Showtime

I survived SAGE!!!

Or at least the English portion of it...

Well you're probably thinking, "Did a bush try to kill you or something?"

Actually no you're probably not thinking that. You could be thinking anything like, "What's for dinner tonight?" Or, "What dress should I wear to that party?" (actually never mind, if you're thinking that, you probably don't even know me, let alone read my blog...). Or you could be thinking, "I wonder what a taco would look like if it had hands. Like would I be a cannibal if I ate a taco with hands?"

Okay guys, take a moment to imagine what a taco would look like if it had hands. *Shivers*

Okay not too bad

So I was at a show this last weekend and, yeah, I got first (insert applause here). Just kidding, I'm just as surprised as you are that I got first.

 So at the show on Saturday, I was warming up this pony named Goldie for this little eight year old who is kind of on our show team. It was early morning like 7:00 in the morning on Saturday (therefore very early) and I was cross country schooling her so she would be warmed up to the jumps, wouldn't spook, and would take all the jumps with the kid on her.

The first 3/4 mile went great; only a few refusals and that was because the jumps were pretty strange looking in the shadows. Then we got to the water, and she was still fine. And then she spooked at the jump coming out of the water. So I took her through the water again, soaking my show breeches. She took the jump without even looking at it (great, thanks, Goldie). Then there was a ginormous tunnel tent thing that was pretty sketchy and had a loose tarp on top of it, and it was windy.

So this dark horrifying thing creating shadows and a ton of noise was right next to the last obstacle. So Goldie doesn't even look at it. Then as we get to the bank, at a canter, she decides to stop and step to the side. I went over, and was hanging on her neck like a sloth on a tree (and let me tell you, that horse was not in the least bit okay with me hanging from her neck).

Probably something like this

Well, um yay I didn't fall off! What was my motivation? Keeping the show breeches clean. They were all soaking wet, so I refused to get them muddy too. Wow, I care more about my pants than my health..

There was also a dressage test which, let's say that did't go too well. I'm riding this ex-international show horse, and I couldn't do well on a simple dressage course (proves that it's not just the horse that does the work and the rider just sits there; you have to work your butt off). We were supposed to go down a center line, and I was about six feet off the center. Also, part of the dressage test was filled with random circles, and on my score sheet, the lady put, "Your circles look more like lopsided squares. Please fix geometry."

I have something to say, but I won't.

Even though I knew I didn't do that well, I may or may not have gotten touchy after a poor dressage test.

Sorry about a super horsey post, but I was just In the Mood for that, and thought I had some pretty exciting news.

An Abundance of Spaz Attacks

Hey y'all, sorry my post last week wasn't that interesting. It was a bad week therefore my blog post was bad. Anyways, I think spaz should be a word. Many of us use it but it's not a word, but it really should be. If combinations of letters like twerk and selfie can be considered words, why can't spaz be word? I mean it describes many of us teenage girls at many times, and we're always looking for new descriptive words, right? I just don't get it.

I've been like such a spaz the last weeks and here are some of the reasons why:

The Good

25 Days until Summer!

Like OMG YAY, I mean school is great, you learn, you get killed with homework, you wake up at 5 am five out of the seven days of the week, and really it's just an overall great time, but SUMMER, IT'S ALMOST HERE! 

I can almost taste it

Even Less Days until Marching Band!

Molly, fellow band geeks, this should also be good news for you. Marching band is a place of many disturbing but hilarious inside jokes, suffering, and pain, and yelling at each other (but somehow, at the end of it, we still manage to talk to the other people), five mornings a week of sweat and sun, and very uncomfortable black shoes.

Fatality

I Have a Horse Show on Saturday!

Yay, again! I'm riding this horse named Bay Magic, and let's just say he's amazing, and he's making getting over Gambit a little easier. But like OMG, I have a show on Saturday, and it's a three phase (which means nothing to you but oh well)! It's an actual eventing show where they have all three phases: dressage, stadium jumping, and cross country.

Fun times

We Have State Band on Friday!

Again, EEP! Like, I don't even know how we made it, but we did, and we get to miss out on another day of school, and I get to spend the day with people I actually like, and it's going to be so much fun!

I couldn't think of a gif to do for this one.... Pardon my lack of creativity.

The Bad

SAGE Testing

One word to describe this: ugh, gross, goshdarnit, crud, yucky, stupid, useless, glitchy, clearasmud, ridiculous, poopy. Oh wait, that was eleven (11, 1, same thing, just bear with me here).  I just love having to spend 50 minutes out of our given 80 minutes in the tech office while my computer is having software reinstalled (and not working), just for a glitchy, rough standardized test. Yup, definition of a great day. 

Can anyone relate?

Spotify

I'm still going to blame this on SAGE Testing, because through the software updates, they removed Spotify off my computer. And my main source for listening to music, gone? Yeah, I'm not a happy camper.

I. Have. A. B

Many of you are probably like, "Oh, boohoo Pauline, deal with it," but really, it is that bad.

You may think they are fine and innocent, but really they're just out there to ruin your dreams

I just reread the Divergent series and The Fault in Our Stars

I don't even know what to do with myself.

I can't look at pictures or gifs because it's going to bring back the feels, and no one wants to see Pauline spazzing out with the feels. Actually you might want to grab a video camera. 

Ciao!

Lessons for Little Kids

I've just been teaching a lot of horseback riding lessons to little kids, and let's just say kids are, um, interesting. Each one is so different. There are a few that are totally helpful and adorable and you just love them, then there are some that just don't stop talking about how much they know about horses. They think they are the most brilliant kid on the planet because they realized horses like carrots. Yup, bravo, kid, bravo. The world is much, much better with your brilliance being contributed to the world.

Then there are others who don't talk at all and it's just super duper awkward.

*Kid is silent

You're silent

Kid is silent

You're silent

You blurt out unceremoniously, "Um what did you have for lunch today?"

Kid is silent

You discreetly say, "Oh okay, never mind."*

 Then there are those kids who are chatty and it's not awkward, but it's a disaster when you put them on a horse. Like they were holding there reins above their heads. Then they glare at you when you ask them to lower their hands. NO KID THAT DOES NOT MAKE YOU LOOK COOL!

The worst is when you give a tiny jumping lesson and this happens.

Ouch!

And then the saving grace is when you have all six of your lessons done so you can go ride.

And then the horse spends ten minutes with their nose in the air like, "HEY GUESS WHAT?! YOU CAN'T REACH ME! NANANANANA HAHAHAHAHA THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!"

No, what?! My day didn't go like that! Psh what are you talking about?

Pauline's Key to Destressing

Well it's the end of third quarter here, and I might as well die. There is so much work to be done in so little time. And if you're anything like me (you care about your grades, you won't sleep until every little last thing is done, you are a perfectionist, you have to study for everything, you are a nerd), you are quite familiar with this little thing called stress. And yes, we are all feeling it right now. I'm partially writing this blog for me, partially for whoever is reading this, but I think we all need a de-stresser moment in our lives.

Social Life? How do you Social Life?

Here are some ways I like to de-stress:


1) Gossip Girl: It's great, I curl up with a mug of hot cocoa or tea, and savor the next forty five minutes of overly-dramatic-trying-a-bit-too-hard-tv, but hey I love that show. I try my hardest to forget about what ever auditions, finals, tests, or assignments may be coming up. If you were just gonna sit around and think about your homework and not do it, might as well relax during that time.

2) A good book: Actually I think this should be number one, but I'm too lazy to move it. I'm reading Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (who else), The Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart, and I'm starting to reread Divergent by Veronica Roth. And these books are necessarily calming books, but what beats a good book? NOTHING! Maybe a cup of hot tea actually.

3) Yoga: Well I've only like tried it once, and it didn't work great for me because I struggle with this condition called L.A.Z.Y. and doing yoga actually requires me to get off the couch, while reading a good book or watching tv doesn't.

YERGAH

4) Calling or texting a friend: Sadly for your poor friends who are already stressed enough, complaining actually does make you feel better because then you realize you are overreacting a tiny little bit, and you are forced to see that it could actually be much much worse, so you are weirdly forced into this tiny bit of comfort from your complaining. I actually might be crazy and you have absolutely no idea what I am talking about.

5) Riding: Well this is probably just me or you fellow horse people out there. Nothing soothes me like a good ride and one-on-one time with my big black, way too fast horse (I love you Gambit!).

6) Did I already say reading?

7) Music: Either playing music or listening to it, when you find a good piece or song, you can just blast full volume and sit back and relax and let music overtake you instead of your stupid teachers.

8) ICE CREAM     Yeahhh, I know where it's at.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE! ONE MORE WEEK AND ONE MORE QUARTER!!

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.