6:30 a.m.: Fall out of bed with the alarm ringing. Throw on barn clothes, let the dog out, let the dog in, sneak the dog into bed with the husband, make tea, brush teeth, grab tea, go down to stable.
7:00 a.m.: Meet the stable owner. Feeding starts. Must weight everything because my kilo-pound calculator is not quite tuned. Takes forever, horses are getting mad.
8:00 a.m.: Let the beasties out in their paddocks in full kit. Go back and clean up stable. (If you are a neat freak, you
do not want to know the amount of crap, dirt, bits of hay, and flung randomness eight horses can generate in an hour.)
8:30 a.m.: Realize it's eight thirty, and that I have to get inside ASAP in order to get ready to leave. Hope Sverre is making breakfast.
8:34 a.m.: Get in the house. Sverre and Max are still in bed. Try not to lose it. Get everyone up and get ready.
9:10 a.m.: Out the door. Doing great. Sverre strategically hauling ass to Oslo.
10:00 a.m.: Hit traffic. Bad traffic. Lots of cursing ensues, I need to be at school by 10:30 to take my test. Revise plans, will drop Sverre off at work, will drive self to school.
10:30 a.m.: At school. But all the parking lots are paid parking, and I have no money on me right now. Crap. Drive down and around and back up and down the school looking for a side street. Am reminded of trying to park at the community college I attended for two years--hell without the proper pass.
10:42 a.m.: In the school, in my chair, trying to go to my pre-test-zen-happy-place, but one of the teachers keeps wanting to chat with me. This is going to totally screw up my
chi, man.
11:00 a.m.: Taking test. Notice it's snowing outside. Oh, crap.
Oh crap! I have no clue how to drive in snow! Oh crap!11:01 a.m.: Am not worried about this test anymore, am completely fluent in slow, stilted Norwegian, and am spending valuable test time fixating on whether or not this snow will stick.
1:45 p.m.: After nearly three hours of
lytteprove (listening test),
leseprove (reading comprehension test), and
skriftlig (essay test), I'm finally done. Waiting for my Japanese friend outside. She gives me a going away present, a little tin full of chocolates. She SO knows how to buy my eternal friendship. Think I will see everyone from my class tomorrow, but am a bit sad. Do not want to think about not seeing them again. At least have my Japanese friend on Facebook now.
2:00p.m.: Back at the apartment. It kind of looks like the aftermath of Visuvius. Vaccuum, straighten up, take out the trash, chitchat with the landlord/Sverre's aunt.
3:30 p.m.: Hit the road, realize I will not survive Oslo traffic, am still freaking out at the snow/rain stuff coming down, and head off home.
4:25 p.m.: Finally arrive at the farm. Must peel fingers from steering wheel, completely white-knuckled it home for no reason. Do not know if I have the inner strength to drive to Oslo tomorrow. Run into the house, let Max out to pee, change into barn clothes.
4:40 p.m.: Am in full swing mucking out the Arabian's stall. Poor girl, her owner has moved, and no one has time to pay attention to her. Had a small surgery and had to stand alone for three weeks, and lost a lot of weight from the stress. Think she will become my special pet until she leaves. Apparently she is almost free (and a beautfiul little horse), but still, it's too much right now to upkeep a beastie like her. One of the boarders finds me. she has her dog and wonders if I'd like to walk with her.
4:50 p.m.: Am walking through the massive summer pastures and forests with the boarder and her dog and Max. Max was locked up all day in his crate, and has turned into wild dog. Keeps trying play keep-away with a dog five times his size. Always looks confused over losing.
5:30 p.m.: Return to stable. Finish mucking the stalls. Need to get horses inside sooner becase it's too dark to see in the paddocks. Get everyone in their boxes, and finish laying in new bedding, give my special pet a good brushing down. She's such a nicely built little creature, with perfect manners when given a little attention. Want. Want Badly.
7:00 p.m.: Have finished brushing my three full-time charges down. Start evening feed.
8:25 p.m.: Finally done with everything. Finish sweeping the stable, go to the house, change out of barn clothes and into pj's. Sit down to vegetate infront of TV with every single channel on the planet--because the last tenants forgot to cancel the subscription.
Totally wiped out.
