Susanna J. Sturgis   Martha's Vineyard writer and editor
writer editor born-again horse girl

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One Quest, Two Quest

May 13, 2007

It's 9 a.m. Not only have I had my tea and fed the dog, not only is my (slow-cooking) oatmeal nearly ready; I have also polished my tall boots and ironed a shirt. I only wear tall boots for showing, and the only article of clothing in my wardrobe that needs ironing is my show shirt. If you surmise from this that Allie and I are going to a show, you're right. We haven't done this in two years.

A month ago I woke up determined to graduate from training level. (Watching lower-level dressage tests has been compared to watching grass grow or paint dry. Listening to someone explain lower-level dressage tests is even worse. Suffice it to say that training level is near the bottom of the ladder.) I stopped showing partly because I was focusing more on writing, not to mention making enough money to pay off my two 2004 eye surgeries, and partly because equestrian-wise I was stuck. I was stuck, and I didn't have enough money for regular, or even irregular, lessons. The big reason we've made progress in the last couple of years is that my barnmate knows her way around a dressage arena. When I get stuck, she gets frustrated. "Try this," she says, and watches till we get it. Voilà, little by little we make progress. Once we have reliable lengthenings (don't ask), we'll be ready for first level. Time to get training level out of the way. My ride times are 2:05 and 3:20. Wish me luck.

Around the same time that I had the vision fantasy hallucination idea that this was the year I was going to get confirmed at training level, I heard about the public radio talent quest. They're looking for the next generation of public radio hosts. I'm actually from the last generation of public radio hosts, but they missed me the first time around and besides I was doing other stuff. However, I've been told enough times that I have a good radio voice, I like performing, and with a little tweaking many of my blogs would work well as radio commentaries. To enter the quest, you have to make and upload a two-minute original recording. I've spent the last few days mastering a digital voice recorder, a small gadget with tiny buttons and long instructions. My script is based on a blog from early February, the one about people who need software to tell them to get up from their desks. Correction: my script was based on that blog. It read well, but no matter how many words I cut, my run-throughs hovered at the maximum two-minute mark, sometimes a couple of seconds over, sometimes a couple of seconds under. Last night I junked that one and started working on the pseudo-news report I blogged in March 2006 about hitting 100 at FreeCell. It's also reads well, and it's never longer than 1 minute 40 seconds. It has to be submitted by 11:59.59 tomorrow night -- that's just before midnight. All I have to figure out before then is how to convert a .wav file to an .mp3, but I think I've got a way to do it.

You may well be wondering what I'm not doing while I'm running around preparing for horse shows and talent questions. The answer is "Lots!" Worry not: it'll all get done eventually. Whatever needs to get done, will get done.

 

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