so we went to the barn...

Tuesday, Aug. 05, 2008 | 7:59 PM

wow, the last few days were... crazy. we went to the beach, david came along, he ended up spending the night here, his dog died and i saw jordan and his family for probably the last time. i was left with a sunburn in places i'd never been burned before, a weird sore on my lip, a strange taste in my mouth, and general emotional confusion.

i'll write more about it later.

in the meantime, this is what happened when david and i hung out the friday before last friday...

we met at the park, around 12 i think. i brought whiley with me, because i wanted to introduce him to david before taking him to powell butte with us. whiley is a very shy dog around strangers. i instructed david to completely ignore him at first, and not even look at him. this would allow whiley to get used to his presence without feeling at all threatened.

while we were ignoring whiley, we played pictionary with the taboo cards. it was pretty fun. check it out:

(it's clickable)

during this, we stopped for a moment so david could offer some hotdog pieces to whiley. the most he was able to do was hold them out and drop them, for whiley to come and eat once he'd withdrawn his hand.

a little while later, we tried again. he eventually got to the point that whiley was laying down in front of him and taking the hotdogs from him. he was even able to pet him, though i could tell that whiley wasn't into that. i was happy that they were able to make so much progress so fast. david seemed to be pretty good at working with him.

when he ran out of hotdogs, we took whiley home and headed to the bus stop. we rode two buses, walked down a very busy street with fast cars, saw some deer, and then arrived at the barn.

i had to sit in the grass for a moment when we got there, because i was so hot and tired. after hosing myself, david followed me around and took pictures and videos of me while i cleaned paloma's stall, got her food ready, retrieved her from the pasture, tied her up, brushed her and saddled her up. he then watched and took pictures while i rode her for a bit.

it had been a really long time since i'd last ridden her, and i remembered just how much fun it is. i was surprised at how quickly i was able to get back into riding her, considering how hard she is to ride.

i could have happily stayed in that saddle for a couple hours, but i didn't want david to get bored. so after a while, i got off, put her lead rope on her, and let david have a ride. at first i just walked her around, but that wasn't very exciting. david agreed, so i took her to a shady spot in the arena, and had her trot around me in circles while i held the end of the lead rope.

david said it bounced his stomach around. that was probably because he was leaning foward, clutching the saddle, and not letting himself bounce, so instead it bounced his stomach. but, he said it was fun too.

after leaving the barn, we were both feeling hungry, so we stopped at the corner where there was stores and food places and things. we ended up going into a pizza place and ordering two little personal pizzas from a guy who looked intimidating. we then ate in the parking lot.

when we were done, we went and waited at the bus stop. it was a fairly long wait, so we entertained oursevles by playing with a fire hydrant.

two bus rides later, we were back at the park. even though it was after dark, we played there for a bit. we climbed a tree, threw the squidgie, played on the swings and on some little kid rocking thingies. something about the night time is peaceful, and less inhibiting, and just plain cool. it was really fun to be playing at the park during the night.

i was exhausted from the day of activity, and wanted to lay down in the grass. we laid there for a while, on our backs, looking up at the sky. it was so nice and peaceful, but then my dad ruined it by calling me and telling me that i should come home. but still... it was a pretty good day.

...................... .......................................... ............................................. .......................... ....................... .......................... ................................................... ................................ .................. ...................... .......................................... ............................................. .......................... ....................... .......................... ................................................... ................................ .................. ...................... .......................................... ............................................. .......................... ....................... .......................... ................................................... ................................ ..................