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Between the holidays, the weather, and my work trip to Las Vegas, I feel like my life has been on pause for the last month.  It's a weird sensation to look around and realize that all of the usually completely reliable parts of my life have been missing.

Viva Las Vegas!

 I haven't had a riding lesson since before Christmas due to a long list of reasons:  Trainer A actually took time off for the holidays (shocking, I know), then got a kidney infection, then it was 5* out, then I was in Nevada.  That means my last lesson was Dec 21 and my next on will be Jan 17.  That's almost a month without a lesson.  That doesn't even feel like reality.

A cold snap right before I left put me out of the saddle for the days leading up to my work trip.  I rode Jan 4th and then today, Jan 15th.  Eleven days without putting my butt in a saddle?  That's also crazy.

After a mix up, a reschedule, and finding out that my brand of contacts had been discontinued, I was in glasses from mid-December up until this weekend.  It felt so weird.  I've worn contacts since I turned 16.  My depth perception definitely suffers when I wear my glasses and it wasn't that great to start.  A month in glasses had a weird effect, I felt like I was getting ready for bed all the time.  I only wear my glasses at night.  It's also a pain riding in glasses.  I'm constantly shoving them back up my nose or dealing with them fogging up.

And finally, my car was out of commission for a couple weeks.  I was bumming someone else's car and driving the Behemoth.  That's always really disorienting, especially when you've owned the same car for ten years.  I was hauling all of my horse stuff in and out of the house in a bag and couldn't leave anything in the car.  I got my car back last night with it's shiny new exhaust manifold and a pretty new inspection sticker.  The new exhaust does sound spiffy.  I can't even afford the expensive ramen right now, but that's okay.  My precious jellybean is back in action.

All of this occurred at the same time and that time happened to be the holidays.  So I wasn't working, driving my own car, able to tell how far away things were, and I wasn't taking lessons.  It felt like living in a strange haze, visiting some other person's life while my own was on pause.  I couldn't work on things like I usually do.

But today I hit play again.  I'm back in contacts, my trainer is healthy again, my car has a it's inspection sticker, it's normal temps out so I can work my horse as usual, and my work travel is over with for this year.  Tuesday my work days go back to the usual schedule without a looming summit to throw my day into chaos and I have my usual jumping lesson. 

Theo got some time off due to the cold, then played school pony so he could stay in work while I was gone and Trainer A was on the mend.  He was tossed to the teenagers and experienced adults to give them a change of pace.  I'm getting very positive reviews of his behavior, especially over fences.  When I rode him today, he felt like a million bucks.  He seemed to appreciate his mini winter vacation and change of pace.  I asked for some little stuff today and he was very happy to comply.  No spurs and only the occasional whip tap had him up and working.  Trainer A chatted with me briefly and she's eager to get us back to work.  No harm done, no ground lost, and it probably did us both some good to not grind away at the hard stuff for awhile.

Things are lurching back into motion.  We have a week of mild weather ahead of us and I intend to get us both back into the groove.  The spring shows will be here before we know it.