We celebrated by going to a friend’s amazing Halloween party extravaganza- we had a fabulous time! Enjoy some photos
Happy Halloween!
costumes
Halloween fun part 2!
Barn party time! And I had already forewarned one of the organizers that 10 a.m. was likely too early for me to show up lol as I was going to be at a party and PROBABLY hungover. Wow, how right was I? Too right, unfortunately 😦
We got home from the party around 2 a.m., YIKES. So..yeah the morning wasn’t really working for me. To add to the fun I was caught in a nasty cough- puke cycle thanks to my terrible cough from the race the day earlier…Fun times. So I got up around 9 a.m.-ish and spent a few hours puking before my kind husband bought into my madness and determination and agreed to drive me to the barn to participate.
I made it to the barn without puking so I figured I was getting closer to getting better! But tacking up was …a challenge. Every time I bent down I felt like I was going to puke again, so Ian had to help out and pick out hooves, etc. But hey were there and trying to make it! Sheesh.
I mounted (and everyone was glad to see me make it, ha) and wobbled around nauseously for a bit, thank god Oats is basically a saint pony because I was NOT riding, more like just existing at that point. Bit by bit I felt better slowly, not good enough to eat but ok to try and drink, because I was dying of thirst.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/oKeLYceOXyM
The barn organizers kindly waited for me for the trail class and we got to do that first! 🙂
And then it was games time- we started with egg and spoon and it was HARD hahahah and I think it was a tie or something. Next was musical stalls and we lost lol, and then pole bending and Oats and I beat our lesson mates 😉 and finally it was time for ride-a-buck, where we dithered if we were going to do it full bareback and guess what? We all DID?!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SlGkHWo0nVM
Now that was the last thing I’d figure I’d be doing, hungover as hell, but hell we did it! Oats was a total star and we only won because my lesson partner had to forfeit- she couldn’t get her very recalcitrant pony to canter. Oats and I were doing lap after lap with me clinging on, feeling like mayyyyyyybe it’s time to gently slide off and die.
Ian got the prize money ($30?) for being a good sport for the day!
And then it was time for clean up and a bonfire with weenies. I couldn’t eat any but Ian got one, and I got a mini cupcake that I ate much later, lol.
A fun time was had by all!
Happy Halloween!
We carved it last night!Â
Workplace fun!Â
Happy Halloween! (party recap)
So you know how I said last weekend was crazy busy? Well, that was just a warm-up for this PAST weekend. I know eh? How did I get so lucky?!!
We had the party-  Night Shift at the Museum – on Saturday night, and after that we walked down to our friend’s place, where they were also having a party!! But first, my costume: Tippi Hendren from The Birds. The theme was ‘Hollywood Horror’ and my husband went as Donnie Darko from the film.
The Birds- Tippi Hendren
The party? Well, I to be honest I was kind of disappointed. It just wasn’t as…flair, or fun, as last time. I was a bit bummed out. The lineups to get a drink were ludicrous, so we didn’t even grab a beer or a cocktail!
A skeleton pirate at the museum.
The fun events from last year- the cheesy ‘Mad Scientist’ and spooky storyteller, and charms-making- weren’t there. 😦
This year they had an insect in movies talk & video clip show, which was nice, but I was…looking for more? And quite frankly, expecting more.
Spooky mine shaft scene.
We did get to walk through the new exhibit, ‘Mammoths’ which was very cool.
All in all, I don’t think I will go for a third year in a row. Kinda been there, done that? I was very  impressed with the costumes though, very neat and a lot of effort went into that.
I wore my famous ‘skull dress’ to work on Halloween- dress made by my mom!
After the party, we left and walked to our friend’s place. While we were walking, we were chatting about horror movies, and I was asking my husband what his fav horror movie was. We talked about ‘The Ring’ and ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’- the original- and I felt something slowly grabbing MY LEG?!!!
I was so close to a huge freakout. I looked down…And saw that the belt on my costume had come undone, and was slowly wrapping around my leg. JEsus.
Scary pumpkin by me, happy pumpkin by Ian.
We then went to our friend’s place, and I ate SO much candy/chocolate and chips. Ugh, instead of drinking (I had a race bright and early the next morning) I got candy-drunk and boy, I do NOT recommend it…But had a fun time anyways, and my friends had some super awesome costumes too!! 🙂
Gidget likes Halloween, except for the doorbell ringing…
My alarm didn’t go off the next morning- actually as my husband corrected me, it went off, but the radio was so quiet that we couldn’t HEAR it go of. Genius…
The story of the race recap is to be continued…
Also we did up our house for Halloween and we actually got Trick or Treaters this year! Whoop!
Halloween in many parts: Part 1: Night Shift–Nightmare at the Museum!
Since I had so much fun this weekend, I’ll have to split my recap into a few parts, starting with Halloween night at the BC Royal Museum. They offer a series of events called ‘Night Shift’ and this one was called ‘Nightmare at the Museum’ and man, it was a blast!!
A glamorous night- photo courtesy of Laticia!
It started at 8 p.m. and had a schedule of events that ranged from a big dance floor, to Ouija board/seances in Old Town, a jazz band in Old Town for a few hours, various exhibits dressed up to be spooky–and they were SO cool, and good luck charm making, and skeleton/vampire/zombie dancers (sadly we missed these), a Mad Scientist act- that was super boring actually, we left early, and a short tour discussing various bloody historical disasters- that was neat!
Whooping it up in Old Town! (photo courtesy of Laticia)
I had a great time! You could buy some food for $5, drinks for $7, including beer, wine and two signature cocktails–incluiding Vampire Blood and Dark and Stormy. I had a Dark and Stormy and a curry- that maybe caused me to have a stomach bug the next day but that’s for tomorrow’s story…haha.
We cruised up and down and checked out everything! I loved the exhibits that had random eyeballs, dead baby dolls, zombie glowing eyed deer, a UFO in the sea exhibit, the Mastodon that gored a clown?? Soooo cool.
Mastadon takes out a clown.
I would DEFINITELY go next year- the tix were $30 and they sold out within the week. So, the moral of the story- get your tickets fast, becuase this is the fanciest Halloween party you’ll ever go to, and the most fun too!
Fancy a swing?
A deadly picnic…
Burn your fires for no witness
Jump lesson update!
I didn’t update after my schooling hack on Tuesday because it was non-remarkable–Oats was being a good pony, we did some lateral work to limited success, and well, it was fine. Yesterday I had my jump lesson and something interesting is starting to dawn on me…
As I get better about my anxiety, and am learning to manage it and appropriately stretch my boundaries, I’m coming up against something my equine counselor warned me about: frustration. She said with learning comes frustration or being mad about something and that is just the way it is expressed, as part of the process.
I’m coming in to my lesson with Oats, not being frustrated at him, but being frustrated by our ‘pace’?!! And it never really bothered me before, and I think it is close to 100% in my head? For example…
We worked over a small gymnastic and then moved on to a little course. The gymnastic was a two-stride x-rail to vertical. Nicole moved it in because quite often Oats is backed off and not super forward through the lines, and if horses were jumping it before us, then it’s set too long.
Well! We worked through it, I complained that he felt too slow and she said he was eating up the lines, and she had to move the jumps back??? He was making the horse strides through the gymnastic, which pretty much never happens, and I was complaining that he felt too slow? What is going on in my brain??
Very interesting. The course itself went well and funny enough so did the gymnastic. Oats did have a few moments of extreme befuddlement over green box (which he has jumped a million times before) but now it was on a circle, in a shadowy part of the arena…So he jumped it like it was 3ft high and 4ft wide? WOAH! He did that every time too! I think he was having trouble ‘seeing’ what he was jumping, so figured that overjumping was the best/safest policy…Poor pony, it was kind of hilarious how confused he was by the box?
Proof Oats has jumped the green box with no drama.
I did have moments where I was very close to my comfort zone and I let Nicole know, but I think it’s just a phase in my learning process right now. I never felt scared or super worried, just kind of…oomph, let’s GO Oats!
Also- Oats would like to wish everyone a happy Halloween! I think he looks better as a bunny than as the devil, don’t you think?
Oats as ‘himself’ last year…
Bunny Oats
The adventures of Mr. Oats 