In which snow cures all ills (ie, school is canceled)

I awoke yesterday to a glorious white wonderland. It made this grey city shine and sparkle. I hope that I never grow so old or so serious that snow fails to make me smile.

This has actually been a wonderful week. Seattle, when I'm not in school, suits me perfectly. It's not that school is so bad, I just get really tired being taught everything by powerpoints, and some of the attitudes associated with the school. I just keep telling myself that if I can do this, it won't matter that I'm not enjoying it, it will pay off in the end. Er, so that was not the upbeat paragraph I was trying to write. Oops, redo.

This week has been fantastic. On Friday Dad came up and we went to a greek hole in the wall in my neighborhood. Amazing food, super cheap. We've hit up the Italian place, Romio's, a good three times since I moved at the beginning of the month too. I live in a delicious neighborhood.

Saturday I went to the U-District Farmer's Market with Sarah D. from school. It was a lot of fun, but freezing cold. We went to Chaco's Organic Cafe (I think that was the name), and had some delicious Egyptian Red Lentil soup. I had a great time. Poor Sarah, I think I talked her ear off. I don't get to be too social anymore. After, I headed to the Goodwill on the Ave, and found a classy pair of jeans for 10$. Not bad, since they retail at $185.

Sunday, Gabriele and I met up at the Cinebarre in Mountlake Terrace for Harry Potter 7. I had a fantastic time! It started snowing before I got there, so of course I was thrilled with that. The movie was great, and we split a pitcher of mimosas (also great :p) and a pizza. Yum.

Monday, the snow really started coming down, and I made an executive decision not to go in to school. It would have taken twice as long to get to school as my class takes. Not worth possibly falling. So I had a day off, a physical therapy session, and mainly watched more online tv than anyone should.

Today school was actually canceled, which was great. I walked around town, got some Christmas shopping done, and cleaned a little house. I have steadfastly been avoiding homework, which is going to bite me in the bum soon enough, but I just don't care.
Cameron gets into the airport tonight, so Dad is driving to get him, then heading here. Looking forward to seeing him. Been almost a year.

Tomorrow we're going to check on Starla. I'm a little worried about her in the snow at this new place. They aren't exactly as diligent as Teresa was about taking care of the horses. I'm sure she'll be fine, but I want to see her, ride a little. I leave with a pic of me adventuring in the snow yesterday. Hopefully I'll remember to write over Thanksgiving break!

Catching up

I hit a deep, dark place when I moved back, caused by the loss of my fantastic dog, distance from my boyfriend, and an odd living situation. As a result, I just didn't work on actually updating this thing. So we'll go with a short summary, then I'll hopefully do some updates that are a little more substantial.

September:
-School starts- quarter system is nice because the classes go fast, but it's disorienting too.
October:
-Mainly horseback riding, apartment hunting, schoolwork, and hanging out with Willamette people.
November:
-Move into my new apartment, still just starting to adjust to life in Seattle.

Mkay. Feel all caught up now? Haha, probably not. Well, I'll write a post about the recent goings on in my life, and we'll see from there.

In which I realize I never take photos....

Oh well, it's quantity of blog entries, not quality, right? The past few days have been busy again, but looking up. After no improvement, we took my dog to the vet, where she was tentatively diagnosed as having had a stroke. She got some nice cortisone injections, and while she is not yet herself (and may never be all the way), she's doing so much better. I'm glad not to need to say goodbye.

I've started riding again, and Starla is doing pretty well. The new barn is new environment than we are accustomed, but at least everyone is friendly.

I've spent a lot more time in Marysville than expected, because I wanted to be here for my dog. Last night I went back up to Seattle so I could have a night out with Angela and her husband. We went to the Melting Pot, which was completely amazing, and a great deal. If you go any day of the week during happy hour (4-6pm or 9-11pm) the chocolate and cheese fondues are half off. Drinks aren't bad either, considering it's a pretty classy place.

Today I caught the bus and headed to the University District, which I decided is the coolest part of Seattle. My friend Gabriele and her boyfriend Charlie met up with me and we had fantastic greek food at Costas, then got drinks at Earl's. We had heard that Earl's was like our own beloved Pete's in Salem, and there were definite similarities. The major difference is we were on University Avenue during a Huskies football game and the bar was packed with a sea of purple people. It was a little too crazy to get a good feel of the place, but I'll go back again.

Haha, I'll I've done the last couple days is eat delicious food! I was excited because I'd lost 3-4 lbs since getting back from Arizona, but I feel like I may have put that back with fondue alone :)

Pretty tired tonight, so I'm going to hit the hay soon. Ray Lamontagne tomorrow! I'm really excited. I just wish they weren't predicting rain. Anyways, goodnight.

The Times They Are A Changin'

Ugh. This weekend went better and worse than expected. Poor Starla. She's not a bad horse, but she doesn't have much experience with trailers. As a result, when we got her in one she saw my dad with the lead rope, bolted out backwards, fell over out of the trailer (didn't hurt herself, thank god), and gave my dad an impressive set of rope burns. I felt pretty awful about the whole experience, and both dad and Starla are pretty shaken up. But at least I own a trailer now, and can start training her the right way with the trailer.

I moved into the Seattle house, and it's going to be great. I just feel so weird to be in Seattle, when for the last year I was certain I'd be living on the East coast. It's odd, but I kinda feel like I failed by not going out of the PNW. Of course, it's hard to turn down such a great deal from such an exceptional school.

Tonight I came home from Seattle to spend time with my dog. She seems to be taking a turn for the worse, and I want to spend some time with her. I picked her out when I was ten years old, she's my baby.

The last few days have been tiring, just getting Starla settled, and dealing with moving to the new house. The news about my dog has just added to it.
This weekend should be great though, and a much-needed break. My friend Angela (and new housemate) and I are going on a girl date to the Melting Pot in Seattle. We're going to get dressed up and go out for drinks too :). Sunday, my folks and I are going to see Ray Lamontagne, which should be all kinds of awesome. So hopefully this weekend will make up for the trauma of this week.

If anyone is reading this, please send good thoughts to my poor little girl. She's an old doggie, but I'm not ready to say goodbye just yet.

My horse prior to being traumatized by the trailer.

My awesome doggie.

Gardening...really isn't my thing.

This isn't technically true. I love planting veggies and herbs, I just don't really care to do much with flowers. I appreciate them when they are there, and I'd love for someone to give me flowers at some point ;), but I just don't really care to mess with them much.

My musings seem rather random, until you realize I spent the whole day spreading bark. I'm tired. But hey, it's a low-intensity work out that I get paid to do, so I really shouldn't complain.

Leaving tomorrow morning for Salem. I'm pretty excited to see friends up there, and hopefully the horse-y move goes well.

I am excited to be back, and I can't wait to start hanging out with people again and move up to Seattle. I've been pretty restless in Marysville. Not a lot to do here except clean my old bedroom out or organize things. Both these options seem pretty dull. Next week looks like it's going to be a parade of working, socializing, and unpacking, so it should be pretty exciting. A week from now I think I'll be living in Seattle!

I got a trailer!

So the deal worked out yesterday, and I bought a sound, silver 2 horse slant for a very fair price (and about $1000 below my budget!). I will post pictures soon, but I forgot to take them today. The trip there and back was hellish with traffic, but I'm still glad to have it. We also have to work out some wiring issues between the trailer and my truck because the plugs don't match up, but my dad is working on that, and I'm fairly confident he'll make it happen.

Today I went and dropped more money on the title transfer and tabs. Boo. I'm feeling pretty broke right now. Need to remember to fill out my loan paperwork soon so I'll stay afloat in Seattle. After I got all the legal stuff taken care of I went and scrubbed the trailer down. Tomorrow I'll put a new coat of paint on the top, and next week I'm going to paint the rest of the outside. It'll be black and silver when I finish. I'll take pictures of the project as it progresses.

Other than that work, I weeded for my grandmother. I am pretty tuckered out, but honestly I think it has more to do with lack of sleep than washing the trailer and gardening. I was pretty high strung all night for some reason. Just going to chill tonight, start reading some of the 124 page required reading UW just sent me. I need to have it all done before orientation on the 21st. Joy. It's called "Taskforce on Childhood Obesity," which just sounds fascinating, doesn't it? Well, I best hop to it, and tomorrow I'll try to post pics of the new trailer.

Travels

This isn't a real post, I was just thinking this week about how many great places I've been lucky enough to see in the past twelve months. Last August I went to San Francisco with my roommate for the best mini-vacation I've ever had. She grew up there, so we stayed at her house and she knew all the must see attractions, and didn't mind taking me to all the tourist-y locations.

Then that October I went to St. Louis for a weekend to visit my brother. It was a great trip, unfortunately I was going through some rough stuff in my life, and acted pretty badly. I was just too anxious to go out, and I was in a bad mood. I did have a great time seeing him, and got to go to the botanical gardens and zoo, which are the best of each that I've ever seen.

January I flew to New Hampshire to meet my boyfriend's family. I had a great time, even though it was cold. I was visiting graduate schools at the time, so I go to spend a fair amount of time in Mass and Conn. I really enjoyed myself, even though it was freezing.

My other trips this year have been pretty well documented- New Hampshire this July and Arizona in August. I'm glad I signed up for a rewards program, I just wish I had done so sooner. I mean, there's 9 one-way flights in the last 12 months.

Anyways, going to look at the trailer tonight, fingers crossed that it will work out. I am ready to drop the money if it means having the tool. Lol, would you believe that all of the debt in my life comes from buying things for my horse (truck, trailer, etc), versus my private university education? Lol, and that a huge chunk of my grad school stipend is going to horse board. It's totally worth it, but it boggles the mind when you think of what all of this costs when added up.

Hopefully I'll have a good update tonight, we'll just have to see. I'm enjoying being lazy and chilling at home. Started cleaning out my old bedroom, but unfortunately I'm just too attached to everything. Oh well, a little at a time. Anyways, off to shower and drive an hour and a half to go look at a horse trailer. Wish me luck!