palace of winds

I’m a regular reader of Cleolinda (she of Movies in 15 Minutes fame — hilarious online and in print!), and while normally I can hardly be arsed to write my own journal entries let alone quote and comment on other people’s, she said something in yesterday’s that I found very arresting:

“It’s like all my thoughts have sharp edges, and when I’m left alone with them, I get hurt.”

Which so perfectly describes how things are for me sometimes, and probably for you too, and I just felt strangely compelled to share it.

Thankfully that is not how I’ve been feeling lately. I’ve been feeling centered. Quiet inside. Content, if a little dully so, but I kind of need the rest that dullness brings right now.

Saturday night Jo and I went to the Wild game. It was my first time seeing hockey, ever, and I’d expected to like it like a baseball game: in a sort of oblique way, enjoying the atmosphere more than anything, paying attention to the game off and on. But guys, seriously? Hockey is fun. The action is faster than baseball, and there’s none of the interminable wait between plays you get with football. The crowd was woefully yuppie suburbanite (and I don’t even want to get into the kids seated behind us who spent the entire game kicking the back of my seat and saying shockingly rude things and ended the evening with a head-splitting round of the most high-pitched screaming imaginable), but I’d go back in a heartbeat. Everyone was enthusiastic about the game, and the players are fantastically graceful. I can’t skate at all, so the idea of being able to skate that quickly and that precisely while holding a stick and using that stick to hit a little puck just so — it’s mind-boggling. Sadly there were no fights, but sticks did get broken and a puck did fly off into the crowd, and all in all it was a fabulous time.

I spent Sunday cooking, and yesterday evening out at the barn. I don’t know what’s gotten into Saza in the last week but she’s been an absolute pistol. She’s still really coming along, though — her canter is feeling a lot more centered and she’s jumping rounder. We just apparently need some work on the brakes. She was all sweaty after canterpalooza last night so after untacking I brought her back to the arena to walk her out some more, and it was unspeakably nice to just hang out with her. We checked out the barrels and the big scary corner o’ doom with its ooo, white plastic chain, and snuffled around for stray bits of hay. Well, she snuffled around for stray bits of hay; I just watched.

I got up early this morning (and I know it should be criminal but even at 5:30 I popped out of bed directly after my alarm went off) and went across the street for a run (which is going well, though because I keep forgetting to check the schedule before I go I’m still closer to couch than 5k — que sera), and still left the house early enough to vote before work. Anyone who’s reading this who hasn’t voted yet: go vote. And if you somehow don’t end up voting today, you’re no longer allowed to read. No excuses! Vote!