Well that is inconvenient

The problem with being a contract employee is that the business constantly dangles your mortality over your head. I chose not to let it get to me; life is going to happen whether I'm "full time" or not, and plus, I really liked my job!

Well on Friday, after working there for a year and a half, I got laid off due to budget cuts. I was supposed to have a meeting with HR to discuss my maternity leave, which I had given them plenty of notice about. It turned out that the meeting was actually to give me the axe, so now I am jobless at 5 months pregnant and a month before Christmas. Thanks a bunch, former employer!

I am so lucky that Kenny is supportive of this horse addiction that I have. I was a wreck after I left the office for the last time and called him in tears, but he said all the right things and calmed me down. I immediately went home after being laid off and applied for unemployment (for the first time ever), applied for a few jobs, and put Lucy up for full lease online. I am not sure I'll find someone to lease her, honestly. It's absolutely frigid here right now and not many people are really horse hunting. However, it is worth a shot.

In the mean time, Kenny will continue supporting her and for that, I am so grateful. I'll supplement the unemployment money with saddle pad orders (hopefully!) and any other design work I can get. I hope to get a new job asap. Someone asked if I'm going to just surf on the unemployment wave until the baby comes and honestly, I'd be so bored! I like to go to work and accomplish things.

In all of my newfound spare time, I've been doing a lot of cleaning at home, catching up on projects, helping Kenny with the renovations, painting saddle pads, and I EMT'd for a horse show over the weekend. It was 20 degrees with 45mph winds. BRRR! Luckily it was an indoor show so we were at least out of the wind. I was frozen by the time I went home at 4:30pm. I took a boiling hot shower to warm up and went to bed, exhausted, at 6:30.

I had a fun day at the barn on Saturday. I rode Lucy and she was so chill and happy! I didn't bother lunging her because all the horses got turned out on grass before we rode, and this was the result:

Comic (l) and Lucy (r)

Comic, Lucy, and Brantley

Brantley and Lucy having a zoom

Comic and Brantley had a contest to see who was more manly. Lucy won.

Go Brantley, go!

pretty Lu!

After all that, they were pretty tired and well-behaved under saddle. I was a happy girl!

Amanda is planning on taking her to a show next weekend, so that should be fun! This particular show has an OTTB division, which is really nice. Maddy is going with Brantley, too! It will be a fun day.

Diamond rings and the barn do not mix.

On Tuesday I wasn't going to ride, but our new boarder Natalie arrived at the barn just as I was finishing up with chores and got her new horse, Comic, all tacked up. I thought, hmmmmm, maybe I will tack Lucy up too! So I did, and we headed over to the indoor together and hopped on our horses. I let Lucy walk for a very long time, letting her stretch, then collecting her, then letting her stretch again. She felt so supple, and was responding to my inside leg nicely instead of leaning on it.

I picked up a little trot and she was a very good girl, so we moved onto the canter. She was great, especially to the right. I just love her.

I went home, made dinner, spent some time on the computer, and went to bed. Yesterday morning, I got up and went through my normal morning routine, but then could not find my wedding rings anywhere. I searched the whole house as fast as I could, looked in my car, and looked in/around my desk at work. No sign of them! Finally I called Kenny and broke the news to him. He asked me the age-old question: "When do you last remember seeing them?" I stared at him blankly. I had no idea!

I am horrible about taking them off without really thinking about what I am doing. I leave them laying around all the time. I am notorious for taking them off at the barn when I'm going to ride because they pinch my ring finger when I'm holding the reins. I was petrified that I had taken them off at the barn before my ride on Tuesday, put them in my jean pocket or jacket, and that they had fallen out somewhere at the barn.

After work yesterday, I zoomed to the barn and started searching. I looked through the whole barn, sifted through Lucy's bedding in case they had fallen out in her stall, looked in the barn driveway (which, of course, is rock/gravel), walked down the path to the indoor, and then did the famous zig-zag pattern through the whole indoor, scanning the footing as I walked.

NO SIGN OF THEM.

I contemplated the possibility that they had fallen out in the stall, she had eaten them, and they were going to be pooped out in her paddock. I was about ready to panic.

I found a friend who could hook me up with a metal detector so I decided to wait until I had the chance to search with that, especially in the indoor since the footing is so fluffy that it could easily cover up the rings if a horse walked close to where they fell. She wasn't going to be able to get me the detector until tonight (Thursday) or Friday at the earliest, though, so I resigned myself to being ringless and went home.

Once home, I was pretty cold from being out at the barn searching, so I went to my closet and pulled out a hot pink zip-up hoodie. I happened to be wearing it the night my rings went missing, too, and although I searched through my jean pockets, jacket pockets, pants I wore to bed (and even peeled back the sheets to see if they fell out of my pj pants pocket when I was sleeping!!), I forgot that I had put the sweatshirt on and so I didn't check it.

Well, in the pocket of the sweatshirt were my two rings, safe and sound. I must have taken them off when I was sitting at my computer, and slipped them into the pocket.

I felt so relieved and happy (and STUPID!) but I am just so glad they aren't lost.

To end this happy story, here is a photo of Lucy and her new lookalike boyfriend Comic Book ("Comic"), obviously having a dance-off:

photo by Maddy