Well it is another fascinating week at SVC, and in case you haven’t heard yet, SVC has an infestation. You are worried already, I can tell. The fact of the matter is, there is an infestation of ninjas here at SVC. I was calmly sitting at my desk doing some work (and by work I mean playing games on the internet), and all of a sudden a flock (and by flock I mean two) of ninjas burst into my room and stole my Nalgene right off of my desk. Contrary to popular belief, ninjas are not quiet, they sound rather like a herd of frolicking baby water buffalo, but I was not expecting them, so I had no defense.

    After my initial surprise, I launched a search by interrogating the only known ninja in the facility (by facility I mean hallway), and I eventually got the water bottle back, but it was harrowing for a while because by that time I was nearly dead from thirst. (I believe the water bottle would have helped more if there actually would have been any water in it.)

    The tale of adventure was the greatest excitement for today, but last Friday was just a fantastic day all around. It was the first day of horseback riding for this semester, and it started out great. Since it was raining, we had to ride inside, but since there were only four people riding in our group, it wasn’t bad. I got to ride Jack again (he was the horse that I rode when we did the trail ride last semester), and he was just as sweet as I remembered him to be last semester. We did a lot of trotting this time, which meant a lot of posting, and I will admit that my legs still kind of hurt. People have probably seen me walking across campus in an awkward manner, and they were secretly thinking that I had personal problems.

    Anyway, Jack and I had a good time, and by the time I dismounted I actually felt pretty comfortable posting and trotting. My favorite parts were yet to come, however. I took Jack into his stall to remove the saddle and bridle, and after I put them away I brushed him down to make get all of the dust off of him. After I was finished, I stood in the stall with his head over my shoulder, and I stroked his cheek for a few minutes. He appeared to be quite happy when I was there, and seemed sad when I had to leave the stall because I thought everyone was waiting for me.

    It turns out I was not the last person, so I had to wait for the others to finish, but then another fantastic thing happened. My friend Kelly and I found the kitties. There are three black cats that hang out in and around the stables. One of them is kind of mean, the next one enjoys people’s company, and the third desperately wants people to pay attention. He was my attack cat. I was holding him in my arms, and he would crawl all over them, (and the rest of me) balancing on whatever bit of my anatomy suited him best. At one point he was standing balanced on three paws on one of my arms while attacking the strap on Kelly’s riding helmet. The neatest part about it was the fact that I could feel him adjusting his weight on my arm every time I moved, but he never dug his claws into me. I wish I had that kind of balance.

    So, after that I went back to school and pretended to do homework for a while etcetera, etcetera, and watched some movies and the weekend ended, and now it is 12:55 on Tuesday morning and I suppose that I should go to sleep. Well, I suppose that I should make sure to lock the door, but I guess that ninjas do not use doors anyway. (I was told on good authority that the ninjas did not like my baby water buffalo reference. Who knows if I will be able to write ever again…)