabian, and very high strung. So in lessons and clinics, we did most of our work at the walk and trot. I got very good at rouding and half-halting at the walk and trot! When we did do canter work, it was focused on her being calm and more rounded, not even caring about the lead. At one clinic, when my horse and I demonstrated our canter, the clinician asked if I knew how to do flying lead changes. When I indicated that I didn't, he commented, "Well your horse was doing them back and forth!" I guess that means she's athletic. But, I already knew that. I kept her in shape to do competitive trail riding, the open division, which meant 20 to 30 miles a day in competition. Yeah, she didn't have a problem with flying lead changes... doing them on cue, however? We were (are) both clueless.
The reason I bring this up is because I am being evaluated on my riding tomorrow, for the Equestrian Club. They want to know where to put me for lessons, at what level. I am a very advanced horse person in some ways; I can do ground training, I have helped raise and train a couple foals; I have given beginner lessons before; half-passing, side-passing, turn on the haunches, half-halts, etc, all this I can do, and train a horse to do. Which would put me at a higher level, of course. Ask a horse for the correct lead? Puts me down with the people who don't know how to sit a canter or post. *sigh* I think that I'm supposed to bring my inside leg forward and my outside leg back, and give the cue to speed up... or is it the other way around? I don't know. In the past, I just rounded the horse going in the right direction, and they usually picked it up alright. If they didn't, I'd slow them to a trot and try again... but how much was my fault, and how much their lack of training? Guess we'll see tomorrow!
My family always did trail riding and packing, which does not involve a lot of cantering, let alone caring about the correct lead. All the horses I rode, until I went to OSU and played polo, did not know the cue for the correct lead, just the cue for "canter." When I got to OSU and played polo on the club horses, we didn't care about the correct lead too much, either, as long as they had stop and go down pretty well (some of them didn't).
I got a green horse for my 12th birthday, right around when I would have been learning more of the finer aspects of riding. So my horse and I learned together. However, she is three quarters Arabian, and very high strung. So in lessons and clinics, we did most of our work at the walk and trot. I got very good at rouding and half-halting at the walk and trot! When we did do canter work, it was focused on her being calm and more rounded, not even caring about the lead. At one clinic, when my horse and I demonstrated our canter, the clinician asked if I knew how to do flying lead changes. When I indicated that I didn't, he commented, "Well your horse was doing them back and forth!" I guess that means she's athletic. But, I already knew that. I kept her in shape to do competitive trail riding, the open division, which meant 20 to 30 miles a day in competition. Yeah, she didn't have a problem with flying lead changes... doing them on cue, however? We were (are) both clueless.
The reason I bring this up is because I am being evaluated on my riding tomorrow, for the Equestrian Club. They want to know where to put me for lessons, at what level. I am a very advanced horse person in some ways; I can do ground training, I have helped raise and train a couple foals; I have given beginner lessons before; half-passing, side-passing, turn on the haunches, half-halts, etc, all this I can do, and train a horse to do. Which would put me at a higher level, of course. Ask a horse for the correct lead? Puts me down with the people who don't know how to sit a canter or post. *sigh* I think that I'm supposed to bring my inside leg forward and my outside leg back, and give the cue to speed up... or is it the other way around? I don't know. In the past, I just rounded the horse going in the right direction, and they usually picked it up alright. If they didn't, I'd slow them to a trot and try again... but how much was my fault, and how much their lack of training? Guess we'll see tomorrow!
Friday, February 6, 2009
TGIF
My friend L asked me how my organic chemistry quiz went (I had class with her afterwards), and I said, "Well you could've done just as well as I did!" And she hasn't taken Organic Chemistry. 'Nuff said.
Last night I was studying for Orgo, and doing my calculus homework. So after I made dinner, I didn't do the dishes! :-o There is an upside to living by myself! I didn't have to feel guilty; there was nobody to care if I did them or not, except myself. I've never lived by myself before, and have never had this experience. When I left home, I was going to school and of course had roommates. Now I'm married and live with my husband, who is quite the neat freak (and a bit OCD about it!), so I was bad and a bit messy. Of course, I did the dishes first thing in the morning. I'm not a slob! It was nice to see a little positive about being here all by my lonesome in a strange city. Ha ha I really don't feel that sorry for myself. I just miss my honey.
Tomorrow I'm going to get a free lunch! It's a rush event for Sigma Alpha, the professional agriculture sorority. I've thought about joining, but I don't think I will this term, it would be that much more responsibility to worry about! I'm just using them for the food. :) Sigma Alpha is a good sorority, not your typical social sorority. I have quite a few good friends who are in the sorority, including my friend L I mentioned in the beginning of this post. But I'm already in the Equestrian Club and Collegiate 4-H, so I don't need another association to make time commitments to. hmm... do I sound like I'm trying to convice myself? We'll see. Free food tomorrow!
Last night I was studying for Orgo, and doing my calculus homework. So after I made dinner, I didn't do the dishes! :-o There is an upside to living by myself! I didn't have to feel guilty; there was nobody to care if I did them or not, except myself. I've never lived by myself before, and have never had this experience. When I left home, I was going to school and of course had roommates. Now I'm married and live with my husband, who is quite the neat freak (and a bit OCD about it!), so I was bad and a bit messy. Of course, I did the dishes first thing in the morning. I'm not a slob! It was nice to see a little positive about being here all by my lonesome in a strange city. Ha ha I really don't feel that sorry for myself. I just miss my honey.
Tomorrow I'm going to get a free lunch! It's a rush event for Sigma Alpha, the professional agriculture sorority. I've thought about joining, but I don't think I will this term, it would be that much more responsibility to worry about! I'm just using them for the food. :) Sigma Alpha is a good sorority, not your typical social sorority. I have quite a few good friends who are in the sorority, including my friend L I mentioned in the beginning of this post. But I'm already in the Equestrian Club and Collegiate 4-H, so I don't need another association to make time commitments to. hmm... do I sound like I'm trying to convice myself? We'll see. Free food tomorrow!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Ups & Downs
Well, it's been a few days since my last blog post, so I'd better catch those of you up who will eventually (I hope) read this...
Exciting news first: I got my English 101 exemption!! I turned it in Friday (the 30th) morning, around 9:30, and they sent me an email 12:30 telling me I got the exemption! hooray! I was at home when I got the email, so my poor husband got to see me jumping around for joy. It's just such a relief, since I put so much work into the portfolio, and that I won't have to put all that work into the class this term, and it saves me money in the long run; one less class I will have to take. This term will be hard for me; I am taking 16 credits: Organic Chemistry II (lecture and lab), Applied Animal Physiology, Calculus II, and Biology I (I added that after I dropped English), so it will be nice not to have to write all those time-consuming papers. Biology won't be too bad, I feel like I have a good handle on most of what they'll teach. At OSU, they accepted my IB scores so that I wouldn't have to take introductory biology, but here at UMD they aren't accepting them, I would have had to score one level higher (I got a 5 {out of 7}, they wanted a 6).
But I digress. As for dinner last Wednesday night, which I mentioned in my last blog post, my husband and I went to a Moroccan restaurant, which was very nice! There weren't many people there, it being a weeknight and all, and the food was good. I had lamb (not as good as my mom's cooking, of course) as the main course, and the baklava desert was excellent. Apparently my husband got a coupon for the dinner, from slickdeals.net, for restaurant.com. He bought a $50 certificate for $3!! Very cool. So that's why we went out for dinner.
My husband also bought a $50 coupon, that we were going to use to go out to dinner with a couple of his friends. We had to spend $100 to get $50 off, so he planned with 2 of his good friends (who are also in the army) to go out Saturday night, the four of us (a double date! I joked, they are both men). Well, they let us down. They went out and got completely wasted long before we were going out (reservations for 7 o'clock), and were in no shape to be doing anything. At 7 they were still at a bar somewhere, so reservations got changed to 7:30. Then they were trying to drive to our apartment (yes, completely drunk, unfortunately nothing I could do about it) using one of those navagators, but couldn't get the address in right. We gave up and canceled the reservations, and the guys went back to their drunken reveilries. It was so disappointing because we had been planning this all week, and my husband left today for 16 days, so they won't see him for a while (not that it affects them like it affects me, but still!). They were so irresponsible, and the ironic thing is that they are both around 30, almost 10 years older than my husband and I, go figure.
So that night my husband and I went to Circuit City, to check out the good deals since they are going out of business, then we went to dinner. We ended up just going to Fudruckers (spelling?), which is of course very tasty, if not exactly the steak dinner we were planning on. I could tell my husband was angry, but he didn't say anything about it, other than that we probably weren't going to hang out with them the next day for the Super Bowl like we'd planned. I'm not a big football fan anyway, I could barely name who was playing. I spent most of my weekend, definitely all of Sunday, reading my Animal Physiology textbook. As dry and difficult as it was to get through, it's a much better use of my time than the super bowl. Gee, can you tell I'm a nerd. "lol"
Like I said, my husband left today, so I'm feeling kind of sorry for myself. He won't be back until the 19th or 20th, so I'm alone in the apartment by myself. I've made a couple friends, but not really close ones, so I won't have a really good girlfriend to hang out with, like I did in Oregon when I felt sorry for myself being away from my husband (he was in Iraq).
I am going to go to my Equestrian club meeting now, hopefully that will cheer me up... it is about horses, after all!
Exciting news first: I got my English 101 exemption!! I turned it in Friday (the 30th) morning, around 9:30, and they sent me an email 12:30 telling me I got the exemption! hooray! I was at home when I got the email, so my poor husband got to see me jumping around for joy. It's just such a relief, since I put so much work into the portfolio, and that I won't have to put all that work into the class this term, and it saves me money in the long run; one less class I will have to take. This term will be hard for me; I am taking 16 credits: Organic Chemistry II (lecture and lab), Applied Animal Physiology, Calculus II, and Biology I (I added that after I dropped English), so it will be nice not to have to write all those time-consuming papers. Biology won't be too bad, I feel like I have a good handle on most of what they'll teach. At OSU, they accepted my IB scores so that I wouldn't have to take introductory biology, but here at UMD they aren't accepting them, I would have had to score one level higher (I got a 5 {out of 7}, they wanted a 6).
But I digress. As for dinner last Wednesday night, which I mentioned in my last blog post, my husband and I went to a Moroccan restaurant, which was very nice! There weren't many people there, it being a weeknight and all, and the food was good. I had lamb (not as good as my mom's cooking, of course) as the main course, and the baklava desert was excellent. Apparently my husband got a coupon for the dinner, from slickdeals.net, for restaurant.com. He bought a $50 certificate for $3!! Very cool. So that's why we went out for dinner.
My husband also bought a $50 coupon, that we were going to use to go out to dinner with a couple of his friends. We had to spend $100 to get $50 off, so he planned with 2 of his good friends (who are also in the army) to go out Saturday night, the four of us (a double date! I joked, they are both men). Well, they let us down. They went out and got completely wasted long before we were going out (reservations for 7 o'clock), and were in no shape to be doing anything. At 7 they were still at a bar somewhere, so reservations got changed to 7:30. Then they were trying to drive to our apartment (yes, completely drunk, unfortunately nothing I could do about it) using one of those navagators, but couldn't get the address in right. We gave up and canceled the reservations, and the guys went back to their drunken reveilries. It was so disappointing because we had been planning this all week, and my husband left today for 16 days, so they won't see him for a while (not that it affects them like it affects me, but still!). They were so irresponsible, and the ironic thing is that they are both around 30, almost 10 years older than my husband and I, go figure.
So that night my husband and I went to Circuit City, to check out the good deals since they are going out of business, then we went to dinner. We ended up just going to Fudruckers (spelling?), which is of course very tasty, if not exactly the steak dinner we were planning on. I could tell my husband was angry, but he didn't say anything about it, other than that we probably weren't going to hang out with them the next day for the Super Bowl like we'd planned. I'm not a big football fan anyway, I could barely name who was playing. I spent most of my weekend, definitely all of Sunday, reading my Animal Physiology textbook. As dry and difficult as it was to get through, it's a much better use of my time than the super bowl. Gee, can you tell I'm a nerd. "lol"
Like I said, my husband left today, so I'm feeling kind of sorry for myself. He won't be back until the 19th or 20th, so I'm alone in the apartment by myself. I've made a couple friends, but not really close ones, so I won't have a really good girlfriend to hang out with, like I did in Oregon when I felt sorry for myself being away from my husband (he was in Iraq).
I am going to go to my Equestrian club meeting now, hopefully that will cheer me up... it is about horses, after all!
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