24th birthday awesomeness

So, I’m now officially 24. A meaningless age, but a great actual birthday this year.
To start it off, I walked in to work on Thursday morning (April 17th for all of you who don’t know) and was greeted by this:

more pictures in a Facebook album – here
My awesome coworkers had decorated my cube with an ungodly amount of pink, glitter, confetti, streamers, balloons, stickers, etc. Not a single inch wasn’t covered. My computer, keyboard, mouse, phone, stapler, tape, *everything* was giftwrapped. We even had a few silly-string fights throughout the day 🙂 It was insane, but so amazingly thoughtful and crazy and wonderful and FUN! I ❤ my coworkers. Thanks guys!!
Mom came in Thursday night and stayed until Sunday. Took her to the Vortex and this great mexican place and got her nice and drunk (admit it mom, yo
u had a great time!!) and whatnot. Saturday we (me, mom and Erik) drove about 2.5 south of Atlanta to this wonderful stable in Cochran called Rancho Loma Linda where they specialize in Peruvian Paso Finos!!
I’d never ridden a paso of any sort before, so I was really excited. The owners, Angel & Andrea, were so incredibly wonderful and made us feel like family. We rode for two hours (I rode a great 4y/o mare named Castania who had only been going under saddle for about a year and was still in bosal) and had a great time. At one point Castania and I walked by a bush and it touched her and she freaked out and bucked a couple times but it was so cute because you could pretty much see her thinking “I do not like this bush on my tush!” When we came back, I jokingly said how I didn’t want to get off the horse yet, so they let us ride more!
I also was given the honor/privildge of riding a lovely bay Paso bareback as well as a *stallion* named Luchador bareback. I’d never ridden a stallion before, and to do so bareback on a Paso was really thrilling.
Then, it was time to BBQ and drink. Talk about true southern hospitality- everyone was so friendly. Eventually it was time to bring in the horses to feed so we all helped out. It was really nice knowing that they trusted us (complete strangers as o
f that morning) to help “work”.
At one point one of the boarders, Wayne, let me ride his gorgeous black & white paint Missouri Fox Trotter, Reveille, bareback, with only a halter and a lead. She was a dream to ride. Super comfortable and exceptionally well broke.

me & Lucho – a Peruvian Paso Fino stallion who was a total sweetheart!
All in all, this was one hell of a great birthday!
Oh, and one the way home I saw a meteor fall to earth (like a really close-up shooting start) and it was pretty 🙂
…I ❤ gaited horses!!

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I’ve totally got a case of the Mondays…

Ugh. Yes, that’s exactly how I’m feeling right now. Well, maybe “ugh” with a side order of “bleh”. I just want to crawl under some blankets and hide in a dark place until today is over.
Why you ask? Well, here’s just one small example of the many that are bothering me today:
When I started my new job I specifically *declined* the 401k enrollment. I checked it three times over the course of 60 days to be sure that I had 0% contribution. Well, I just logged in to my bank account (for no particular reason) and noticed that my last paycheck was about $100 lower than usual. Why? Because they automatically enrolled me even after I had said NOT to, three times!! I can’t afford that shit right now. It makes me so angry. I want my damn money back!!!
On a better note, Friday night Erik and I got all fancy dressed up and went to go see my uncle perform with the Atlanta Symphony. He’s the musical director/conductor for Debbie Reynolds (if you don’t know who she is, ask your parents) and got us tickets. I hadn’t seen him and Debbie perform in ye
ars and it was great to see him again. Afterwards we went out for drinks and I was so glad to spend some time with him.