Food of my LIFE!

Growing up my family was always made happy by our stomachs!  With certain family holidays or habitual events the first thing that comes to mind is the food that will be there.  The only real event or weekly occurence my family had with food was always breakfast on Sunday.  Not so much now that my sister and I are young adults, but growing up it was a small tradition for my family to make breakfast on Sunday morning.  Not cereal or yogurt like every other busy day during the week but it was the day for us to relax as a family and look forward to doing together within all the chaos of the rest of the week. The first holiday I can think of with a food tradition is Easter.  Every year my mom's mom makes a pastry called Banbury Tarts.  To be completely honest I have no idea everything in them but they have almost a pie crust outside with sugar coating and stuffed with a warm raisin, dates and nuts filling. Its strange how a food item can only be limited to eating one day out of an entire calendar year but that tart is only made for Easter dessert like clock work!  Another food tradition my family has, like many others I'm assuming, is corned beef and cabbage on St.Patricks Day.  Granted my family does not have a bit of Irish in us my mother likes to experiment with a different recipe on how to make it every year.  Each year better than the last... or maybe just because I remember it the most vividly.  It shows how food in a way is a tradition because it brings people together.  It creates a common place (dining table) and joy we can all share together and look forward to taking part in that day of the year.  Even with the foods I'm not a fan of that are made every year (Minced Meat Pie at Thanksgiving... nothing beats Pumpkin :) ) I still expect it to be on the table waiting for me to avoid.  Eaten or not it wouldn't be the same without those wonderfully avoidable traditions my family has and shares together every year. 

"...is a community"

Horse riding is a community.  Horse riding for me takes place at a stable.  It consists of 50 stalls and horses, outdoor paddocks, a race track, and an indoor arena.  My horse riding community is in Monroe, WA.  We are a community for a few reasons, we all have a common interest, we show concern for one another and each others horses, routine meetings, and work together to keep the area together and in good shape.  Together we make the community thrive, because without us it wouldn't exist.  I think in a more open minded way all of these traits are appreciated/needed within a community.  Needing team work and acceptance between one another creates mutual respect toward each other.  Whether we see each person in the community weekly or one time every 2 months that respect is still there.  We know they are also helping keep our community a float in this economy and we need that in order to be there and have the acceptance we look for.  Not to mention we all love horses and whether their ours or not we still show concern for their well being and hope only the best and look forward to seeing not only the animals but the owners improvement in whatever they are tackling.  As for tensions between each other there isn't a lot of issues within my community.  We all show up at different times of day or different days of the week so there is not a lot of interaction between each other to create any unnecessary tension.  At times when there are long weekends or holidays it doesn't help the barn, as it can get very crowded in the small space.  But we always find ways to work around each other since we know each one of us wants as much time with their horse as possible. 
I fit into this community well because I share the same love.  I absolutely love horses.  They are my therapy after a long day at work and school.  Not only do I get to spend time with my own horse, my time at the barn (in my community) has given me great opportunities as well.  I'm now training young horses and learning from other horse trainers I've gotten the chance to work with.  All because someone else in my community recognized my talent.  That alone makes me happy to be apart of my community.  Being able to help out horse trainers and breeders, learn, be in absolute bliss (horse manure and all :) ) and make friends with the same interest I appreciate.  Being able to make our community thrive because all of our common passion for horses is why horse riding is my community. 

My identity seen through my purse.

If one day in all the hustle and bustle of life I lost my purse I would honestly feel extremely lost.  It’s in a way a life line for me. It has a lot of basic things I use daily.  I think my first thought would be that it would definitely not go unnoticed, some would call my purse a bag vs. a normal everyday purse. I think this lucky person to find it would probably think I'm much unorganized because of its size and amount of things inside.  On the contrary its size helps keep me organized more.  My explanation of having such a large purse (bag) is because I’m on the run a lot, so it helps me be able to not forget things running from work, to school, to the barn, and so on. 

           

            Venturing inside my purse you’d find many things such as a small organizer, chapstick, a camera, eye drops, Tylenol and a makeup compact.  I think if it wasn’t for the fact that everything is in a purse, it would be very obvious that I’m a female. I’m a very prepared person like I said I’m not at home often so I like having little “lifesavers” conveniently always with me.  Such as when you wake up and its just one of those days that your contacts never want to cooperate, I’ll always have eye drops to resort to or Tylenol if dealing with them gives me a headache.  The organizer to the untrained eye, or in other words anyone who doesn’t actually know me, looks like I’m very organized but if they take the time to open it up and look at the calendar they’d learn I’m an organized person want to be.  I always have good intentions for that calendar but the only thing I ever remember to put in it is days I have bills due.  No matter how cell phone savvy I am I still like to be able to write things down vs. into my cell phone.  The makeup and chapstick show that I’m a girl who likes to present her best.  Along with the parts that would make me appear a responsible young female like I would like to focus on there are also DVDs needing to be returned, along with a birthday card I’ve been needing to bring to my sister.  I put them in my purse as a daily reminder of things I need to do, though they are usually just lost in the vast size of my purse for a few days. 

            Then they would come to my wallet.  My wallet surprisingly like the rest of my purse identity is very tidy and organized.  Due to being unable to keep a large amount of things in it or it will not close, I only keep what I use frequently inside of it.  I have my driver’s license, car insurance and medical insurance cards, Nordstrom’s debit card, and bank debit card nicely lined up.  Then to the sides I have 1 credit card in case of emergencies, a few dollars in cash, a Starbucks card and stamps.  I think if someone just looked at my wallet I would appear a completely different person, someone who likes brand names I.E. Starbucks and Nordstrom’s. There’s so much my wallet doesn’t show about me at all.  Whoever found my purse or wallet would never know I’m a huge animal person, I love being outdoors and I love traveling.  I think when it comes to my wallet it doesn’t show who I am at all.  The Starbucks gift card even though it would appear part of my identity through someone else’s eyes, was given to me and I honestly would prefer a cheap coffee stand mocha any day over brand name coffee which makes you pay for that name on its cup.  I would say my purse is a better representation of myself as it shows my trying to be organized, chaotic side more, compared to my neat small wallet I don’t use nearly as much as my purse everyday. Using my purse everyday however I feel does make it part of my identity as it is part of me at this time in my life and shows what I need and resort to everyday as a 22 year old. 

My First Blog Post!

This is my very first blog! I hope it works!