I am the Walrus

Hello Fellow Bloggers!!!
Well, the holiday season has BEGUN!!! It's official because the LA Times had scads of holiday themed adverts stuck in the Sunday paper this morning. I am so excited- this is the best time of year... Our plans are still "up in the air" for the actual holidays of Thanksgiving (less than three weeks away) and Christmas-

Smiley is back at Alamo Pintado... he probably didn't need to stay, but the antibiotic that will kill the abscesses really effectively can't be given until his manure is normal... and since his manure has not been normal, despite intervention, for awhile now, we need to fix this situation. He's been eating REALLY well though, LOTS of energy, LOTS of attitude... Flew on top of me on Friday and bruised my right foot pretty well- He's in great hands though, it's the only other place I would consider leaving him right now (rather than in my care).

What. have. I. been. up. to...

When I last left you, it was Monday, I think... I rode one of David's horses on Tuesday, took Smiley up to the vet hospital on Weds. Actually, Weds night I went out with Alex, the vet intern I mentioned earlier last month. Details, you might ask? We had a really great time- the fact that I didn't get home until after midnight and almost fell asleep on the freeway (but I didn't!) didn't deter this at all... but I was a little hazy come Thursday. I'm sure he got a worse time of it than I did at the vet clinic... and that's ALL I am saying. End of story.

Thursday I had my public speaking midterm- WHAT a JOKE!!! I thought I had lost my book but it was in the back of my car underneath some clothes (haha) and so I studied and reviewed the review questions with Brian (who I sit next to in publicspeaking and macroecon) and some other random students in the library, but most of it was common sense.

Friday, I had my sociology midterm- I actually studied for this one (the first one was the DAY AFTER Smiley's surgery and since we didn't get home until midnight. emotionally drained and so on, with a paper due as well, I basically glanced over my notes... thank god I had paid attn in class) so it will be interesting to see how I did compared to the first one.

Anthropology is picking up again, Prof Adams did a bio feedback study on me on Tuesday morning in class. I volunteered, and I went up to the front of the lecture hall and had these things put on my fingers that sense my heartrate and pulse and so on... At first, he tried to get me to meditate with a gong to get a baseline going... then he started talking about my least favorite topics (mind you, this is a pretty big class for CI- about 75/100 students- so he only knows this because we have chatted) such as Fox News. Then, he asked me about snakes. Now, those of you know know this, know that I am PETRIFIED of snakes. It is NOT something to joke around with me about, I CANNOT DEAL with them. When he brought them up, I said "please, please don't". He left it alone for a second and we resumed the gong activity. He then pulled a rubber snake out of a bag... I saw it out of the corner of my eye and practically I knew that it wasn't real, but I panicked- SCREAMED AND LEPT to the side out of my chair, effectively yanking the sensors off my fingers. He said later that my heart rate had been off the chart the moment before the disconnect. The thing you have to understand is that my fear is not rational, and it is NOT something to joke about. I am truly phobic, just reading or talking about them- or in such a case, writing about them, causes me to somewhat panic.

Later in the day, I volunteered again to be a demo person for some sort of Brazilian street fighting demo... I didn't have to do anything except be the person to whom the arm lock and choke hold were done to.

This weekend...
Friday- met some really great new people who have their horse with David and will be riding with them.
I went up to Alamo yesterday. Will discuss my visit later- so much to say there-
Rode today, gave Venturo a bath, did some clipping and cutting to polish him up a bit. Rode Shadow for Natasha. By the way, I drove the trailer... Loaded... :)

I've kind of just been going, going, going between school, homework, two horses, going to Alamo, etc... so I have been taking the weekend to decompress a little. We are watching Christmas Vacation tonight. Has everyone seen that? If you haven't, you MUST watch it... It's the third in the Vacation series, and IMHO, the best of the four. The scenes with Eddie, their white trash cousin, are hysterical.

On a sadder note, we learned tonight that my aunt Donna, my Dad's brother's wife, is sick and in the hospital. We are all really worried and keeping her in our prayers.

I am the Walrus- downloaded the song sung by Bono. I so want to see Across the Universe, as soon as I get to see Dan in Real Life. I never end up actually getting to the theatre though (time wise), reading ends up being a better escape for me. Also, listening to "Hey There Delilah" (lyrics are the key here), can't get enough of Suddenly I See (KT Tunstall) right now, and also loving SOS and Dido right now.

Ok, more later... gotta watch the movie!