Over Break...

I'm sorry I haven't blogged in a few weeks, but I went home to my little town where barely anybody has wifi. That's not mentioning that my motherboard crashed half way through break. Thankfully it was under warranty!

Gee...where do I begin? I guess the ride home wouldn't be half bad. One of my best friends actually drove an hour out of his way to come pick me up to take me home. I hadn't seen him since Thanksgiving break and he still hadn't cut his hair. He looked like Tarzan! Or a hippie. Or just some bum with that refused to even run his fingers through his hair to get out some knots. Oh, anyways, moving on. It was great to get to see him and get lost driving home. We jogged through a couple highways to find food out in the middle of a cornfield and then drove back roads the last hour and a half home. That's always one of my favorite parts about riding with him.

So, I made it home safely and with a guest. My friend's guinea pig decided he didn't want to go to India, so he came to stay with me for a few weeks. I call him cow. His mother doesn't like this. In my defense though, he looks like a cow and his mother is Hindu so I tried telling her that calling her pet a cow was a compliment. She still didn't like this.

Honestly, that was probably one of the most exciting things that happened over break. I know, that sounds terrible, but hey, I live in a town called Farmland. You can't expect too much. I did work with some race horses over break though. Oh, and being in charge of the barn is kind of a big deal too. But what can I say? When you're just awesome, everyone knows it and acknowledges it. Also, my boss was even more amazing and donated to the polo club 70 lbs of cool casts (medicated icy hot kind of wraps for horses' legs), 5 lbs of hoof pack (medicated dough that goes into the horse's hoof), and two big bottles of liniment (a kind of liquid that helps with sore muscles).

I realize that's probably kind of boring so you may find one of my projects a little bit more exciting. I spent almost an entire week making a gingerbread village of the north pole. Everything in my village was edible too! I lied. I had to use toothpicks for the core of the actual north pole, but everything else was edible! (Except the cardboard I set it on.)

 So really, I did nothing over break. But! Now that I'm back, you'll be hearing a lot more from me (with a lot more interesting stuff). Polo matches are coming as well as polo exec stuff that you should keep up on as well as how me and my boyfriend are coming along. :) Yes, none of you knew that. Me and my boyfriend, Fahad. We're getting kind of serious. So! Keep following and thanks for reading (or at least looking at the pretty pictures).

Polo Chukkers and Trail Riding

Finals? I like to believe they don't exist. I know deep down in my heart that they are only a myth made up by demon professors with names like Devilyn (aka The Devil), my math 223 instructor that's never actually taught me in class but sends a TA to explain everything. Or Nagelkirk (otherwise known as Nagel-nazi). Just kidding. I love my high school AP Comp instructor who is just so awesome. But seriously, finals aren't real.

Which is why I have played more polo and rode than studied the past two days. I mean...hi Aunt Annie! I can't lie though; I've ridden every day for three days straight now. Which is a lot for a college student. And. I. Am. Sore. You know how bad English saddles hurt? Really bad. Like I think somebody designed them for their arch enemy. Okay, that may be a little extreme, but they were definitely not made to ride in every day!

However, it was totally worth it! The people that are in Polo club are some of the most amazing, fun, and just plain awesome people in this solar system, let alone on this campus. Last night, we played 5 chukkers (which is a lot considering we normally only play 3 and our horses were beat). And of course, I was simply amazing. The best no doubt. No, really. I'm being serious. I really rocked! My team never lost and I scored at least 2-3 goals every match: the most of anyone there. And I'm not bragging! I'm just telling you how awesome I am...

Here's Kevin (the guy in gray), Mollon (leaning over her horse), (Juanita (in green in the back), and me (in blue in the back acting like I'm not doing anything but had an awesome hit right after this was taken).

And another picture where it looks like I'm doing nothing, but actually turned my horse and scored a goal...right after this picture was taken.

Oh look! And another one!The girl front and center was getting ready to take a goal-winning swing and I cantered up and hooked her mallet and gave her and her horse a bump. So pretty much my awesome-ness was just as awesome on defense as it was offense.

On the left, you'll see little, ol' lone me hitting a goal. Because I'm awesome.

Then, on the right, you'll see my horse acting like I'm killing him with his mouth gaping open like that and rolling his eyes like he's scared for his life. (He likes to act like something is wrong with him besides age and laziness. I'm sure since they have pills for rudeness, they have pills for that now too so he's just out of luck.)

Ah, and finally, I present to you, a partial team picture with a visitor.

(From left to right) Horses: Athena, Sapporo, Peanuty, Gorda

(From left to right) Mounted People: Juanita, Me, Jory, Kevin

People on Foot: Mollon, Laura, Shaniqua (our visitor)

Finally, a good shot of me, polo mallet and all, on Sapporo.

Today wasn't quite so polo filled however. We still saddled up at the barn and ventured into our normal polo arena, but we had two new riders with Marina and me that weren't ready for polo. So instead, we gave the newbies a couple pointers after tacking both our horses and theirs (not the best thing ever...). These pointers included trotting up behind Gorda and hitting her but until she trotted, demonstrating how comfortable the polo ponies were with bumping and running into each other, as well and Athena's ability to turn with only her back legs on the ground. Yeah, she was my horse today. I told you I'm awesome.

Then, we took off! Well...kind of? I guess you could say it was more like bumbling around until we found out where we could ride outside then calmly took off at a walk with an extremely short trot thrown in there. We rode down the road, nothing too exciting that I'll detail to you, but eventually Athena decided she was just not a fan of our direction or distance from her food because she used her wonderful ability to turn on her haunches and head home. We had a fight. And...it was our first fight. We made up shortly after and I'm proud to say that we were able to compromise. And by compromise, I mean I MADE her listen to me. I made up for it later though when I let her all the way out and we galloped through some farmers field who I hope won't mind all the hoof prints digging into his soil.

After this week, I've learned at least one thing between these horses and finals: I want to switch my major to engineering so I can learn how to build a time traveling machine, trek into the past, oh say the late 1800's, and just forget going to college and train horses instead. That's acceptable, right? Toby Keith was right... I should have been a cowboy. -Er...cowgirl.

Life's Rough When You're a Celebrity

Today, I had to wake up before the sun was awake (something unspeakable for a college student) and put on presentable clothes to sit in a room and answer questions for important people for a total of four hours today. Press conferences are the worst! I believe my interviewers were very busy and mute because they handed out these packets of questions to a whole bunch of people instead of talking to a select few of us. I guess the world is just throwing in the common person with us big shots...

I realized later that I wasn't simply mistaken with the crowd instead of being worshiped like the star I am; I was taking my final exams.

Okay, so maybe I might have stretched the truth a little bit. I'm not a celeb nor do I think I am. However, tonight at Polo Club, I was elected president and celebrated with a few chuckers (a match of polo that lasts 7 1/2 minutes). It was the first time I got to play with one of my JV teammates, Juanita, and she turned out to be a really awesome person.

Of course it was great getting to play with our ponies again too!

 

Let me introduce you to the wonderful and lovely Purdue Polo ponies. On the left is Sapora; he's an old, easy going gelding (boy that is missing his...um uh tenderness). Next to him is little Peanuty; she's a sweetheart and was feeling really spunky tonight! Then beside her is the great, magnificent, and forever handsome Athana; she couldn't be a better polo pony. Then, last and possibly least, on the right is Gorda. Yeah, it means fat in Spanish and right now, she's living up to her name. More importantly though, she's a bitch. There's just no getting around it or putting it nicely. I love her to death because she's a sweetheart any time other than when you're trying to tack her or canter. She kicks. And bites. Hard. These are some of my favorite horses away from home. They're probably my overall favorite if you don't count the race horses. Actually, they're probably my favorite living things around here.

Overall, our chuckers went amazingly! The horses went well. The girls played fierce. And of course, I was a beast. Until Gorda attacked someone else's horse....then kicked another....then walked away with only one of my feet in the stirrup.... Yeah, yeah, I think it was a good day.

The Night Before

I remember when I was little-okay, I guess 5' 3" is still little, but we'll ignore that-I could never sleep Christmas Eve because I couldn't lay still. Anxiety coursed through every nerve, every vein, every follicle of my body until I couldn't stand it anymore. But I had to. I had to lay there and deal with it because there was no other option. (Getting out of bed in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve is definitely NOT an option when you're seven years old and waiting on Santa Clause.)

Years later, I would have a similar feeling as I stood in line waiting to board my first roller coaster. Only this time, I couldn't tell if I was more excited or nervous. Sure there was a lot at stake when I was seven-you never know...Saint Nick could totally get my wishlist wrong-but this was a wild roller coaster I was dealing with! Yet there was this anticipation despite being completely scared out of my right mind.

Now, even more years later, I'm feeling the same way. I guess it's not as exciting as laying as still as possible in order to hear Santa sneak in or as nerve racking as waiting to ride your first roller coaster, but this time does resonate that same sensation. I'm not going to lie, I'm scared out of my left mind for my math final tomorrow, but as soon as I get these horrible, terrible, wicked, evil, unnecessary tests out of the way, I can go home and not even think about school for three entire weeks. Knowing that gives me that inexplicable secret anticipation as I sit here studying, thinking not about my tests, but past them: seeing my family and pets again, going riding with my friends, working on the farm, attending my home church, and sleeping!

I have five days, four tests, three days of work, a two-hour ride home, and I'll be at my one home. I'll be counting down.

The Weekend Before

You know that feeling when the end of your life is slowly approaching...at a fast pace? When life and death are in your view, yet you still leave your book shut beside your computer? Okay, that may be just a little bit too dramatic, but let's get this much straight: this is Hell Week.

I have two finals on Monday, yet I have barely even looked over the material. I feel like my doom is on its way to kill my Calc grade and there's nothing I can do to stop it. It's like the Grim Reaper. Or Fate. You just don't mess with that! Anyways, it's just math. It doesn't make sense; it's not supposed to make sense. If advanced math makes sense to you, you're either a) insane, b) not doing it right, or c) an engineer. (Hmm...maybe c) should have been an engineer/all of the above...)

Now my other exam Monday, Biology, is a totally different story. Most Boilermakers are terrified for their Bio 110 final grade, but mine? Mine will be fine. It can fend for itself. It has to. It'll be facing the Grim Reaper if not. Shoot! The Purdue Bio 110 final probably IS the Grim Reaper in its human-uh-biological form.

On the other hand, my last two finals aren't until Thursday and Friday. That means no waking up every morning to go to class or even going to bed at a decent time. However, that does mean studying stuff that'll never make sense because it isn't meant to make sense. To avoid this, I've made a plan.

Plan: Spend endless hours of endless days locked away in some room of some library where only the brave-
or incredibly stupid-venture and commit every detail of Chemistry 111 and Animal Science 102 to memory.

What will actually happen:

Only, I'll be pouring more of my energy and effort into acquiring the sleep I need. I feel like that's the important message to take from this inspirational, hard working dog.

So, with that said, I'm going to skip my original plan and jump straight to the sleeping! Goodnight!