Saturday, April 29, 2006

The Rain... Alive.


Where do we go now?
Hazy clouds seem to blur the path, so not even I know.
All that I know is stumbling-slipping-tumbling-sliding
Down towards the ground.
That is our destination, is it not?
Fate leads us, sometimes by the hand or kicked along, to one place.
Just when we feel in control-
We smack into one side of a catastrophe.
Lost.
Confused.
And still falling.
Do we stop to ask why?
Nothing comes of speculation,
Because for all the meticulous collection and analyzation,
We always seem to come up-
Short.
Dissatisfaction pulsing through aching and, inevitably,
Young minds.
The best choice, seemingly, is to let things be, to simply fall...
But what a wondrous thing...
To fly through the air.
Why should all things be in despair?
Letting the breeze dash you past trees,
To come and rest gently on their leaves,
Until again you are left breathless by another swift gust,
Sweeping by the tallest castles and fountains,
Imaginary princesses and knights and dragons filling your mind,
Passing through dream after dream until you finally see,
Yes.
This is what everything is about;
This is how it's meant to be.
I am alive.
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. -unknown author

Sunday, April 23, 2006

A beautiful day

Today was another great day; the weather was sunny and pleasantly warm all day, with a slight breeze picking up later in the evening. I went out with my mom and dad to Dean's place, where Adrianna was staying for the weekend. She had a lesson today around 1 in the afternoon with a good trainer named BJ. Adrianna and Jack had a good lesson, Jack worked hard and I think BJ and Adrianna were both pleased. Afterwards, I soothed my hunger with something from Anne's kitchen (she always has something good to eat, haha... there is no shortage of good things there).

I went for a ride later with my dad, him riding Spicy and myself riding Dean's mule, Scooter. Scooter is a good, sound animal; she's really push-button broke, and I had a good ride on her. My dad took the camera up on top, so I've got a few pictures to show:




Here's some of when we got back:

Here's Adrianna on the tractor, doing the routine work:



My mom took me home while my dad and Adrianna stayed, and my mom told me she had been working a bit in the backyard. Our backyard really is something else, because it has great potential to be beautiful, yet it is completely overgrown. You can see where there are concrete steps leading down into a sort of "haven", yet to get there you have to somehow wend your way through thick blackberry vines and through the branches of trees weighted down with branches. Anyway, she told me that she'd been clearing away some of the weeds and had lain down some bark underneath one of our old, tall evergreen trees. An old-fashioned bench sits there, and I believe she is clearing the weeds away from there with the partial intent of giving me a place to write, and for this I'm thankful; I've been yearning for somewhere to go write that isn't in the confines of a building.

I'll have to take some pictures of our yard sometime this week... some of my garden project in the front yard, and some of the overcrowded backyard. It's late though right now, and I have to get up for school tomorrow, so I'll say goodbye for now.


"If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?" -Karen Blixen/Isak Dineson, Out of Africa

Friday, April 21, 2006

Of this and that

I just thought I'd share some lovely pictures of my sister and her horse Jack up at Dean and Anne's thoroughbred ranch in Granite Falls. She went up there the other day, and my dad got some really good shots of her jumping. Isn't Jack flashy? My family all call him Bodacious Jack.


Enough of that for now. I haven't written in a while, so I'll get up to date with what's been taking up my time.

Near the end of March, the day after my singing competition, I went out with my mother in the gorgeous weather to meet up with my sister. She was at the ranch already, tending to the horses and doing the chores that she normally does, like helping the ranch hand Eduvides clean stalls and such. Once there, Adrianna told me that Charles, Dean's son and a racehorse trainer, was taking some horses and people up to the tree farm in Arlington, including Adrianna, and she asked if I wanted to go. I went ahead and got my horse Spicy (my Arabian/Saddlebred mix, a pretty 17 yr. old cinnamon-chestnut mare) and we hauled up to the tree farm.

The ride that ensued was absolutely amazing. I did have a bit of trouble with Spicy, because she pulled on the bit a lot (natl. show horses are pretty hot, and Spicy always jigs around, pulling on me to let her extend and trot), and I didn't have a stable seat, because I was using a dressage saddle instead of my standard comfortable western saddle. It was great to go out and ride with everybody though, because I don't get many opportunities to go to the tree farm.

Here's some more pictures so you can see what Spicy looks like:

Poor Spicy. The baby horses in her pastures chewed up her tail a while ago.. it used to drag on the ground, but no more. It'll grow back, eventually.


What else of significance? Well, I can talk about seeing the movie V for Vendetta. Now, THAT is a good movie. I really enjoyed it (I guess that was a given, though, because I'm really into the negative utopia stuff like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451), and Hugo Weaving as V and Natalie Portman as Evey were really good choices. I definitely recommend it.




HOWEVER.

For all you die hard fans of the comic, you may not be as impressed as I was. The message is not the same as it was in the comic, because Alan Moore and David Lloyd's creation portrays the mysterious V as an anarchist. I read the comic after I saw the movie, so it kind of skewed the message that I originally got. Plus, there are quite a few things that they left out, but that's to be expected from a book-to-movie production anyway. But aside from all that, I think the movie was very well done, and I loved it anyway. It's my favorite movie at the moment. My sister believes that this movie would have done better financially if it had come out before The Matrix trilogy, and I agree with her; the storylines have the same kind of idea, even if The Matrix is a little more sci fi.

Because of this movie, and some other events, I have taken up an interest in political science. I just want to become more knowledgeable, so I can escape the strange, twisted version of today's politics that my peers have. Plus, I want to be able to better recognize political bias online and in other places, so that I don't fall into trusting something that isn't credible.

Away from the weighty topics, I've been interested in renovating a garden in my front yard. It's going to be a big project, as it's completely over-grown with weeds, with haphazardly growing roses in the middle, and a muddle of other flowers that are being choked. I've decided I need something else as a focus, something that's relaxing and outside, so that I can soak up a little sunshine and do something productive, for those days that I can't go up to the ranch.

Also, I've been trying to write some more. After my huckleberrying assignment for my english class that involved observing things and people, more specifically school and how I learn, I've been inspired to just keep a journal for just the purpose of observation. I used to do that in seventh grade, but I've lost the habit. I figured some journaling and observation would do me good as a writer, so I went to Barnes and Noble and bought a black, pocket-sized leather-bound notebook. I've already taken some things down, mostly notes, and a random dialogue that I came up with. A good story could come out of it.

Now, let me tell you the strangest thing; the other night, I wrote the dialogue before I went to bed, and then in a sort of semi-conscious haze, I had a 'dream' about my dialogue. Well, not really about the dialogue; it was more like the childhood of the person the dialogue is about. I knew that it was him, the main character, because I kept thinking to myself (my dream was in a third person view) "THAT'S him! That is who the story is about." It was probably the strangest thing I've ever experienced, because I've fallen asleep with more pertinent things on my mind and not thought about them at all. I'm thankful for it really, because it was a great source of insight; I was actually able to see my character vividly, his habits, and his personality. I suppose my muse is trying to take a more active role in my writing, ha. Maybe this means I should be writing more, and live up to the quote at the bottom of my site.

That's pretty much all that's been going on with me. I'll try to get more regular with my posts, because I know that no one likes to come and see the same old posts with no changes.

Oh, and remember: today is Earth Day. Do something that will help to better the environment, your checkbook, and your life. It's not that hard to turn off a light, unplug the TV (I know it's a gorgeous day where I am), unplug your cell phone charger, or simply take a day off from your stresses and take a walk outside. It's just a good idea to keep in mind that we all make an impact on our surroundings, and the little things really do count.

Goodbye for now, I'll write more later on.

"A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having." -V, V for Vendetta