Owwwww

Blame work for why I didn't blog last night. It was okay, just fricken boring as usual. Even Wayne admitted there was nothing for us to do but face and vacuum. Good thing I'm reading (haha, I just started to write eating) War and Peace. Yes, the long, long novel War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. I'm insane, haha.

So, what's new. . . .not too much. Still waiting to hear from URI. Just a few months ago I was still feeling unsure that I was making the right decision by going for a Library Science degree, but I feel a lot surer about it now. As I've said, if I don't get accepted, I'm going to spend about 4 months volunteering at Kripalu. I'll need to be surrounding by a peaceful, calming place if I don't get into grad school, believe me. :p

Also, I think my pinched nerve is acting up again. At least I think that's what is bothering me. All I know is that I woke up a few mornings ago with awful pain and stiffness in my neck and right shoulder. It's lessened a little since then, but it's still not great. If it still hurts by next week, I may have to suck up the $120 and go to the doctor (yay for having insurance that my doctor doesn't accept!) though I'm not too sure what she could do for it.

It's not so bad that it's disrupting my life though. It was delivery day at work and of course I had no way of getting out of carting totes around. I still to my riding lesson yesterday too, because going 2 weeks without riding hurts my soul. ;0

Speaking of, still not sure what I want to do as far as staying at this barn. I like my instructor just fine, though I will admit she is a different type of instructor from what I'm used to. She lets me do a lot of riding on my own, figuring out what I need to do, which is good in one way. But then sometimes I feel like she should/could be giving me more feedback or telling me exactly what I should be concentrating on.

I also love the beasties that I ride. ^__^ They're definitely not run-down old nags, but they're also not the super well-trained, fancy horses I got used to riding in Virginia. If anything, they are horses that have a lot of potential, but just need more training. Unfortunately, since 98% of the people who ride them are beginners, it's hard for that to happen. And this is why I need my own horse again, haha. No, but seriously, riding horses like that is actually a good thing because you learn to become a better rider. For that reason, I'm glad to be riding horses like Blaze and Dandy and not necessarily the perfect $100,000 VI horses.

BUT, at the same time, I think I would like to get more into dressage this year. Just low levels, nothing crazy, but I'm not sure that the horses I ride at this current farm are even up to Introductory level. Not that I plan on competing ($$$) but it would also be something we could incorporate into lessons. The only barn that isn't in northern RI that specializes in dressage is in Coventry though, and I wouldn't consider that "close." I would have to spend more time getting there, more money on gas, and possibly more money on the lessons themselves, but I would be able to do more legit dressage.

The only other solution is if I were able to ride one of the barn horses more than once a week. One of the horses I ride definitely has the potential to do low level work, but he gets used for lessons pretty often and I wouldn't want to make him sour from overuse (which does happen). Other than that is just plain the money factor. Doing one lesson a week is affordable, but I can't shell out too much more each week. Fortunately, it'll be quite some time before the weather warms up and I'll *really* want to ride more. Hopefully I can work out something.

And that's it.