Bad Week

One I'd rather forget.

With Todd's death on Sunday, that meant a terrible end to my spring break and a worse beginning to being back at school. And the hits kept coming. I found out I flunked an O Chem test, which I partially figured. You don't bounce back from being sick for half the unit, but luckily I'll be able to drop the score. Then, in lab on Tuesday, my reagents would. Just. Not. React. For two and a half hours. Combine that with a lack of sleep and an already fragile emotional state, and I broke down in tears. Right in lab. Totally sobbing with tears and snot running down my face. The TA took pity on me and helped me do the expedited version of the reaction, but still. I got through Wednesday without too much drama, except for the BLIZZARD, but lab on Thursday was also bad. I totally forgot how to do the experiment, made a bunch of stupid mistakes, and ended up being the last one to leave. It was one of the worst weeks I've ever had. I just kept missing Todd.

And yet somehow, life goes on.

Royal, as usual, was a ray of sunshine in my life. Every time I went out to the farm, he'd just let me lean against his neck, breathing in his wonderful scent. He'd lick my gloves until they were soaking wet and move on to my coat. He can really make me smile and laugh, which is what I needed more than ever.

We even had a pretty good ride Saturday night. I usually play with him during the day, but I was busy all day and wasn't working that night. So, I went out to play. I've done some night riding before a couple of years ago, but not lately. It's really different at night, but he was okay. We mostly worked on relaxation and softness. He's starting to make a habit of it and just keeps getting better. Towards the beginning of the ride, I asks him to go a little too strongly and he trotted off. I had two cones set up in the arena, so we just did some figure-8s around them. It was just really cool, feeling him settle into a nice trot and later, some nice upward transitions.

I'm just so lucky to have such a wonderful horse.