I've spoken before about how travel (especially for work) really puts things in perspective and this last trip especially. I think it was both because of the length of time and the way that this trip went that made it feel that way.
It's so good to be back and so amazing to have all my things even the small things like my preprogramed car radio stations, or the foods I like, or my favorite vegan ice cream (Ben and Jerry's!!!). Living out of a small carry-on roller bag for two weeks was tough...
Not sure who this is but he seems like a cool dude
Mainly it's the big things. I missed my Veggie dog sooooo much and I can't even express how great it was to see Katai again. Having the freedom to go to the barn when I want to is fantastic and I'm really looking forward to continuing boot camp with Katai for the next few weeks in preparation for our show on the 26th.
However, it was also the trip to OR that really helped. I had whined mentioned earlier this year that I was wanting to move someplace else more permanently. I've been firming up my plans over the past few months and right now my goal is to start applying for jobs in different cities, to take the next step in my career, in the next 2-3 years. The problem was that I didn't know where I most wanted to go.
After all, who wouldn't want to live near this
Portland has been at the absolute top of my list since I was 18 but I'd never actually been there. I'd been along the coast of OR with my mom the summer before I started college but never to Portland. It was that trip and many of the things I'd heard about Portland that interested me in living there. Recently though I've heard more things that made me not want to necessarily settle on that as my top option and of course I wanted to visit it before I decided for sure. I was disappointed when that trip fell off the table earlier this year and thrilled when it became an option again with this work trip.
Now that I've had a chance to visit it's not at the top of my list anymore. Not that it wasn't an amazing visit, it's just that in the meantime I've fallen in love with a different place that I never expected. I'm honestly sort of relived and happy that I can move that place to the top of my list. I'm still going to apply for jobs in a few different cities/locations but I know where I'm going to focus my applications now. Of course things could still change in the next couple of years but for not it's nice to have an outline of a plan.
I don't have too much to share beyond that I had an AMAZING time at the beach this morning and really enjoyed my meal at Native Foods. I was going to spend more time in Portland but the traffic even 30-40 minutes away from Portland was nuts and it was hot so I just didn't feel like driving into the city mainly just to eat lunch or dinner.
Instead I'll share the pictures that I took over the past few days!
Space needle from the Uber on the way to Pikes Place Market
Planning to go back tomorrow to get some produce!
Schilling cider bar in Fremont with a colleague, we had two flights and
ended up finishing everything except the hot pepper cider. It was spicy!!
This cider from Moonlight was our favorite.
Over 13% alcohol and sweet and toasty going down :)
Only at an AirBnB would you have
cherries waiting for you in an antique bowl
I passed Devonwood on the way to my AirBnB. I would have LOVED to have gone and checked it out but there were signs posted that it was private and I know they wouldn't appreciate me poking around. There was supposed to be a schooling show scheduled this weekend and I would have loved to have gone but it was canceled :(
I was hoping to see some horses but didn't. On the way
back to town I saw SOOO many trailers though!
Proposal rock
Had to get a picture of the mountain. Not a common sight for me!
I ended up having an interesting experience at Gallops. I walked in and said hi to the sales people and let them know I was just shopping, when they asked, all said with a smile. I grabbed a bunch of stuff to try and asked about where I could find the fitting rooms. The woman who was working made a face and said "you must have not been here before?" Thinking she was just curious I smiled and laughed and said that no, I was from MN. She looked at me sideways, not teasing, and said "well everyone who rides seriously has been here before". I sort of laughed it off but it was awkward and seemed rude to me. Then as I was going to get more stuff to try she caught me and asked if I was moving to OR or just visiting. I said visiting, again with a smile on my face, and she just nodded at me and didn't say anything else.
Just so weird! I probably would have bought something (I still want a hot pink C4 Belt and they had one) but I just couldn't after how weird it got so I tried on a few more things and then left. Really cool place though and I'm sure that's not normal. Maybe my accent scared her off haha.
Alternate title could be All the AirBnBs since I'll have stayed at 6-7 by the end of the year 4 of which are for this trip.
This has been a crazy year for me travel-wise. In the past going to Lexington for the Pony Cup and doing a couple of work trips (of one week or less) to WA were about all I did. This year that has not been the case.
Certainly can't argue about the accommodations
First there were a couple of long work trips to Seattle early in the year. I went out in January and again in March for a week. Then I went to Omaha for World Cup which was amazing! After that, I ended up with another trip (this time stressful) to Seattle in June. I had a chance to recover from that and then got to travel to Lexington for Pony Cup again :)
And of course got to hang out with Jen and Connor!!! Photo credit: Jen's mom
I've known that I'd have a longer trip at the end of July for work (mildly stressful) but then that turned into a longer and more stressful trip that was going to be 8-9 days. However, plans changed and it's now going to be 12 days. Yikes...
Puget Sound outside my bedroom
I do get to go to Portland which is a trip that I'd previously wanted to do this year but decided not to do for financial reasons. However, work is paying for the hotel and since I can drive down there from Seattle I don't need to pay for a flight so I'll have 2-3 days in Portland this weekend (for the cost of a rental car) and then back to Seattle for the following week.
The day before I left I was feeling the stress and didn't want to get into an argument with her so we just cuddled and played in the arena. She did think I was unfair not getting her Starbucks
I'm also in Seattle long enough that I'm getting to do more exploring than I have in the past which is awesome but... I really miss my pony and I miss Veggie. I'm probably going to go slightly crazy between not being able to see them for 12 days. Not getting to ride means that I'll need to remember what I'm doing when I get back along with likely being sore. All of that with just about 3 weeks to prep for our show at the end of August.
Opportunities like this just don't come around that often and even though it's stressful it's fun to explore and get to spend more time on the west coast. I haven't seen the ocean since I was 18 and I'm SOOO excited to get to go back in a couple of days. I've also had Portland, or OR in general, on my list of places I'd like to live so it will be nice to get to spend more time there so that I can decide if it stays on my list.
Missing this nose soooo much right now
I do have two more trips planned this year. One at the end of August to Rochester, NY (can't wait to hang out with my sister and BIL and meet Bobby!!) and one more for work in October/November but hopefully that will be it. I'm also really hoping that next year there will be less travel. I'm really a homebody but I haven't been able to travel that much in the past and I don't think next year will have as many opportunities for travel so I'm going to enjoy this while I can and pray that I don't fall off or completely forget what I'm doing when I get to ride my pony again.
T minus 8 days and counting until I get to fly back home.
Because I haven't been blogging regularly I feel like I've just got all sorts of random life and pony updates. Lucky you, I'm going to just dump them all in one post and then try to get back on the blogging bandwagon over this next week or so.
Katai has adjusted so well to the new barn. She was right back to herself in very little time. I think that she enjoys the quieter environment. I actually have realized how much I enjoy it as well. I've always enjoyed the social aspect of being at the barn. I enjoy talking horses with people and I always feel more motivated to ride when there are other people there. However, knowing that I'll always have the arena to myself and that there won't be people watching means that I have an easier time concentrating on my riding and Katai rather than what other people are doing which is amazing.
Hussy mare is pretty sure she's in love
with Serenade, her neighbor mare
Jane is absolutely amazing! She provides really good, individualized care to all of the horses. What's really nice is that she treats them all almost like they're her own. She really loves Katai and treats her that way. Katai clearly is already very attached to her which is amazing and brings a really good feeling to our lessons where I can tell how much Jane cares about both of us having fun and enjoying our ride. She is able to really strike a good balance between pushing me and being very direct while still making it fun and lighthearted. For some reason (I think because of how reasonable and reassuring she is) my lesson anxiety (that I've had for my whole life with both music and riding lessons) is completely gone. I've never felt better about going to a lesson that I do right now with Jane.
I was going to do a lesson recap on the specific things that we covered on Tuesday but instead I'm going to just dump it here because again, it's more of the same. I'm sure everyone is probably getting tired of reading about how much we're improving, how amazing Jane is, how I can't believe how much progress we're making blahblahblah but that was still the case at this week's lesson.
For the first time we really NAILED the leg yield and got that amazing floating consistent trajectory feeling. We also had NO tantrums about canter transitions even though she was in absolutely raging heat. None, not a single bit of pony tantrum. I seriously don't know what magic Jane is working but it's amazing and worth way more than she charges. We also did a ton of canter in each direction and only had one break down to a trot. Plus, again no anticipating or almost no anticipating of the trot-canter transitions. I was so, so, so proud.
Rough water on Lake Superior
As for my personal life, it's been a weird week. I had taken a four day weekend, Saturday-Tuesday this past weekend so new guy and I had a road trip planned up to Duluth, MN. Unfortunately things didn't work out between us but the shit didn't hit the fan until we got to Duluth and spent a few hours walking around and shopping. At that point we had to endure a nearly 3 hour drive back home. It was an emotional car ride. I was, and am, sad and upset that things didn't work but I'm also proud of myself and how I handled things. In the past I would have just bit my tongue, pouted quietly and then dealt with it very passive aggressively once I got back so the fact that I handled it directly and yet politely was a big thing for me. My mom also has a great way of putting things into perspective and reminded me that this is exactly why trips like this are so important while dating since it causes issues to show up when it's easier to deal with, early on.
It was a dark and stormy day even before we decided we weren't a good fit for eachother
The nice thing was that I then had a couple of days at home Monday and Tuesday which I basically spent recovering since I was mentally exhausted and, I think, also was fighting off a cold. I don't normally go to the barn on Monday but did end up going to my lesson on Tuesday as planned (see above). I mainly try to leave all of this relationship stuff out of my blog for reasons like this. However, I was really confident that it was going to work in the first couple of weeks and then very confident that it wouldn't during this road trip and I don't want to hide the big things in my life either. It's a tough balance and I'll probably handle it differently next time. Live and learn.
The reason I brought up future plans is that part of what was so good about this guy and the reason that I was so excited to have found him is that he had very similar goals in life as I do. Then I was going to share that on this blog and realized that since I really haven't talked about it that wouldn't mean much to anyone here. Since this is already kind of a dump post I figured I'd just stick it here.
So, as mentioned I grew up on a farm. I was incredibly lucky to be able to have horses, goats, bunnies, ducks, etc. and yet I always just wanted to live in the city. However, even though I wanted to live in the city I never doubted that I'd end up in the country again with my own piece of land. It was simply too amazing to be able to care for my own horses my own way for me to board for the rest of my life.
I do love living in the city, pretty much everything about it actually, and I LOVE boarding. It's great to be able to take vacations whenever I want and not to worry about having to do chores when it's -20* out. So, while I'm not in a huge hurry, there's also no doubt in my mind that at some point I want to have my own little farm and a small herd of ponies.
My dream location would be somewhere closer to the west coast. I don't have my heart absolutely set on it but I'd LOVE to be near Portland somewhere. My goal would be to own about 5 acres with a very small european style barn and some really nice large, dry lots with great drainage since ponies can't have much grass. Also, a nice track around the property for trail riding, a nice trailer, very nice fencing, a comfortable heated tack room with washer and dryer and... I could just keep going. There are lots of places that I feel I could be very happy, including near where I live now, but that would be the dream scenario.
Who wouldn't want this perfect tiny kitchen?
As far as living quarters for me (seriously who really thinks about anything outside of the barn) I've wanted a tiny house since before Tiny Houses were so popular. I never really planned or wanted one on wheels but I was going to either build a small apartment in my barn (who wouldn't want to feed the horses in their pajamas) or just a very small house. While I'm still considering a barn apartment I'm also getting very fond of the idea of building a tiny house on a trailer because of the freedom that would give me and also the cost. I'm working hard to get rid of debt and really don't want to turn right around and get myself back in debt. I'd like to have these things before I'm 40 but I also have way too much college debt from my master's degree so I'm trying to be reasonable as well.
Absolutely perfect
Of course not many other people want this mix of things or actually don't want/can't have this sort of life. This guy used to live in OR as a kid and wanted to go back, he actually initiated the conversation about living in a tiny house because I had basically given up on finding someone that wanted that. He also wanted a small piece of property, loved animals, didn't want kids, etc. It was amazing until it wasn't and I'm sad and still sort of dealing with it.
The good thing is that it really pointed out to me what I find most important in life.
