Wednesday, December 18
Dec. 19th, 2024 12:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
That the colder weather still feels manageable. Every year you have to remember how to live in it, it seems.
I was annoyed to wake up and see a message from the acquaintance who had posted yesterday about the vasectomies, more or less saying I was being warned to behave myself. Yes, she warned everyone who had posted, but it felt more directed at myself.
Well, why would you post something controversial, get everyone started by commenting on your OWN post saying how you were denied a tubal ligation by patriarchal doctors, and how unfair it was etc. and LIKING MY COMMENTS and even saying "100% correct" to them, making me feel like my comments were fair, and then doing a complete 180 shift and telling me to tone it down because your friend (who is gay and has no skin in the birth control game at all) got triggered?
So, I guess the real take-home from this is just to avoid saying anything at all on her posts, since it seems we have some confusing messages, one being "I am encouraging people to share their opinions honestly here" and "Oh shit, somebody got their feelings hurt".
She did the whole "my friend list is carefully curated, and I won't tolerate drama, this is a safe space".
I think the moment someone thinks of their friends feed as a "safe space" is the time to do a deep eye roll and move on.
Her "friend" used swear words to describe me and threw an absolute two year old child tantrum. I talked about what reasons a woman might have for wanting a tubal ligation instead of relying on every man in her life to have a vasectomy.
Well, moving on.
I can't say that was a great start to the day, but I decided that I could find something better to do with myself, and I did.
I texted back and forth a bit with R from the barn, trying to decide if we should do our lesson today, since it was about -20 C and a bit snowy. I was fine doing a lesson, so she was willing to teach it.
After doing chores and such, I headed to the barn, and it was fine. The roads were a bit snow covered but not slippery, and manageable if you drove reasonably and planned for your corners and so on.
Sister E returned my call as I was just going inside the barn, and we chatted while I got River ready.
She had spent the day decorating cookies at the church for Christmas, which sounds unbelievably wholesome.
R had brought River in about an hour before I came, because I had originally hoped to get there early.
River looked SO HAPPY to be in the barn. You could tell that he was so comfy and warm in there, he'd been eating already so he was relaxed and not going to be thinking about food the whole lesson, and with his blanket off for an hour he likely felt nicer too (I imagine having a blanket on is annoying after a while).
No, they can't be in the barn all the time, and I wouldn't want him to be, but on cold days like this I think it helps him a lot to warm up a bit and get some food in him first (most of the time when I come to ride him, he hasn't had evening hay yet, and it's all he can think about).
We had a good lesson. It helps when I have a clear idea of what we need to work on, and today we worked on some specific points with the Liberty circles, and the issues we've been having with yields under saddle.
I got some useful homework for separating the yields again into the shoulders and the hips, so that he can be clear about those parts yielding separately before we go into a sidepass again.
I managed to get about half way to standing on his back, and I couldn't quite get all the way up (remember, I have nothing to hold onto and I can't use my hands at all to get up, so I have to work on that). He stood very nicely for me and seemed relaxed with me squatting on him.
What a good horse.
Then we went into the barn and exchanged gifts. She had to buy something for all of her clients, so it couldn't be particularly personal. She gave me a jar of hand made laundry soap made by the women who run the horse rescue, and a very nice laser cut wooden ornament of her barn logo. I thought they were pretty good gifts.
She was pretty happy with what my husband and I got for her (and we know she'll be sharing), which was a cotton candy theme (her favorite flavor). My husband had found cotton candy wine, which I hope is good, we got cotton candy jelly beans, some fancy peach jelly candies, and I had found her a simple Selenite bead bracelet.
I enjoyed shopping for her gifts a lot; it was kind of like a scavenger hunt trying to find things that were cotton candy flavored, and something made of Selenite (she'd mentioned that it was her favorite mineral).
I told her that the candies were kind of high end (they were pricey) and not to let her husband scarf them down like normal candy!
I felt so much better after being at the barn with River, and having a good lesson with R and a good interaction with a human being in person.
Sometimes the drama of Facebook can make me feel like the whole world is just a pile of melting snowflakes (and I am a proud lefty, and would normally be considered a snowflake/bleeding heart by many people. This butthurt dude is some kind of uber snowflake, maybe a slush flake).
I came home and warmed up with a bath, and it was nice to feel so clean. I do bathe, but usually I don't really soak for any length of time, and I don't wash my hair a lot because it gets so dry.
My Sweetie got home a little late from the climbing gym because there had also been yet another Christmas gathering, with a group of people from the "craft" side (trades people) of his job. They didn't trade gifts, they just went to a pub for beer and wings or something.
He picked up the pony blanket for Dandy (he needed a larger size) that had come in.
We caught up on each other's day while I ate, and then he had to get to sleep.
That the colder weather still feels manageable. Every year you have to remember how to live in it, it seems.
I was annoyed to wake up and see a message from the acquaintance who had posted yesterday about the vasectomies, more or less saying I was being warned to behave myself. Yes, she warned everyone who had posted, but it felt more directed at myself.
Well, why would you post something controversial, get everyone started by commenting on your OWN post saying how you were denied a tubal ligation by patriarchal doctors, and how unfair it was etc. and LIKING MY COMMENTS and even saying "100% correct" to them, making me feel like my comments were fair, and then doing a complete 180 shift and telling me to tone it down because your friend (who is gay and has no skin in the birth control game at all) got triggered?
So, I guess the real take-home from this is just to avoid saying anything at all on her posts, since it seems we have some confusing messages, one being "I am encouraging people to share their opinions honestly here" and "Oh shit, somebody got their feelings hurt".
She did the whole "my friend list is carefully curated, and I won't tolerate drama, this is a safe space".
I think the moment someone thinks of their friends feed as a "safe space" is the time to do a deep eye roll and move on.
Her "friend" used swear words to describe me and threw an absolute two year old child tantrum. I talked about what reasons a woman might have for wanting a tubal ligation instead of relying on every man in her life to have a vasectomy.
Well, moving on.
I can't say that was a great start to the day, but I decided that I could find something better to do with myself, and I did.
I texted back and forth a bit with R from the barn, trying to decide if we should do our lesson today, since it was about -20 C and a bit snowy. I was fine doing a lesson, so she was willing to teach it.
After doing chores and such, I headed to the barn, and it was fine. The roads were a bit snow covered but not slippery, and manageable if you drove reasonably and planned for your corners and so on.
Sister E returned my call as I was just going inside the barn, and we chatted while I got River ready.
She had spent the day decorating cookies at the church for Christmas, which sounds unbelievably wholesome.
R had brought River in about an hour before I came, because I had originally hoped to get there early.
River looked SO HAPPY to be in the barn. You could tell that he was so comfy and warm in there, he'd been eating already so he was relaxed and not going to be thinking about food the whole lesson, and with his blanket off for an hour he likely felt nicer too (I imagine having a blanket on is annoying after a while).
No, they can't be in the barn all the time, and I wouldn't want him to be, but on cold days like this I think it helps him a lot to warm up a bit and get some food in him first (most of the time when I come to ride him, he hasn't had evening hay yet, and it's all he can think about).
We had a good lesson. It helps when I have a clear idea of what we need to work on, and today we worked on some specific points with the Liberty circles, and the issues we've been having with yields under saddle.
I got some useful homework for separating the yields again into the shoulders and the hips, so that he can be clear about those parts yielding separately before we go into a sidepass again.
I managed to get about half way to standing on his back, and I couldn't quite get all the way up (remember, I have nothing to hold onto and I can't use my hands at all to get up, so I have to work on that). He stood very nicely for me and seemed relaxed with me squatting on him.
What a good horse.
Then we went into the barn and exchanged gifts. She had to buy something for all of her clients, so it couldn't be particularly personal. She gave me a jar of hand made laundry soap made by the women who run the horse rescue, and a very nice laser cut wooden ornament of her barn logo. I thought they were pretty good gifts.
She was pretty happy with what my husband and I got for her (and we know she'll be sharing), which was a cotton candy theme (her favorite flavor). My husband had found cotton candy wine, which I hope is good, we got cotton candy jelly beans, some fancy peach jelly candies, and I had found her a simple Selenite bead bracelet.
I enjoyed shopping for her gifts a lot; it was kind of like a scavenger hunt trying to find things that were cotton candy flavored, and something made of Selenite (she'd mentioned that it was her favorite mineral).
I told her that the candies were kind of high end (they were pricey) and not to let her husband scarf them down like normal candy!
I felt so much better after being at the barn with River, and having a good lesson with R and a good interaction with a human being in person.
Sometimes the drama of Facebook can make me feel like the whole world is just a pile of melting snowflakes (and I am a proud lefty, and would normally be considered a snowflake/bleeding heart by many people. This butthurt dude is some kind of uber snowflake, maybe a slush flake).
I came home and warmed up with a bath, and it was nice to feel so clean. I do bathe, but usually I don't really soak for any length of time, and I don't wash my hair a lot because it gets so dry.
My Sweetie got home a little late from the climbing gym because there had also been yet another Christmas gathering, with a group of people from the "craft" side (trades people) of his job. They didn't trade gifts, they just went to a pub for beer and wings or something.
He picked up the pony blanket for Dandy (he needed a larger size) that had come in.
We caught up on each other's day while I ate, and then he had to get to sleep.
