Hello Readers

Hello faithful readers! Welcome to another edition of my very lazy night off. I have a ton that I could/should be doing but instead, I am just sitting back and relaxing after a day at work. I haven't had one of these in a long time.

Let's give you a quick recap of the past month since I haven't had a ton of time to write on here. September was the Keeneland Fall Yearling Sale... that pretty much took up all my time until the last week of the month. I then joined the Paulick Report as a Weekend Editor, which took up the time that had been opened up with the Sale ending.

I flew to Texas the first weekend of October for a friend's wedding.... came back to get back to my seven day a week schedule. During all of that, I was putting the finishing touches on my Fulbright (yes, I was still working on that) and changed my research proposal literally a week before the application was due. That was a mess of double checking to make sure it all still fit in to my original proposal, but that is done and in the judges' hands. Thank God for that.

During all of this, I've been looking for an apartment that I can move into at the beginning of the year when I return from Washington. I've also been maintaining my other blog and writing for the Bleacher Report during the week. Add on top of that the Fasig-Tipton October Sale and my life has been insane. Now see why I'm taking a month off?

However, I am not complaining one bit. I LOVE the craziness and have adopted the motto "I'll sleep when I'm dead". Thankfully, that's not the truth as I will be able to sleep in December when I take my month break (minus the Paulick Report) which I'm excited for.

However, I have to survive November first (this is where we switch to the future).

November is a month full of big races, big sales, and Nanowrimo where I'll attempt to write a 50,000 word novel. I've done it in the past and it is a blast but a ton of work. Nano starts November 1 (next Thursday), which means that next week will be insane.

The first weekend of November is Breeders' Cup. I am only working the actual event on Saturday but Breeders' Cup week is insane. This is the first time in three years that I'll be missing the event and I'm pretty sure I'll be more busy here than I was at the last two (the Breeders' Cup is significant to me because it was the first "real" event I covered onsite when I had a press pass last year).

I literally have a day "off" where there are only a few stakes races that I'll be covering for PR. However, the next day starts the last big auction rush of the year. Monday night is Fasig-Tipton's night sale and it will be insane. Some huge mares, such as Havre De Grace will be selling there and I'm fully expecting to go both during my lunch break (F-T's grounds are 5 minutes from the Horse Park) so I can look at some mares then that night since it starts at 5pm.

F-T is only one night but the next day, Keeneland starts. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to go look at the sales horses during the weekend (although, I'm trying to figure out how to on Sunday) but you can bet that I'll probably be out there every night both weeks of the Sale.

Because I like pretty colors, I took a picture of my calendar for the month minus packing days.

This may sound crazy... but I can't wait! No Sleep November starts in exactly seven days!

Until next time,
Mel

I've Been Brainwashed

Welcome back to my busy life (which will make for a short blog). I just returned from a five day trip home to Canyon where I got together with a bunch of friends for a wedding so I had a break for the first time in about a month. But crazily enough, it wasn't as relaxing as I thought.

While I loved being back with my friends and having my "social life" back, I couldn't wait to get back to Lexington. I knew I am attached to the city, but not that attached. However, unlike Canyon, where I knew I would leave eventually... I can't see myself leaving Lexington. It's the only place I've really considered staying, which is weird to me but kind of nice at the same time.

I am back here for 2 months then head to Washington for a month, we'll see how that changes my thought process, but I'm 100% coming back in January for at least 3 months so I have that going for me. We'll see what happens after that. 

One thing for certain is that this is the right place for me right now and I'm kind of hoping it stays that way.

Big Announcement No. 2

Another week, another big announcement (that makes me sound so important so I love to say it).

As my USEF internship comes to a close, I've had to start wondering about my future once again. My ultimate goal is to stay in Lexington because I 100% love it here. So in came typical Melissa.

If you know me, you know that I get pretty crazy ideas and most of the time, I don't give them a second thought after looking over the "reality" of them. That's probably a good thing.

But last week, I got a crazy thought and when I couldn't find many cons for it, I stuck with it and let it build. I contacted Jen, laid out my plan and got her approval. Then I went to the Paulick Report and asked for their approval just in case it would be a conflict of interest. After a few nerve-racking hours, I received approval from that side. 

I then e-mailed Jen back and told her that I had the necessary approval to go on with my plan. (If you're still with me here, congrats!)

So as of January, I will be working at the Paulick Report during the weekends and a marketing intern at Three Chimneys two afternoons a week. 

My internship with the USEF ends December 7, although I may try to change that, and I'm planning on going home for a month to recharge my batteries as the few weeks I had between graduation and moving here were mostly spent running around.

I may also try to find a new apartment to move into as living in the dining room of a friend's isn't the best situation for long term. However, that one is still up in the air at this point.

So there you have it.  As of January, I will be fully involved in the horse racing industry. I will also be taking more steps towards moving to Lexington permanently. Oh boy! 

And just as an extra for those that know my joke about taking over the world...

 

Welcome to My Life

I'm sneaking this post in a little late this week due to how busy I was with the second week of the Keeneland September Sale.

First off, last weekend in celebration of my big news (below), Jen Roytz invited me to Three Chimneys to "celebrate" with the horse that started it all, Point Given. While two bags of carrots were distributed among all the Three Chimney stallions currently present on the farm (some are vacationing in Australia), a whole bag (plus one) went to my main man. 

Jen got pictures of me spending time with multiple stallions, but this one is definitely my favorite. I really can't describe how much I love this horse.



This week at the internship, I finally got a "big" project. The network is going through some changes so I get to go through all the videos on the server and put values in the metadata so searchers can find the riders, horses, events, etc that they want. I'm guessing it will be my final hurrah since it will take months to go through and I only have about 2 1/2 months left. There aren't really any big shows coming that we'll be working either so metadata will probably take over my life until December.

That brings me to my next piece of news. Almost two weeks ago, I was hired on as weekend editor at the Paulick Report. This weekend was my first weekend and I loved doing all the work. While being put in charge of the website with no one to hold my hand in person (phone and e-mail were my friends) was a little scary, I feel like I got it down for the most part with just a few "what am I supposed to do now" moments. Ray Paulick also gave me some tips on my writing and headlines so I'll be making a "cheat sheet" to refer to for years to come and I'm sure I'll be adding to it. 

Next weekend is a pretty big stakes weekend with, I believe, 14 stakes in two days. Even more crazily, about 11 of those are on Saturday. This weekend was a little light on stakes races and news, which I'm thankful for since it was my first weekend, but I'm worried that next weekend I'll be a little overwhelmed.

However, at lunch with Jen after she dragged me away from the farm, she told me that she had breakfast with Brad Cummings of the Paulick Report earlier that week. While at first I was a little suspicious of them talking about me, he told her that I remind him of him when I was younger and she said that she thinks the same. That's a huge compliment to me and inspires me even more. It does add some pressure but I thrive under pressure so I'm okay with that.

On top of that pressure, when Brad and I met for my pre-work training, he told me that he's going to push me pretty hard because he knows that I'm not just here for a temporary job and that's 100% true. I want to make the racing industry my long term career (even more now that I have a weekend of racing journalism under my belt) so that was welcome music to my ears. 

As I told Ray when he was putting me through a soft edition of writing boot camp yesterday as I posted articles, I'm learning every time he says something (it's all going on the cheat sheet) and I want be educated as much as I possibly can both about my mistakes and things to look out for in the future. I feel like PR is the perfect place for that because if this weekend is any indication, they are as eager to teach me as I am to learn.

I definitely feel like there are big things coming down the pike in coming months and can't wait to see what the future brings.

Yearlings, Fish... and Yoga

Welcome to the crazy first week of Fall for me. I started off the week in a yoga class and ended it at Keeneland. I told you it was crazy.

Last weekend, I went to my first yoga class in probably about three years. Unlucky for me, it was an "all levels" class so by the end of the warm up, I was exhausted. However, I went to the class two more times last week and it got a little better each time. After Thursday's class, I even added some extra activities in after class. Sadly, I probably won't be able to make it to the classes this week (however, I'm going to try) due to being super busy, which leads me to my next topic... Keeneland.

The two weeks I've been waiting for are here. Over the last two days, I've spent about 18 hours looking at all sorts of yearlings. From beauties to those that are "unfortunate", I've seen all different types. I've also gotten some good tips by hanging out with more "professional" types of photographers during the two days. 

The highlights of the weekend were getting to shake Carl Nafzger's hand and have him tease me about my age; meet awesome people working the consignments, including my new "favorites" Mike at Mill Ridge and Charles at Lane's End of Zenyatta fame; chilling out within five feet of Bob Baffert as he looked at horses; and meeting the yearling half sister to the awesome Point Given (picture below).

I will be going back tomorrow for the first night of the sale and my first ever "live" thoroughbred auction, so I'm sure there will be some more highlights.

I took over 5,000 pictures during the weekend and am having to do a little shifting around on hard drives to get them to fit on my computer but I expect even more over the coming days. I am thinking about doing an "opinion" blog about my thoughts of who I find impressive and such but that has to wait until I get to actually look at all my pictures since I can't remember who is who right now other than a few big standouts (Hip No. 111 for one).

On the sad side of things, after a week long battle with trying to fix the effects that Lexington water had on my fish, he has traveled his last mile. "Eddie" was literally the traveling fish. I got him right before I moved to Moscow, Idaho in 2008 and he was the only "survivor" of their water (I went there with 3, I came back with one). He then went to Texas with me where he wintered with my friend in Houston while I went home for Christmas and did the Washington to Texas trip back and forth four times. His journey ended with Lexington so all in all, he may be the most traveled fish ever with over 10,000 miles. Pretty good for a fish that's only supposed to live a year or two. While other people live with cats and dogs, I lived with a fish... so I guess you could consider him my cat. RIP Eddie.

Last but not least, I *may* have a big announcement coming up but it's not confirmed and I don't want to jinx it so I'm just going to leave you with that. So stay tuned!

The Blunt Thoughts

Please excuse the long break between posts, my mom was in town at the end of last week so I spent the whole week running around trying to get ahead in order to spend more time not worrying about anything.

Her vacation was definitely eye-opening for me and is probably why I'm being a little more blunt in this blog post.

Last week was a blast for the most part. I exchanged e-mails with one of the top writers in the racing business to get advice on how to further my "career" and then toured an amazing barn and Rood & Riddle with my mom. It did have it's boring moments but overall, it was a good week.

This week I'm being entrusted with writing the press releases for two National Championships, although I'm convinced I've only been assigned them because everyone else has other stuff to do. However, I'm not complaining since it is something. So over the past few days, I've been writing previews for my two shows. I've also been updating all the bios for riders on the Network. That was literally a three week job that made life a little more interesting.

The good thing about this internship is that it's taught me that I would rather be staying busy than sitting at my desk in the office. When I first started, I was all about being in media relations, even if it meant having a desk where times could be slow job. But now that I've experienced it and had a taste of doing journalism as well, I'm definitely pulling for a job that let's me get out of the office and/or has me constantly active. I'm not a fan of sitting around at my desk all day when I could be writing so it's definitely been eye opening.

Because of this, I'm going to start searching for a journalism job soon. My internship gets over December first and I want to have some sort of equestrian journalism job by then. However, if they offer me something and I'm still on the jobless side, I'll probably take it just so I can stay in Lexington. I do love the USEF, but I think I'd be better suited for the racing industry. It's going to be an interesting situation.

My state of mind right now is journalism or bust. I'm really hoping there's not going to be any busting when it comes right down to it. My goal is to be able to say on November 15 (my deadline for myself) that I will 100% be staying in Lexington with a job at [insert publication here]. Because of that, I am going to start job searching on September first (this Saturday) and maybe if I get really lucky, I'll be secure enough in my future that I can move the girl (horses) here before winter. Although, I'm really doubting that last part. 

My "no worries" college life is quickly drawing to a close. But while I was panicked about it in May, I'm strangely calm about it now. I'm hoping that means good things are in store for the rest of 2012.

The Bike Challenge

This week's post is going to take a bit of a different tone. Instead of one of those boring "update" threads, it's time to talk about motivation.

About a month ago, I briefly mentioned the "Challenge" my internship was doing with exercising. As a way to motivate employees to get healthy, an awards program was sent out so employees could earn a gold, silver, or bronze medal (in addition to other prizes) for going so many miles. The idea was apparently to mimic the Olympic type of spirit when it came to the challenge so more people would be interested.

If you know me, you know that I'm really competitive, so getting the e-mail with what had to be done to get the top medal immediately motivated me. Thankfully, one of the activities was riding a bike, which could also be an exercise bike, so I jumped right in (I swim like a rock and walking long distances just doesn't work for me). 

Somewhere along the way, my brain confused the mileage and I was convinced I had to go 250 miles so I put in a lot more miles in a short amount of time than I probably should have when getting into shape, oh well. The actual mileage was 150 for the gold medal and I was somewhere around the 190 mark at the end of the challenge so I definitely hit the gold standard.

Now that the challenge is over, I've created the "three week habit" of going to the gym nearly every day. Thankfully, I can also have a bit more freedom of what sort of exercises I do every day since I'm not stuck on getting so many miles in a day for the challenge

Doing the same pattern on the bike for 5 weeks (two before Young Riders and the last three weeks) wore me down since I wanted to get 10 miles every day instead of changing up my exercise plan. My big thing now is to mix it up every day to make it more fun again.

My big fear for the end of the challenge was that I wouldn't have any motivation towards continuing on once it was over. I've never been one to really sit down and accomplish goals when it comes to the gym so I had to find another way other than just losing x amount of pounds or really any "normal" goals.

The good thing about this summer is that I have a friend that is returning to the soccer field after a devastating injury last season. While watching her go through the rehabilitation process after the injury (something that I actually witnessed), I knew how much it would mean for her to get back onto the field. Therefore, her blog the other day inspired me to keep working out, especially since I still have the ankle injury from hell causing problems.

Another inspiration came from an Olympic Athlete that I actually know through mutual friends and my cousin since she graduated three years ahead of me in school. I've followed Kara's career pretty closely since she started throwing javelin in college because she was the "A" standard that a lot of us tried to live up to in athletics (or maybe just me, who knows). 

She hurt her knee at Trials this summer when she was qualifying for the Olympics but soldiered on and made it to London. It wasn't until after her qualifying throw at London (due to the injury, she didn't get past the first round), that she admitted she had torn her ACL. After finding that out, I was in awe of her strength to not just make it to the Olympics with this injury, but also to put in a pretty good throw. 

She was already motivating to me, especially after learning about the injury, but after reading her blog, I felt stupid for even having a thought of no motivation at the gym.

My pretend goal for the gym (just because it makes me feel better to have something to look towards that is workout related) is to get into at least half the shape I was in back when I was active in sports. 

My real goal is to strengthen my ankle so it stops whining and my back so I can avoid the pain that comes with my unfused vertebra moving around when I'm misusing my body. After tweaking my back at Young Riders and getting a small taste of that pain (something that I know too well from two bad episodes, one that ruined my barrel season a few years ago), I'm eager to avoid it.

Due to the fact that this blog wouldn't be complete without a horse mention, my not-so-secret "secret" goal is to get in good enough shape that when I seriously start riding again, I can be back at the "high school level" that I was at six years ago. I have some plans on changing disciplines in the near future so being in shape will definitely help with that.

Who knew my competitive nature and a bike challenge would push me in a way that I haven't been able to push myself in a long time? Definitely not me. Hopefully it's something that I can keep rolling as we enter Fall and the Holiday season.