Life... Why Me?

All I want is to have nothing exciting happen. It's too much to ask for though, I know.

My last post was that it was my birthday and I was going to Michigan so lets start there. My time home was great. Seeing my friends and family was the highlight but not far behind was all the time I spent swimming and enjoying the outdoors. Sadly the last two days of being home I got a stomach flu which I had to drive home with (not fun!) so my time seeing my grandparents was cut short - not happy about that.

Hanging out in South Haven with my Dad on my birthday. Lunch at my favorite restaurant. Fun fact - if anyone has read the book Time Traveler's Wife it's one of the places in the book.

 

Hanging out on the lake at my grandparents. 

Sunset at Lake Michigan on 4th of July aka my favorite holiday. 

Also while I was home my best friend Erin who lives in Michigan welcomed home the horse she grew up with. She's a 21 year old standardbred. The mare, Silver (yes she's bay and named Silver) was owned by Erin's aunt who passed away earlier this summer. Erin had her shipped to Michigan from Kentucky so she could stay in the family, Erin could have her childhood horse and give her a home to have rest of her life. Me being me... I had a scale to use on hay and grain in my car so I helped Erin figure out a good diet plan for her since she needs to gain a few pounds but not as much as expected. Silver also had a hoof injury right before Echo so it's been 'fun' to watch their hooves progress. Erin is 6' 2" so Silver really isn't that tiny of a standardbred - her owner is just that tall (sorry Erin).

Echo got over her withdraw problems with me fairly well while I was in Michigan. She went to a jump lesson with Lauren while I was gone and has had a flat lesson since. This past Sunday we planned to take the horses to Masterson Station again for more cross country schooling but we realized the park was full of carnival rides for the fair going. Instead Lauren jumped her outside on the grass. The ground was super hard due to lack of rain but she handled it like a pro, jumping her first oxer, barrel jump and lots of first time questions. After her jumping I gave her a much needed and deserved bath, head to toe. I rubbed her legs down in liniment and after some hand grazing to dry her off, let her take her afternoon nap in her stall. 

Off to her flat lesson.

Shiny after her Sunday bath.

Dakota's version of working hard. 

Monday Lauren texted me that her leg was swollen with lots of heat. Thankfully she was completely sound on it. So I cold hosed her, we poulticed the leg, wrapped it and turned her out for the night. Good news is the leg was tight with no heat the next day. The bad news was she had a reaction to the poultice. 

And then she had an allergic reaction to poultice. 

She's been lightly ridden with her weird rash / burn / whatever from the poultice and is sound so we are still planning on taking her to the jumping schooling show Sunday. 

In other life news, I might be moving. I will know more in 2 1/2 weeks when I meet with people and and figure out logistics. I can't say too much but hopefully it would be a good opportunity for myself and the situation would be something fitting for my four creatures. 

Basketball: Four Days Four Ways

Oh how I love you basketball. More specifically, college basketball. I enjoy NBA/Pro but I just don't get into it like I do college. One of my friends wanted to go to the Women's Final Four in Nashville TN and basically paid my way for everything so it was a trip I couldn't refuse. 

Last Saturday night was a thrilling night as Kentucky Men's basketball defeated Wisconsin down to the last shot by a freshman. Ok - the freshman part, not so impressive when your whole team is basically freshman. Anyways, we had gone out to eat to watch the games and the vibes in Lexington were insane and wonderful all at the same time. Best part were the idiots at the college contained themselves and didn't burn any couches. Yes they burn things when we WIN (should be opposite).

Sunday we packed up and headed for Nashville around 11:00am and got in around 2:00pm, checked into our hotel and headed downtown to get involved in the Women's Final Four pre-game activities. The first game was at 6:00ish and we got free food pre game. Notre Dame (who I love) won the first match-up and UConn (who I despise) won the second. Had to buy a Notre Dame T-Shirt to try and offset the number of UConn fans that flooded Nashville for Tuesday's final.

Tickets!

Monday we spent the day sightseeing around the city and ate delicious BBQ. For the evening, we had scouted out the best place to watch the Men's Championship game against UConn. Yes UConn had their team in the Men's and Women's championship game at this point. We found a local SMALL bar that the Nashville division of UK alumni was having a game party. Talk about being crammed like sardines. It was great though to be in the company of all Kentucky fans when the city was full of UConn nut jobs (sorry to any of you that are UConn fans but holy crap!). In the end, Kentucky lost what would of been the college's 9th Championship but super proud of the team! We got farther than anyone expected and I love being part of the Big Blue Nation insanity.

Downtown Nashville from the pedestrian bridge.

Tuesday I slept in as late as possible before having to get up, shower and grab breakfast before hotel checkout. Game started at 7:30 so we had plenty of time to kill again. Not a huge country music person, so the Country Music Hall of Fame was cool to go to, but definitely more worth it for a die hard fan. My goal for the day turned into finding any reference to non country music possible. I succeeded somewhat. After walking around the city more and more free pre-game food it was game time. Notre Dame didn't show up to play, it was a terrible game and in the end UConn won... Was still a fun game to watch, and the girl that I was sitting next to was a nice UConn fan so it was a nice break from the others surrounding us. 

Sightings of non country names in the country hall of fame! Made my day.
 

Championship game time!

We drove back after the game, getting back to Lexington around 2:30am on Wednesday. I slept on and off most of the day fighting what I think ended up being a slight stomach bug. I had no appetite and had cold sweats for 5-6 hours. I finally saw my ponies yesterday. This weekend I work Sunday, which would normally be my day off but at least I don't work late either day. Horses are being switched to nighttime turnout today so yay for less dirty stall from Dakota. Echo is still in when it's rainy / muddy / wet out so I'm sure she will be a beast tonight since it's rainy today. Hopefully I can ride Dakota at some point this weekend!

Nashville = capitol of Tennessee. Capitol building...

Full size replica from the Parthenon in Greece. I just know it symbolizes Nashville as the Athens of the south. No idea what the building was / is in Athens. I didn't go in, but it was cool building. I think the one in Nashville is an art museum inside. 

Delicious BBQ!

I became slightly obsessed with the architecture/ shape of this building. 

Entrance to the country music hall of fame.

Won't lie - saw the work jockey and it took me far longer than I wish to admit to realize they didn't mean racing jockey's. 

Whole lotta gold and platinum records. 

Inductee plaques at the hall of fame. 

More non country!

This is how I feel about anything Elvis. A giant thumbs down.