Centered in the Saddle

I love this blog hop! It started over on May as Well Event and I’ve had so much fun reading random tidbits about other bloggers.

1. I have a B.A. in English with a Creative Writing Emphasis.
2. I work in marketing as a writer/content manager. So, yes, it’s possible to have a good career with an English major.
3. I started riding at age 9. My mom started riding then, too, to see what her daughter was getting into. I distinctly remember being annoyed when she got to canter for the first time before me.
4. I’m a middle child. I have an older sister and a younger brother. The three of us are really similar and really different at the same time.

   

5. My sister and I have been having weekly sister nights since we were both in college at the same school. They started 10 years ago and the only break was the 11 months after I graduated and lived in a different city than her. When we ended up back in the same city, we resumed sister nights.
6. I love the Bachelor franchise. I refuse to call it a guilty pleasure because I’m a smart, successful person who doesn’t have to defend my TV watching habits. I just like it. It’s fun. (It’s also usually what we watch during sister nights).
7. I am really interested in politics. Two of my favorite podcasts are the FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast and the NPR Politics Podcast.
8. I love the Backstreet Boys. It was the first concert I ever went to. I was 11. My dad went with me. Last summer, my sister, mom and I went to see them live and it was a blast.

   

9. I started my showing career in Western Pleasure. God bless my parents for coming to shows and watching kids ride slowly around the arena a few times in pursuit of a ribbon.
10. My first horse’s name was Goldie, and she was a retired barrel racer that we attempted to turn into a Western Pleasure horse. Her walk and trot were great. Her canter? Well. She never lost the love of zooming.
11. I got a minor concussion from riding the day before I took my ACT college entrance exam. I was riding my horse Cash bareback, not doing anything crazy. We were walking along when someone threw a hay bale down from the loft and broke something behind us, which made Cash bolt and me fall off backwards. I still got quite a good score and did much better in the math portion and worse in the verbal than I expected. Later, I retook the exam and got the same score, with much better verbal and way worse math. Apparently a minor concussion makes me good at math.
12. Speaking of concussions, I have been knocked out once. I was in 4th grade, playing tag on the playground. I ducked to go under a bridge and ran directly into a vertical support pole. I woke up sitting against the pole (moments later, I think? No one had found me yet, at least.) I calmly walked over to the teacher and told her I hit my head and couldn’t see right. She sent me home immediately.
13. I played basketball as a child. I was very tall so I was ‘recruited’ for the 4th grade team as a 3rd grader. I wasn’t that good but my height was a big advantage until the other girls started catching up around 7th grade.
14. I dabbled in a lot of activities in middle school and high school. I did tennis, cross country skiing, swimming, diving, and theater. I really enjoyed doing musicals, and I wish I’d started them sooner than I did.
15. For two years, I was on the cross country ski team and it was the most fun ever. All my friends were on the team, almost none of us were very good, and we went to ski camp for four days after Christmas. My favorite part of this fact is that Jessie Diggins was on the team, too, a few grades below me. And yes, she kicked my ass. When she won gold, I cried a little. #hometownpride
16. I love to bake. For every Olympics Opening Ceremonies since 2008, I’ve made a different cake featuring the Olympic Rings. This year it was a chocolate layer cake with homemade vanilla buttercream frosting. In 2016, it was a five-layer cake, with each layer dyed a color of the Olympic Rings.

    

17. I played violin from 4th-12th grade.
18. My two closest gal pals from my post-college years are both named Michelle.
19. I consider myself pretty well traveled. I’ve been to England, Guatemala, Italy, the Greek Islands, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Hawaii, and many U.S. States.
20. Still on my travel bucket list: Switzerland, Czech Republic, Canada (nope, never been there despite living very close), Germany, Poland, and all the rest of the 50 States.
21. I love Christmas time. Like, LOVE it. I have special Christmas scented candles that come out for the season, I start listening to Christmas music on November 1st, and I love finding awesome gifts for people, wrapping them up and looking at them under the tree for weeks before Christmas Eve.
22. One of my favorite family traditions is that every Christmas, my parents gift everyone a new book.
23. I am a chocolate snob. Dark chocolate only, please. And only the good stuff. I don’t really like M&M’s or Hershey’s Kisses. I’d rather have a bar of really high quality, super dark chocolate.
24. I try to drink about 80 oz. of water every day. Drinking water doesn’t come naturally to me, so I have to be very intentional about it. Otherwise I’ll think about it and realize it’s been 3 days since I drank anything but coffee.
25. I hate the cold. But when I question why I live in the Upper Midwest, where it gets very cold in the winter, I remind myself that we don’t have hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, critters that will poison/kill us, etc. Yeah, we get blizzards and tornadoes but even those are pretty minor where I live compared to other parts of the country.
26. Everywhere I’ve lived has been near a body of water that clearly shapes the character of the town or city. My hometown was on a river and it had a logging history (to the point of having a summer festival called Lumberjack Days). I went to school in a city flanked by two large lakes that squeeze the college between them. I now live on a city defined by the Great Lakes.
27. I love to read pretty much anything, but especially historical fiction, fantasy and the occasional young adult book. One of my favorite books is called Station Eleven. You should read it.
28. I am a Harry Potter nerd. Big time. I’m currently re-reading the whole series again. I don’t know how many times I’ve read them. Just started the fifth book. I also enjoy the audiobooks (Jim Dale is the best narrator ever, hands down) and the movies.

    

29. I love big dogs. I’ve wanted a Great Dane for a long time but I’m now leaning toward an Irish Wolfhound named Sirius (see 28).
30. My fiance and I have two cats named Brad and Eloise.