Things I've Learned #48 and #49: James is Ninja and This is the Year of Dead Pets

As you can see by the title, I learned two very important things yesterday. Origin of the first:
I had a riding clinic yesterday. James' worst nightmare: pole day! Trot poles, poles next to jumps, poles on jumps, poles in front of jumps, poles behind jumps, James hate them all. Kate holds with the theory that somebody beat him WITH a pole. Well, to say it was an interesting hour would be putting it lightly. Fortunately my butt only hit the dirt once. Once too many, but still only once. This clinic was a jumping clinic, the point of it being to get your horse to see striding up to a jump. Hence, the poles. You see, if you put a pole one stride before a jump and one stride after a jump, it forces the horse to really think about where they put their feet. Which helps them not to knock down rails. Jamesey was NOT pleased by this. He has this ninja ability to twist in midair over a jump, thus avoiding the pole on the other side. As cool and ninja as that is, it's bad, and he must not do this. All and all, I got out of it alive, and in one piece. James, I think, just barely scraped by with his sanity. And his manhood. What a sissy

Origin of the second:
My cat died yesterday. Technically she wasn't my cat anymore, because she's been living with my aunt for the past several years, but I still think of her as my cat. This cat, Snickers was her name, was the sweetest. thing. ever. That's why mom and I got her in the first place, because we wanted a cuddly kitty, not an aloof one. Well, my dad is allergic, so we ended up having to get rid of her, but my aunt loves cats, and one of hers had just died, so she got Snickers. I think they've had her about three or four years now. Well, a couple weeks ago she got really sick, and Aunt Ang took her to the vet, but they couldn't figure out what was wrong. They gave her an antibiotic, and she seemed to be getting better. A few days ago she stopped eating, and my aunt took her back to the vet. They determined it was stomach cancer, and that there was nothing they could do. So they had to put her down last night.
Had to put down my horse this spring, and now my cat.
I hate vets.
It's not even the vet. It's that damned pink shot. Somehow it being pink makes it worse.

And through it all, I continue to write. STILL not done with this silly novel! Getting there, though! I'm close, so so so close! The end is a stones throw away, and I have until tomorrow at midnight to get there! Ack!

Words: 61,096. Pages: 168. Sex scenes: 10? A dozen? I don't even know anymore... Ending: Unplanned.