EN blogger finalist Yvette Seger is back with more Tips for Eventers Living in Itty-Bitty Apartments in the City. Yvette will always be remembered for the famous Insane Walmart Ride, and we welcome her contributions to Eventing Nation.
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From Yvette:
Tips for Eventers Living in Itty-Bitty Apartments in the City: The Shop ‘Til You Drop Edition
Holiday shopping can be a contact sport – better wear your ASTM/SEI approved helmet and medical armband!
Hey there, Eventing Nation! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with your loved ones – both the two- and four-legged varieties!! I managed to consume enough calories over 48 hours with my parental units that I think I might have actually heard my Super Pony groan when I finally made my way back into the saddle this weekend…sorry bud!
Well, with Thanksgiving behind us, it’s time to focus on the really important things, like…renewing your USEA membership, making a wishlists on the SmartPak or Dover Saddlery websites to prevent your non-horsey relatives from sticking you with yet another random horse-y tchotchke, or snuggling up next to the fireplace (or in the case of my itty-bitty apartment, my laptop playing the yuletide log video) while catching up on some inspirational equestrian reads from the Pony Club bookstore (be sure to check out the new D and C Manuals of Horsemanship!) OK, who am I fooling? It’s more like the season of spazzing out at the office over end of the year deadlines, worrying that the horses are feeling neglected because I’m not able to ride every day due to lack of daylight and aforementioned insanity at the office (Newsflash: They don’t really miss me…they miss the treats), eating an excessive amount of baked goods, and shopping, lots of shopping.
While I do most of my holiday shopping online, basic biological, hygienic, and entertainment needs (you know, eating, bathing, and doing some cross-training in a shopping cart – the usual) make me a fairly regular patron of well-known discount stores. And since I’m all about using my time wisely (more time in the saddle = happy Yvette), I’m typically doing my “normal person” shopping on my way home from riding. No big deal, right?
WRONG.
While my city dwelling neighbors seem to get away with running errands/shopping in their workout clothes, non-horse people can’t seem to grasp that my boots and breeches are MY workout clothes. And seriously, when you compare me in my boots and breeches with what some other individuals are caught wearing at some establishments, I look downright normal. Which brings me to this week’s tip…
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Tip for Eventers Living in Itty-Bitty Apartments in the City #17:
I used to worry about stopping at the store after riding to pick up those weird horse people necessities, you know, the biggest container of Listerine available, mega-pack of baby wipes, jumbo bottle of Head & Shoulders, Murphy’s Oil Soap, hairnets, white yarn, WD-40 and toothpicks. Yeah, people did (and still do, actually) stare, make faces, point, and whisper to each other that I smelled, was wearing funny pants, and had white horse hair all over my shirt. But then I just remind myself that I’m in the checkout line at Wal-Mart, and the woman in front of me is wearing Pajama Jeans and has a Bump-It in her hair (or in the case of this lost footage from my now well-chronicled trip to Wally World, is sporting a hairstyle that is business in front, party in the back).
