Working is Hard

      I haven't worked in 3 weeks. I don't think I have gone that long without working in... I don't even know how long. I did bits and pieces of things here and there but mostly I have not done any work for three weeks. It has been absolutely glorious. 

      I was obviously not going to "work" during horsefest, though I was selling dolls so I did end up working a bit. And then the Monday before we came back I packed and shipped a whole bunch of things from Kentucky. So small bits of work were finished. I guess to be accurate, I haven't really done anything in my studio in about 3 weeks. I meant to take two weeks off but I was so tired when I got back. So I took a vacation after my vacation. Anyone who is not new here knows that I work a lot. But I have not worked in a while. 

     I have been having a really nice summer. Horsefest was wonderful. I had such a good time. Though maybe I am more different from other people than I realized. By the time we were ready to come home I was absolutely ready to come home. It was nice to live in a hotel, to not clean things, to not wash dishes, but I was very ready to come back to my stuff. To not have to keep making trips to Walmart and Target because I needed some life-essential that I didn't know I needed or had run out of. Now that I took a trip I have an idea of what sorts of things I need to make sure to bring with me. I will be more prepared next year. And hopefully not have to spend as much money on things I already have. 

     I really missed dance while I was in Kentucky. I have made some really wonderful friends in the dance community. Travis has been welcomed in too and has also been making some friends of his own. We've gone to several dance nights and dance parties together. There has been so much dancing! It's wonderful. Today I went to school to help a friend and I stopped in the office. When I went up the main stairs, which I don't like to do, I realized that it doesn't hurt to climb those stairs anymore. I'm pretty sure that is from all the dancing. 

     It has been a struggle getting back into working. But today, I finally got into the studio for a while. I did start on some horse boots the other day and I got them finished up today. I haven't made horse boots in a couple of years I think. I didn't think I ever would again. But it was a special request so I gave it a shot. I got some doll clothes cut out and I started hairing a head too. It was a start. I let some orders sneak into my closed books, so I have to get things done. It's been almost motivating.  

     This is likely one of the most boring blog posts I have ever written. Especially after all the horsefest posts. But I am still here, struggling to get back into the swing of normal life and very much enjoying an actual break. Now that I have gotten back into work I am hoping I can keep some balance. I won't have much time to relax once school starts so I should make sure I do plenty of fun things now. Really recharge my batteries. It has been fantastic. 

People of Horsefest

      The absolute biggest reason I wanted to go to Breyerfest (which turned into me wanting to go to HORSEfest because it is SO much more than just Breyerfest) is the people. I wanted to see my crazy model horse friends that I had not seen for a long time or had only ever interacted with online. THIS was the part of online Breyerfest that I couldn't quite get ahold of (except that one year Marci Driscoll and I met up at the Brimfield flea market wearing our volunteer shirts and being stuck in a huge crowd of people) though I know some people have managed that better than I have. It was amazing to finally get to be part of the wild and varied human interaction that is in-person horsefest. So here we go, in no particular order, the people of horsefest! (That I managed to get pictures with). 

Travis and I, of course, with my new park-friend, Percy

Limdsay Diamond

Rachel Stacy

Heather Jackson-Lain

Tara Reich

Angelo Žunić

Stacy Faraci

Amanda Reed

Sara Roche

Kylee Parks

Mindy Berg

Robbie Ramirez

Jennifer Al-Beik

Vincent Lange

Lauren Wood

Tegan Leighton Davis

Lesli Kathman

Michelle Evans

Jennifer Arsuaga

Sharon Mossy

Susan Bensema Young

Anne Veeneman van der Weel (I apologize if I spelled it wrong)

Erin Corbett

Heather Malone

Bobbie Allen

Robin Briscoe

Angelo, Fabian, and I

Stephanie Blaylock

Travis again

Lisa Esping

Shannon Rodgers

Danielle Feldman

Jackie Rossi

Sara Bowman

Fabian Rodriguez

Kerri Gehrmann Johnson

Shauna McDaniel

Chris Wallbruch

Nikki Hertzog

 

Covered Arena Horses

     I have been trying to get this post up for a couple of days. I crashed pretty hard on Thursday. Wednesday I managed to get all the laundry and unpacking done without issue. Even having very little sleep. But then Thursday I was barely functioning. Friday was not much better, but nothing messes with my coffee date with Travis so I went out. I was so tired I didn't even feel like going to dance. But I had promised to pick up a friend of mine, so I went. And it was awesome, just like it always is. I also made another new friend. The dance community really is spectacular. Yesterday I was still tired, but Travis and I had been invited to a big post 4th of July 4th of July party. And it's not been a common thing for us to get invited to things. Again, this is all coming out of the dance community. Not to leave out model horse people. Everyone was amazing at horsefest! All of a sudden we went from years of being sort of isolated because people didn't want to ask me to things because I couldn't go alone or they didn't quite know how to deal with Travis. Now he is included in everything and it really means a lot to me. We met a whole ton of new people yesterday, which was absolutely terrifying for me for a while. I can sometimes have some extreme social anxiety issues if I don't really know anyone in a big crowd of people. It was rough and I almost left. But my friend stuck with me, we hung out while Travis jumped in the pool (he can swim but he prefers to just jump) and slowly I met people and by the end of the night I had a whole bunch of new family. I am trying not to let fear control me. So when we get invited to things we go, unless we absolutely can't. 

    Anyway, back to horsefest! The third day of Breyerfest I spent a lot of time in the covered arena with Fabian and Angelo. I can probably remember what most of these performances were, even if I don't remember anyone's name, but I know if I try for that this post is just going to keep not getting finished. So here are a bunch of pictures of horses! Enjoy!