old friends and the end of march

March has been a great month, really, it has. But it's always a little crazy as well. I'm a full fledged geek, and since I don't believe in half-assing anything, I end up trying to master everything I commit to (note to self: not good for mental health).

Last weekend was the state instrumental jazz festival at MDI. The title 'festival' does not begin to cover it. Jazz band is a source of lots of....well, let's say we have a love-hate relationship. As in, I love jazz band and hate rehearsing when it is sunny and I could be at the barn. We had a couple of great performances, though, made night finals, came home with a trophy. And guess who came away with one of the five coveted outstanding musicianship awards? You got it. So, thankfully, jazz is over, forever, for me. Miles on the road: 360, if you count the side trip to Denny's, where we had some adventures and a waiter who really wasn't excited to see 24 hungry teenagers at 11 PM.

Baby black pony has been a little bit neglected this week due to show choir taking over my life. It seems like 'one more week of this' is becoming a mantra of mine, but there is always one more week of something. He was fantastic Monday and Tuesday, got Wednesday off, and was a wild little puke Thursday though he is getting the hang of sidereins. Friday I made the mistake of pulling his mane on the crossties, assuming that since we had done this before without incident it would be fine. He scared himself and broke out of his third halter in about as many months, although I actually think it had less to do with me yanking hair out of his neck and more to do with the wildly exciting nothing that was happening. Good thing for him he's pretty cute. And now looks much more like an future event horse and less like a mustang.

Last night an old friend of mine came up for a visit- and by old friend I mean we took our first hunt seat lessons together at the age of nine and I was always terribly jealous that she got a pony before I did. So lots of shenanigans to be had this weekend, and lots to celebrate, too- honor parts were made official this week at HHS and I'm the valedictorian, whoop whoop. One of my best friends is the salutatorian and between the two of us we'll have all we can do to keep our speeches school appropriate! The weather has been deceitfully sunny (and freezing) but I will of course be procrastinating scholarship applications for a few more hours as I'm headed back to the barn.