Woody, Sky, Greta, and goats

Hello hello. I'm back from Richmond and immediately overwhelmed with piles of work as usual. I'd give you the whole extensive account from my Richmond trip but for the sake of time and not writing a ten million paragraph entry, I'm just going to tell you about my favorite day of spring break, which coincidentally occured in Richmond and just happened to be yesterday.

Yesterday I went to the Horse & Kitty Plantation (my friend Angie's farm) for a dinner party with a bunch of very cool adults with witty monikers and some mutual friends (my uncle and grandmother included). The decided theme of our meal was "pot roast" and we each had to bring a particular dish. My grandmother and I were in charge of the salad (which we whipped up with our magical culinary skills the night before). Anyway, there were various amazing and asundry things that were supposed to go down at this party - 1. Socializing (of course) 2. Wine drinking 3. Meeting about progress of novel Angie and I are writing, 4. For me to ride some of her horses. Well, the first three came true. The weather was absolutely horrible- snowing and wet and muddy. My grandmother and I followed my uncle out to the farm (it is way on the back roads of Powhatan) and brought my grandmother's dog Little Bit with us, who is quite a handful.

Once we got there, Angie let us go into the gated horse yard to meet her Arabian stallion Woody and her other horse, whose name I can't remember. I got to pet horses (fun) but because of the horrible weather I didn't get to ride any of them, which I was looking forward to because I have never ridden a horse before. After that we walked down the dirt road to her neighbor's house and got to see her two horses Greta and Sky as well as her two goats and numerous chickens. I had to hold Little Bit on the walk because she was shivering and acting very pathetic in the cold. But hey, I was frozen solid so I empathized. I had never been in such close proximity with goats before, and I got to feed them some peppermint goat treats while I got my shoes all nice and muddy. I learned to keep a very careful eye out for barnyard poo as well. Although it was so muddy I probably wouldn't have known if I had stepped in anything. All I needed though was a nice Stetson hat like Angie had to be a true rough and tough horsewoman.

The horses were a bit skiddish, well Sky was at least and poor Little Bit was scared of getting trampled by hooves. After trekking back from that farm we went into Angie's main farmhouse (which belongs to her sister and brother-in-law) and they built a really nice hot fire and I had a glass of wine. Then all the other dinner party guests started to show up. I only stuck to one glass of wine although most everyone else definitely had more than one. I'm not a huge fan of wine in general, although I do really like California Bogle white wine and some Spamante (sp?) that Kevin bought once. Anyway, we all made intellectual and entertaining conversation while sipping our wine before the fireplace in the beautifully decorated farm house. Then we ate dinner, which was really good. My uncle was in charge of dessert and brought this absolutely amazing Boston creme pie and french apple pie. I decided to op for the Boston creme pie, which was to die for.

After dinner we talked, drank ,and retired to Angie's apartment over the garage where the socializing continued. Keep in mind I am the youngest of all of these fabulous people by pretty much 20 years, but oddly enough, there wasn't any awkwardness at all. After talking a bit more, Angie, my uncle, and I got to business on the novel writing project. Around 11 my uncle and I left. It was so much fun. I made some new friends and contacts and actually got to go to the countryside and be with the horses, ten million cats, and see the stars at night - I miss being able to see the stars in the city!

Well, that was my farm/dinner party extravaganza - my absolute favorite day over spring break. I can't wait to get back there. I pray desperately that I find a job in the Richmond area so I can go over there more frequently! Sorry this entry is so poorly written. I'm in a hurry. :)