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This week I drove to Vail, Arizona to attend Lippicon at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dancinghorse's place. Since I was only there for two nights and a day, I did not bring anything to be workshopped. But I did get to ride a horse!
The drive from LA to Vail (near Tucson) was a grueling 9 ½ hours, and I would not do it alone again. I had checked out from the library The Three Musketeers on CD, which I had not read unabridged. Now I know why it’s often abridged. There are endless details about court minutiae, it takes five chapters to get to the first duel, and I was surprised to hear that Dumas had not, as the unabridged version suggested, been paid by the word. I gave up after something like the fifty-ninth loving description of just how honest, forthright, handsome, stalwart, brave, fiery, skilled, and all-around awesome D’Artagnan was, I guess in case I’d missed it the first fifty-eight times it had been explained.
It was great to meetcoraa, dancinghorse, others (I think) not on LJ, and to meet up with sartorias, tcastleb (looking very much the cowgirl in a genuine Stetson), janni and lnhammer. I roomed with coraa, and ended up a bit sleep-deprived as we bonded over talk of the incestuous bestiality mpreg resulting from the rape of a king’s official foot-rest virgin in the Mabinogion, the essential elements of the Gothic, floods we have known, and our introduction to fandom and the terrible and terribly long hurt-comfort epics we devoured. Mine was "Oklahoma," in which Mulder is anorexic, vomits, has nigtmares, vomits, is angsty, vomits some more, is bulimic… well, you can see where that’s heading. Hers was written by some genius who realized that if Q became human, he would experience everything for the first time and so even a stubbed toe would produce epic amounts of pain requiring comfort.
The most amazing part of the trip was getting to ride a horse for the first time in 25 years! (I sort of rode when I was a kid. But only occasionally and I never had any formal lessons, unless you count “hang on.”) I got to ride Capria, a beautiful white Lippizzan mare. She was extremely patient and responsive, though I got the distinct impression at some points that she didn’t understand what I was trying to convey to her, and at others that she did understand but wasn’t going to do it unless I convinced her that I was actually serious about it. This time I did get an actual lesson from a professional riding teacher. I loved it even more than I thought I would, and regret that riding is a very expensive hobby that I am unlikely to get the opportunity to further pursue.
I was told that I have a “good seat.”I have heard that from boyfriends as well.
More tomorrow...
dancinghorse's place. Since I was only there for two nights and a day, I did not bring anything to be workshopped. But I did get to ride a horse! The drive from LA to Vail (near Tucson) was a grueling 9 ½ hours, and I would not do it alone again. I had checked out from the library The Three Musketeers on CD, which I had not read unabridged. Now I know why it’s often abridged. There are endless details about court minutiae, it takes five chapters to get to the first duel, and I was surprised to hear that Dumas had not, as the unabridged version suggested, been paid by the word. I gave up after something like the fifty-ninth loving description of just how honest, forthright, handsome, stalwart, brave, fiery, skilled, and all-around awesome D’Artagnan was, I guess in case I’d missed it the first fifty-eight times it had been explained.
It was great to meet
coraa, dancinghorse, others (I think) not on LJ, and to meet up with sartorias, tcastleb (looking very much the cowgirl in a genuine Stetson), janni and lnhammer. I roomed with coraa, and ended up a bit sleep-deprived as we bonded over talk of the incestuous bestiality mpreg resulting from the rape of a king’s official foot-rest virgin in the Mabinogion, the essential elements of the Gothic, floods we have known, and our introduction to fandom and the terrible and terribly long hurt-comfort epics we devoured. Mine was "Oklahoma," in which Mulder is anorexic, vomits, has nigtmares, vomits, is angsty, vomits some more, is bulimic… well, you can see where that’s heading. Hers was written by some genius who realized that if Q became human, he would experience everything for the first time and so even a stubbed toe would produce epic amounts of pain requiring comfort.The most amazing part of the trip was getting to ride a horse for the first time in 25 years! (I sort of rode when I was a kid. But only occasionally and I never had any formal lessons, unless you count “hang on.”) I got to ride Capria, a beautiful white Lippizzan mare. She was extremely patient and responsive, though I got the distinct impression at some points that she didn’t understand what I was trying to convey to her, and at others that she did understand but wasn’t going to do it unless I convinced her that I was actually serious about it. This time I did get an actual lesson from a professional riding teacher. I loved it even more than I thought I would, and regret that riding is a very expensive hobby that I am unlikely to get the opportunity to further pursue.
I was told that I have a “good seat.”
More tomorrow...
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