So I’m pony sitting the whole crew this weekend, including Tristan, the 6-month-old Corgi. Let me tell you, if I was under any impression that I might want a puppy, I definitely do not. And he is a great dog – almost 100% house broken, super good with cats, very calm and willing to settle down with a chewy, but man. Tons of puppy energy, combined with all the other animals, is a lot! Since he’s not quite old enough to stay by himself, he had to come to my house Friday while I worked. Nick Valentine was NOT a fan of that idea. The second Nick walked around the corner and saw him, he poofed up to about 4x his normal size and hissed. Tristan was really good about respecting Nick’s space and not chasing him, so it only took about 20 minutes for Nick to return to a normal size cat, but he was still definitely not a fan of having him around.

Friday morning when I went to pick him up, my plan was to skip my 8am work meeting (don’t tell my boss, ha) and go for a ride. I thought we’d ride in the pasture instead of the arena, but Griffy felt a bit more….let’s say alert than usual, and I started thinking about how no one else was home, and maybe we should save this particular challenge for another time. We switched to the arena and had a great ride, so it was worth it.

Today started off ridiculous – I was so excited to not have to get up at 4:30am to make it to the gym!!! Guess what time Tristan had to pee? 4:45. Sigh. At least he asked to be taken out and didn’t just go on the carpet. I went back to bed and ended up hitting snooze through my alarm and not getting there until 7 (my original plan was 5:30 or 6.) I managed to get all the chores done, but I was supposed to meet my workout buddy at the gym at 9. I pushed that back to 9:30, but it still left me not enough time to ride, which really sucked.

As I was getting everything done, I took a minute to check my gym bag and I realized…I forgot half the shit I needed! No bathing suit, no shorts to change into, only one sports bra (I needed two to have one to change into after working out) so…fuck. Ok, there’s a Target super close, I got this. Sped to Target, bought a bathing suit, shorts, and a towel (gym sent out a message that their laundry was broken and everyone could have only one towel. Fuck that.) Get to the gym a disgusting sweaty mess, jump in the shower while wearing my current sports bra to rinse it off. I put it through the swimsuit dryer, then stash it in the sauna to dry. I am pretty pleased with this plan to have a clean bra to wear after working out, I just hope it dries. Change into gym clothes, keep on my gross shorts that I fed the horses in, but every thing else is clean including me with fresh deodorant and I have 3 minutes to spare – sweet!!

Then I settle in to wait for workout buddy…and wait…and wait…text at 9:45, no reply. At 10 I realize she isn’t coming and she probably did exactly what I wanted to do, which is go back to bed. I would have been annoyed except I realized that it was 82 degrees and partly cloudy and I could still ride!! So I go back to the barn, and the other rider is there grooming Paddington. She says she’s about to take him for a walk to the T, and did I want to ride along? Heck yeah!

I get Griffy ready and we head out, Paddy is being hand walked because he’s lame. We get to the road and…she turns onto the trail! I had thought she meant the T at the end of the road, but nope – she meant on the trail. “Uh, we’ve never done this,” I said. She asked if we wanted to turn back and I thought – fuck it, it’s time for another new challenge!

I was pretty nervous, because tons of bikers and walkers use that trail and Griffy is not entirely comfortable around bikes. He was ok when we were walking the trails all the time, but we haven’t done that in months (stupid ankle) and I don’t know how he will be when I’m on his back instead of next to him. I was checking behind us for bikes about every 10 seconds, but thankfully we did not see another soul. Griffy was totally calm, which helped me eventually relax a bit, and we did two laps! And to top it off, we ended our ride solo in the pasture. It was awesome!

So yeah, as ridiculous as today started out, it ended on a great note. I will make extra sure that I pack everything I need for tomorrow so there are no more emergency Target runs 🙂