The (not so) Inner Whinings of an Impatient Rambler

I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately and I've no idea why, but last night was one of the worst. I finally fell asleep, I guess around 4am? Anyways, my bedroom is in the basement, so my window is quite a bit higher than my bed, and it's depressed as well, so there's about an 8 inch ledge that my fish bowl sits on. My cats also like to sit in the window to watch the world go by. Last night, my cat Boots was sitting up there and decided it would be fun to jump over the fish bowl to sit on the other side of it.

He jumps.
His foot gets caught in the bowl.
The bowl tips over.

I am awoken at 5:15am by a litre of fishy water being POURED over me.

So my first thought is obviously to make sure that my fish Rutherford is ok. Thank god he didn't fall over the ledge, either into my bed (ew) or down onto the carpet below. He was lying on his side on the ledge, so I had to grab the bowl, refill it quickly, purify the water, and get the poor little guy back in there. He survived! YAY!! And then I had to try to clean up the fishy water and little rocks that were all over my bed, pillows, carpet, and myself. Then I crawled into bed in our spare bedroom, and fell asleep again by about 7, just to be woken up an hour later by my mum, asking why I wasn't in my own bed. Yeesh. Fun times. Needless to say, not much sleep was had last night.

Damn animals.

On that note, I suppose I should add that both my horses are lame right now. Injured, for the non-horsey people. Tobasco has arthritis in his front right fetlock (analogous to the human wrist, basically), and the sudden cold weather and rain again makes him sore. Shadow's sore in his hind leg. Looks like a light muscle strain. Luckily neither are serious injuries and they should both be fine soon. I rode my friend's horse instead last night and he was AWESOME.

Ah well. Crazy critters.

My other rude awakening yesterday was less literal, I suppose. I decided for my riding lesson last night that I was going to wear my field boots (the tall black leather riding boots). I only ever wore them when I was showing because I'm anal about keeping them in good shape. And these boots, oh these glorious boots! When I bought them, I got them on sale for almost half price because they were a random size combo and thank goodness because I could never have afforded them at full price. But they fit PERFECTLY. Like, they could have been custom (which some crazy rich riders pay thousands to have made). And I kept them so nice and shiny black that you could see your face in them.

Anyways, I was feeling sentimental since I haven't shown since October of 2007 (the beginning of university), and I figured I should see how they feel since I'm planning to get back in the show ring this summer. So I hook them onto my boot pulls and start to pull them on.

Let me explain- field boots are supposed to be so tight that you have to use metal hooks attached to straps inside the boot to pull them on. Picture a snake eating a pig.

So I start to pull the first on on and it's pretty tight. And I'm thinking "well, I know I've gained a little weight since going to university and lost some my muscle tone in my legs, but I must just be forgetting how tight they're supposed to be". Right?

Not so much.

By the time it's all the way on, I've realized that there is not much circulation getting past my knee. And it's so tight, that I'm not going to bother trying to get it off, because then I'll be late for my lesson. So I start pulling on the second boot. And I pull. And I pull. And my breeches are bunching up at the knee because if my leg is going into that boot, my pants aren't going to fit as well. But I get it up as far as it will go, which is about an inch below the crook of my knee (they're supposed to lie right in the bend of the knee). And now I'm thinking "Oh crap". The time is now 15 mins past when I should have left home for the barn.

So I stand up and grab all my stuff and I'm heading out to the car when I realize...my legs are starting to go numb. Whoops. Back in the house I go. And I can't get them off. And my dad can't get them off. So we go out to the garage where my dad houses his other child, his full utility-size air compressor. I shove the hose into my boot, turn on the air, and inflate my boot sto the point where I can pull my legs out.

Thank god my boots are okay. But it looks like I have more work to do than I thought before I'll be getting back to the show ring after all.



I just remembered I had this photo. A friend took it for no reason whatsoever, but there it is! Haha