A life full of expectations…

**Warning: Many, in retrospect slightly depressing, thoughts included.**

…you can reach them, meet them, or exceed them. They can be high, low, or virtually none existent. They can be long term, short term, or random.

Everyone has expectations…some of us more than others.

What happens when we don’t meet other’s expectations? Better yet, what happens when they fail to meet our expectations?

In relationships this becomes a bitter question of desire and need. Do I need the person still? Am I okay with this person performing below my expectations? How important are my expectations to me? Can I overlook my expectations because this person attends my other needs?

Specifically in a romantic relationship the question frequently narrows down to whether their affection makes up for their lack of reaching your expectations. Does the fantastic, mind-blowing sex make up for their failing to meet your expectations?

In a friendship is often becomes a battle of esteem. Do I need this person as a friend even though they bounced my expectations? Often we ask ourselves, “Is it worth losing a friend over this?”

Ah, so this is where we reflect. What are my expectations? How attainable are these expectations? ARE THEY REALISTIC?

What we should be asking is: If I were on the other side of the table would I be able to reach these expectations myself? Am I building expectations because of a past experience?

IF I were to build expectations from past experiences it would look something like this: This fabulously nice guy will turn out to be a complete and utter Ass Hole…I’ll still fall for him, then I’ll get burnt…but am likely to believe he’s sorry and will never do it again…so I will stay.

Luckily I do not have such depressing expectations of people…though those ideas greatly affect what expectations I do have.

People will get close, and then they will leave. It is a way of life; I’m not going to stop it from happening.

People take as much as they can from those closest to them. It’s human nature, so get use to it.

Men tend to have ulterior motives…figure it out quick so you can prepare to be hurt by it. It hurts less when you know its coming.

I like to call them “realistic” expectations.

Okay, okay…so they are not as far off from each other, but one can wish can’t they?

Is it true that if you expect nothing from people you will be happily surprised more often?

Number 112 Ribbons!

I took third place this weekend…

After overcoming several obstacles, not all being on course…

The horse decided to kick the inside of the trailer on the way to Foxcroft, so when I pulled her off she was missing a chunk of hoof and bleeding from the coronet band. My trainer gave me her blessing on it, but suggested we get the Ferrier to check it out. So we walked over to him and after putting some glue over the missing hoof piece, to help with the sensitivity, he gave us his blessing.

Off to the first phase, Dressage, my trainer miss-heard the whistle and thought I was late…turned out the judge had not blown the whistle but was willing to forgive me my early entry if I promised to never listen to other people again. ;-) Poor Yoda…I think she needs some sleep. We rode it well, I had a lot of very nice comments on my test.

Phase two, Stadium, was a breeze…though Yoda shouted at me again when she thought I was going to jump the wrong jump. :-P I was passing by it, but the angle she saw looked like I was going to jump. We flew through it; Angel actually jumped everything, no rails down and all!

Phase three, Cross Country, was a workout and a half. She was very strong and it took a lot of muscle on my part to bring her back to me before each jump. I brought her down to a trot over most of them because she was so on the muscle. You can tell she loves her job. We came in under the time, no faults.

So I came in third, I’m very pleased…the top three were very close in scores; the Dressage score was the only thing separating us. The day flew by, everything running together like butter.

I couldn’t have asked for a better time!

Fulfilling Birthday Wishes

Thanks for everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday; it was great! I received requests from most of my very close friends to spend some time with them, starting Friday night and throughout the entire weekend. I even have plans with a few stragglers this coming weekend and the next…the partying just keeps on going!

No one could ask for a better group of friends.

So other than being foolishly sentimental about how great my friends are…

I had a long weekend…you have to love accrued PTO…filled with two lessons, an advanced HT with Yoda, a CT again with Yoda, and of course time with my friends. Both lessons went amazing well, so I think I’m more than ready for this coming weekend’s event. Woo Hoo!!

I’m hoping some of the stress that’s been following me will cease at least for the day on Sunday. Perhaps the person responsible for causing said stress can leave it all at home? I might be asking a bit much. I’ll be looking forward to spending the day with Yoda, Mom, M, and J…if she makes it. I’m also catching wind that A might surprise me and come watch…I suppose it all depends on how jetlagged he is. Damn business travel! LoL If I’m really nasty I’ll torture him by making him watch the video.

All in all it was exactly, minus the stress, the way I would have wanted to spend my Birthday weekend.

…oh that doesn’t mean A’s off the hook…just because he was on business travel…I’m looking forward to celebrating my Birthday when he gets back in town… ;-)

We Walked Over What?!

This last weekend was so completely full…and now we are heading into the next weekend already.

Friday night I started right off with a Chiropractor appointment…and then zoomed off to the horse auctions over at Frying Pan Park to meet my trainer.

The auction itself didn’t start until Saturday, but we wanted to preview the horses. We watched a lot of them ride, and walked through the Warmblood barn. Sweet things…

Saturday morning…yup, you guess it…back at the auctions checking out the morning previews. We say more horses…and tentatively picked out some favorites.

Then off to Foxcroft for cross country schooling! The day was a complete blast of course; except for the hilarious moment when the Princess and I trotted up to the first jump, then literally stepped over it! Four beat walk and everything! Good thing I have that on video…

Finished the day off with the auction back at Frying Pan…where sitting on your hands to keep from bidding wasn’t doing so well.

Sunday was A-time. WooHoo! I love my weekly dose of A-time…of course this one ended with taking him to the airport. He gets to spend the next couple of weeks in San Diego for work. Life’s tough for him. Lol

Ah…what a weekend. I loved every minute of it! Now to look forward to daily rides, trips to the gym, almost daily chiropractor visits…and of course someone has a special day approaching! Ha! This weekend will be full of riding lessons, in which I have two, my trainer’s HT and a big-time HT in Leesburg...Teddy O'Connor will be there.

If only I can get through being this point person on this project…of course it’s just a load dump from someone else…after they mangled it past recognition…oh well, just more hours to submit for my PMP…