26 DEC 2001 - 5.07p
david and ivy and i agree that i don't talk about the stupid fucking horses nearly enough. so, when i was 8 or so, i started taking weekly riding lessons. i was very serious about it, and began jumping shortly after starting. i loved it, and always dreamed of having my own horse. a few years later, once advancing through the ranks on the school horses, i began "leasing" horses... that's basically an arrangement where someone who doesn't own a horse pays board, plus a monthly fee (for expenses) and has a horse of their own, without the initial purchase cost. i continued riding, and began showing at small local shows. i really had no idea what existed above and beyond the small-time scene, except for the olympic type showjumping they show on tv occasionally. i was having fun, though, and was grateful to have a mom who supported me.

ivy suggested i start at the very beginning, in detail, but my memories of my early riding career are a bit foggy, aside from what i've already written. when i was in the 7th or 8th grade, we were given a wonderful old horse named swappy under the condition that if we ever didn't want him, we would give him back to his original owner. he was big, kind of ugly, but really taught me a lot. i began riding with a more serious trainer than what i was used to at the riding school. she could see that i had potential, and pushed me. i advanced quite a bit with the help of that coach and swappy. i showed him a bit, and did well... so we started going to bigger shows, showing in the lower level hunter classes and children's equitation. we sadly realized that swappy wasn't fancy enough to seriously compete with the really expensive show horses, although we were often rewarded for exceptionally good rides. i wanted to continue on the bigger show circuit... there was a lot more prestige there, as well as tougher competition. we made the difficult decision to give swappy back and begin the search for a more competitive show horse.

when swappy's owner took him back, there were several months when i didn't have a lease on anything. i'd already established myself at our new barn as being a somewhat decent rider, so people would often let me ride their own horses. it was great, i got to ride a lot of different horses (sometimes 5 a day!) and didn't have to pay a cent. however, i was really missing the ability to bond with one horse, and since most of the horses i was riding were show horses for their owners, i had nothing to compete. then i secured a ride on a horse named flash. he was a black thoroughbred owned by a lawyer who had purchased him for his kids. the kids lost interest, so flash never got out, until my trainer talked it over with the lawyer and explained my situation. flash was a super athletic little horse, but a total idiot. he tried killing me on a daily basis (i'm sure some people wish he had succeeded!), but i stuck with him because i really had no other choice. flash taught me how to hang on. he was definitely not a show horse... if he behaved so badly at home, he was bound to be a hundred times worse away from home.

immediately after we gave swappy back (during the same period i was riding flash and the other horses), my mom and i began the search for the perfect horse for me. soon after we began looking, we thought we found one. he was very fancy, and very big. "leroy" was the type of horse that would easily cost $25,000... waaaay out of our budget at the time... but this horse was blind in one eye, and fortunately that put him in our price range. we had the vet out for a pre-purchase exam. he loved the horse initially, but about halfway through the exam, he listened to his heart. leroy had a heart murmur which dr. forthofer said was a 6 on a scale of 1 to 8 (8 being really, really, really bad). after a lot of discussion with dr. forthofer, we decided against buying leroy. my mom couldn't take the chance of a horse dropping dead on her 13 year old daughter. i was disappointed, but believed my mom and coach when they told me it wasn't meant to be.

we continued looking at horses at every chance we had... after school, on the weekends... sometimes driving hundreds of miles. a few months after leroy flunked the vet exam, we found another horse named baylor. he was in our price range, and had done a bit of showing down in florida when he was very young. his owner brought him up to ohio, and didn't really do much with him for a few years, as she decided to get out of the horse business. she was selling all of her horses and her farm. the place was disgusting... she hadn't kept up with work over the years... fences were broken, the indoor arena served as a storage area (which meant i had to try these horses by riding around the junk in the arena), the barn was leaky and damp. i rode several horses that day, and ended up really enjoying one of them. he was a bay hanoverian/thoroughbred cross named baylor. he was about 16.2 hands tall and had a cheerful disposition. after the first ride, we brought my trainer out to see him the following weekend. she loved him, so we arranged to have him hauled to our barn to have on trial for a week. we didn't feel safe jumping in her shabby arena, so we didn't get to test him out fully. the day before the woman was going to bring him to our barn, she had turned baylor out in the indoor arena... he played, and slipped and fell. she neglected to tell us this when she dropped him off the next day... so we were baffled when he arrived dead lame. we kept him for a week, and kept calling the woman to come get him, as he wasn't getting any better. she finally picked him up and told my mom how he'd fallen and if we wanted to give him another chance, we should let him have stall rest and try him out again. duh, woman. thanks for telling us.

this almost brings us to jimmy. i'm going to go now, because i should probably go ride my current stupid fucking horse, as i have to (gasp!) be social tonight. seriously.

25 DEC 2001 - 9.57p
christmas went well. my mom seems to enjoy her beautiful piece of art glass (a bowl by meredith wenzel of toledo)... i made out fairly well. i got a decent little digital camera, which i took out to the barn today to play with. once i got the pictures on my computer, i was pleasantly surprised. sure beats waiting for film to be developed, and having to deal with shitty pictures. also got various other things... a $100 gift card to the gap (thank god, i need new clothes!)... "national velvet" on dvd... can't think of what else... money from relatives, etc.

i spent my christmas eve at work, then at the barn, and then with ed. we watched his all-time favorite christmas show, "pinnochio's christmas." it was quite possibly the gayest thing i'd ever seen, but he loved it as a wee ed and said he watched it everyday from christmas until july when he was 5 or 6. he even remembered some of the songs (he hadn't seen it since he was small). he enjoyed his mug, which he promptly drank hot chocolate out of, and was surprised to get the yo la new year's ticket. it was nice.

oh well. i'm tired. and i have to be at work tomorrow at 8 a.m. sucks... but then i have three days off! yay!

23 DEC 2001 - 8.21a
hmm. i have a bad memory, so sometimes i forget to write about certain things... for instance, a day or two ago, my mom bought a new truck. that probably deserved to be mentioned, especially since it is a super giantic pickup truck... no more wussy tahoe for her. it's a chevy half-ton (which really isn't that giantic) heavy duty pickup with a crew cab (which makes it giantic) and a lot of other stuff. she's crazy. i think she gets to pick it up next week... they're waiting to install running boards because my mommy needs those to climb into it.

nude was feeling pretty good yesterday. had a kind of nice ride... i forgot my little spurs, so i just rode without. i was surprised i could get him to go, but he's really feeling like going... so yay, newt.

oh! thanks to david for alerting me that best friend #1 from logic mentioned me in her diary. after doing my own research, i found out that our second best friend also mentioned me! wow... that incident was good enough to get not one write up, but two! and featuring such words as, "puke!" and "gross!" i almost wish we had stayed longer than .5 seconds at the shitty crash show if our mere attendance at such would have disgusted them so much... but fortunately, we had already seen that "band" once, which was more than enough for any intelligent human being with semi-decent hearing. my personal favorite part of their diaries was not even about myself or ivy, but both of their accounts of how they were going to meet some "friends" of theirs someplace only to get the runaround... an exerpt: "neither beth nor i could fathom how people could be so mean for no reason! they led us all around the city claiming they were meeting us places, only for them to never show up." heh... that's good stuff right there.

i'm not even going to mention the phone call i got last night in any sort of detail. once i figured out who was doing the calling, i realized it was the immature sort of thing you'd might expect from someone who probably has little to no concept of what it's like to work long hours or have the responsibility of a job... people work late, and sometimes after they work late they have to work early. so they sleep! you aren't funny... and i'm sure that impressed so many people at the party. real smooth.

well... speaking of work... only an hour and fifteen minutes until the fun begins again. yay. i really am going to appreciate this paycheck, though.

22 DEC 2001 - 12.40a
happy birthday, ed!

tonight ivy and i went to see hedset at (ahoy!) the phantasy. good show from my boys. ivy's ex (jim) was there... oh boy... they seemed friendly enough (which is more than i can say for either ivy or myself and doug) and she had him take her home, since she was driving back to the chicken hatchery town tonight. i will have to discuss this jim stuff with her in detail.

wow... imagine our surprise when we pulled into the parking lot for the phantasy complex and parked next to our best friends from logic. when we realized who was next to us (still sitting in the car), we had to laugh a minute and regroup before exiting. it was one of those strange, funny moments where you want to laugh so badly it hurts.

only three more days of work until i get a well-deserved day off. today went by fairly fast. i cleaned ALL of the glass early this morning... it was nasty with dust... probably from all the traffic in the store. every vase was sparkling when i was done. that occupied a good amount of time... then i unpacked some carruth pieces, sold some shit, and before i knew it, my shift was over. it was great. i worked with marcy today, which was fun... maggie sent some banana nut muffins (go vegan!) for me. such a nice gesture, such tasty muffins. i don't work until 6p tomorrow... it will be so nice to sleep in.

oh! i found out doug doesn't like david. i thought that was so funny... i guess when david was at the hedset practice that one time, he was reading a book instead of focusing all of his concentration on the band. doug took offense to this, and since he thought david was doing it to be an asshole since they didn't like the website he made for them, he decided david must definitely be a prick. ha! doug has been nothing but a shady fucker lately... the ivy thing, the david thing, and he had the nerve to accuse me of signing fake shit on their mailing list. ummmm... go fuck yourself, doug.

i think i will give my friend paul cox a phone call tomorrow. sound good, paul?

[now playing: velocity girl - 'simpatico' cd]

20 DEC 2001 - 4.32p
i am so tired. was out late last night... later than i probably should have been out. went to 80's night... ivy ran into an old beau who seemed nice enough. then she and i drove ed's car home... he got dropped off here later and picked it up (thank god... don't know how i could've explained the big black dick in the driveway to joanne at 5 a.m.). anyhow, before coming home for the night, we stopped at paul h's to drop off his housewarming gift. it wasn't as much of a surprise as we'd originally hoped, but amusing even so. paul and some other boys came out of the house, right around the time we were pulling the "gift" out of ed's trunk... we got all silly and made them leave so we could continue warming the house. on the way back, we ran into styx and they insisted they make a phone call to paul h, as a-ha was not present at the chamber last night. hmmm. i vaguely remember paul h saying he smoked up? could that be??

work has been insane. 8 hour shifts are usually long... but seem even longer in a mall at christmastime. it blows. i'm so spaced out towards the end of my shift. yesterday lacey and tessa stopped in, probably during my last hour there... i was in such a zone, i couldn't even register that i had visitors. i don't know how i'm going to get through four more days of this. bah.

newt is doing well, i suppose. rode last night, and while he's still definitely not sound, he seems fairly willing to work.

i'm tired. i need a nap. and it's fucking cold outside. yuck.

18 DEC 2001 - 6.17p
i officially bought my nashville plane ticket. i'm excited, even though i have hardly any money.

today i rode both horses. i put the western saddle on newt, which was comical. i was expecting him to freak out (that thing weighs almost as much as i do!), but he handled himself like a good little pleasure horse. we had a nice, slow ride. i don't think i'll use that saddle regularly or anything, but it could be fun once and a while.

didn't get a hold of ivy... she must have been on her lunch. the email i get from her is entertaining, though. for instance: alvin and the chipmunks. what's the deal with a guy raising three chipmunks as though they were sons?

apparently my previous entry raised a few eyebrows (particularly the last paragraph). no biggie or anything. just a cocky nod to a friend. thanks for the invite to the cocktail party, though. i appreciate that. i would have liked to have come, with gifts of liquor and bunnies... but that can wait.

scurvy jr. is going to take over the world.

18 DEC 2001 - 10.42a
Things have been fairly unexciting. Ivy moved in with her dad for the duration of the break... he lives way south of here in some chicken town by Lodi or something. I miss her. We haven't talked in two days. I'm going to call her at work today. Paul H moved into his new house, so an appropriate housewarming gift is in order.

I am very close to making my flight reservations to Nashville. All I have to do is run out to my car and get my credit card out of my wallet. I really should be spending my money on other things... but my Christmas shopping is just about done... all I have to worry about is that stupid bill I've been putting off forever. Not good. I'm going to get in trouble. Oh well. Paul Cox is worth it.

Newt is doing well, I guess. It's hard to tell how lame he is when 2/3 of my work with him is in the "good" direction. Yesterday he was feeling very forward, which is a good sign. He hasn't had a lot of "go" in him in a while.

Apparently I am too cocky. And it is "way out of control." This is the part of my blog where I'd like to whisper to half of the readers so the other half can't hear. I hate to feel like I'm censoring myself. I have a feeling it will come out soon enough. You know, at least I am aware of who is reading this...

What the fuck is up with capital letters?!?

15 DEC 2001 - 5.53p
newt is going to live. it is nothing neurological, and we have the "problem" narrowed down to his left front leg. he trotted off sound when doc did a nerve block on his foot... so that's probably where the problem lies. it's not 100%, as the x-rays and hoof test indicate there is no surface bruise or sign of navicular syndrome. so... nude is on drugs for the next couple of weeks, and back to light work... if he's no better on the drugs after two and a half weeks, then it's most likely a really deep abcess in his hoof. that's what we're hoping for... if he does get better, then it could be any number of more serious things that aren't easily explained. the serious things just don't seem likely because of the clean x-rays.

i rode kid yesterday for the first time in well over a week. i agreed to ride him, just because i was so relieved about my horse... i didn't realize how much pressure that was on me. i had a nice ride on him, and that made me super excited about riding my own horse today. newt was still lame today, which wasn't really all that exciting.

tonight is the barn christmas party. i am not going to get nearly as drunk as last year, as i have to work tomorrow at 9... but i am getting there a whole two hours earlier than last year... so that does give me a little more time to be um, social.

13 DEC 2001 - 10:04a
the semester is over! yay! my buddhism exam was pretty insane... i don't know what that guy's deal is. unfortunately, i did not get my (paul h's) paper back, but he said final grades, as well as paper grades would be available outside of his office tomorrow. it's too bad i don't have any reason to be there tomorrow... i do have to sell my books back, though, so i might breeze by his office if i do that (also have newt's vet appointment tomorrow, though).

80's night was okay. ed ended up getting way drunk. ivy ended up getting way tired and getting a ride home from doug (i'm still anxious to hear how that went). i had to drive ed's queer car back here and he ended up staying over. phoebe hates him more than anyone... not in a vicious way, she's just terrified of him... i think he scared her once in her puppyhood and it traumatized her for life. ed wanted to go to bed and cuddle, so i was surprised when phoebe actually wanted to share the bed with us. maybe it was to protect me from the scary boy? i dunno.

i think i'm over the funk i was in yesterday. it was such a lousy way to start off the day, and i think it set the tone despite everybody telling me i shouldn't make such a big deal about sleeping through logic. ivy said the exam was hard, and she struggled a bit... so i don't feel so bad. i got to sleep in and i probably really needed to do that.

yesterday i found out that i am one of the select few paul cox wants to give a christmas gift to. do i feel special? hell yes. but i don't think he really should give me a gift. i think we finally compromised... i'm expecting either a pine cone with glitter or a tracing of his hand turned into a turkey. i'm keeping fingers crossed for turkey.

i just noticed paul h's moldy peaches cd sitting next to my computer. woops. i've had that a while, huh? well, paul h, remind me to give this back to you. and then you can give me back the fifty gazillion cds of mine that you have (maybe it's not that many... but i can think of a couple).

ed and i may do lunch at weia teia today. i hope that happens. i also hope my paycheck comes. it's a day late and i'm peeing my pants.

[now playing: naked o'malley 'danceparty megamix volume 1' cd]

12 DEC 2001 - 12.14 p
i am a total schmuck. and i feel horrible.

so, last night we had our logic "study session" which turned into a social session with paul h... and then andy joined us at some point already late-ish into the night. we didn't study at all. didn't even look at notes. spoke a bunch of german. and we were out until some horribly late hour. when my alarm went off at 7 this morning, i turned it off. when my second alarm went off at 7:10, i turned that off, too. when paul h called me at some point around 8 to congratulate me on waking up and actually taking the optional final, i slept through the phone ringing. so... i never took it. i'm really kicking myself... i mean, the grade really didn't matter to me that much. i had secured a B in the class, and the odds of me bringing it up to an A probably weren't very high... and the tiny fraction a B+ could have improved my GPA didn't seem very important, either. i just feel bad. i told ivy i would take it. i'm sure she was there... and i'm sure she probably got her grade up to an A. she deserves it.

but then there was the super-late-night conversation with david in which he told me there wasn't any way i could get my grade up to an A because i probably wasn't capable of doing any better than a B on the final. um, yeah, thanks. i'm still not sure what that was about, but i do remember he said that.

oh shit, and then after returning from luna's, we pulled down my street to see a cop car hovering around ivy's car. it was after 2 a, so he was ticketing her. i can't effing believe it... you know how many times stupid willy's car was on the street at all hours of the night, for weeks on end, in the effing snow?! i can't even count! he never even got so much as a warning... and ivy's car is on the street for two hours, and she gets a ticket. i'm so pissed at myself about that, too... if i hadn't stopped for gas (which i didn't even really need to do since i was such an asshole and skipped out on the final), we probably would have made it home two minutes earlier as to avoid the ticket. i totally suck today.

10 DEC 2001 - 4.36 p
i forgot to mention our cable access show in my previous entries. ivy and i have decided to get a local cable access show... it's going to be brilliant. i'm not really sure all that we're going to do with it, but part of it is going to be a weekly dance tournament. we need volunteers, so if you like to dance (or even if you don't), please volunteer. anyhow, the final dance-off is going to be paul h vs. disco goth. okay, so it's slightly rigged... but how great would that be?

10 DEC 2001 - 12.51 p
in honor of actually having something playing while i am at my computer...

[now playing: barry manilow - 'greatest hits volume II' cd]

10 DEC 2001 - 9.32 a
one final down, two to go.

communications seemed easy enough. now i only have to worry about buddhism and logic. i didn't even want to take the logic exam after my smashing 100 on the quiz last week and then finding out i secured a B for the semester (without the optional final)... but ivy convinced me it couldn't hurt to take it... and then david confirmed it would be possible to raise my grade all the way to an A, assuming i got an A on the final. i'm not sure how possible that is... i know i'll struggle, so hopefully it will be worth it.

i had a lovely joanne-less weekend. watched some soft-core boobie porn with david called "the bare wench project." it was highly amusing, but i fell asleep pretty soon into the movie. i also fell asleep during the radiohead dvd thing we tried to watch. that was a shame, because i really would like to see it. i'm so tired all the time... it sucks. i need a vacation.

i didn't ride at all over the weekend. i'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing... i know that kid will be shitty when i do get on him again tomorrow... and i have no idea what's going on with newt. lovely snooty did run me over in the paddock the other day, causing a bruised foot and a slightly scraped/bruised knee. horses are bad sometimes. we have our vet visit this friday... i'm expecting the worst by self-diagnosing a neurological problem. i hope whatever it is we can treat it fairly easily and i can have my old horse back. i don't even care what it costs... i like hanging out with newt, but i truly miss riding him.

in hedset news, ed needs to realize that websites with black backgrounds are for x-treme radio listeners, heavy metal bands, and porn. i sent ed a list of a gazillion music sites that are very tasteful, and represent good music (in most cases... i had to include ed's favorite artist, enya). none of these sites had black backgrounds. i also told ed that "ich schlafe nicht" means "i hate black" in german... ahhhh... he'll never know otherwise.

since i hardly listen to music while at my computer, i don't feel the need for a "now playing" a la paul cox. however, i would like to note that paul cox and i must be on the same wavelength... in an entry from last week, he was listening to spoon's "girls can tell." i listened to that for several days in a row last week (only to have david replace it with the live radiohead he bought me, which i replaced with "girls can tell" again this morning). i really love that album. it might be my favorite from this year. yay, spoon.

no other news to report. tomorrow is my mommy's birthday.

05 DEC 2001 - 12:11 p
paul h is my fucking hero. i swear, that boy took zen mind, beginner's mind and chewed it up and spit it back out in the form of a paper which is quite remarkable under the circumstances. i knew he was the person for the job. paul h, if you're reading this, i am so unbelievably in debt to you. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

i think we had a productive evening last night. we studied hard at luna's... ivy taught me how to do logic problems, paul worked ever so hard on suzuki. the hard work paid off, i think... i'm pretty sure i didn't make a complete ass out of myself on the logic quiz today. and the buddhism paper? see above. (thanks again, paul h!!!)

i'll be happy to be able to enjoy myself a bit tonight. after i'm out of work, we'll be heading to 80's night... and i won't have to fret about anything. since i gave my presentation in urban studies on tuesday, i just have to go to class tomorrow to listen to the other half of the presentations and meet with my teacher for my grade (an A, duh). then i can fall asleep in buddhism and all will be well. go meditation!

04 DEC 2001 - 5:44 p
my life is insane. i went to bed last night somewhere around 9 p, and slept soundly until my alarm went off at 6:20. i'm still tired.

i had to give the presentation for my urban studies "project" this morning. it went fairly well, considering the "project" was a big sham. then i went to buddhism, only to find out the take home portion of the final exam was due today. apparently i missed all the announcements about this (read: one announcement given last thursday), as i was menstrually sick and did not attend class. i didn't even have the book the take home questions come from until today, and i still wouldn't have it if it hadn't been for david finding it there and sending it to me (read: thank you, david!). well... i was in a state of high stress following the buddhism... until a bright idea came to me: paul h is a philosophical mastermind. all of the take home questions were somewhat introspective smarty farty type questions... so i called paul h (i know he sensed my urgency) and asked him to help me out (read: do the work i do not have time to do). and even though i have yet to negotiate a reward for him, he will be rewarded accordingly (read: thank you, paul h!!! i will kiss your ass for the rest of your life... well, maybe not, but i do owe you big time!).

so now i have give ivy a call so we can meet up... i need to learn how to do logic stuff. that minute of smartness i felt after the minor success of one difficult problem is long over. i have lots of stressing to do about the logic quiz tomorrow. guh.

03 DEC 2001 - 1:00 p
i just realized that paul cox always has a "now playing." i never have a "now playing." i suck.

03 DEC 2001 - 12:28 p
not much has happened lately... had a boring weekend. ivy suggested i make up some exciting events and write about pretend things. my mind is just so blah from school- and work-related insanity that i can't even come up with any fake events that are creative enough to write about. blah.

i'm getting slightly ahead with christmas shopping. i have a few things already purchased and safely tucked away. i also have ideas for pretty much everybody else on my list, except for my mom. i'm feeling generous this year, even though i don't really have the money to spend. i still have a big bill to pay off... and i keep delaying that, which isn't helping at all. and i have to consider my trip to nashville after the new year. i found a decent fare there, so that helps a tiny bit.

i made newt's vet appointment. my mom will be coming out to the barn (hopefully today or tomorrow) to take a video of me riding the gimp. we'll be bringing it to the vet with us, because otherwise we'll take the horse all the way there and he'll be perfectly sound. that's the way it always goes. we need video proof that the horse is a gimp.

speaking of scurvy jr., paul cox's ISP dicked him over... so now he has to use a library computer. sorry for your loss, paul cox.

30 NOV 2001 - 10:30 a

fuck. i overslept today, and missed my classes. that totally sucks... it's not like anything important was going on today or anything. i just feel bad, considering ivy probably woke up and made it to class on time... and she was SO tired last night. plus, we have so few classes left... and i haven't seen my friend from logic all week. *sniff*

oh! i keep forgetting to put this in my blog... last week, we took these logic quizzes that were damn near impossible. everybody pretty much sucked ass on them, so dick fox gave us three very hard problems to do as extra credit. each problem was worth ten points, and i was one of only three people who got any of them right. i felt smart for like a minute.

in horse news, newt is still lame. i am really, really sad about this. he's never been lame like this ever before, so i'm super scared about what it might be. it's been three weeks since i've ridden him... and i was just so happy to be on him so briefly yesterday. i miss him so much. i'm going to try to get a vet appointment during finals week. i'll be spending money that i don't have... but i just want him to be better. he's not uncomfortable at any time, except for being ridden. that's kind of odd... so... i dunno.

other horse news... laura has decided to hold off on selling kid for a little while. she thinks she could get more money for him when we move him up to the 3' classes. very true, and very cool because i'll still get to show and ride him. kid is the only reason being newtless has been bearable... at least i'm able to ride something, even if it isn't newt.

ivy and i went to see the hedset boys last night. we were actually allowed to go in to see a little bit of practice (we timed it just right, as to not disturb or distract anyone and ruin practice). matt and doug were labeling all of the equipment. it is very important that they know the difference between the front and back and left and right. then we went to the jigsaw. had beer. and a dumb waitress. ed worked on his bio and he said that i am his favorite person. aww.

29 NOV 2001 2:13p
the more salt i eat, the more water i am retaining.

28 NOV 2001 - 11:37 a
i just officially registered for classes... three communications classes and german II. i'm super excited about german II... many good things go along with it... such as: starting "achtung! jagak!" the german club (which is the unofficial name as of now), being the official cashiererin of the aforementioned german club, and holding a contest with ivy to see who can sleep with the most boys in german II.

it looks as though the yo la tengo detroit show is unofficially the place to be for new year's eve... amy wants to attend as badly as i do. i haven't seen her in forever and ever... it should be very nice. there will also be guest appearances made by david. the weekend following new year's, i will unofficially be going to nashville to see paul cox. i love paul cox (officially).

tonight is 80's night... my unofficial favorite night of the week. i'm also going to ride newtotaur today for the first time in a few weeks. i'm a little nervous... i hope he's feeling well. i miss him. i do enjoy kid a (who i will also have to ride today, i'm sure), but he's still no nudie.

28 NOV 2001 - 1:20 a
ivy and i did a bad, bad thing tonight. actually, we did a couple of bad, bad things. i'm too embarrassed to say what they were. we will never, ever do them again... even though it was kind of fun.

this will not become a habit. i swear.

27 NOV 2001 - 1:45 p
PAUL COX... I'M GOING TO KICK YOU IN THE NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!

27 NOV 2001 - 12:40 p
i finally finished my urban studies project late last night. i could have easily gone over the 7 page limit, but opted not to... i just wanted to get it done. blah.

david spilled the beans on one of my christmas presents last night. i felt bad, because i know how he feels about surprises... but it really was for the best. several months ago, i saw the greatest minotaur polarfleece hoodie on the radiohead W.A.S.T.E. thing. i'd completely forgotten about it (until last night) and david ordered it and was going to give it to me as a wonderful christmas surprise. well... it came a week or two ago, and he's really not sure if my boobs will fit into the size that he ordered. so, we talked about it, and hopefully he'll send it back and get another size (hint, hint). it even has thumbholes.

work tonight. and then i think i'll be doing something with ivy. at some point, i have to write my LAST communications small group paper. thank god it is the LAST SMALL GROUP SESSION. there was nothing so painful as small group... too many 18 year old boys. i must be getting old.

i'm supposed to register for classes tomorrow. i have to finalize my plan of action... i'm still not 100% i'm going to go with my current plan of attack for next semester. hmmm.

26 NOV 2001 - 4:47 p
i'm supposed to be working on my urban studies service project paper. i didn't really do a service project, but i'm fairly confident i can fake it well.

paul cox is so sweet. thank you for thinking of me, paul cox. he deleted the first entry (a little personal message to me, from him) and added his own blog to the links on the left. take a look. i will probably be adding more links shortly... maybe once school is over for the semester. i don't have much time these days. not like adding links is rocket science or anything... i'm just so busy.

in other news, i found out yo la tengo is playing detroit on new year's. i don't really have any other plans, so i'm considering that. it definitely won't be as good as seeing the whigs on new year's eve would have been... hopefully james la tengo won't get hit in the head with a baseball bat anytime soon.

25 NOV 2001 - 6:41 p
an extra special thanks to paul cox for setting up my blog... and for making it look exactly like yours, only seafoam green. paul cox, i love you.

hrmm. not much else going on, i guess. i had a smashing saturday. i showed kid in the morning at chagrin... had a couple of semi-okay rides which were good enough for 5th and 6th out of 26. i felt kind of shitty about them, but laura was pleased... so that's good, considering he's her horse and all. then we had a great ride in the hack, and won that out of at least 20. yay, squid. some woman was interested in him... i don't want her to have him. i'm just starting to feel like we're putting things together... i'd like to enjoy him for a little while longer. i think laura should wait until he has more of a show record with me, and then sell him for really big bucks. it also gives newt a much needed break... i don't even remember the last time he was worked.

later in the evening, ivy and i went to see ed's band down in akron. ed bought all my beer and gave me a frowny face stamper. i think it is the greatest thing ever, next to the crying minotaur. the show was very... um... interesting. for starters, the bar is next to a porn shop. that was a pleasant surprise, but we didn't have a chance to go in and shop. the first band was just horrible... hedset was super, of course (despite what ed said)... the last band was by far one of the most painful things i've ever witnessed. they were some sort of christmas song cover band. we had to leave... we couldn't take it.

i have a paper to write for urban studies. i don't want to. i don't want to look at horses today, either. i'm so tired.

paul cox, i still love you.