Band Concerts! Yay!

Rockin' On Top of the World! That's how I feel right now! We had two band concerts in a row. Let me repeat myself, TWO! I'm like super duper excited and I'm feeling really rejuvenated (and nap-worthy). I feel so Christmas-y right now because of listening to so much Christmas music and seeing so many Santa hats! I didn't get to go to the barn again (ug!) but the band/orchestra/choir festival and smooth performances more than made up for it! By the way, when you put a good orchestra, a good band, and a good choir together, it is the most heavenly sound and music you will ever hear.

There was a "little" incident in our band concert. First of all, let me explain that the whole two days were pretty much complete chaos because we've never done a concert like this. The bands playing were just as confused as the audience. Mr. Taylor, our band director, told us to not do what the eighth grade band did. And that was to not go on stage too early and sit there without any idea what to do. Anyone, can you guess what we did? Yup! We got on stage too early **facepalm.** Even earlier than what the eighth grade band did. We can skip the fact that we were all sitting in our spots on the stage, cracking up and sharing equally puzzled looks with our fellow band people.

As things got even more awkward, someone stood up to tune us because it could be pretty nasty playing without tuning. We then tried to do an exercise to check if we were in tune. Well, the person who tuned us had no idea how to conduct (it's easy! Floor, door, window, ceiling, people! Floor, door, window, ceiling!), but thank goodness for him anyway. If he hadn't shown up, it would've been a multiple-train-trainwreck rather than just a singular-train-trainwreck. After we tried to tune, someone gets up to apologize to the audience for our band director not being there yet (he was still conducting another band in a different room). He starts his very speech with, "Well I'm probably going to flunk this class for doing this..." Classy. What was even funnier, no later than thirty seconds after that person sat down, someone else came from the hall and apologized to the audience, again. Once Mr. Taylor walks onto the stage, he looks to us, laughs and smiles, then shakes his head. Go Thursdays!

One last thing, my good friend, Molly, well she and I listened to Varsity Jazz Band (they are amazing) together on Wednesday. When they started their last tune, Baby, It's Cold Outside (probably our favorite tune), she and I turn to each other and give each other the most priceless looks of creepy happiness.

We smiled smiles very similar to this one.

I hopefully will be posting a video of me on Gambit on Saturday so you can finally see me ride!

Last Sundays

Before I start, happy (late) Thanksgiving! How was yours? Mine was great, I did dishes all day. 

You know those Sundays after a break and you have the overwhelming doom of having to go to school the next day? You know that depressing feeling you get when you have to pull out your homework after your backpack has been in the closet for a week growing dust? Do you know that awful feeling when break is over? Yes, yes we all do. Every. Single. One. Of. Us. 

I know I'm still getting over the Post-Thanksgiving-Dinner-Hangover. I'm still living in the dream of no school, going to bed at whatever time I want, knowing that I'll be able to wake up the next morning, and lay in bed, snuggled up like a burrito, then close my eyes and go back into burrito sleep. But that dream is over. When the alarm rings tomorrow morning, I'm probably just going to stay in my burrito. 

This morning, I pulled out my dusty backpack and the uncharged laptop, and sat for a while, refusing to believe that tomorrow is school. After sitting around for an hour, I just started homework. Woohoo, what fun it is to laugh and sing in a homework-induced coma! My mind is already on Christmas and gifts (this is the kind of thing you might be getting from me).

Come on Santa! We're waiting!

This break, has been amazing. Even though I only had one burrito morning this break, I'm more rested than I have been since summer, and I finally had a sleepover with some friends. 

PAUSE

Let me tell you a bit about that sleepover. My friends and I, oh, we are such rebels. Do you know what? At eleven that night we snuck some items in the room: water and pretzels (GASP!!). Yes, we know, we are such rule breakers. Even worse, we spilled one of those five glasses of water (oh we're in trouble now!). Okay, after sharing with the world what rebels we are, I can continue.

UN-PAUSE

I don't exactly remember where I paused, and you probably don't either, so we should start on another random tangent. Agreed? 

At the barn this week (here I go again), nothing really eventful happened. I did have a really good dressage lesson where I realized my horse does understand leads and can actually do dressage well, and then the next day when I tried again, I was nearly bucked off. Also during that same day, we decided to take a jump (bad, bad decision, Pauline) and my lovely steed took the jump about eight feet away from the jump and jumped about a foot and a half higher than it had to, so it probably looked something like this: 

Not with too much over-exaggeration...

Sorry it wasn't a picture of me, I lost my video camera. Whoopdee-doo. 

And to make my day even greater, it’s raining. Since I’m too busy sitting on a chair procrastinating, have a lovely day for me!!

Crazy Dressage Interpretations

Well, people who have been following since my first post (if any of you exist), you should know that I switched horses fairly recently so I could do a sport I love: eventing. This consists of jumping, cross country, and dressage. Gambit, my horse, however, prefers the jumping and cross country part of it much better. That's not to say I don't either (I definitely like jumping better, I mean, who gets adrenaline from making your horse bounce and do unnatural movements, sitting, and smiling and pretending that you are doing what you should be doing? I don't! But it's necessary, so whatever), but dressage is definitely a main part of eventing.

After today's lesson, I realized dressage was going to be much harder than everyone originally planned. Yes, Gambit is very good at looking pretty, and is fairly good at listening to instructions but he hasn't mastered these things called leads, and so that means no matter how good we look, dressage will be impossible. Well maybe not impossible, but the art form we would be doing would not be called dressage, but more like let's-prance-around-the-arena-and-scare-the-crap-out-of-my-rider-and-make-her-cry-because-I-wanted-to-eat-those-flowers-instead-of-trot-from-k-through-x-to-m. Yes, I'm not over exaggerating. I also would go into much more explanation, but I would bore my few readers of this blog away from this URL for unhappily ever after.

Back to riding, if I were to go into competition right now for dressage, my test would look like this:

This is not what a dressage test should look like.

Well what happened today in the lesson? It wasn't a bad lesson, but I definitely wasn't a star today. Let's say we were supposed to be cantering in a circle, a 30m circle, and picture this: A teenage girl on a huge black horse racing all over the 200m riding ring, speeding around on the wrong lead, changing directions every few seconds, and the trainer telling the poor teenage girl to calmly to toggle her reigns, sit back, think slow thoughts, breathe, and think what she wanted to look like. Ladies and gentlemen, Pauline and Gambit. Yes, because these are things humans love to do when speeding around crazily on an ex racehorse.

Who here knows what dressage is supposed to look like?

I promise, I really can ride, I'll start posting videos soon when I actually remember my video camera has a working battery and can take videos. Well in the meantime, if any of my readers (like five or ten of you) are actually riders, here's a short survival guide about how to relax and have a dressage test go well. Go riding!

I Can Breathe through Squeaky Reeds

 I didn't end up jumping out of a window before the concert, no car crashes, I actually survived the concert. But barely. You know how for a saxophone, clarinet, or some instrument like that, there are these reeds that you put on the mouthpiece so that when you blow into it, it makes a sound. Well when those reeds break or are dry, they squeak. And guess what happened when my part was featured and when I had a solo? My reed dried out. So "SQUUUEEEEEAAAAKKKKK" was a common sound heard during that song. After my reed failed in me and I was totally humiliated, there was still applause as to say, "Ladies and gentlemen, Song for My Father featuring Pauline and the squeaky, uncooperative reed!"

"Yes, thank you, because I'm not already embarrassed enough without the pity clap..."

Well it wasn't that bad, I worked through it, and I did have some pretty good note choices. I just had some major technical difficulties... But afterwards we went to Cold Stone and got ice creams and smoothies. The best part is, like half of the jazz band was there. It was like an after party! While the poor ladies wanted to close up shop, all of us band geeks were talking together.

And the best part of this is?! I got to go to the barn today! And let me tell you, that helped me so much. Funny how spending time with four-legged creatures that weigh ten times as much as you helps. That is my definition of therapy.

But guess what? It's almost Halloween! My (wait a moment.... first, second, third, oh I got it!) fourth favorite holiday of the year! Well I will go more elaborately into this in a later blog post! See you around!

To Do or Not to Be

Well you are probably thinking, "Now that ain't right." And no it ain't. Okay, I'm done with the bad grammar. Well to do or not to be, that is the real question. Back to my little issue, music or horses? Well, I'm still figuring it out, but I haven't had a horseback lesson in now three weeks. That's awful for me. Think of something you really love. Reading, video games, art, sports, chasing children, whatever makes you happy. Now think about not doing that for THREE WEEKS. Or for any of you music people out there, imagine not going to band or a lesson for three weeks. Well now you feel like me.

I'm shaking out of my own skin, wanting to have a dinosaur step on anything that comes in my way of the barn, etc. Oh and look, what conflicts with the barn? Music. Hey look, I like music. Wow, this is just dandy. I have two band concerts, two weeks in a row, ON THE SAME DAY I'M SUPPOSED TO GO TO THE BARN! So now, the question, to do or not to be? Or to be and not to do? I'm either going to do band and music lessons, and not be at the barn. Or, I will be at the barn and not do band.

Well the answer ended up being to do and not to be. I'm going to the concerts. I love music. I love band, most of my friends in school are from band, and my grade depends on it. So music ends up being my Wednesday plan for the next two weeks.

I have a solo at my jazz concert (if you go to this link, they might have videos of the concert) tonight (which I am planning on jumping out a window before so I can have a reasonable excuse not to go). I'm terrified. The only other times I soloed in front of everyone was the last jazz concert. Most people you would expect a solo to be like "Ba da ba da ba da ba da ba doo waat. De be da bah da doowat-doowat doo ba da doo wah-daht," and so on. But I was like "Garble de farble de doowat garble, squeak, breathe, garble dee," and so on.

The irony is, I'm much more comfortable on a horse that ways at least ten times as much as I do, jumping over things that are 1/2 to 3/4 my height, speeding 25 mph towards a gate and doing everything I can to not slam into it, than I am standing up, playing about a minute of improvised music to people, and sitting back down.

This is 2 feet six inches...  Back when I used to go to the barn..

Don't get me wrong, I love, love, LOVE music and jazz, but it's easier to listen to it than it is to play. I just scare myself by inadvertently comparing myself to people way better than me in music. On horseback, people dare to compare to me. 

What's Worse than Bio Class? (Beware of TMI)

What's worse than sitting through bio class, listening to your teacher drone on about stuff, repeat the unnecessary things, miss the useful information, sharing looks of pure misery with your class mates, and waiting for the clock to reach 9:03? Missing bio class. Let me tell you, it's not just biology. Every class is hard to make up, but especially biology, because who wants to come in after school to make up a lab assignment all by themselves with your teacher telling you it's on canvas? NO ONE. And this is exactly what I am going to have to do. I have been sick for three weeks in a row, and not just a wimpy little cold. Like full on asthma, huge cough attacks, sinus infections, and toilet hugging. That has been my hobby the last three weeks. Delightful, huh?

I've been in and out of school like every two days, and this was the last day of school before the break. And hey, I get to worry about making up class all over my four day weekend. Oh and being sick and missing even more horseback riding lessons. So this weekend that I have been desperately needing and looking forward to, I will be getting to know my toilet. I love this.

Well, even how awful this was, I got to sleep in until 10:30 this morning. That never happens. Normally I'm up, rushing around, throwing on makeup, shoveling food into my mouth, accidentally swallowing toothpaste, grabbing my backpack and three instruments, and rushing out the door, sprinting back in, grabbing my phone, and darting out the door again once 5:30 am starts. Now that I've had a relaxing morning (well as relaxing as nausea lets you get), I have now gone through three episodes of Sherlock, cleaned my room, painted my nails (which did not make my stomach feel any better--tip, never paint your nails when you are sick), and updated my blog.

Sherlock and blue nail polish

One would think that you could be able to sleep when you are sick, but I'm not that type of person (which is probably why I am still sick after three weeks). Thanks to this thing known as an internal clock and this other thing called school, there's no such thing as, "Hey! You're sick, so take a day off and get better!" It's more like, "Hey, you're sick, and I don't care, you have three excused absences a quarter!" For all us overachievers out there, this means, "Hey! You're sick, but since all three of those absences are used up, how about you come back to school and don't get better and get the rest of our beloved children sick! Yaayyy!!" But hey, my nails are blue, my room is clean, my mind is full of very happy images (thanks a lot Sherlock), and I get a five day weekend!

Oh, where are you John, I've missed you.

A Closing of the Dewey Chapter

I've been riding this horse named Dewey the whole year and we made a pretty good team. That's not to say there weren't the ups and downs. Dewey was a paint horse, but he didn't have spots. That meant the gene skipped him. He was silly, quirky, a little bit rotten, and very naughty. Despite this, I loved him. He went back yesterday. Of course, there was the emotional roller coaster. It's saying good bye to a best friend, to a teammate. On a tangent, horseback riding is a sport. It is very much a sport. And the horse is your teammate. We can communicate with them, very differently than you would communicate with a person, and that's what makes riding flow like magic.

Last lesson with Dewey, he's side stepping in this photo.

Back to Dewey, it was sad to see him go. I had been working with him for a full year, but I decided it wasn't going to work anymore. The rotten little horse that I came to love, did the wrong sport. He is a western pleasure horse. It's not his fault, and I tried for six straight months to fall in love with the sport, but it wasn't my thing. Just for a quick explanation for what western pleasure is, it's when you put a huge honking saddle on a horse (a western saddle), and make them look very pretty while you look like you know what you're doing. It's all about being slow and controlled and looking gorgeous at the same time. If you ever watch it, it looks like it's pointless, but let me tell you, it is hard as heck. But then again, what do I know. Dewey was a regional champion and he knew what he was doing. It was my job to sit on him, pretend I was as good as him, and win all the blue ribbons. Blue ribbons are first place.

Western Pleasure is a difficult task for the horse and rider, and many people have different views on western pleasure. This article is about what western pleasure is trying to complete.

Dewey warming up.

I event, and that's why I'm moving to Dare to Compare, or Gambit, as we call him. He's this guy.

The Mafia Horse, or Gambit, in the aisle.

Eventing is dressage, show jumping, and cross country. Dressage is like western pleasure, the goal is to make you and the horse look very pretty and relaxed. It's just faster paced. Show jumping is when you and your horse are in an arena with a specific height of jumps that someone conveniently dropped in the arena. They expect you to jump it. And of course because if you are the best at it, you get a blue ribbon. And winning is everything. Cross country is jumping but in a huge field, still in a course, but it's a race. Whoever doesn't fall, their horse doesn't bite the dust, they don't get lost, and they have the fastest time, they win.

Dewey rocked at dressage, but didn't quite take to show jumping and cross country. That's alright, he was afraid of heights. He wanted to keep all four feet on the ground. And I still love him for that. He went back yesterday, with a big, sad, tearful closing of a chapter, and I'm still very achy in the heart over him going back, but I'm prepared for a new chapter.

My favorite photo from my last photo shoot with Dewey.

Inspirational Internet Blogs

Let me welcome you to my world of riding the Mafia Horse (who really isn't a Mafia Horse) and my wonderful life of horses (well maybe not so fabulous, but horses are what throw some life into it). Welcome! My name is Pauline, and if you couldn't tell by my first sentence, I am a horse fanatic. Even though I have a huge love of horses, I'm not obsessed with them. Well actually, I don't know. I don't think I am. I'm not some sort of freak that my only thing in life is horses. Horses aren't the only thing that occupy my life; there's band and homework, too. And that's pretty much most of it.

Just for your information so you aren't totally confused, the Mafia Horse's show name is Dare to Compare, but we call him Gambit or the Mafia Horse.

I'll start myself out by showing you a few blogs that are my inspiration, or role models, for this blog.

The first one is: http://thingsilearnedfrommyhorse.blogspot.com/      

This blog is about a lady named Susan Schreyer and her funny little everyday adventures with her horses and what they teach her. She has some funny posts about relatable topics if you are in the horse world. Of course, you would find a blog like this boring as heck if you weren't into horses because there are some technical terms. Also, the humor is always relating to horses and what would be common sense to a rider. I find this stuff funny because I'm a geek about anything I get into, and this is one thing I am very in to. I hope I can make my blog enjoyable for you to read and not a bore.

Another blog I really like is called Bad Jumping Clinic with George Morris.:  http://www.horsenation.com/2013/09/13/bad-jumping-clinic-with-george-morris-5/

This series is written by a person who goes by the name of Wylie. They are called bad jumping clinics by George Morris, who is a very old professional horseback rider, who went by a lot of old tactics. Quite frankly, he seems very grumpy sometimes. I wouldn't blame him; he is old and trying to keep a sport the same when it is taking ten new pathways. It can be very frustrating, just like trying to explain the internet to grandparents. Wait, sorry, bad comparison.

Anyways, back to the blog. The blog is not written by George Morris, and it's where people submit a picture of them having a really bad fail while jumping, and a lucky three people will get chosen for that week to have their pictures very sarcastically criticized. Sounds like a blast, huh? Ironically, it's a very funny blog, especially to people who actually do the sport. I like the blog because it's well organized, has very funny pictures, and lots of wit poured into it.

Another website I enjoy is: http://horseeventphotography.wordpress.com/

This one is called Pics of You and it's just a blog where a horse photographer takes a lot of photos of people she knows or people at shows she goes to. This blog is a lot of fun for me just to scroll through all of the picture of the beautiful horses and their riders. When seeing some photos, I can store away what I want to look like sometime in my future of riding. This blog inspires me because there are plenty of pictures and descriptions for each ones. I also like it because it's not too technical.