Misha Collins

Misha Collins. This time last year, I wouldn’t have even blinked at the sound of his name. He was nobody. But now? Today? He’s my hero. There’s really no other way to put it. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have felt this need to be a bett

er person. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be planning to save money for charity next year. If it wasn’t for him, I’d have never found my team and done GISHWHES and found my second family. He’s changed the way I think about marriage, about having children, about charities, about people, about helping others, about confidence, about fame, about acting and family and expressing yourself and… I could go on.

Misha Collins is a name I will remember - and a name I want everyone else to remember - until the world ends.

Current Projects

So I've been juggling quite a bit lately (and doing quite well so far if I do say so myself)
But to keep you informed, here is what I've been doing.

1. Finishing & editing Cinderella Wolf. (200+ pages of chaotic first draft)
2. Writing, editing and assembling a memoir about GISHWHES. (More on this later)
3. Read "Get Known Before the Book Deal" by Christina Katz
4. Read "Writing a Romance Novel for Dummies"
5. Begin new book under the working title "The Project"
6. Begin applying for scholarships

Also, let's not forget school and final exams (2 weeks left before the holidays) as well as Christmas presents and cards and I've actually been talking and making more new friends than I have ever had before so its really chaotic and my head hurts and I just want to sleep.

Also, I'm taking the ACT this saturday. I'm not nervous. No, really. I took a prep class for it where we took a practice test every two weeks so nothing about it scarees me anymore. I just don't want to dedicate 4+ hours of my Saturday morning to it.

Thingys coming up.
What is GISHWHES?
Book review on "Get Known Before the Book Deal"
College list
Update on the editing process of CW (which is killing me btw)

K yea so I'm going to go take a nap now before dinner. Bye!!
Cheers
Julia

Time to Evolve

Hello all!

I know, it has been forever and a day. I am awful. Throw tomatoes at me, I won't object!

Anyway, I've been away writing a novel, keeping my head above water in school, a sprinkle of horses, and reading reading reading reading reading. Oh yea, and I also participated in the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen. But more on that later!

Anyway, as I've been reading, I have been coming up with lots and lots of thoughts- thoughts I would love to share on here, but as this is a "horse blog", that hardly seems appropriate. So I keep the thoughts to myself and continue waiting for something to blog about.

Until I actually LOOK at the things I have posted lately and noticed they have absolutely nothing to do with Sharlie and Casper, nor my Parelli Journey. At which point I have to think about this blog and how to keep it alive.

To be perfectly honest, I love this blog. I've managed to feed it and keep it breathing for over three years, something I'm pretty proud of. But back 3 years ago, it made sense to have a horse-only blog. My life revolved around horses.

Now, however, I am multi-dimensional. I have many interests. Writing, horses, reading, and many other things! So why should I limit this blog to just horses, especially when that isn't enough to sustain it?

So I've come to a decision. I will be working from now until Christmas to slowly re-organize and redesign this blog so that it can accept all corners of my life now, not just Sharlie and Casper.

Of course, I will still post about them. But now I will be able to write about more things! :)

Also, spread word to friends and family. I do love followers (a bad habit, sorry) and love feedback! And the comment section is rather...empty. :(

Anyway! YAY I UPDATED!!
Toodles!
Julia

Date A Girl That Writes

Date a girl who writes.

Date a girl who may never wear completely clean clothes, because of coffee stains and ink spills. She’ll have many problems with her closet space, and her laptop is never boring because there are so many words, so many worlds that she’s cluttered amidst the space. Tabs open filled with obscure and popular music. Interesting factoids about Catherine the Great, and the immortality of jellyfish. Laugh it off when she tells you that she forgot to clean her room, that her clothes are lost among the binders so it’ll take her longer to get ready, that her shoes hidden under the mountain of broken Bic pens and the refurbished laptop that she’s saved for ever since she was twelve. 

Kiss her under the lamppost, when it’s raining. Tell her your definition of love.

Find a girl who writes. You’ll know that she has a sense of humor, a sense of empathy and kindness, and that she will dream up worlds, universes for you. She’s the one with the faintest of shadows underneath her eyelids, the one who smells of coffee and Coca-cola and jasmine green tea. You see that girl hunched over a notebook. That’s the writer. With her fingers occasionally smudged with charcoal, with ink that will travel onto your hands when you interlock your fingers with her’s. She will never stop, churning out adventures, of traitors and heroes. Darkness and light. Fear and love. That’s the writer. She can never resist filling a blank page with words, whatever the color of the page is.

She’s the girl reading while waiting for her coffee and tea. She’s the quiet girl with her music turned up loud (or impossibly quiet), separating the two of you by an ocean of crescendos and decrescendos as she’s thinking of the perfect words. If you take a peek at her cup, the tea or coffee’s already cold. She’s already forgotten it.

Use a pick-up line with her if she doesn’t look to busy.

If she raises her head, offer to buy her another cup of coffee. Or of tea. She’ll repay you with stories. If she closes her laptop, give her your critique of Tolstoy, and your best theories of Hannibal and the Crossing. Tell her your characters, your dreams, and ask if she gotten through her first novel.

It is hard to date a girl who writes. But be patient with her. Give her books for her birthday, pretty notebooks for Christmas and for anniversaries, moleskins and bookmarks and many, many books. Give her the gift of words, for writers are talkative people, and they are verbose in their thanks. Let her know that you’re behind her every step of the way, for the lines between fiction and reality are fluid.

She’ll give you a chance.

Don’t lie to her. She’ll understand the syntax behind your words. She’ll be disappointed by your lies, but a girl who writes will understand. She’ll understand that sometimes even the greatest heroes fail, and that happy endings take time, both in fiction and reality. She’s realistic. A girl who writes isn’t impatient; she will understand your flaws. She will cherish them, because a girl who writes will understand plot. She’ll understand that endings happen for better or for worst.

A girl who writes will not expect perfection from you. Her narratives are rich, her characters are multifaceted because of interesting flaws. She’ll understand that a good book does not have perfect characters; villains and tragic flaws are the salt of books. She’ll understand trouble, because it spices up her story. No author wants an invincible hero; the girl who writes will understand that you are only human.

Be her compatriot, be her darling, her love, her dream, her world.

If you find a girl who writes, keep her close. If you find her at two AM, typing furiously, the neon gaze of the light illuminating her furrowed forehead, place a blanket gently on her so that she does not catch a chill. Make her a pot of tea, and sit with her. You may lose her to her world for a few moments, but she will come back to you, brimming with treasure. You will believe in her every single time, the two of you illuminated only by the computer screen, but invincible in the darkness.

She is your Shahrazad. When you are afraid of the dark, she will guide you, her words turning into lanterns, turning into lights and stars and candles that will guide you through your darkest times. She’ll be the one to save you.

She’ll whisk you away on a hot air balloon, and you will be smitten with her. She’s mischievous, frisky, yet she’s quiet and when she has to kill off a lovely character, when she cries, hold her and tell her that it will be alright. 

You will propose to her. Maybe on a boat in the ocean, maybe in a little cottage in the Appalachian Mountains. Maybe in New York City. Maybe Chicago. Baltimore. Maybe outside her publisher’s office. Because she’s radiant, wherever she goes. Maybe even outside of a cinema where the two of you kiss in the rain. She’ll say that it is overused and clichéd, but the glint in her eyes will tell you that she appreciates it all the same.

You will smile hard as she talks a mile a second, and your heart will skip a beat when she holds your hand and she will write stories of your lives together. She’ll hold you close and whisper secrets into your ears. She’s lovely, remember that. She’s self made and she’s brilliant. Her names for the children might be terrible, but you’ll be okay with that. A girl who writes will tell your children fantastical stories.

Because that is the best part about a girl who writes. She has imagination and she has courage, and it will be enough. She’ll save you in the oceans of her dreams, and she’ll be your catharsis and your 11:11. She’ll be your firebird and she’ll be your knight, and she’ll become your world, in the curve of her smile, in the hazel of her eye the half-dimple on her face, the words that are pouring out of her, a torrent, a wave, a crescendo - so many sensations that you will be left breathless by a girl who writes.

Maybe she’s not the best at grammar, but that is okay.

Date a girl who writes because you deserve it. She’s witty, she’s empathetic, enigmatic at times and she’s lovely. She’s got the most colorful life. She may be living in NYC or she may be living in a small cottage. Date a girl who writes because a girl who writes reads.

A girl who writes will understand reality. She’ll be infuriating at times, and maybe sometimes you will hate her. Sometimes she will hate you too. But a girl who writes understands human nature, and she will understand that you are weak. She will not leave on the Midnight Train the first moment that things go sour. She will understand that real life isn’t like a story, because while she works in stories, she lives in reality. 

Date a girl who writes. 

Because there is nothing better then a girl who writes.

(This does not belong to me)

Stranger in the Stables (Mini Horror Story)

“Stranger in the Stables” by Julia Debski

The fireplace, once cold and desolate, now alight and awake, warming up its two companions of the evening, Elizabeth and Peter, and all was calm and quiet till Peter stood from the carpet, walked about before finding himself at the window before calling over his wife so they could peer out into the shadowy night together to what appeared to be a horse and rider approaching.

The next day, when swinging the barn door open, after a long night of unrest, Elizabeth and Peter were not sure what they expected, but were not quite surprised, judging by the stench, that in stall 11 was an anonymous girl, blonde hair muddied and stained, and her bed of hay the color of strawberry punch, sleeping in the corner, forever.

Southern hospitality wasn’t what it used to be.

Author's Note: This was assignment for Creative Writing, which was to write a short story in 3 sentences. 2 were to be long, and one- the final one- short and clever, as if to give the story an oddness about it. In the spirit of Halloween, I wrote mine as a horror story. Its not very good but I thought I would share as you wait for the Colleen Kelly Blogpost coming up.

I Am...(Myself) Poem

I Am... (Myself)

I am creative and overemotional

I wonder about matters of the heart

I hear the chatter of voices in my head

I see dozens of worlds on the tip of my pen

I want to be loved

I am creative and overemotional

I pretend to be so strong

I feel that magic exists

I touched my horses’s lives

I worry I’ll forever be forgotten

I cry when I am helpless

I am creative and overemotional

I understand that humans are dark

I say that some fiction is real

I dream of being always peaceful

I try to be loving

I hope to be loved

I am creative and overemotional

Cinderella Wolf

http://www.wattpad.com/story/775336-cinderella-wolf-watty-awards-2012

My story Cinderella Wolf is available online.

It has over 25,000 reads. 

I would suggest you take a look! :)

Making Waves

Found this while floating around Facebook. Something to think about?

Workshop with Emily Larramore: Day 4 (Thursday, June 7th)

We had alotted about an hour and a bit per horse. After a run to lovely Starbucks and being wished a sparkling day by the man working the drive-thru, we started with Casper.

After yesterday's amazing break throughs, I wanted to continue on what we already had, which was cantering bareback and some more Zone 5 driving. Also, I wanted to try and fix our Sharing and Taking Territory and for Casper to give me two eyes and ears more.

We started out with a bucket of feed. While he didn't circle nearly as much as he did yesterday. However eventually we realized that he was more distracted by the feed than he should be. So we removed the feed. Simple as!

We did however share some very special moments when he came to meet me when I was kneeling by the bucket of grain. The photo above will be my new profile picture for Facebook in a few days. 

He was definitley much less distracted with the feed gone and we were able to be more connected. I began some more driving like yesterday. We had a bit more trouble with it than yesterday, but ended on a nice point.

Doesn't he look super handsome and relaxed?? This was the 'crazy uncontrollable horse' two years later... :)

I was still very sore (still am. Still will be.) but I still hopped on Casper. I was excited to canter again! And I literally HOPPED on him. I jumped on him from the ground! That is a first right there! Whoop whoop!

 Cantering bareback on Casper was a very refreshing change because it was easy and natural for me.

Even Emily said that my seat looked great. Also, I wasn't afraid (for the most part) even though it felt like he was going fast (or it felt like it).

There were some troubles with me keeping a loose rein. I would sometimes pull on the inside rein. I think partly to keep my balance when I got a little unstable going into or out of the canter, and also I felt a bit nervous about the panels again.

Casper's turn was up and we ended it on cantering on a nice loose rein!

Sharlie's turn was pretty simple. We did some liberty and refined our Stick-to-Me with stops and backing up.

Online we played with sideways towards, which she was phenomal at! Yesterday we tried it a couple of times at Liberty and she either backed up or did Sideways away so I wanted to correct it before it became a habit.

With the remaining time we tried to get her to lie down again. Unfortunatley she didn't go down this time, but that is alright. It isn't worth losing our relationship over. Who knows? Maybe when I try again next time she will do it! Or maybe she will do it in 3 months. Point is, its just a trick. A really awesome trick that I would love to be able to do, but still just a trick. 

Something I want to pat myself on the back for was when Emily used some ropes on Sharlie's leg to make it easier for both Emily's back and arms and for Sharlie. Emily held Sharlie's leg up tucked neatly against her Zone 3 and held it there the entire time. Despite Sharlie not lying down, she still tried to figure out what we wanted and she didn't freak out about having her leg 'tied'. (Emily was holding it the entire time)

So in fact, it wasn't really playing with lying down. It was playing with EXTREME Porcupine Game! I think Emily said Level 4...? I was very proud about that. VERY PROUD! Sometimes these things happen and you didn't really work on them, or you haven't worked on them in a while and suddenly your horse blows your mind. I love those moments.

Also I forgot to mention that last night I mounted Sharlie from the neck bareback!! How awesome is that? For forever I have been unable to mount either Sharlie or Casper from the ground. (Sad, I know.)

Now I can do both! How fabulous! Mom and I counted up how many hours of play we did with the horses, and we calculated about 18-19 hours! Pretty impressive if you ask me!

Tomorrow at 5:30 am I am flying to Charleston, South Carolina via Charlotte. I am flying by myself for the first time ever. I've flown all my life but it is still scary doing it by yourself. Wish me luck!!

Robin Harris's lesson post will be up by this weekend!

Cheers,
Julia

Workshop with Emily Larramore: Day 3 (Wednesday, June 6th)

Day 3 

Stolen from Emily

Wednesday started out well with Starbucks and Nutella bagels. The sun was shining and all was well in the world- or our little nook of it.

This morning was Casper's morning.

We started out once again with Watering Hole rituals but it was a lot more challenging than on Monday. He had gotten into a pattern of circling a lot before finally coming in to Say Hello to me, but once I tried to take him anywhere, he left again. Part of the reason he would stay out for such long periods of time was due to my energy, which was high and driving him onwards even though we wanted him to slow down and stop.

This went on for a while, with several attempts at interrupting the pattern. I even sat down for most of it, all in attempt to bring my energy down.

I think the good news is though is that I was aware that I was doing it. I was aware that my energy was high, I could feel it. I just couldn't bring it down. That is an improvement from last summer where I couldn't even get it up at all. (I think. Emily is probably going to chew me out for getting it wrong. jkk. :P)

Finally we were able to move onto the next Ritual: Leading from Behind. In Zone 4/5, I was able to drive Casper at a walk and trot, change directions, and do a figure 8. It was like dancing- a beginner's class for Broadway dancing. 

Mind blowing stuff. I mean MIND BLOWING!! That is Level 4 Liberty right there!! 

After that I haltered Casper again (I learned that I was doing it wrong. I wasn't haltering with a hug.) Emily played with him a bit while I went to go get the helmet and clip-on reins. 

When I had returned, she was playing the Circling game and found a pretty major hole in our game- he would not disengage. At all! At one point his feet were moving and working harder than his mind. At one point he even slipped and fell down! But because of that it got him thinking a bit more, so that he could prevent it happening again.

That was added to our homework list. No circling, then 10 laps of just walk straight. For a long time. LONG TIME.

Then I hopped on and we did some turning and changing of directions, using the steps before the reins very carefully. Once we were both comfortable with each other at a walk, I asked him to trot and something very interesting happened. He began to 'amble'. You know, a special gait- like a gaited horse. And you know what? It was SO smooth. I mean...amazingly smooth.

I always wondered if he had some Hackney Pony in him- he looks kind of like them- but Emily says that his gait looks more like a Paso Fino's gait!! Hmmm... how interesting. 

That was the first time he had done it for longer than a couple moments, and also he hadn't done it while I was riding before. I really enjoyed it so that is definitley something we are going to be trying to do more of in the future. 

Then Emily suggested something that I never would have thought of to be able to do this summer- even though I mentioned it as a hope for this summer last year- and that was to canter Casper bareback.

This also meant being able to stay on as Casper went into a faster trot before transitioning into a canter. The first few tries didn't work. Each time he would get to the brink, just there, JUST there, but I would usually pull him to a stop because I had lost my seat.

Then, by some miracle, we made it through that barrier and bam! 

We were cantering bareback for half way round the round pen. 

It was amazing. It was such a lovely smooth canter. I didn't even lose my seat at all. 

Just bloody amazing!!

After that we rewarded Casper with eating some lovely grain before returning to the field. So for a delicious morning:

- Zone 4/5 driving at liberty, at the walk and trot, changing direction and figure 8's!

- Cantering bareback!!

That photo above really applies!! ^^

I am so sore.

This afternoon was Sharlie's day! I was able to lead her to the round pen with just the Savvy String which was so cool! She only tried to eat 3 times, when usually its 5, 6, 7 times in the same walk.

She was already interested in me so that she followed me around a bit, without having to play Taking Territory (or at least the sending part) 

Emily encouraged me to do my own thing. So I tried doing some Zone 4/5 driving. I was able to make it to Zone 4 before Sharlie got unconfident. We also did a lot of draw- so Sharlie will almost always trot to me now when I draw her. 

So the next step is cantering at the draw! That is going to take a lot of work, and maybe a slightly larger area. Perhaps the pasture- on a down hill...on a really good day. :)

Emily played with Sharlie at liberty some more and worked on maintaining direction. 

Then we moved online.

Online we played some more with Sharlie lying down. We got SO close. She got down on her knees. Hopefully tomorrow she will go the rest of the way.

Something I wanted to learn was sideways towards me, but wasn't nessecarily set on working on it today. Emily said that it would be alright to do it with her. At first it seemed to confuse Sharlie a lot, and then she just... got it. At first it was one little leg cross over...then a bigger one. Then it was two steps, three steps... even away from the fence!

Ending on a good note on the ground, we moved onto riding. We actually stayed in the round pen this time but I wasn't as nervous as yesterday. Emily said that it was because she gave me other things to worry about- that included Carrot Stick riding and faster/slower gaits. I think it was also partly thanks to yesterday and sort of taking a small hammer and beginning to chip away at the brick wall barrier. And yesterday made a dent!

We mostly worked on staying on the dirt path that is along the edge of the round pen- pretty close to the fence, but not too close. (good way to desensitive me) and a million transitions. That was walk, trot, stop, back up, etc..., but also slow walk-fast walk-slow trot-fast trot.

When I asked Sharles to go into a faster trot, she got a really nasty look on her fact and would toss her head and balk a bit, so we had to work on one-rein stopping her each time she did it. Crazy thing was I didn't feel unsafe.

Sometimes I wonder if even though she was doing that, and I didn't feel unsafe or the need to get off, whether I am overconfident...they say listen to your instincts but what if your instincts are overshadowed by your joy at riding again?

I am not sure that even applies to me. I plan to talk to Emily about it tomorrow morning, because it may not even apply to me. It may not even be REAL!

We ended on a really nice note- some nice smooth trotting in the round pen before I dismounted and we played at liberty with Emily taking photos. 

Aren't they just GORGEOUS?? I hope Casper will make pretty faces tomorrow for her too! I'm not photogenic at all either so kudos to her for making me look decent. And yes, that really is the color of my hair! Fantastic, isn't it??

Also, I forgot to mention that Emily said that Sharlie needs her teeth floated because she is having trouble eating. THAT is why it is good to have people who know more about horses than you do out sometimes- they notice that stuff. I bet you no one else at the stables would have noticed, or mentioned anything to me!

Also found out that Casper's halter is an Arabian size, not Pony. We need to buy him a pony size!

So today was our second and last full day. It was so much fun and we made a lot of progress.

 WE DID:

-Sideways towards, Online

- Sideways away, Liberty

- Zone 4 driving

- Trotting confidently in the round pen.

Beautiful Arabian. My chesnut angel.