Well, since Rebecca has made me retell the story of catching my band-aid on fire a million times now everyone in the school knows... The good thing is it seems to brighten everyone's day... bad news... I feel like an idiot. Also, am beginning to wonder why I am always drawn to dangerous activities. Sure, sometimes it is the adrenaline and heart pumping... like hang-gliding, but that isn't the case with glass or riding. But, of course, they are both inherently dangerous activities. Sure, people do them and don't get that hurt, some people.. people unlike me. I guess it is the clumsy thing... who knows. But, as I am sitting here I have cuts, burns and a pretty painful horse bit on my arm decorating my body... war scars I suppose.
This morning I woke up to MORE snow! Big surprise.
My apartment is the building on the right. This is looking out the front door of the school. I like all the red buildings in this white snow!
Here is the shot that was at the top of the blog in the beginning, now it is winter instead of summer!
This is one of the snowmen in our yard. We have two, the other is more anatomically correct... if you are a hermaphrodite (I would like to point out I spelled that word correctly on my first try!).
I worked in the hot shop all day which was very nice. I tried to blow some rectangular bottles today but they were super hard and I got maybe 2 before lunch! It was very frustrating, but there was improvement which made it more bearable. In the afternoon I worked at a glory hole with Rosanne. Since the last few weeks of school before Christmas break is free production where we are supposed to work on some sketches we brought in today we now have a designated glory hole schedule. We not only rotate who gets the glory hole, but which one (they are different sizes) and who we work with. Should be interesting. I wanted to make some super thick pieces that I could cut away a lot of the sides on. So, I made two of the heaviest pieces I have ever tried today. The second one, which was supposed to be smaller, after the first one was so difficult, turned out to be HUGE and took 3 people to twist and work on it. My little fore arms are dead right now. It is super hard to spin something that weighs so much! I guess I need to work on my fore arms at the gym too!
Surprisingly, there was almost no glass when it was Rosanne's turn. JUST KIDDING! I didn't take it all! We didn't get glass delivered last night from the factory because of the snow or something. So, we got to leave a little early. It was good for Rosanne who was also exhausted from helping me and wanted to leave early to drive to Gotenburg for the weekend. I was too exhausted to even go try to be productive in the cold shop. I slept until it was time to go ride!
At the barn I talked to Pia, my teacher, about riding in the practice competition this weekend. It is called the Blueberry Hop or Jump... I don't know. But, you go ride and pay the same for each time you go in the ring, jump at whatever height you want and there is no judge. Just practice for everyone and fun stuff for the kids I think. We get there at 9, everyone helps set up the course with fancy jumps then the little guys start and the jumps get bigger as the day progresses. I am going to ride BOTH Lady and Poseidon! I am very excited about that, they both have great qualities and both have frustrating ones... the biggest of which is they aren't Justin (my wonderful horse!). I am going to jump once at 80cm (2'6") and then at 90cm (2'9") on each. Should be lots of fun and luckily I don't need any fancy clothes, just warm clothes!
Today though, I rode Lady in a dressage lesson (sticking out tongue in super mature way). She is the one that is like riding a freight train with an attitude. Needless to say my already sore arms were not much of a match for her today. She pulled me all over the ring and we argued over side passing and cantering slowly and she said she was too big and long to do those things and I said "I AM DYING!!!" It wasn't pretty. At the end Pia was like "are you tired?" You are very red!" and I said "Yes! I am exhausted!!!" and she just smiles and says "You need to use more leg!" UHG! All I could think was thank god she isn't like this when we jump!! I think I am going to have dreams of Pia tonight telling me to sit up, check my hands, lean back, more leg, slower, SIT DOWN, and various other things my dead brain can't remember. It was 60 minutes of stirrup less... did I forget to mention that? That would be because that wasn't even the worst part!, Stirrup-less torture on horse back! I don't know if I am ever going to get used to riding so far back and down with the body and hard with my hands and well, like a dressage person in general. I tried to bribe Lady to be good with some apple:
She happily enjoyed it then right back to looking like normal:
But! There was a new horse at the barn! An Irish Cob Paint named Sheridan.
Big feet!
She doesn't have a blue eye, it is just the flash. But her blaze goes to her eye it is adorable!
Her mane and forelock are so long it is tied off the side! She was in the pony barn, probably 14 hands. I can't wait to see some little kid going around on her!
I took the bus to ride today and got to walk up the beautiful snowy lane. I love the stone walls and horse paddocks and everything about it. Maybe it is partly I love that I am arriving at a horsey location!
Since there is so much snow outside the birds are coming inside. At one point Lady had me, herself and four of these little birds in her stall at once! It was absurd and they aren't afraid of people or horses at all!
After my lesson this girl in the stall next to me was tacking up a horse named Hilma or something. She comes over and asks if I can help hold the horse still while she puts on the saddle, I figured it was no big deal, just a nervous girl (young teen I think). I go in, and as soon as she lifts the saddle the horse LIGHTENING STRIKES and bits my arm! I don't even know how it turned its head that fast or got my arm which was near its eyes not mouth! She got me right on the bone in my forearm on the underside. Through a jacket, sweater, long sleeve shirt and tee-shirt (which doesn't have anything to do with this part of my arm) the damn horse managed to break skin! I have a scab and very nice bruise forming. WTF!?!?!?! Sheesh! Makes grumpy ole Lady look like Mary Poppins!
Oh, here is the glass I made yesterday! I am very pleased with it!!!
I have the I Dream of Genie song playing in my head right now personally.
I love the blue color on the right, the other one is like purple and brown... kind of odd.
This one is super thick. The hope was to be able to do some deep cutting on it. It was supposed to be round but I took it off the punty too soon and it was still hot and I squished the sides in with the grips to put it in the annealer... I like it though, gives it some character.
This one is the coolest! Blue and purple swirl color...
WITH BUBBLES (that you can barely see it turns out)!! But they are there being cool I promise!
I left the top on this one because you could see the cool color in it so nicely. I am pleased and think I may keep this one!
Now, I am off to watch Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken. Have you seen it? An early 90's movie about his girl who dives off a high tower on horse back into water then she goes blind in an accident. All about you can do anything even if it seems impossible type of movie. I am excited and hope to go to sleep motivated and not so pooped feeling, more pleasantly exhausted.
Tomorrow I am going to try to ski some in the day light. That has to make it a little easier! And maybe it will be warmer! It was -6 C (21F) when I got dropped outside of the grocery today. That was the coldest walk home ever!! Orrefors is all decorated for Christmas it turns out but TOO cold to stop and take pictures! My hands and feet were painfully frozen when I got home. I was not wearing enough clothes for THAT cold! So, tomorrow during the day will have to be warmer!
PS: Happy 65th Birthday to PIPPI LÅNSTRUMP (Longstocking)!
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