Oh, the weather outside...sucks.

I would like snow, at this point. It's unusual this late in November to not really have any in Vermont. All it's been doing is raining and raining and raining with the occasional wintry mix for most of the past two weeks.

I'm supposed to be on Thanksgiving vacation right now. I'm really not. This is what I like to call Vacation Non-vacation. I'm on vacation, meaning I don't have to go to classes. I'm not on vacation because I'm A) not home, B) still on campus, and C) been working the past three days and doing homework all the rest of the time. I'm up to my eyeballs in semester-end projects and final papers and whatever other torturous assignments professors make up, and while I'm happy to say I've made quite a bit of progress on it all in the last three days, I'm not done. And I want to go home.

I don't usually want to go home; I like it here, I have my schedule and my routine and it works for me. But right now I just need a break. This vacation was suppose to be about enjoying some much needed and deserved time off, working with the horses, and getting to do things I don't normally have time for. There's been none of the above. Ernie and Stella have sat this week just as much as they have the past few weeks, if not more. They've been getting more attention, but I'm finding myself too tired and unmotivated to ride or work either of them. They are both shiny and fat and happy, much to my delight, but they need regular jobs.

The crappy weather hasn't been helping: it usually means both horses are mucky, which means more grooming time, and by the time I'm done with that I have to walk up to the main barn to use the arena, and when the weather is crap, the last thing you want to do is set foot out the barn door. It's too easy to say, "Meh, I'll work them tomorrow..."

I also feel sickness coming on, which would make sense: I'm stressed, I'm tired, I'm not on a regular sleep schedule. I miss being home, and am generally emotionally compromised for the time being because I'm overtired and need a solid few days of R&R, sans horses. I get to go home for Thanksgiving, but I still have to come back down to school to do horse chores, a 2 hour round trip each day. Hardly what I call relaxing...laced around that drive will be more massages for my certification, more homework, more everything-I-don't-want-to-do-right-now-or-ever...ugh.