An amazing weekend!

The weather was INCREDIBLE last week and this weekend. Wow. After my extensive complaining that April was the new February (no joke, I realized I had been writing ‘Feb’ on all my journal entries for Oats?? I guess it really did feel like Feb?), we had a real turnaround with a heat wave and I loved it!!

So glorious…

Sadly, like all things ephemeral and temporary, it will not last, but man…Wasn’t it glorious? Weather up to 20 degrees (15 where I live on the water always), and it was just stunning. It was easy to forget we are still in the middle of a pandemic that is getting worse before it gets better- my vaccine time is NOT going to be soon, sadly- it was just so nice to get outside and enjoy the fresh air and sunlight.

I enjoyed the sunlight perhaps a bit tooooo much- my face was sun-shocked and red and tight but not sunburned after my extravagances this weekend. Even with sunscreen! Ha! I guess it had been that long since it was so sunny and warm, my poor skin didn’t know what to do.

We took drinks to the beach and sat for a few hours and watched otters play in the seaweed beds, hunting. We people-watched, admired the sunlight, the water, and listened to music. It was perfect.

On Saturday my husband joined me on the track!! I know! He never does, so we hoofed it over there after I rode Oats (lightly- he is very hot with his shedding fur coat and is not acclimatized at all), and worked on rehabbing both of us for running again. Me due to injury, him due to not running over the winter. It was hot and really nice out.

That afternoon we hit the beach again! It was glorious.

Sunday I went for a brief run, then headed back to the stables to ride and medicate Oats, and then we set up a work party for Sunday so after our ride I worked in the fields cutting back blackberries, dumping and scrubbing water tubs, and checking fence lines, picking rocks and fallen branches. Hot work and damn those blackberries are terrible. But, good to get it done and such a lovely weekend to do it on eh? Hard to believe it was April.

The good times never last though, and this fine, fine weather will be going on Thursday. Back to cold and rain. I am already sad to see it go….

Here you are again. All messed up and no place to go.

Felt like a good weekend to quote Bright Lights Big City…

Friday was pretty tame- a glass or two of wine, dinner (salmon cakes!) and some TV watching with Ian.

I love this photo. Friday at the barn!

Saturday I got everything done- everything! A redemptive ride on good ol’ Oats (no lateral work, I did NOT want to poke the bear…) some fun pole work and called it good. A nice time was had by all.

I also got a good long run in on Saturday, in preparation for my work Xmas party that evening. That is where my title comes in…yeeeeesh. It started off great, a glass or two of Prosecco at a colleague’s house (yay!) and then we cabbed to the party. The food was great, company was scintillating, and the booze was definitely flowing. Too much. Too fast. I lost track of what I was drinking – for me, a sure sign of disaster- and enjoyed myself a touch too much.

We went from classy sparkling wine, to doing shots of tequila in the bathroom. Uh oh. I should have realized that things were going from a real high to a real low. My lovely husband drove all of us drunk girls home (safety first!!) and I crashed into my bed, only to jump out of it and puke super hard, repeatedly, at night. NO…

Ian even said I was scaring the dog, I was puking so hard. Oh man, it was definitely the tequila! Dammit.

My whole next day was a total freaking miserable write-off.

Today at the barn. Oats and his best buddy! Just let me chew on your face a little…

I was so queasy and nauseous, going from my bed to the couch was like a sickening horror. I felt like puking for ages. I was sweating and dizzy. I went back to bed, feeling miserable and sorry for myself. I finally took a prescription anti-nauseant (Zofran) and it relieved the terrible, grinding nausea and I was able to eat some soup! Yay!!

I was still kind of sweating and feeling like my clenched stomach was going to give me trouble, so I decided that hungover running was a better bet than hungover riding, so gave up on riding on Sunday and went for a jog. It was…ok. My upper lip was sweating? I could literally smell the booze wafting out of my pores, so..yuck.

I spent most of the day on the couch or in bed. Took a walk with Ian and Gidget, had some dinner and watched a movie. Kind of a waste, but that’s life then eh?

“Be gentle in what you do, and firm in how you do it” Buck Brannaman

So, weekend recap. I normally like doing these on Tuesday, because sometimes Mondays are just.too.damn.difficult to wrap my poor brain around, let alone blog coherently on the same day…

Friday night, I rushed after work to set up for the craft fair at my friend’s place. Made it home around 6 p.m., slapped makeup and a dress on, and we cabbed to my husband’s work Xmas party. We had a great time! Drinks, casino games for charity, food, dancing…What’s not to like! I had been feeling tired, generally put-upon and draggy but just felt totally livened up!

Fancy Christmas party!

We got home around 1 a.m. and then the next morning up bright and early for the craft sale.

I was tired, no doubt. It was kind of a long day, but I sold all of my products with three exceptions: 1 lip scrub and 2 foot scrubs. Not too shabby!! I’m not sure if I will do it again, I liked making them more than selling them, to be honest.

Craft sale- bath/body

No Oats riding on Saturday, as I was at the craft sale for the whole day!

Sunday I went riding and Oats was in rare form…Excited to go down to the ring, squealing a bit and kind of jumping around on the way down. Part of my brain was like hmm…Should I have been longing him before I ride, as he’s had two days off?

Anyways, he settled down fine in the ring, with only a few head-tossing moments when Donato was thundering behind us in the canter (large horses cantering with us is a FIRECRACKER moment for Oats, and he generally starts losing his shit when that happens) so I pulled him back down to trot to prevent any major bucking or leaping sprees.

He was pretty good though, otherwise. We worked on straightness at the canter on the diagonal over a pole, and then trotted a small vertical (funny, we first trotted to it and he slammed on the brakes, he -and I- had gotten distracted by someone walking past the indoor arena waving a blue jacket!) But we pulled it together, and re-approached from the right facing away from the open side of the indoor and did it twice, successfully.

He was so tired after though, I was surprised my little Oats was huffing and puffing. To think of it, I was sweaty and out of breath too! hah.

We are apparently in the middle of a tropical storm right now, so I expect tonight’s lesson might not go…smoothly…But we shall see!