Here we go again.  A blog post.  I don't know why I don't just do this on a private document for myself or in a notebook or, perhaps, not at all, but I have the urge to tempt fate and semi-anonymously share things with anybody or nobody at all.  And this is now about the earliest conception of this blog which was, in part, to be about weight loss.  What more common theme could unite folks around the globe?  Weight loss, so hot right now.  In any case, today marks my first day back at the gym in a lifetime.  Literally - my first day at the gym in Elliott's 9 month lifetime.  And I didn't set foot there before he came into the world for some time either.  It being October 24th, 2012, however, I realized today that I have a mere 7 months until my 10 year college reunion by which time I intend to be back down to my wedding weight which is 30 pounds away from where I am today.  Phew.  Lots of numbers.  And, because life is easier in bite sized morsels, there will be mini-goals along the way (thank you, every diet guru ever for making small steps toward big success a hard and fast rule) including 10 lbs by the wee-man's first birthday on January 10th, another 15 for a total of 25 by the eldest niece's West Coast college graduation in early May, and then, the final 5 for that orange and black blitz of type A, marathon running, beer swizzling, world traveling, corporation owning, country leading Reunion of mine.  Plus, the horses will like me better by then.

Step one.  Go to gym at lunch.  Check.  Major fail in the selection of aqua zumba which was led by the Tracy Turnblad of zumba instructors.  I have a thing against overweight doctors and nurses, but I think it may be much worse when it is an overweight FITNESS INSTRUCTOR. Really?!  Not so inspirational.  Nor were the middle aged white ladies with bad hair shimmy grooving to some reggaeton in a highly chlorinated pool in Central Maine.  Oh man.  Next time, I'll just go running.

CIAO! (until possibly another 2 years go by if history repeats itself with me and this blog thing)Big and groovy - cool and all but not for leading the weight loss class! 

Silent Snow

I haven't blogged in a year. On that note, I'm not sure I have ever used "blog" as a verb in any tense. However, as I sit on this Saturday morning in my crushed velvet rocking chair with my coffee on hand, various members of my animal family curled or sprawled sleeping in carefully chosen spots around my bedroom, and my feet up on the chilly windowsill with a perfect view of my white winter farm and colorfully blanketed horses enjoying breakfast hay as a light snow falls, the spirit moved me. I have taken to writing in a real journal again for 2011 as opposed to a virtual one. There is something seductive about a colorful book bound only by an elastic strap with fine lined pages and a new ball-point pen. There is also something seductive about imagining that somebody out there in the web wide world might just read the virtual stuff, might just, you know, offer a book deal! Doesn't that happen every other day? Or a blog deal, or something like that. And so, today, the computer wins. The man formerly known as TT (time and talent) is now my DH (dear husband) and he crawled out of bed even earlier than we do every weekday for horse care to follow the siren song of standing on a frozen lake in the company of beer-drinking men friends. He so rarely takes time for himself and for male bonding and such that I am happy he is out there with the shiners, suckers, and smelts today. That doesn't mean that I don't also miss him. I am awfully accustomed to sharing weekend mornings and evenings and starting our days, every day, with an hour of NPR, feeding and liberating our herd for the day, and cleaning up after them leaving the barn tidy and prepared for evening. An easily measurable daily task. A ritual of renewal - our own type of sun salutation I suppose. It is a wonderful routine. Doing it solo is nice, too, though the extra time needs to be accounted for and sometimes is not. Today I listened solo to the tales of Mubarak and Egyptian uprising in the streets and the nearly immediate governmental crackdown on communication to try to stem the tide by disabling the internet and cell phone communication. Maybe that is what inspired this electronic private/public share today that maybe somebody or maybe nobody will ever read. The knowledge that I CAN communicate in this fashion. I think we are so spoiled to our instant knowledge and connection that it boggles my mind that it could be shut down overnight by an authoritarian government. My god, I love my farm and my husband and family, my friends, my legal career, and my Maine. This silent snowy morning of utter peacefulness and plenty, of horses, pets, good coffee and fresh breakfast, of reading, writing, and reflection are tremendous gifts that are not lost on me. And this little post is my tribute to that. Thank you thank you to the powers that be. Until next time, Farm Girl.
P.S. And yes, perhaps next time there will be a touch more humor and less sap which is what I normally go for in this medium. I can tell tales of winter travails at the otherwise peaceful farm like 1 a.m. escaping horses trying to come into our house on the coldest, -20, night of the year! But that's for another time. I have to teach a snowy lesson soon.

44 photos from 2009 to kick off the blog for 2010

I'm Getting Married!

August 27th is nearly a month ago now. That was the fabulous, out of the blue, will you marry me? day! I haven't had (and still don't have) the time to write about it blog style. I do, however, have an e-mail version of the details that I can redact (no names, remember?) for the purposes of this little 'ol rather neglected blog.

"Hello, hello!

Ok, so please forgive my delinquency with these details. I have never seen the inside of a courtroom more than I have in the last two weeks, so life has been a bit crazy on top of my wonderful news. I have another hearing in the morning in fact, but it doesn't help my preparation that all I want to do right now is hunker down with my Real Simple Weddings (bought my first ever wedding mag but haven't had a chance to read it yet!), dream up guest lists, plan bands and meals and shnazzy save the dates, stare at my ring finger and snuggle up on the couch with TT - oh, and call and e-mail and shriek a bit with all of my friends!

Anyway, I can at least e-mail the proposal story before I get back to preparing to argue summary judgment. Here goes...:

I was supposed to get home from work last Thursday night and be preparing for a day off on Friday for party planning and sleep. TT knew that. In reality, I arrived home at 5:30 pm on Thursday having just learned that not only would I be in trial all day Friday, but I would be doing my first direct examination of witnesses in front of a jury (had been second chair for my Dad most of the week) AND that it would be a hurricane on Saturday when we had 50+ people a keg and a band arriving! So I toe tapped in my lawyer suit in the messy garage about how we had to feed the horses, get groceries, go to the store, and basically do a million things in no time at all. TT sweetly ventured "don't you want to go for a walk?" To which I replied "We don't have TIME for a WALK!" So...I changed into barn clothes and we both wandered out to feed the horses (by the way - it happened to be one of those stunning end of summer evenings - warm, clear, golden green).

I took one of the horses, Chippy, out from the barn down to his overnight turnout at the riding ring. As I shut the gate, TT yelled from the top of the hill by the barn "Hey Farm Girl!" "What?!" I replied. Then with an ear to ear grin and arms stretched wide he yelled out (from 20 yards away...) "WILL YOU MARRY ME?!" Baffled, I said "What?! Now? Of course. Really?" He called down "then put it on!" Since I was holding a horse halter I shouted back up to him "Put WHAT on?" "Look at the tractor" says TT as he starts approaching. Yes, the tractor - ha! I looked to my left and saw a bottle of champagne, two flutes, and an open ring box sitting on the old silver Ford tractor that has been sitting on the farm since I moved in because the old neighbor to whom it belongs forgot about it. TT came down, put it on, we giggled and drank and hugged and laughed...and then we finished feeding the horses on a perfect end of summer night! Simply perfect.

The rest of the evening involved the rest of the bottle of bubbles, what calls we could make, a trip to tell my parents in person followed by a celebratory dinner out, and then we came home and I read depositions in bed to prepare for 8am trial (and 5:30am horse feedign to get to trial by 8!). We managed somehow to plan our whole wild weekend party AND fully clean the garage to make room for a band in a hurricane on Friday night and Saturday morning. Our quick partnership and teamwork a definite good omen for bigger party plans to come:)

Tomorrow marks a week of being engaged (I still pinch myself) and on Friday morning we are finally taking off for 4 blissful days up north. 4 days of no horses and no law to do all of those things I've been wanting to do (that I mentioned before) - and I'll try to make phone calls, too!

Will share details as I have them - but looking like Sep 18th up north somewhere at this point!

Much love,
Farm Girl

more blips on the radar

I heard a story on NPR about a guy publishing a book which shrinks great works of literature into "tweet" length sentences. 160 characters (or somewhere in that ballpark). I think, sadly, that my blog will need to be that. Brevity may be the soul of wit, but it is also born of necessity for this busy farm girl! So...once again...things about which I want to write SOME DAY:

- Lou's beverage barn. The characters. The despair. The out of place counter top fit for a chic ski bar, but with very different liquor crossing its surface. The bottle return boy reading his customers by the bottles they return. For us: diet coke, poland spring products, microbrews, wine, and an occasional bottle of Tequila. For the man next to us: Miller high life and tab. Strangely thin interloper "Did you know Sam Adams Utopia is the strongest beer in the WORLD? It's like drinking 2 bottles of wine!" Completely busted witch woman "WHAT!? I ain't hear you. WHAT?!"

- I dreamed some idioms. Long dream short: loose horses, inability to get out the door because all I could find in my parents mudroom were two LEFT shoes, discovered nomadic conservative cattle herding women setting up camp at my house, this group turned into the conservative mormon clan from Big Love and I discovered they had let my horses loose when trying to put their cows in my pastures, they multiplied, and when I told them it was time to go, the mean leader literally BURIED HIS HEAD IN THE SAND. Dream interpreter, anybody!??!

- Madre for Governor.

- Summer camp. 90 degrees in a state not built for it. Productivity. Very limited chances to "just be." Trials. Boys clubs of lawyers and judges. Weddings. Busy. Busy. Busy. Busy.

AND...I am a now a bonafide horse trader.

The end. Goodnight!
Farm Girl

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pobrecito

We said goodbye to Poser last night. He is posted on here as my "legal cat." He was my dude kitty. The fat tiger. My very favorite of our brady bunch of cat families collection. The only one I didn't mind sleeping on our bed. And for some reason, he decided to nap on the road last night. Dearest TT stepped out to look at the almost full moon and saw the car come around the bend. Yuck. Maybe I shouldn't have favorites. Or boy tiger kitties. They don't seem to make it very long. Rest in peace little fat kitty, Poser. Maybe you'll meet John Hughes.