Drudgery, July 4th, Trail Ride

Woo, another 2 weeks down of good times. 2 more weeks til the end of the semester and we're feelin' the crunch. I did 2 big projects/presentations and a 26 page paper and Jed had a big project. Go us. It's been a little stressful lately .. pulled my first all-nighter since I got married, possibly in like a year. Though that semester a year ago I did like 8 or more I think so I'm making up for it now by sleeping, yay!

My laptop ate a SECOND hard drive - this time in less than a year. Last summer it was between semesters so it didn't interfere with schoolwork, but it was while we were planning the wedding. This time was right as I was starting in on a big project, so that was annoying. Luckily we caught the problem early so that almost all the files were recoverable and I was able to use Jed's netbook for the project. Jed thinks that the way the laptop is put together it overheats the hard drive and messes it up. I got a 3rd hard drive for now, but I will be looking for a new laptop in the next while.

July 4th weekend was kinda crappy. We just did a bunch of school work and sweated our butts off in our hot little upstairs apartment. We did get to go to the fireworks in IF and met up with some of our friends. It was very crowded, the show wasn't that good, and we got shafted by our friends on a ride there and when were supposed to go out to eat with them. Oh well.

Jed was a doll and did so much for my car. He refilled the coolant in the AC so now that works and is wonderful since it's been high 80s - higher in my car! He also changed the windshield wipers that were crap and filled the washer fluid that was completely out. And he buffed the very opaque and dim headlights. Yay!

He also got us a window-mounted AC unit for our bedroom so we can sleep through the night and not wake up feeling sick. The window open and fan wasn't working at all! The couple before us said they had to move their bedroom to the living room for the summer and we can see why! Anyway, the AC is amazing and we're very pleased with our purchase.

After my all-nighter Wednesday 6 and presentation of a headache of a project/paper, I slept 5 hours and Jed couldn't wake me up calling me to drive him from work to school and then pick him up from school like I usually do, so the poor thing walked in the heat and found me passed out when he got home. We hurried to get ready and went to see Oedipus at the school. It was a modern language version and only about 80 minutes long, so I felt like I missed a lot of the plot and character development. I didn't mind that it was modern language-ized too much, but I minded the idioms that just really distracted from the time the piece was set. The acting was good, though, the scenery was impressive, costumes were alright, and makeup was very good. The audience was a pain in the butt, as usual, and laughed at the most tragic parts, including Oedipus' ending monologue. Jed and I theorize that BYU-I students/mormons aren't used to real tragedies and can't handle it.. ah well.

Friday we went on a 2 hour trail ride at Harriman State Park through the school ($30 w/transportation instead of $45 w/o). It had just hailed, so the trails were muddy and the horses slipped a few times. At one point mine ("Princess") slipped with at least 3 of her feet, so that was a little nerve wracking. This was the horses' 3rd or so trip of the day and they were tired. Mine kept tossing her head the whole time because of the mosquitoes and, at one point when we were stopped, rubbed her face on the horse's butt in front of her, lol. The trail had a lot of steep ups and downs, and even some switchbacks, so that was a new experience for me as I'd actually never been out of a paddock on a horse, never ridden without a helmet, and hadn't been on a horse in maybe 7 years. I got to practice my leg cues and after like 1.5 hrs figured out my seat so I was sitting well, lol. My legs, knees and butt-bones hurt - what a workout!

Jed's horse was new to trail riding and his reins were cut way short so if Jed sat back properly and had his hand forward enough to be holding the reins properly, he had to have his shoulder cranked forward. He noticed the reins were too short and saddle too small right away before we set out, but forgot that it was a 2 hour ride, otherwise he would have asked for different tack or a different horse. He thinks that the reins were so short because of the horse's ("Spark," I believe) spirited-ness and it was some work for Jed (who has quite some experience) to keep him in line.

About halfway through the ride we dismounted to give the horses a break and mine stepped down on my foot. I was under the impression that horses were very good about not stepping on feet, but Jed said because of the muddy ground she might not have felt it. Anyway, the half-ton animal stood there for a sec so I shoved her off me and my toes hurt a bit. As I have been known to do with injuries big and small, I ignored it after I poked my toes to see whether they hurt enough and in a specific place to be considered broken (example of big injury I ignored: I got a hairline stress fracture in my arm in 5th grade PE class but went the whole day with an icepack on it until late that night I complained and my parents thought maybe I should go to the ER, lol). It didn't hurt too much until we got home and were changing to go out and I noticed my toes were swollen. Next day only one in one spot was swollen and I was worried it was broken right there. I've had it taped since and I think the swelling is going down, so that's a good indicator that it's not broken .. hopefully. But all-in-all it was a really fun ride and we hope to do it again!

We got to go out with Daniel and Maddy while Maddy was in between EFY sessions. We miss them and wish we could hang out more!!

I think that pretty much sums up the last 2 weeks. 2 more weeks and I'll be updating about having finished classes - WOO HOO!!