awesome news!

So there is one awesome thing that is going to come out of me working the day after Thanksgiving (BLACK FRIDAY, bwahaha). I get 3 days off the following week instead of 2 and on one of those, I get to go have a riding lesson!
I found this great stable here in Eugene that trains both hunters and jumpers and their prices are really reasonable. I've always wanted to learn how to jump and now is my chance! It's going to be so great! I went to look at the place (Triple Rise) last week and was very impressed. The people were really nice, the horses were beautiful and it still has that quaint, small-stable atmosphere. All their lesson horses are former show horses and I already have my eye on a Thoroughbred mare named Juliet (I've never ridden a Thoroughbred before and that would be something to check off my life goals list) and I'm wondering how I can finagle my way to riding her.
I won't lie though, I'm nervous...I'm pretty good with Rapper and I'm confident that I'm a fast learner, but a 16 hand-high jumper is an entirely different kind of ride. Still, it's going to be something! If only I didn't have to wait a week and a half!

wow

Listening to John Mayer. Reading Bill Bryson. Driving through the Gorge. Watching my old 1996 Breeder's Cup video.

It's always like visiting an old friend. I can never remember why I stopped listening-reading-driving-watching. It's like emotional comfort food - and every once in a while, you find something you never heard-read-saw before and it feels brand new and totally familiar at the same time.

I discovered a new live version of an old Mayer favorite "In Your Atmosphere" and at the end there is the purest, most beautiful little song blurb I've ever heard...

wherever I go, whatever I do
I wonder where I am in my relationship to you
wherever you go, wherever you are
I watch your life play out in pictures from afar
wherever I go, whatever I do
I wonder where I am to my relationship to you
wherever you go, whatever you are
I watch that pretty life play out in pictures from afar

(and then he sings "oooooooooooooooo" a few times in a softer-than-Eddie-Veder-in-the-Into-the-Wild-soundtrack-but-just-as-moving kinda way)

PS: there's a cover of "Free Fallin'" that literally made my morning.

note to self:

download these songs tomorrow...just don't forget!

The Blower's Daughter
Cannonball
Brass Bed

there were more, I'm almost positive...

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