Busted

Hey sorry about the lack of postage, I've been a "busy lady" (that's what Howard calls Magdalena sometimes). Yesterday we had out co-worker stuff in the morning and it was uneventful. Micha invited me over for a movie/sleepover type thing and I said yesyesyes because she's been really great and I so needed some girl time. In the afternoon we baled hay at High Farm and it was really cool working with the big noisy baler and it reminded me of Hank and Sheryl and how bad-ass they are. We went back to Honey Bee to have "lady time" as Ben likes to call it, meaning we put the cows out in the yard and mucked out the byres, and then Justin took Ben and I back to High farm to load the bales onto the wagon and bring them to HB and then we unloaded them into the barn while Luis did the milking and then we finished up with the barn chores and it was time for supper but Ben and Luis and I all volunteered to help Justin with another load from High Farm, so we all piled illegally into the tractor and went back up and got another load. When we got to the barn we realized that six bales had fallen off, but luckily they weren't too far away. So then Justin Ben and Luis went in for supper and I fed White Bean (who is now in the birthing stall) and locked up the chickens. By the time I got back to Bracken it was 7:00 and I was half an hour late for supper...and starving. I apologized and explained that we had had a lot of work to do on the farm and the way Paule reacted I may as well have been taking a nap and overslept! It was so annoying! I barely managed to down two rice cakes when she said, "we're clearing now," and then all the food was taken away! So I worked my ass off and then got like, no food. It sucked. So then as I was putting the stuff away I told Paule that I had signed up to participate in a volleyball class (which I had, a week or so ago, and I forgot to tell her until then) and I told her that the first class was "tonight at 7:30...is that okay?" And in response I got "well I guess I don't have much of a choice now do I?" Okay yes, I should have told her before. But she was kinda rude. Anyway I was totally late already and I still had to brush Steph's teeth, so I packed my overnight bag and did her teeth and ran out the door. Another problem: the class meets in the village college. Look at the map. I practically ran there and I was still about half an hour late. But it was awesome! SO much fun, and I have no idea where all my energy came from. It was nice to be athletic! The coach was really nice and there were three people from outside the village in the class as well and we ran some drills and learned some skills and then played a game and it was great but also painful because when you're not used to having a volleyball smack into your forearms over and over it starts to hurt soooo bad.

So on my way up to Micha's (Old Botton Farm) I met this cat on the path, and he was big and fat and squishy and purring and I picked him up and started carrying him with me and he climbed up onto my shoulders and I walked at least 500 yards with a cat on my shoulders, which is like, one of my life goals.

We (Micha and I, not the cat and I) watched Calendar Girls, and if you haven't seen it...do so! It was so cute. Before we went upstairs Micha grabbed me a bag of rice cakes and some jam since I mentioned I hadn't eaten much supper.Then we had girly bonding time and then we went to sleep. She forgot to ask her houseparents if I could stay over, so I didn't go to breakfast. She brought me some tea (I was like a stowe-away or something) in the morning and I had another rice cake. I looked like a zombie and my stomach groweled non-stop, but I got through the morning in the food centre. At tea break I went to the coffee bar and told Maisa I was hungry because I missed breakfast and she snuck me some cheese and a banana.

On the farm in the afternoon we walked all the way to the fields past the village centre and harvested potatoes and it SUCKED. It was freezing cold and muddy and Luke was pissing me off and being his usual rude antagonizing self and my whole body was aching from baling the hay and walking in wellies all the time. Eventually we walked back to the farm and had lady time and then tea break and then Justin started teaching me how to milk. Basically it's really simple, but there ae like a million steps and you have to remember it all so he teaches it in phases. Phase one, which I learned today, involves going around wiping the teats and squirting some milk out to get it flowing and flush out any dirt or bacteria. So I finally milked a cow! Well I squirted out a few squirts...still. Woot.

Anyway, the main thing is that I was walking around the byred when suddenly my knee started clicking and slipping around in the kneecap and I was like, "whoaaa shit! Help, ouch, help." Justin felt it and said, "Um, knees shouldn't do that. That's not good." So I hobbled around giving White Beany her food (still no calf yet) and bedding to Half Pint and Full Pint and brushing the muck off the cows. By the time I came in the door at Bracken I was close to tears it hurt so badly. I went in the kitchen where Paule was putting groceries away. She asked how my afternoon was and I squeakd, "Well, I'm gonna need to go to the health centre tomorrow...and I'm gonna need a lift." I explained about my knee and she was very concerned and said she would set up a doctor's appointment because the health centre can't help with knee injuries. she gave me some Arnica ointment for the meantime. I was supposed to have gone to choir tonight, but there was no way I was walking to the JoA Hall. So we all watched Amelie instead. It really is the best movie ever. And watching it again I realized just how well Aimee and I (okay it wa definitely mostly Aimee and her artistic touch) replicated the feeling of Amelie's room in our dorm room.

So hopefully tomorrow I'll go to the doctor's. Because seriously...ow. But for now, time for sleep. Gotta make breakfast tomorrow.
'Night.