Category: Lifestyle

As the leaves turn…

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It has been a week! It is finally Friday and this work week has come to a rainy end. I was going to do a ride today with one of the school horses after school today but he is still lame and sadly all the other horses had dates this Friday afternoon. Now…when we say a horse is lame, that means that his gait is off for some reason, not that he is a loser ha. The vet narrowed is down to a hoof and thought rest and bute (horse tylenol), would be just the trick, but the lameness has persisted. We don’t ride our horse friends until they are sound again, meaning the issue that has caused the lameness has been resolved. Some horses do have chronic issues and vets can give people the ok to ride a horse like that, but generally we want our horses to have 4 happy legs/hooves for riding.

While I was there, I took a couple snaps of the trees just starting to turn. The barn I ride at is literally one of the most beautiful places on the planet, I’m so lucky.

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The barn is on a property that used to be an apple orchard. That’s pretty typical for central Massachusetts, so for the next couple weeks, free apples at the barn!

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Enjoy the apples, just return the baskets! 😉

I would have taken some if I didn’t already have plans to go apple picking tomorrow! We’ll see, if we get rained out I might be going back to the barn for some free apples 🙂 Have a great weekend!!

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What Starbucks did for National Coffee Day

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I found out yesterday that today was National Coffee Day. I have my grad class on Tuesdays, so I was psyched because I usually go to Starbucks before hand for a drink and hang out reviewing stuff before class. I did a quick google search to find out what the deals for today were going to be and was disappointed there was no deal for Starbucks!!! Free dark roast at Dunkins!? I like Dunkins, but there is a Starbucks right next to the library at school!

I of course then had to find out why Startbucks didn’t have some giveaway or deal and what they did instead really warmed my heart. Starbucks kickstarted their One Tree for Every Bag campaign by giving away one million coffee trees!!! These trees are resistant to the coffee rust that has been plaguing coffee trees in Central America. They are donating $0.70, the price of one tree, to Conservation International for each bag of coffee sold too. These trees will be a huge help to coffee farmers who have aging trees or trees infected with the rust.

If you want to learn more, here is the website for the story on the Conservation International website: Conservation International

Here’s the story on the Starbucks blog 1912 Pike

Would have definitely been nice to get a free Starbucks drink today, but this campaign is pretty amazing too!!! Btw, International Coffee Day is October 1, 2015….this year is the first official one, more free coffee??

Happy Tuesday!

c/o Mon

Sunday Funday at Myopia Polo

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Yesterday a few girlfriends and I ditched football and spent that afternoon watching some polo! Myopia Polo is the oldest active polo club in America, the grounds are beautiful. They host matches for Harvard, Boston Polo, international matches, and they have quite a few family teams from the area that play in tournaments for Myopia. Yesterday’s matches were between some of the Myopia teams in remembrance of Patti Lahey who passed away from cancer in August. She was an amazing woman in Massachusetts’ North Shore horse community. They had her friends come up and tell stories about Patti during breaks in the match, it was very sweet and touching.

One of the Myopia teams is called Stage Hill Polo and they also do lessons. I am planning on doing a lesson with them in November thanks to an awesome Groupon!  Other places in New England that do lessons for polo are Newport Polo in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, which also does matches and tailgating, and then Patch Wood Farm in Sandown NH does lessons for other riding disciplines too. I did a lesson at Newport Polo and it was awesome, but its just too far a drive. I am so happy I saw the Groupon for Stage Hill. I love finding new things to do with horses 🙂

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It was a lovely fall afternoon. They charge $10/pp for admission, and we grabbed some champagne, OJ, Boursin  & crackers from the grocery store. My friend brought some smoked bluefish caught right off Martha’s Vineyard. Like our table?? Its a cooler with my friend’s horse’s Baker sheet over it ha! Not too shabby!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and got outside to enjoy some fall weather activities!

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Alumni Crew Race!

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I went to Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester MA and was a member of the women’s crew team for all 4 years. We had a fall and a spring season, and it was the best thing I did in college. I started rowing the summer after my junior year of high school during a week long camp. Up until then, I had been playing tennis and competitively Irish Step Dancing annnnnnd my knees had just had it. I have patella femoral syndrome. Its really common in women who sorta grew really fast causing their hip/knee angle to be off. Basically my kneecap tracks diagonally, outside to inside, so there can be swelling & pain. My orthopedic dr did crew and actually suggested I do it in order to strengthen my quads. That summer, I fell in love with rowing at a camp at Northeastern University. Senior year I drove myself to CRI on the Charles 3 days a week after school to row with a program. College crew wasn’t something I randomly found at the activities fair during orientation, it was something that I looked forward to my entire senior year.

My senior year, I was captain of the crew team with my best friend. She was in my sorority, we studied abroad in Thailand our junior year together, and spent soooo many hours together for crew, we practically shared a brain. She passed away in 2008 from a heart problem. She just died in her sleep, very peacefully. My world was rocked, I was devastated. Those first two years out of college, we went to races together, supporting our team as alumni. We raced in the alumni race, hung out after for the cookout and then headed to campus for the rest of the homecoming activities.

After she died though, I couldn’t bring myself to do it anymore. The loss of her was so pronounced at crew activities. When we fundraised enough money to buy a boat and name it after her, I went to the homecoming race as a spectator and went in to the dark boathouse to visit her boat like a grave. This year though, I got dragged into the alumni race. I didn’t even have clothes, but people had spandex and a tshirt for me to borrow. It was so fun. I still cried when my former coach along with my best friend’s family announced the amazing endowment in her name that states there will always be a boat named after her for WPI crew. Grief is a strange thing. It sharpens and fades, like changing the focus of a photo from the foreground to the background. I am going to watch some of my fellow alums race at the Head of the Charles this year. It has taken me a long time, but my feelings of loss and sadness are starting to fall to the background and I am able to love crew again.

Here are some pictures from the race. It was an awesome morning 🙂

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The Ferrari of Ponies

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Last night I was so blessed to be able to get a lesson with one of my best friends on her amazing intermediate event horse. I have been riding since January 2007, and I have had a few leases, but have mostly ridden school horses, or horses that belong to the barn for lessons. School horses have taught me sooooo much. They can be frustrating to work with because they will really make you work for everything, but I  think they are very rewarding too.

My friend’s horse is an OTTB, or off-track thoroughbred. He wasn’t meant for the racetrack but he is a brilliant event horse, especially the cross country phase. We did a dressage lesson in the indoor arena, and it was so fun. His level of training is so much higher than the school horses, so I really just got to ride instead of spending the whole time trying to work through issues brought on by too many bouncy little kids 🙂 Riding him is kinda like leaving the 1988 Honda Civic to ride in a ferrari. He’s perfect. Someday when she retires him from competing, I know he will be the best eventing/dressage school master.

She took a few pics, they are blurry but I actually kinda like how the blurriness softens the pictures. IMG_2016 IMG_2017

It was the kind of night when you drive home smiling the whole time, like nothing could bother you after that. That’s the good stuff. Happy Friday!

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Wednesday woes fixed by a trail run

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Today was a rough day. I am a high school teacher in a regional district and I always think, man I have seen everything, and then a student’s story will get me. I have been teaching for 8 years….I have had a student whose father died in 9/11, another whose father committed suicide, alcoholic or junkie parents, alcoholic suicidal students, quite a few homeless students, parents in jail, more depression/anxiety than I ever imagined. So today my coteacher and I find out why a certain student has been out for almost a week. He lives with his grandparents (sooo many kids live with grandparents), and his father was released from jail last year. He’s been hospitalized. This isn’t that strange, we have numerous students hospitalized for depression and manic/violent behavior. His grandparents are at the end of their rope and are thinking about handing him over to the state. Mother is MIA, I am guessing Dad is at some sort of home.

Devastating, it literally caught my breath. An angry 15 year old entering the foster care system. He might not even come back to our school depending on where he is placed. I remember the day he got dismissed early because his dad was being released. He came in the next day and said his dad let the dog out and the dog was gone. The thing that gets me is of course this kid is angry!!! I hate that he takes his rage out on his grandparents, but cmon, this kid is in a tough situation. Ugh, this really stayed with me today.

I came home feeling heavy. Tried to read, I am finishing up The Nanny Diaries, made a green smoothie, and then finally decided to take the pup on a trail run. Instantly, I started to feel lighter. Its tough, being a teacher we become invested in the future of our students, and when situations like this arise, I just feel powerless. Running in the woods, watching my dog gleefully run down the path without a care in the world brings me back to my even, happy self. Free therapy 🙂 I didn’t want to go, my heaviness made me feel lazy, but thankfully, I went.

Today reminded me that I haven’t seen it all, but I am capable of coping with whatever comes my way. We don’t have to be happy all the time, but we should learn along the way what brings you back to happy.

Here’s my pup in the late afternoon sun 🙂

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I hope you all had a lovely Wednesday, and if you didn’t, I hope something steered you back to happy by now 🙂

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Spotted: Foxhunt in the town forest!

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This morning my fiancé took our dalmatian, Mizpah, for a trail run at the town forest in Groton, MA. Old Northbridge Hounds were also there for a hunt! I guess all the hounds were ahead of the horses and swarmed Mizpah, she must have felt like the belle of the ball. They were called back to the master and the hunt went down a different path. In the past, my fiancé and Mizpah were actually on the same path as the hunt and little Mizpah walked right next to the horses like she was in the pack before coming back.

I am attaching a few pictures from my fiancé. He said there were probably ~20 horses today. Everyone is wearing their informal hunt attire, formal hunt attire doesn’t start until October. I know of 3 hunt clubs in Massachusetts- Old Northbridge is in Concord, Myopia is up on the north shore in Hamilton, and Norfolk Hunt Club is in Dover. They do hunts usually on Tues/Sat and also hunter paces that some people from my barn go to with their horses. All of them are drag hunting clubs. That means there is no fox, they drag the scent through the woods for the hounds to follow. There is usually some sort of reception afterwards like a tea or luncheon.

A really fun way to learn more about fox hunting is to read Rita Mae Brown’s fox hunting mysteries. I absolutely love them. It took me a little bit to get used to the fact that the animals all have dialogue in her books, but now I like it ha. Here is her website: Rita Mae Brown Books She also writes books about cats…..

Here are links to the Massachusetts Hunt Clubs:

Old Northbridge Hounds

Myopia Hunt

Norfolk Hunt

If I had my own horse, I would definitely want to get involved in a hunt club. They are great social groups and its great exercise for all species involved 🙂 Maybe someday when I have extra money…soooo probably not until retirement!!!

Here is the older picture from last year of Mizpah, the blur between some horses. It must have been later in the fall because they are wearing formal attire!

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Hope everyone had a fabulous Tuesday! I think this week’s Prep Craze is going to be quilted vests because I just got a really nice navy one from J. Crew Factory, 35% off- Free Shipping! Gotta find ways to get those fall essentials without ruining your budget right!? Stay tuned!

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Barn wedding weekend & Great LLBean Story

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Today I definitely had a case of the Mondays ha. I had an amazing weekend as a bridesmaid for one of my best friend’s weddings. She got married at her family’s horse farm. She came in to the ceremony next to the family’s beautiful antique farm house on a carriage pulled by a chestnut morgan with her father and met her groom under a trellis in front of a beautiful old oak tree. Her child, aka her horse, was in a paddock nearby for pics afterward, absolutely stunning. The reception was down in the cross country field under a tent. The decorations and lighting were magnificent. The food was delicious and we drank Veuve Cliquot out of the bottle and our favorite Barefoot chardonnay while we danced all night long. It was truly a magical night and I was so happy to be a part of it. Work this morning was a harsh reality after living in a fairytale all weekend 🙂

This morning I heard a great story about one of my favorite companies, LLBean. Leon Gorman passed away on September 3rd. I was actually up in Freeport that weekend! Leon was the grandson of the founder L.L. Bean and served as CEO from 1967-2001. He was on the board as chairman after that until 2013, and then served as chairman emeritus until he passed away at 80 years old. By all accounts, he was an amazing man and is credited with much of the success LLBean now has. The flagship store in Freeport is open 24 hours/day and closed on Sunday for 4 hours so that everyone could go to Leon Gorman’s memorial service. The doors don’t even have locks so they draped a rope through the handles of the doors. The flagship store only closed 2 other times, when JFK was assassinated, and when L.L. Bean himself passed away. I just thought it was so nice that the company realized that celebrating Leon’s life was more important than any sale they would make that morning. Truly, I have often thought I would love to work for LLBean when I retire, because its such a great company.

You can read the story about the store closing here: LLBean remembers Leon Gorman

Here are some pics of the amazing wedding 🙂

Veuve cliquot for the head table, so good
Veuve cliquot for the head table, so good
The centerpieces were beautiful fresh flowers in horse show trophy cups. Metallic sandals were the bridesmaid shoe of choice- here are some of our Jack Rogers taking a break while we danced!
The centerpieces were beautiful fresh flowers in horse show trophy cups. Metallic sandals were the bridesmaid shoe of choice- here are some of our Jack Rogers taking a break while we danced!
My fiancé sent this as a snapchat, ha, too funny, but honestly, the tent was stunning.
My fiancé sent this as a snapchat, ha, too funny, but honestly, the tent was stunning.

It was truly a magical weekend with all my best friends from the barn, so nice to see so many of the riders dressed up and dancing together. I hope you all had lovely weekends too! Its starting to get cooler and darker earlier, we have to soak up whats left of the nice weather here in New England!

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Where was I on 9/11/2001….

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I was a senior in high school, sitting in AP calc when the first plane hit the World Trade Center towers. My classroom was connected to a computer lab, so a couple students immediately went in to see if they could find any information out. We turned on our TVs in the classroom. At the time, I remember all of us thinking it was an explosion of some sort. Then the second plane hit, and we all watched in horror as we realized what had happened. A plane….hit…..the WTC….The rest of the day was spent maybe doing a little work, talking a lot with each other and our teachers, and keeping those TVs on. Details of the events were revealed, each one more shocking, like water spilling over the edge of a tub already full. So wait, the first explosion was also a plane? And this was done on purpose!?

I didn’t know anyone directly affected by the 9/11 attacks. Being from the Boston area, you would hear that about people distant to you…maybe someone that your friend went to school with’s uncle was there but was ok. I think my mother’s second cousin lived in the area but was out of state that week.

As I think about my students today, they were babies when the 9/11 attacks happened! A few of my students have parents in the national guard/reserves that may have been deployed as a result of these attacks, but they really have no memory of the event. The events of that day had such an impact on all of us. It’s another JFK assassination moment, or the death of John Lennon. My mother and father both remember exactly where they were when those two events occurred. We are waiting for our interactive boards and new projectors to be put up, which is a bummer because I would love to show one of the many amazing documentaries about 9/11. There is much sadness surrounding that day, but when I think about that day now, I am moved by all the stories about the first responders and civilians that helped so many. If I could watch something today, it would be the documentary from ESPN on Welles Crowther. He was a BC graduate and lacrosse player who worked in the WTC as a trader. He saved a dozen people that we know of and was remembered by those he saved as having a red bandanna over his nose/mouth. That bandanna was given to him by his father when he was 6. He passed away when the tower collapsed but is remembered as a hero for what he did that day.

I hope that everyone has a few moments today to reflect, remind ourselves what kind of person we all want to be. Compassion for our fellow human beings doesn’t cost a thing, but is somehow worth more than anything you could buy.

c/o Mon

Thoughts on the novel, The Knockoff!

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While I was sitting out in my campsite early Monday morning with beautiful Casco Bay (I’m obsessed, I know) in front of me, I finished “The Knockoff” by Lucy Sykes & Jo Piazza. I know I am a little late to the party, but this book is worth celebrating! The basis, without giving too much away, is a story of a magazine editor in chief, maybe a more kind, down to earth version of Anna Wintour, that comes back to work after beating breast cancer, to find that her fashion magazine is joining the digital age, and her Techb*tch former assistant is now at the helm. It’s a tale of the struggle between adapting to the new without losing what was good about the old. I absolutely devoured it.

Being a teacher, I see this daily. Older teachers who began their careers in the late 70s and 80s are forced everyday to confront and accept or hide from technology. Our lesson plans, professional development, licensure, schedules, evaluation tools, and all important memos are digital. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard someone say, “What? I didn’t know about that? Oh, it was in an email?” Half the room rolls their eyes, hopefully inwardly, like what have you done all day if you haven’t read your emails, and half the room sympathizes thinking ummmm hello there are more important things to do than read emails, like teach?

The digital age has made teaching “stuff” easier to track and share, but just like Imogen, our editor in chief in “The Knockoff” feels like turning her magazine to just an app has made the content flat instead of rich, I also feel that digitalizing teaching can kill our creativity a bit. I try to find a balance between over organizing in my google forms, lesson plan templates, and online grading with those precious spontaneous teaching moments that you can’t plan for. Those moments make your teaching come alive and become meaningful for a student. With limited time and standardized testing, it is not always easy. I try to remember, our passion is really our craft and putting everything on the internet is just our new version of the craft fair. Its the way we reach our customers/stakeholders. Don’t work against the internet, work with it, and find those understanding coworkers or friends that are somewhere between eyeball rollers and complete sympathizers. You don’t need someone to patronize you or commiserate with, you need encouragement and patient instruction, we all do every once in a while.

My copy of “The Knockoff” was from my town library, it retails for upwards of $13. Buy your ebooks for when you need them, maybe traveling, use your library and save money when you can!!

c/o Mon