Happy New Year!

And what a year it has been. I actually managed to keep this updated (toward the end, but I did start in August...), I sent in one--count 'em, one!-- application, added two model horses to my collection, and did a bunch of other stuff. I started planning for a NaNoWriMo novel--just this past week, actually. I won Champion in Open Hunter for the show season on TSSA. I got my horse to listen to me. I started applying to boarding schools. And I immersed myself in the model horse hobby.

There are a lot of other things but I think that's enough for now. All in all, a very productive year.

So now to look ahead. My goals are:
 1. Be accepted to all the schools I apply to. Chances of this happening: Slim to none.
 2. Compete on the CTHJA Summer Circuit with Jones and do well. Chances of this happening: Very slim to none.
 3. Plan the entire plot for this year's NaNoWriMo. Chances of this happening: Okay
 4. Start babysitting as well as riding, tutoring, and doing schoolwork. Chances of this happening: Just about zilch.
 5. Convince the Honor Council that I should be allowed days off school to go to the 2011 Sunshine Celebration in Florida this spring because my other excused absences were school-related (which, BTW, is 100% true). Chances of this happening:  1 in 5 trillion. Maybe.

And now for resolutions (AKA things I can make happen without the cooperation of other people).
 1. Make stuff for model horses to sell to pay for... more model horses.
 2. Organize my working space!
 3. Stop procrastinating.
 4. Wean myself 100% off Ponybox. Except to post articles and buy horse shirts.
 5. Write that NaNo novel!
 6. Break in my saddle properly.
 7. Blog about Jones more.

And if I do even half of those things I'll have had a productive year. There are probably a lot more things I will want to write down later but that's it for now.

So. About the NaNoWriMo novel. I was thinking about doing a kind of political intrigue... about horses. If you know me you know I've been reading the Lord of the Rings since I was tiny, so I had the idea of setting it in a place like Rohan, except where the better horses you have, the more influential you are politically. The king alone owns the purest strain of horses and whoever inherits his horses when he dies also inherits the throne. He dictates to whom the horses go. Something like that. Anyway, people are playing for power, murdering various lords to take their horses, etc. And there are romances. The way of proposal in this culture is that instead of a ring, the man gives the woman he's proposing to the key to a stall in which resides his best horse. If a person steals a horse, his sentence will go from jail time to loss of life depending on the strain and quality of the horse. Horse-thefts are so rare, the king decides on the sentence along with his advisers.

It needs a bit of work but I have some ideas for the plot. Which I will elaborate upon later.

I'm still working on applications. One more is almost done and ready to be sent, but after that I will still have to send in a graded paper with teacher's comments. And I left that at home. In my locker. At least I still have a fortnight left to send them in! But I want them in ASAP. So I'll probably mail that paper on Tuesday.

Yikes, that's a long post. It needs a picture.Or three. I introduce you to my three cats. They're a little over two years old, maybe two years and four months, and they're all from the same litter. I suspect Sarah had a different father than the other two.

Veronica:

Maricruz:

And Sarah:

And finally Lucie, my parents' old shelter kitty. They got cats when they got married and she's the only one who hasn't been put outside or lost. She is sixteen and rather grumpy, and I'm the only one in our house who I think she really likes. She sleeps on my bed or near my bed or in my closet at all times. My sister hates her but she's really quite a sweet cat.

Ignore all the ponybox copyrights. That was where I posted these originally.

So. Happy New Year once again!