Hooray for you, Mari Sasano.

What a sweet teen friendship movie. Boys are so sweet sometimes. The very nicest ones make the best friends, don’t they? I mean, once you get over the wanting to get with each other part, which for my male friends is… ew! No way! Gross!

It’s kind of unfair that teenage boys get movies like this, and we get Mean Girls. Are girls only mean to one another? Maybe. Why is it so hard for girls to have safe, intimate friendships? Is it because we are conditioned to work together, but only until we have secured a sexual partner? Is it a competitiveness thing? Huh? What?

I do find myself pulling punches with female acquaintances. I’m not as candid and I try to be nicer with women. It’s good, yes? Sisterhood, yes? Well, not completely. I am a little less honest and a little more distant, and therefore it is harder to have the kind of frienship that the Superbad boys have. I used to think that it was harder to be friends with women for whatever reason, but I recognize that I am part of the problem.

I have been trying to remedy this. But I do treasure my female pals because they are precious. I love you… (ahem) man.

Ohmygod, I’ve been wanting to see them for YEARS. Since I was a CHILD.

I love horses, OK. Ever since I was little, I always wanted to ride. It was pony rides, any time, all the time. When I was 13 or 14, I took a beginner riding lesson at the Whitemud Equine Centre. Then my friend in gymnastics invited us (Pauline too– we’re exactly the same in this regard) to her mom’s acreage. Turns out her mom’s a kickass riding teacher, and she let us do barn chores in exchange for a two-fer deal on riding lessons, or something like that. My poor (literally!) parents. It was really hard for them, all the driving and paying for stuff. Eventually, we had to give it up.

So it’s always a thrill to be around horses. It makes me happy and sad at the same time. Seeing the Lipizzaners is like seeing movie stars, though. I was a big fan of Marguerite Henry books (of Misty of Chincoteague fame) and she had one about the big white horses. And I got to see them, live at Rexall!

This show isn’t directly affiliated with the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, but many of their horses come from the Piber Stud farm where the SRS horses are bred (you can see the “P” brand on them!). And they do all the things that the Viennese horses do: the lovely dressage routines set to music, the impressive airs above the ground! Even Paul gasped at the fella when he did the capriole.

And they are so, so, so beautiful.

I doubt I’ll ever go back to riding as a hobby, but there’s a big part of me that will always miss horses.