There's hoof prints in my chocolate

I washed a zebra last Saturday.

Seriously.

I scrubbed him down from mane to tail and back again. Zinty the zebra is rehabbing from a broken his pelvis, so he is a bit calmer than a regular zebra. He lives at a horse rescue that I started volunteering for. My first day was last Saturday, and I love it so far.This was my big news from the last blog!

I've always wanted to work with horses, specifically rescues, ever since I saw a thoroughbred get put down on a track because he broke his leg. Actually, I've always been a little crazy about horses. I'm not sure when the infatuation started, or why. My family has never owned horses and I wasn't really raised around them. But when I was little, I would stare out the window of the car and picture myself riding a horse along the side of the road.

So when the opportunity came for me to finally do this thing that I've always wanted, I jumped at it. From now on, every Saturday, I will give up 4-8 hrs of my day to groom, feed, clean and walk horses, zebras, mini horses, donkeys and zorses. A zorse is what you get when you breed a zebra and a horse (of course). It will be tough, but I can tell it will be worth it.

It's already helping me cope with work crap. There was a long time where I was consumed with my job. I would think about it at night and stress about it on the weekends, but not so much anymore. This blog helped a bit, in the sense that it gave me an outlet, but with the horses it's something different.

They've given me a new life outside of work. I've always had family and friends, my boyfriend, softball, painting... but nothing was really fulfilling. Until now. I'm not going to get all emotional about it, I mean I've only been there once but I can definitely tell that there's something special there. Something that's given me a new outlook on my life and what I want it to be.

I've kind of realized that my life is like an empty box (except for the chocolates). I can put whatever I want into my life, but if I only put one thing in... then that's all there is. I want to fill my life up with everything that makes me happy. Instead of being the only thing, now my job is one of many things. It doesn't seem as consuming as it used to be. Granted I have to work on that 'time management' thingy, but I think I will figure it out.

For example; It's 10:30pm on a Friday and I am blogging. There is also a pile of laundry sitting next to me, waiting to be folded.... and I just did the dishes.

Believe it or not, this is a good thing.

If I have to 'schedule' laundry, then I will have to schedule time to work on my portfolio. Which means I will have to get it done, because I will have no other time allotted in which to do it.

I guess only time will tell if my theory works, but I think so far so good.... I finally snapped a picture of the sign that I drew up a while back: