Horse riding is back! This school is very well rated and places a huge emphasis on safety. It focuses on dressage and so I will likely be doing mostly trotting and not much cantering. It's good I suppose since dressage is about body control and slight movements which will 'hone' my patience. I've mostly been riding Patrick. He is a beautiful white horse and is a rock when it comes to moving, he is also apparently a rock to spooking. Once there was a coyote chasing a rabbit and they got right in front of Patrick, he just turned his head to look at them, acknowledged their presence and looked away. I think I may be like Patrick in that I won't notice anything coming, although my reaction would be full of shock which can be extremely counter-productive lol. I've been to 6 lessons so far, and I can say finally that I understand the technique that I will need to post the trot without stirrups. In the previous school it just seemed impossible to me, so I just bounced around on the saddle while my instructor asked me why I was smiling (every time).
I've been on the fence about cycling ever since my accident. Over the past year, as my love for cycling turned into just going for a stressful workout. I felt that life was getting boring and was somehow incomplete. I needed physical challenges that excite me.
I will digress for a bit and say that mentally I am quite satisfied. I came up with a formulation that is going for FDA approval in 2016. I am currently in process development making the manufacturing process as smooth as possible. I get to experience different roles in pretty much the entire drug-to-market process, such is the benefit of working in a small company that allows freedom :). The feeling of accomplishment and the thought that it will help people is highly satisfying. Yet how much it will actually benefit people is so miniscule compared to say helping a paralyzed person walk again, or curing cancer, or ebola, or alzheimer's, the list goes. A solid foundation in the meantime to prepare for that sounds like a good plan :).
Ok back to physical excitements. I've been doing some running this past year in a quest to find a new hobby. I have always found running to be a very efficient form of exercise. Indeed, after running for 30min I feel more exhausted and well exercised so to speak than cycling for 2h. This saves me plenty of time for other things in life. Yet running on the road is just well, not so much fun. Then came our mountain bike ride during the NW trip, which oh man I thought I wasn't going to survive (aka have a crash). Matthew and I went mountain biking on our first day at Olympic National Park. When I saw my rental mountain bike, something looked very wrong. The bike was very finicky and went all over the place as we rode into the trails which was initially lined with cobblestones. Suffice to say, cold sweat built up fast. I realized then that my handlebar was way too big, it was probably 10 inches wider than Matthew's (wtf said I). But how can I back down, it wasn't just my ego at stack (lol) but Matthew's enjoyment too. So on I continued hoping the trail would be better. But soon we were riding on a narrow ledge winding up around the mountain with tree roots and rocks appearing haphazardly. I will leave how I got through it to your imagination. We enjoyed the beautiful view at the top for what seemed like a blink of an eye - there was no respite for the cortisone level. I was dreading the descent, but it was actually fun! Main thing was to look at exactly where I wanted to go. I've come to control the bike better and it was quite nifty going around the rocks and roots if planned carefully, if planned not so carefully, given the suspension and luck it didn't send me off somewhere else, phew. I thought about what it would like to run on those trails. Then a lightbulb moment happened. OMG, I can do trail running! And the rest is history.
I'm already 29 years old! Wow only a year to the huge 30. There was a time when I just wanted to live till I was 30 because I didn't want to be old and wrinkly and sickly. Now 30 doesn't seem half bad, maybe 50 years old then. But I did promise spending 50 years with Matthew :)... My 29th birthday was a turning point for me. The day started off as the worst day of my life, I just wanted it to be over quickly. On my drive to work, I witnessed 2 car crashes that happened moments earlier. I should say that I love seeing car crashes, they intrigue me. Of course I don't want them to actually happen, but if they do, I'd like to see them. There were 2 cars stopped by the left shoulder, another car in the fast lane with the front smashed and yet another on the left shoulder just ahead of it. A few minutes later, I saw a ferrari jammed side-ways in between 2 cars right in front of me. I have rarely seen car crashes in action or just moments after it. So I suppose I got my birthday present from somewhere :). As the day slowly went by, I tried not to think about how sad my birthday is. Then later in the day, everything changed for the better. I don't want to go into detail here, but it was the best possible outcome. Everything I could ever wish for came true. It is a birthday that I will always cherish and remember fondly :).
