Bella Rides a Pony

These are some pictures from riding a couple of weeks ago of a friend riding a pony!

Foals

Foals are adorable. Especially when their mom makes a derpy face in the background.

Civil War

A shirt I saw with both flags. The American flag and confederate flag.

This...

What does this picture sum up? America. How, you say? I'm still trying to figure that out.

Gettysburg Sweatshirt

Today I went to Gettysburg for dinner.

When The Movie Is Better Than The Book

When the movie is better than the book you want to hide. Why? Because that isn't supposed to happen in the sphere of movie adaptions. There's a vibe that the book is always better. But in the case of Me and Earl And The Dying Girl, the movie surpassed the book. I really wanted to love the book. Really, I did. But I didn't like the protagonist. I understood why he was the way he was, but the way he treated others kind of--ehhed the story.
But the movie? Every issue I had with the book was fixed. I loved the characters. I didn't cringe. I totally understood Greg. He felt real. The characters didn't try to act self righteous because of cancer. I loved The Fault In Our Stars, and completely felt connected to those characters, but Me And Earl And The Dying Girl changed up the perspective a bit. Plus it was quirky, funny and emotional. Did I cry during the movie? Nope. The poor guy next to me seemed to blow his nose a lot. I like to think that he shed enough tears for the two of us.

Travel

Perspective

Perspective 

Another Sunset and Poem

"Believe in the Fairies

Who make dreams come true.

Believe in the wonder,

The stars and the moon.

Believe in the magic,

From Fairies above.

They dance on the flowers,

And sing songs of love.

And if you just believe,

And always stay true,

The Fairies will be there,

To watch over you!"

~ Author unknown

Sunset and a Poem

“The best day

 of your life 

is the one on which 

you decide 

your life is 

your own. 

No apologies or excuses. 

No one to

 lean on,

 rely on, or blame.

 The gift is yours- 

it is an amazing journey -

 and you alone

 are responsible for

the quality of it. 

This is the day 

your life 

really begins.”

~Bob Moawad 

What's Your Story?

What type of story will you tell? Will it be good or bad? Will it signal that you'd made a change, bursting with the fruits of your labor or will it be a shriveled up weed? How will you tell your story? Will it be tales full of life or misgivings of things passed up? Will it bring a smile to your face as you reflect back or will a frown cut across as you shove those thoughts away? How will you tell your story?

Sunglasses

Sunglasses make for the best pictures. 

Bright sunny day+wind+good lighting=good day

Pretty Flowers Are Pretty

If the boy who draws 

lets you look over his shoulder.

If the poet

smiles

and shows you her words.

If the girl who sings for the shower only,

hums a song

in front of you.

Know that you’re no longer a person

but the air

and dust

that fills their lungs.

When the world perishes,

and all things cease to exist,

you’ll remain inside an ink stain,

a paint brush,

a song.

~Alaska Gold

Robin

Bird House

Summer

Summer is coming, with each glimpse of color.

Cato

He's so photogenic.

It almost hurts.

Another

Another Goat

Goat

 Today I volunteered at CATRA with my Pennstate Equine Club.
Now, there was also an assortment of other animals on top of horses. I've been wanting to try to make a black background and I used this picture to do so.

Lookie.

Cato can be cute when he wants to be.

Yawn.

Life can be the struggle. 

Especially if you're a cat. 

Old Turned New

Breyer made a vintage club to make models like the original ones. 

Today the ones I wanted came.

Poetry

For the creative writing class I take, we had to write a poem inspired by a song or art. I actually liked this one, so here it is!

Memories 

I look at the people I knew, places I've been,

The chameleon skin.

Those I once was, the person I've become.

Faces that once were the pivot of my life,

Those who brought smiles to my face,

Gave me wants, dreams, and hopes.

A memento that crawls out from the pit

Buried inside of me, like

Memories lost, brought out again

To a world not ready to pause, to listen.

To take a moment to hear those sounds,

Of carefree laughter with no wants nor burdens.

The broken lock, memories spilled out

As former selves pour out.

Remembering.

Becoming.

Forming.

Little things that were siren sounds.

Events hated but now warmly hums.

Ideas flash of who I was,

No longer trapped on the road,

Able to pick the path not well worn.

Little pockets of sunrise as I remember who I’m now

The body dulled, the spark hard to find.

The child grew up,

Shed the skins, the layers of who she grew from

Different layers of life

The chameleon skin of youth dying off,

Gone.

The little child smiled,

Held out small fingers,

As she melted away to a larger self, one that’ll one day see who she once was.

Ending Glee

Last episodes. Some great. Some awful. Some shows never get them at all.
When I think of the last episode of Glee, it's almost the end of a period of my life. Seeing the first episode replay made me think back to my last years of middle school, years of high school and how I had felt. The forgotten things I remembered. The things I thought were important.
It wasn't that Glee made up my life.  I didn't breath Glee or anything like that. Each week was another episode into the quirky McKinley High School.  I wasn't a super fan who wore the shirts or bought every single Glee thing on earth.  It was one of the many hums during that time period that I had to figure out who I was and what I wanted to be. I connected with the characters with huge dreams. Those who were shy, or who wore masks, trying to figure out who they were. Glee was a connector to those my age, a sign that the arts were cool and nerdy people too. The characters grew each season of the show, and others were added. They were the same age as me and I felt like some of their struggles mirrored mine.
When the main cast graduated and new ones were added, Glee kind of lost its special-ness to me. The characters I'd grown to love weren't the main cast anymore. I stopped watching it the last couple of seasons, but came back for the finale. Why not? The ending summed up all of the parts, including the flash forwards and meaningful quotes.
"You taught me things about myself that I would have never discovered on my own." - Sue 
"Being a part of something special does not make you special. Something is special because you are a part of it." –Rachel

St. Patty's Day

Cato has the ability to look dumb. But he has the most expressive eyes.

St. Patrick's Day

Bullet has the ability to rock any look.

Helmet

Years ago I witnessed a bad horse accident. Whenever I ride, you'll see me with it on. Gotta protect the head. :)

Appy Face

Ruby is an Appaloosa with a very soft muzzle. :)

Barn Cat

Horses+Cats=Bliss

Horse Rubber Ducky

Donkey

"I don't wanna jump," says the adorable 15 month old donkey.

These guys were from Catra demonstration from at the Farm Show.

Miniatures

The goal of miniatures is to get as close to real life as possible.

Bullet.

Bullet the Ham. Really he is. He loves to have his picture taken.

Real and Not

Marguerite Henry is one of my favorite equine authors. I remember my 3rd grade teacher reading Misty Of Chincoteague to the class.

Breyer also has produced numerous Misty and Stormy models over the years. 

So here is the model setup,

 and here's the real horses.

This photo is from Marguerite Henry's real life story of Misty, The Pictorial Life Story of Misty. 

Side Saddle

During the equine showcase at the Farm Show, one of the ladies walked her horse instead of ride it. So I got cool shots of the english side saddle. I have so much respect for any that rides/rode in one.

Decisions

I know. I've been a bad blogger.
Mostly because I'm trying to decide what *exactly* this blog will be.
I went to the farm show today....and I took a ton of pictures!

Tomorrow

Life moves faster than blinking your eye. On a day to day basis, it doesn't move fast. Work may be a the slowness of life. Same old, same old each day. For school, you want it to pass each day so you can move on to the next grade. New challenges. A new life. New responsibilities. 

But if you stop moving, and look back, you realize that the event that seemed to happen yesterday, actually happened a year or more before. 

We look to the future so we don't have to live in the present at times. The new goal you want, you push it off to tomorrow. Tomorrow turns into next week, to the next month, to a year later. 

My goal is to stop pushing off the future to tomorrow. I want to start making my future a reality today. 

The Labyrinth

Today is Alaska Young Day. She's one of the main characters from John Green's Looking For Alaska. It's a great teen novel if you're in the market to read one. It follows a boy's journey in boarding school, along with the cast of characters that make you want to time travel back to when you had an abundance of choices and decide that you want to go to boarding school.
One of my favorite quotes from it was this:

“We need never be hopeless because we can never be irreparably broken.” 

Throwback

A couple of weeks ago my friend, Erin, and I went to the DC zoo.

We stayed long enough to see the zoo lit up at night. Even though it was bitterly cold, the lights and displays made it all worth it.