Egads!

Well I finally found a use for that potent-as-hell bathroom cleaner. I spent half the bottle wasting it on this mofo, (after squealing like a girl and hiding in a corner for a few minutes of course):

It took it awhile, but it eventually went down for the count. I would’ve used my hairspray/lighter method, but I wanted to get my security deposit back for the flat at the end of my lease.

Oh yeah, I’m going to be checking my flat for these things for weeks now. Did I mention I’ve a bit of arachnophobia? I’m still waiting for the “flight” adrenaline response to subside: this shit is better than caffeine on a narcoleptic.

Blurbs

-My schedule at work means that by the time I get home in the wee AM hours, the only things on the telly are infomercials, preachers, and anime on Adult Swim. I succumbed to watching the anime and as a result am addicted to it. I thank the youtube and torrent gods on a regular basis, because without them I’d have to wait until mid March for Volume 9 to come out. My favourites thus far are Blood+, Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist, Death Note, and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

-I am addicted to peppermint mochas at Starbuck’s. It helps that my sister is a barista there, because I score discounts on the necessary products to satiate my cravings.

-I’m writing. Alot. It is like I am possessed. I’ll start to fall asleep and that is when an idea hits that I absolutely have to get down on paper because it is so good I don’t want it to slip away. As a result I am having fun falling asleep lately.

-I’ve been a royal bitch at work lately. Of course it more than likely stems from the frustration that I am surrounded by idiots there who react more so than stop to think things through. People are too lazy to engage their minds these days.

-It annoys me when characters in a telly series are from, say, France, and instead of speaking French with each other and there being subtitles, they speak heavily accented English with each other. Combine that with the fact that they’re father and son, and it makes me want to turn the show off. I guess the majority of the target audience is either illiterate or just lazy. Regardless, I think it is stupid.

-I am going to go immerse myself in 20th century tales of espionage now. I’d tell you more, but then I just might have to kill you.

A Dream

In visions of the dark night
I have dreamed of joy departed-
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.

Ah! what is not a dream by day
To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
Turned back upon the past?

That holy dream- that holy dream,
While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam
A lonely spirit guiding.

What though that light, thro’ storm and night,
So trembled from afar-
What could there be more purely bright
In Truth’s day-star?

-Edgar Allan Poe

A Walk to Remember

It was hot. I was laying on the wooden platform relaxing in the shade. I had finished teaching my arena classes for the day and was enjoying my break. Closing my eyes, resting my head on my arms that were folded behind my head, I enjoyed the sound of the horses milling around the paddock behind me. They seemed to be thrilled that the lessons were done for the day too. I found myself pondering how they put up with novices on their backs on a daily basis, when I heard my name being called.

I sat up, waking from my daydream, trying to register where it was coming from.

“Can you give me a hand up here for a sec?” she said, calling my name again.

It was Ashley. I had forgotten that she was working with him in the upper arena. I sighed, and got up to go see what her problem was.

As part of our duties, aside from instructing arena classes we were assigned horses to train with the goal of them becoming lesson horses. I already had my assignment, a bay quarter horse filly named Debut whom I was saddle-breaking. She was located at the stable on the other side of the camp that worked with the teenage campers. I would get up at 4:30 religiously every morning and make the fifteen-minute trek through the woods to work with her prior to breakfast and the start of classes.

Ashley had been assigned Deezer, a flea-bitten Arab who had a reputation for being quite the handful. I didn’t have much first hand experience with him, but I knew that he was brought down to our barn, partially for his disposition, and partially because no one knew exactly what to do with him. He was known for lashing out and biting or kicking horses as they passed by. I suspected the fact that they waited until he was seven years old to geld him had something to do with it. The camp had owned him for three years and obviously not much progress had been made in the way of him becoming a lesson horse.

When I finally arrived at the upper arena, I found Ashley with whip in hand looking frustrated, trying to lounge Deezer in the arena. Trying was the operative word here, as she was getting so far as him making a few strides until he decided he just didn’t want to do it anymore and would pivot around on the line, stop, and throw a challenging stare at her.

“Having fun there, Ashley?” I asked her smiling, leaning on the arena railing.

She contorted her face into a scowl.

“Loads. He doesn’t want to move out for me on the line. I don’t know how to get him moving and keep him moving.”

“Ah,” I replied.

I didn’t understand why they had assigned Deezer to her. Blonde, thin, and admittedly gorgeous, Ashley had more experience being a model as opposed to training horses. She was fighting a losing battle with this one, and I knew it.

“Want me to have a go with him?” I asked her.

“Please.” she replied in an exasperated voice.

I proceeded to throw one booted leg over the arena railing, and then the other, landing solidly in the arena enclosure with a soft thud. I had yet to change from earlier, so I was still in my breeches and tall boots.

I calmly walked towards the pair, removing my black leather riding gloves from the back pocket of my breeches and slipping them onto my hands. I reached out for the whip and line, taking them from Ashley.

“Ashley, you might want to step out of the arena for this, I think things are going to be a bit interesting and it would be best that you were out of the way.” I said to her over my shoulder, gripping the flat cotton line to Deezer’s bit in my left hand, and calmly holding the long black whip in my right hand behind my body.

“Kay.”

From my peripheral vision, I could see that Ashley had moved towards the rail of the arena with the clear objective of hopping over it.

I then directed all of my attention to the horse at the other end of the dusty line. He was looking at me warily, daring me to try something.

“Ok boy,” I said to him as I stepped back, adjusting the slack on the lounge line and moving my body behind the line of his shoulder. “Let’s see what you know how to do.”

“Wa-alk!”

As exaggerated the word into two syllables I raised the whip in my right hand, moving it slowly from behind my body towards the stubborn creature.

He sighed and began to slowly walk about me, dragging his hooves. After a few strides I could see him begin to try to stop.

“Oh, no you don’t. Wa-alk!” I said again as I moved the whip towards him.

He picked up his pace. Matter of fact he picked up his pace considerably. In the blink of an eye I had a horse galloping and beginning to drag me across the arena on the line.

“Woah!” I said, simultaneously digging my heels into the ground and tugging on the line connected to the bit to get his attention. I was suddenly extremely glad I had my gloves on. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my day, let alone the week, with them raw due to having a tug-o-war with a horse.

He dug his hooves into the ground, skidding to a stop and pivoting on his haunches to stare me down. I stared back. Both sets of brown eyes were burning at each with the same stubborn defiance. He snorted and then charged at me on the line.

I jumped to the side as a thousand pounds of grey blurred past me, still stubbornly holding onto him. I then raised my whip, adjusting my position quickly to where I was again behind his shoulder.

“Oh no you don’t,” I said, gritting my teeth and flicking the whip with my wrist, “Move out!”

Of course he moved out, doing so with gusto. This time, in addition to bolting on the line, he’d mix it up occasionally with a couple impressive rears and several bucks that would put a rodeo bronc to shame.

My left arm was feeling like it was being ripped out of its socket.

“Deezer,” I said patiently, tugging the line to get his attention as gently as I could manage, “cut it out. I am going to win this one.”

“Wa-alk!”

I moved behind his shoulder again, flicking the whip. He moved in a circle around me, ears flicking towards my voice, eyes looking wild and furious. His body moved to pivot towards me, but I was ready, flicking the whip behind him.

“Nu-uh. I don’t think so mister. Wa-alk!”

He snorted, walking in a resigned circle about me. I could tell he was pissed that I wasn’t letting him get his way for once.

“Cut my life into pieces, this is my last resort…”

The next song on my iTunes playlist jolted me back into the present. Thanks Papa Roach. Really. I thought dryly.

I was tempted to go back to play “Jessica’s Theme (Breaking in the Colt)” again, just to be able to return to the past and relive that pleasant time in my life. So much I had missed, so much I had forgotten. So much yet to tell. However, the paper on the economics in Pakistan that I was supposed to have been composing all this time was glaring at me on the screen of my MacBook Pro, demanding my full attention. I sighed, returning to it, but not without promising myself that I would return to the past when I had a little more time on my hands to allow the daydream.

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The aforementioned was written in response to the Blog Ninjas’ Mystery Topic Challenge question “What song transports you through space and time, and where do you go?”

Please visit the Mystery Topic Challenge Blog to view all of the other entries. Once you’ve read them all, please be sure to vote HERE in the Sidebar for your favorite.