Month: March 2005

The recent rain has cut into my riding again.  Truly I enjoy the rain as a rule but the arena is outdoors and turns into muck.  If the arena is muck, the trails are muck.  I’m not willing to risk my horse’s shoes nor the chance of straining a ligament in slippery footing.  We’ve done each of those.  That cuts into my riding too.  So I’m on Spring Break with little to do but watch DVD’s and read mysteries.  Oh yeah, I’m supposed to finish grading exams too.  I should be relishing the relaxation time but I’m not because I’m anxious.  Being able to ride would help a lot but I’m not really all that unhappy about not being able to ride. Sure, I’d like to but Clipper and I have a lot of riding days ahead of us so that’s not what is really bothering me.

I’m anxious about a job applied for yesterday.  It’s the job I want in the right location.  The job is for this program with The Nature Conservancy.  I’ve also picked out a piece of property that both Dave and I are drooling over.  We very nearly jumped in the car to drive two days up to make an offer on it.  Then we came to our senses.  We don’t have jobs yet.  We’re not precisely sure when we’re moving.  Our house isn’t for sale yet.  I’m trying very hard to just let it be but that is not one of my strong suits.  Then I got this message from tut.com:

The difference between
    taking baby steps and acting small, Corrina, is that one
    prepares you for success, the other for a fall.

Of course, it was exactly the right message at the right time.  Baby steps.  Wait for the right job.  Don’t make any offers on property that you’ve only seen on the internet.  Granted I know the property, have driven by at least a thousand times in my lifetime and even within the last year, so it’s not like I’d be picking a piece of property in Montana, where I’ve only visited once.  Still, I’ve never been in the house or barn.  Taking baby steps is an important reminder.  I’m so impatient to have the answers right now.  Partly that’s because I’m an impatient person, and partly because my job runs out in three months and I want to have a place to go.  It seems like things are coming together for our move.  I hope these are the right things.  Meanwhile, I wait and try to distract myself from being anxious.  I have a big job ahead of me.

This poetry exercise came from here:

Here’s my attempt:

Where I am From

I am from hand-me-down clothing and bicycles, from Breck
Shampoo, and Western Family mayonnaise.
I am from the green hills and gray skies above the Skagit River delta.
I am from the wild pink azaleas, Oregon grape, and Douglas firs.
I am from the small family farm and hard-headed
stubbornness, don’t know when to quit, from Esther and TerryAnn and the
Andersons.
I am from a vocabulary of mispronounced words and leap
before I look.
From do as I say not as I do and you’ll have kids like you
some day.
I am from Trinity Lutheran Church, where Palm Sunday means
waving palm fronds at the procession, where God keeps score between my sins and
good deeds, from fire and brimstone forever if I covet my friend’s clothes.
I’m from Skagit County,
wet western Washington, the Midwest, Western Europe and Scandinavia,
fresh salmon and home grown vegetables.
From Dad goes fishing while Mom births my little sister,
church on Sunday unless there’s football game on television, and farmers get no
holidays, even Christmas because the animals need to eat.
I am from photo albums, boxes of mementos, a graduation
certificate, year books, walls of fame, and recesses of memories.

I subscribe to Totally Unique Thoughts, which provides me with something to think about every day.  What is very interesting about this subscription is that these sayings seem to come at a time when I need them the most.  For instance, yesterday I spent a little time dwelling on the past.  As in, what coulda woulda mighta.  Then the following statement came in my email box today:

If you didn’t do what you
    wish you had done, Corrina, or if you did do what you wish
    you hadn’t, may I suggest that back then you were simply acting on instinct,
    and that it served you well?

    Particularly knowing as I know, how else things could have gone and how far
    ahead you now are.

    Oh yeah, you done good, Corrina. Real, real good.

And this is exactly right.  I needed this reminder today and several times today.  My instincts have served me very well, given the various circumstances I’ve faced.  I believe this is true for almost everyone.

When I’m feeling guilty about not doing enough, this statement reminds me that all is right in my little personal world.  It’ll all work out so I don’t need to fret today.  I have done enough.  My instinct to throw in the towel for today is good.  I’ll stop and get some rest.

Winter appears to be over and spring seems to have arrived.  I’m cautious saying this because of the record rainfall we’ve had so far this year.  In typical SoCal fashion spring lasts approximately one week then summer arrives for about nine months.  Spring is not only heralded by nice weather but my body thinks it’s spring too.  I wake up around 6:00 a.m. on weekends.  I get restless.  I want to throw the windows open and clean.

Today we worked on the horizontal blinds in the windows for the whole house.  Keep in mind that housecleaning is not my favorite activity on a nice day but I couldn’t ride this morning because the arena is still sloppy.  Yesterday I cleaned off my desk, which was a monumental task but it sure felt good to have it done.  Cleaning blinds takes several stages, the first of which is to figure out how to tackle the darn things.  I tried cleaning them with a damp cloth while they hung in the window.  I tried taking them down and using the dining room table.  Finally I resorted to taking them to the patio table, hosing off the biggest chunks then scrubbing each slat in its entirety.  Because I have a good husband, he helped me.  He took down the blinds and put them on the dining room table while I cleaned a set on the patio table.  Here’s the hosing and cleaning station (click on photos to enlarge):

You should notice several thing in this picture, the first being the lovely color of the sky.  It’s a gorgeous day here.  The other is the set of blinds in the foreground on the patio table, next to the blue bucket filled with warm water and PineSol.  If you look at the center of the picture you’ll see clean blinds air drying next to the pool.

In this picture you’ll notice my wonderful husband rehanging the blinds and hand drying them.  Yes, hand drying each slat that I painstakingly hand washed.

In this picture, our reward for working so hard this Sunday morning awaits us!  This wine rack is filled with lovely bottles of fine wine, including real French chablis, a South African dessert wine, and old bottle of Port, and several fine reds, including a Chateauneuf de Pape.  Okay, we won’t be sitting down for our reward (and not in its entirety at one sitting!) until much later but it’s nice to contemplate relaxing now that my hands are fried with PineSol and my ancient Birkenstocks are ruined because I didn’t think to change into rubber flip flops until halfway through the scrubbing process.  Such is the pull of spring cleaning!

We continue to get rain so I have more time to write than ride.  I’m happy to report that Clipper is learning his lessons very well.  I rode on Thursday, despite the previous night’s rain, in a very mushy arena.  Technically we were not supposed to be riding in it but the owner tends to sleep late so we snuck in for a lesson anyway.  Clipper’s canter is finally becoming more balanced and adjustable.  When I first got him, his canter only had one speed: fast.  We’d pass everyone in the arena.  We still pass other riders but not like before.  And he can canter on a circle at one end of the arena without leaning in so far.  His jumping is fine, as it always has been.  It’s the pace between jumps and setting him up for jumps that still needs work (for both of us).

Last weekend I was sick so I watched the assistant trainer ride him.  He still has problems with flying changes but after he learns to balance himself better, those will come.  My trainer’s prices went up significantly so I can afford about 3 months worth of training before I have to figure out something else.  Clipper is learning quickly and some of those lessons I can do myself — canter in circles.  Lots of circles.  I don’t quite trust myself with draw reins but perhaps my trainer will give me a lesson with them before I have to take him out of training.

Three months of training is actually appropriate as we hope to move in  just less than four months.  Job pending, of course.  I’ve been applying to lab jobs at the University of Washington in the Oceanography Department.  Keep your fingers crossed!  In the meantime, I only have 2 more weeks of this quarter, spring break, then 10 weeks of next quarter.  Time is flying.