So, biggest thing is that I'm moving tomorrow. Moving in with Scott, near the beach, in a cute little house we will be renting. I'm super psyched, but it's also kind of scary to be leaving behind the one and only place that was wholly and completely and only mine.
My walls are painted; swirly designs are gone. Most of my stuff is packed (though I should be packing the rest right now) and the cat is mildly baffled but doesn't seem to care. (That will change when I put her in the car, I'm sure.)

Getting the last hours I can in at work. I'm actually going to miss the Lowes where I've been seasonally working (for an outside company as a vendor) for the past few years. I have a lot of super great coworkers, even if some of them drive me nuts on occasion. My boss is the greatest; she took me out for lunch yesterday and there was much chatting and laughter. I'm not really looking forward to trying to find someone as cool as her to work for.

I'll deal with moving the horses at a later date.

Anyway, off I go to try to get stuff done! And then go to my last day at work.

Yesterday, four of us drove into the city to be a part of the Protomen music video for Light Up the Night and the Fall. I've never been an extra for anything, so I was pretty pumped, and doing it for my favorite band just made that even awesomer. We got there around 3ish, hung around a bit, and I managed to track down one of the band members to give cookies to (which most of them enjoyed much, it seems). It actually didn't take too long for things to get started; we got to watch them rehearse a fight scene and then they split us extras into groups.

So, the dress code involved a skirt and my lace up boots with heels. So when they pulled B group down for a rocking out scene, and then pulled a few of us aside to sort of mosh, I was terrified and convinced I was going to fall on my ass on camera. I'm not that good with heels in normal circumstances, and especially not when I'm supposed to be going nuts.

Well, got through that with only a slight casualty of my hair. (Thankfully, Gina, my hair-braider friend, had come.) We did some other scenes after, mainly rocking out, one of which totally killed the braid bun entirely. Gina fixed it later, but there's this chance that if I made it into different scenes, my hair will be different in each one, haha.

So, on a side note, I'm not really much of a fist pumper at shows; usually I just rock out in my own special way. But we needed to fistpump, so, I learned. But sweet jesus, I thought my arm was going to fall off by the end of all of the takes, especially since they were doing two songs together for the video. It was good that I was right up front, near Bakker, one of the guitarists, who would fist pump at certain parts, and which really helped re-energize. Though I did accidentally elbow him in the knee at one point, and nearly fistpumped into his guitar. Whatevs, he said he didn't feel me elbow him anyway. (But he's so polite that I think he would have said that regardless.)

They also gave us pizza around 9, and later played some songs as "payment" to us, which was great, since by then a lot of the extras had bailed (it was after midnight at this point) and so it was a really intimate mini-show. We all managed to scrounge up great energy for that, somehow. Then it was back to filming, this time in the rain! Actually, though, the rainy "walking into the venue" scene was my favorite to do, even though I had no jacket and was soaking. Scott and I were walking in together, and this random other extra we'd chatted to a little would run up as we reached the doors, throw an arm around each of us, and we'd walk in. This was all unscripted; we'd basically just gotten the barest of stage directions. I wish I'd gotten the dude's name, because though it surprised the hell out of me the first time he did it, it was pretty fun, and I hope that makes it into the video.

By the time we left, drove to my mom's to drop of Gina and Nack at their car, and then drove to my place, it was nearly 5am. And we'd left early-- apparently filming didn't finish until around then. So you can bet that when my boss called to tell me she miscalculated hours and I shouldn't come in, I was not disappointed.

Oh, and did I mention I also went to see the Protomen on Thursday at a show and Turbo Lover put his hat on my head during encore? Super sweet. Seriously, this band is way too much fun, even when you're utterly exhausted and it's 1:43am and you're just sitting around listening to them tell random stories while other people film outside.

And I get to see them again at PAX this upcoming weekend! Which I need to finish a project for and pack for, ahhhh!

So, yeah. Will post up the finished video... whenever it is done and out!

Fell off the face of the earth again, as happens often enough. Here's the update run down:


Horses
Been slowly teaching Sarge to jump. We've only gone over tiny things so far, and not very often. He's a lazy bum about it, for the most part, and I don't really think you can call anything we've done so far "jumping" as he pretty much just steps over it. Still, exciting times!
He was, however, a little gimpy at the trot when I went out last week. I think it might have been his neck or back-- he kept stretching his head way down at the trot. I'll see how he is when I go out today. Hopefully he'll be rideable, as Kate and I were thinking of trail riding on the weekend.

Shivna is also doing well; been slowly acclimating her more and more to the bridle and starting to work on simple commands when I'm up on her. (And by simple, I mean that we're basically just working on "walk on".) I think that I'll put the saddle on her today, since I've just been doing bareback work so far.

Stopped lessoning since I ran out of money, and that sucks, but I did get to jump my old show buddy Atticus at that barn a few weekends ago, when I went to help out at an intercollegiate show. Yay!


WorkBoth of my jobs should be starting up soon. I plan to work the farmstand full time, and do some part time work at Lowes because I really need all the money I can get at this point.


Fun and Travel
PAX East is Easter weekend, and it'll be my first time, and I'm pretty excitied. It'll be a delightfully giant nerd convention up in Boston, and I'll also get to visit my aunt up there. Super looking forward to the whole thing.

Soccer started back up, and Philly Union had their first game last night. It was away, in Portland. Dave and I watched them get their asses kicked in a supporters bar near him. It's a shame; the head coach basically got rid of their best player(s) and so there are a lot of new faces who aren't used to working together and aren't as good as those who are gone. Blah.



I think that's basically all that's up with me lately; maybe I'll try to keep up with updating more.

So, to continue the theme of "this year has not started super great", my car is going to cost me more money than I have. Last week, one of the wheels started making a weird sound. I needed 3 new tires anyway, so I brought it to Pep Boys last night.

Well, turns out one of my wheels is cracked, right through the metal. They basically tried to convince me not to drive on it. I have no idea how long I HAD been driving on it. It was after 6pm, but the Toyota dealership was still open, so I called them up, as Pep Boys does not carry wheels. Thankfully, Toyota said I could drop the car off right then, get a loaner, and they would be able to emergency order the part. Fine by me; I was halfway there anyway and didn't want to drive back and forth on that wheel.

So, the cool news is that I'm currently driving the 2011 Prius loaner. It's like a space car. There is a button to start, and a button to park, and both of these things confused the hell out of me last night. The other cool thing is that I got a free oil change at Pep Boys for buying the two tires that I got last night. (They wouldn't touch the cracked on anyway.)

The bad news, however, is that I'm already down $225.64 from the two tires I got last night. The wheel was quoted as being nearly $400. Then I need to go back to Pep Boys to have them put it on with a new tire, which will be another $100 or whatever. HOORAY!

I really don't have this money, ug. I still haven't paid any bills for this month except rent. My credit card is suffering. And the lady that claimed she was calling me in to work this week never called, and never responded to my email. Ug. At least I finished a $55 wine charm commission and they just PayPalled me the money for that, so it's something. Stressful, though I know it'll end up ok. It just was one of those expenses that hits at the worst possible time!

So, uh, if anyone wants to order some candles, please do! heh heh heh. Or wine charms, for that matter. And I'm thinking about branching out and doing something else, though I'm not totally positive yet. Sticker packs, maybe, though? Hmm.

Blarg, hoping they call soon to say that the part came in.

And as follow up to my late night post... here, have some actual ways to help: get informed & take some action.
(All of the below are clickable links.)

SOPA information

PIPA information

Sign the Google-run Petition Against SOPA

Electronic Frontier Foundation: Get Congressmen's Numbers or Send a Letter

(I cannot help but find it funny that I couldn't link to certain Gather posts, but I can link to all of these on LJ. Go figure.)

I do not understand staying off the internet to protest SOPA, or shutting down your website to protest it.

Isn't that kind of totally backwards?

If some weird law wanted to shut down all the bagel shops, or, at least, severely limit the bagel flavors*, or prosecute people that made the same bagel flavors as another shop, or something like that, wouldn't you show your support by buying SO MANY BAGELS! Not by steering clear of the bagel shops?

Instead, tomorrow, I will use the fuck out of the internet. I will have so many internets, SOPA will quake in fear from my internet usage.


*BAGELS COME IN FLAVORS

Apparently, I can't post in HTML anymore using the Semagic client. WTF?

Does anyone else get this when they try to use any sort of HTML code? "Error updating journal: Client error: Sorry, there was a problem with content of the entry"

Arg.


Turns out, Russians just hate links to cookie recipes. Or maybe links in general? Has that what LJ has become? Journaling with the link police?

I think we're going to break up now, if that's how things are, LJ. Sorry, folks. I'll be on Gather. (http://etaven.gather.com) Posting my cookie recipes.
(I'll probably view & comment here, but if LJ is going to be a pain in the ass about linking, I doubt I'll be writing much anymore. Not that I really was, anyway.)

---

But it will post that link? WTF. Time for more experimentation.

Yeah. Looks like you cannot post any sort of long link, or some crap like that. Meh. Lame, LJ, lame. I'll be moving on, now, then.

We did the Turkey Trot trail ride yesterday. It was Sarge's first trail, and I had no idea how he'd respond to that kind of thing-- not to mention that there would be a lot of other horses there.

Well... he was a total rockstar. Wanted to GO at the beginning, and make new friends, and trot nonstop, but settled down once we got away from other horses/this mare that was probably in heat. Kate and I found a few places to let them loose... turns out Sarge can keep up with War, though Kate also wasn't letting War all out. There was this slight incident when we were galloping and I went into two point and Sarge was like "WHAT" *buck* but hey, we'll work on that, haha.

We will also work on water crossings. I was dumb and wore my tall boots. Let's just say they got washed in a creek and my feet got squishy because I had to lead him through. Also, some idiot old cowboy was all "ZOMG that is SO unsafe, leading a horse, omg, if he spooks he'll jump on you and then if he gets away your horse will be gone." Yes, because if he spooks with me on him and bucks me off and I end up concussed in the middle of the woods, and then he runs away and I have no horse, that's so much better. After the fact, we realized we should have told the guy, "Sir, it is SO unsafe to ride alone. Where is your buddy? If something happens, NO ONE will know that you're lying in a ditch in the woods!" (He was, however, counterbalanced by the crazy old friendly cowboy with a lip piercing that we met after the ride.)

Also, we were totally recognized by a girl from Rutgers. :D Coming down the path to a street crossing, where she was stationed, and I hear, "omg, is that SARGE?!" haha. Granted, I was in a Rutgers polo, which helped, but still.

I think, because he's a fast learner, next time water won't be quite as much of an issue. Unfortunately, there's not a great way to work on that except by trail riding more. But, now that we know that he's fine on trails, Kate and I are planning to go a lot more. YAYYYYY!

Here, have a photo from afterwards!



I love this ponyface.

I could also title this "I Fail At Posting In A Timely Manner", but I guess a week late isn't too horrible.

Anyway! I brought Sarge to his first show last weekend. We've been working decently prior, and he mostly listens, but my goal had been to get him to a show by the end of fall. Now, our biggest issue is that he gets really excited around new horses sometimes. Part of this isn't helped by the fact that whenever we try to ride around at our farm, all the Standardbreds are like "ZOMG NEW HORSE WALKIN' THRU WITH A PERSON ON HIM!" and come running over. The running (or speed trotting, in most cases) gets Sarge all riled up. Once, he bolted with me, though hey, at least he's comfy, and the last time, he almost did but listened. Yay.

Still, I was a bit worried about taking him to a show with a ton of new horses around. I was kind of hoping, though, that the severe overload of newness would just convince him to Deal With It. I was also kind of worried that I was going to be sorely embarrassed in front of my trainer, though-- this was to be her first time seeing him. And, since I've done all of the work with him, the gaps in his training are my fault, hah.

Well, the day came, and he loaded like a pro, as usual. Scotch wouldn't, and we were running late, so we didn't take a friend for Sarge. He didn't really care. Got there, and Laura braided him for me, Kate tacked him, and I worried about my self and tried not to be terrified. My mother tried to convince me to eat things. I declined. Scott took photos., I was super appreciative of my little team of grooms & supporters.

Sarge was being pretty calm about the whole thing. Curious, alert, but calm. When I finally got on, he was looky but listening. He was hesitant to go into the indoor, having never been in one before, but he went in and we did some trotting to warm up in the front of it. (Crazy pony being lunged in the middle... so we stayed away from that.) Then we went out and warmed up in the ring where we'd be showing.

Did I mention that they put this class in the show just for me? Haha. It was English Pleasure. They stuck it in last minute, and just put two other horses in as filler (people that lesson there, so I knew 'em, basically.) My trainer also told the others to keep a good distance from me since Sarge was so new to all of this.

So, we got down to it... and Sarge was a rockstar. He listened. He was a little spooky about some Horse Eating Flowerboxes, but got over it. The classes were just walk-trot-canter, and we mostly got it all down ok. One of our canter leads was kind of a mess, because he was determined to look outside the ring and so inside bend wasn't quite happening, but that's something we can work on.

In the end, I was super thrilled, Sarge had a great first show experience, and my trainer got to see Sarge behaving. I was super proud that the work I've done with him has paid off. YAY, Sargeface!

And now, for the fun part- a couple of photos.


Lookin' sharp


Carole discussing inside bend... note how Sarge is not listening ;)



We're doing the Turkey Trot this weekend, so fingers crossed that he's as good for that!