♣Ambitious♣

I hemmed and hawed again about what to do with goals in 2023. Much of 2021 and 2022 was spent figuring out life post-academia. In starting work full-time, I learned quickly that I'm very goal and task-oriented. I love a good checklist. To the point where I'm very upset with myself when I don't check off enough tasks within a day, even if a significant portion of those tasks were unreasonable to accomplish within a single day. Do you see where this is going? Populating this post with some of Eggo's best moments Not to get to into it, but it's looking more and more like I might have ADHD. It would explain . . . a lot. So my first thing to tackle in 2023 is going to the doctor. Beyond that, I need new glasses, my asthma has continued to act up, and I'd like to see if a nutritionist could help me better develop my vegetarian diet. I just recently learned what a "complete protein" is, and I'm enthralled. There's a lot of lifestyle items that need wo...

While goals are canceled for the time being, I still think it's worthwhile to take a holistic look at what's changed since January. We started the year with Fuego being lame. It definitely didn't set the tone for us moving forward, and once he had his shoe back on, he was fine. Speaking of his feet, they're doing great! He was switched to an aluminum shoe and had some mud put over the front of his feet to hold it on better. The tears grew out a little slow, but his feet are solid, and *knocks on wood* he hasn't pulled a shoe in a while. Something else he hasn't done in a while (at least with me) is break a cross tie. He has also graduated back to being in the wash rack instead of hosing him off while hand grazing. He walks in with gusto and stands all the way at the front to do a thorough investigation of the whole setup. He still isn't confident about exiting and can get antsy if he's there for too long, but he isn't breaking anything. He does his b...

I'm not making goals this year. This shouldn't come as a huge surprise. It's not that I don't have things that I want to do, but it seems that putting those goals explicitly on paper keeps jinxing me. Horses will probably continue to take a back seat in 2022 just because of time and financial reasons. I really really want to show, but it's just not feasible at the moment. On the flip side, now that I'm riding with a trainer that actually follows through on going to shows, it'll mean more blog fodder and a chance to be more engrossed in my local equestrian community. There's only one regular photographer at the local shows, and her business model prefers people who book their photos ahead of time. I'd still like to have a conversation with her to ensure there's no competition, but I doubt snapping photos of maybe 10-15 riders total over the course of an entire weekend will be an issue. A couple years ago, I did have a goal to write something for a...

So, where do I begin . . . Life updates: I'm still depressed. Not as bad as a few months ago, but I'm, like, genuinely having a quarter-life crisis, and I wish I was joking. I moved to my very first apartment on my own to be closer to my job. I'm trying to find a new job. I'm applying to Ph.D. programs, and Los Angeles is at the top of my list. My sister made me install Grammarly and suddenly I feel a lot less confident about all 500+ ramblings that I have forced y'all to read over the last several years. I left my barn. After my last welcome back post, I did end up having a conversation with my trainer. It only made things worse. I got caught between my trainer and Satin's owner, and at first, it seemed that they just did not understand each other and could not get on the same page. Which is fair, and makes sense due to the emotional weight of the vet findings. As things unraveled, it became clear that my trainer was not honest about her knowledge of the situat...

To recap, my goals this year have been focused entirely around building good, healthy habits. Next year, I'll certainly feel much better about jumping back into specific riding goals, but for now, as my life approaches major turning points, this seems to work much better. Workout Once Per Week Absolutely not. Two Point, Stretching, & No Stirrup Work Every Ride I definitely jumped in with both feet on this one for absolutely no reason. Warming up at the two-point has made a valiant return, but I could go a little harder with it. I noticed that I struggle with it more when I'm riding in my trainer's saddle. It has normal fillis irons while I've been riding in my own wide footbed irons for several years now. I'm doing my best to push through the foot pain and not be a spoiled brat about it. The no-stirrup work is kind of meh. It's one of those things that was easy to make myself do in the past, but now? My aged body is battling a young mind. I have been the mos...

I'm switching things up a little bit this year. Previously, I used to do 12 goals for 12 months. Then, I decided to partition my goals into specific categories because it made more sense for me. That organization has worked pretty well for me the last few years . . . except this year, for obvious reasons lol. I would use my usual organization again this year, but because the pandemic is, uhhh, still happening, I'm trying not to get super attached to competition based goals, which typically tend to take up the bulk of my Hashing and Unicorn Fairy goals. There's also just a lot of life changes that are likely to happen once I'm officially done with grad school. Student loan payments ain't cheap, and when I begged my parents to let me take our nearly 18 year old BMW to grad school with me, no one warned me that luxury cars, no matter how old, cost a butt ton of money to maintain. Lord, give me a Honda Civic. Remember when this was peak comedy on Twitter? In summary, B...

I would make a legitimate goals post, but considering the circumstances, it's kind of not worth it lol. I've just started coming out of a sudden slump that was more frustrating than expected. It wasn't until a couple days ago that I remembered it's Virgo season. I'm always on a high during Leo season, but once August starts to fade away, my mood takes a sharp dip and is very slow to recover. Out of all of my annual mood fluctuations, this one has been the most consistent . . . and somehow, I still forgot after this many years, ha! Safe to say I'm feeling a lot less frustrated and a whole lot more motivated than I was even a week ago. And do you know what more motivation means??? More time for questionable graphic design! I had a lesson on Blackjack a couple days ago, which I promise to write about. It gave me a lot more clarity and focus moving forward with him. The last month has been a little on and off for everyone, so his fitness isn't 100% yet. The rai...

So, considering the pandemic and hurricane season (both of which I did not plan for), my goals are going to need a little bit of adjusting. Do more than the bare minimum to take care of my body I'm somewhat back on a work out routine. The only bad thing about hunkering down with my girlfriend is that if she isn't motivated to work out, then I have to push myself to go alone, and that's succkkyy. But after having like zero work-life balance for a couple weeks, I'm finally more motivated to get back on my grind. I'm still ordering waaaayyy too much food, but I'm getting out of the house and moving around in socially distanced ways. Improve body control Okay, two points on this. First, the walk ride with no stirrups ? Fantastic for this. I'm way more body conscious when I'm doing something that simple, and it's not so strenuous that I can't do it in hot weather. Honestly, it's probably better for Lucie since she insists on running around...

Happy (Very Late) Mental Health Awareness Month! Figured it was worth it to check in since one of my goals this year was to do more than the bare minimum to take care of myself. Ain't doing too bad on that. Well, minus the copious amounts of cake and biscuits I've consumed over the past two days, I'm taking care of myself! I think having a regular job at a place I don't hate has definitely helped. I like being able to get away from school work, and it's one more thing that gets me out of the house and prevents me from becoming a complete schlub. Since the start of quarantine, my work life balance has also improved, but that has more to do with my commute time being completely nixed. Instead of rushing from one city to the next, I'm taking a leisurely stroll from one computer to another. It's refreshing. Here's some fun stuff I've been creating! Work project, a deck design for a plant loving couple My studio project from Fall 2019, an a...

Life changes I've made since the start of quarantine: Making my bed most mornings Going on socially distanced walks Drinking water Drinking blueberry infused water Cooking my own food sometimes Organizing my room daily Actually writing posts on here Actually working out My mile time is getting to under 9 minutes?? Who??? How??? Some photos from my socially distanced walks :)

Now that we've hit April, it's time for The Accountability Hour. Do more than the bare minimum to take care of my body As you can guess by my insane list, my self care has improved dramatically since the quarantine. I'm eating more and more often, and I'm starting to work out about every other day. It's pretty sweet! Still a ways to go, but not bad for the time being. I really want to start putting on muscle again, mainly in my arms, back, quads, and hamstrings. Improve body control Not gonna lie, I'm not sure what I was referring to when I put this goal down, but I think it has to do with my physical strength. Working out helps, as does riding regularly. My position during transitions has always been a weak spot. Downwards are feeling great at the moment, but the up transition, especially into the canter, can use some more attention. Practice working through fear, stress, and anxiety I can jump like a real girl now! Again, another area th...

I know everyone is saying it, but, guys . . . . . I have 2020 vision . . . so long as you don't look at the restriction on my license that requires me by law to drive with glasses . . . but I have 2020 vision. As usual, I'm splitting up my goals in order to put my priorities in the right place.      For goals/items that I seriously need to work on and improve and cannot let myself slack on Do more than the bare minimum to take care of my body Improve body control Practice working through fear, stress, and anxiety Take lessons      For goals that currently require a little more planning, discussion, and thought Show in hunters Show in equitation Take Dressage lesson(s) Photography professionally at a horse show     Self explanatory Show in Dressage Submit an article to an online equine publication Upgrade all of my personal riding equipment Try barrel racing Of course, I'll elaborate on these as the ye...

Here's where we stand with June/July goals. Go to a show By some freak of nature, this managed to happen. I'm so so so happy that God made me ambitious and a push over. I think Doris and I made a good team Get into a doable fitness routine The key word here is "doable" because I can't really do much. Between preparing for a move, then moving, then not knowing how the new gym works, I've been sticking mainly to running. I haven't been in a serious routine since the end of last year. Even the simplest of workouts leaves me incredibly sore. I just work around the sore days and go when I'm not in pain. Prior to the move, I could go a full 2mi on hilly terrain without any breaks. After moving, that's proven pretty difficult, and I've been taking at least one break in the middle of my run. My most recent run. Not sure what that huge dip in pace is all about. If anything, my diet has required much bigger adjustments. I won't see ...