Did you finish? Have you already been to the post awful? Here, have a cookie. And a martini.

Contest the First is closed. The judges have the submissions, and will make their final determination shortly.


In the meanwhile, and to honor this traditional day of mourning known as Tax Day, I offer you the following link from Salon:

What Every Freelancer Should Know About Money. I really can't argue with anything in there, and found myself nodding (and laughing) at most.

The Return to Riding Report Card, week 5

Today we rode outside, which is nice (fresh air! new surroundings! natural lighting!) and a little unnerving at first (strange noises! suspicious smells! spring flippets!). Back in college we had to deal with yahoos wo thought it was funny to hit their airhorns when they drove past the stables -- no such troubles here, but it took me a few gos around the ring to really relax.

Adding to the not-relaxing part was that I was on a new mount today - CD. A total gentleman, is CD, but after the long strides of Sancho and Snaps, his 'pony-hop' gait took some getting used to. C. doesn't give me instructions on each horse, but allows [requires] me to figure it out by myself. Good training, but a little frustrating at first, since I'm trying to get my own body in gear, too, and there's only so much multitasking I can do without dropping something.

(that's why I keep getting switched around, in case you were wondering. I need to learn to work my body, not adjust to a specific horse's tendencies and quirks.)

After about ten minutes and a lot of fumbling (okay, I think I was fumbling, C said I was doing fine) I figured out that I had to sit even further back on my tailbone with CD than the others, and not allow his pony-hop to rock me forward. Once I got that, my tendency to close my shoulders more than usual* went away, and I felt much more comfortable.

It also took me that ten minutes to figure out that CD would go easily on the far side of the ring, but when we came around to the home stretch he just wanted to kick back and take it easy. C., of course, kept asking me to bring him forward more, just at that spot, so I was having to work against his natural tendencies without losing all the other muscle-stuff I was trying to achieve.

Multitasking, yes. Have long way to go on that. But it had the advantage of forcing me to work both on my cornering and my relax-and-ask at the same time (more multitasking!). The former shows marked improvement. The latter... is a work in progress. Oh well.

In retrospect, I was happy with a few things, and not-happy with more things, which I guess means that I'm past the 'welcome back' stage and onto the 'relearning shit' stage. And me, being such a mellow, patient learner (you may laugh now) will doubtless not push myself at all....


*I started the lesson with a backache, so I suspect that added to the 'closed shoulder' thing that kept happening. Tonight, the heating pad!