Dirt, Sweat, and Craziness!

Work at the stables is a blast, but it's also the most work I've done for any job since I ran with the ambulance company a few years back.

Being the receptionist/stable hand means I get to spend all day alternating between shitty customers and shitty stalls. Believe it or not, I prefer the stalls sometimes. I also get to try to keep the lobby clean, which is a never ending work in progress. We run a day camp for kids 7-14 (mostly girls attend) and kids are always running in to use the bathroom right after I cleaned it, or right after I swept the floor. For a while, it appeared dirt was appearing out of thin air behind me while I swept, then I realized my own boots were leaving a muddy trail behind as I went.

The highlight of the day was teaching the kids to play "telephone" while the other adults set up the scavenger hunt. I'm rather bemused anyone is trusting me with children.

Two girls came in to use the bathroom before lunch, but ended up sitting on the couch petting the cat instead. One girl asked, "How many lives does Cody have?"
"Nine." I replied
"So you could throw him off a cliff and if he landed in water he'd still have..." the other little girl asked.
"Well, they only lose a life if they die. If he landed in water, he might live, but if he landed on rocks, he'd probably die. Then he'd have eight lives left."
"So Cody would still be alive?"
"Yep. And if the next day he went out in the stable and got trampled by a horse, he'd still have seven lives left."
"And then we could throw him off a cliff again?"
"Or run him over with a car."
"Or get him eaten by Coal (the dog)."
"Exactly! Only I don't know how many lives Cody's already gone through, so don't go throwing him off a cliff just to see if he lives, because he might be on his last life, and if he is, he'd die."
At this I got mixed looks of awe and terror, which is why when Jen came in to get the girls, she didn't overhear what we'd been talking about.

So far, the only downfalls of working at the stables are after work I don't want to do anything until I shower for half an hour, and when I get home and blow my nose, it comes out black from sweeping up all the dirt and dust in the lobby all day. Neither of which are a huge inconvenience.

All in all I love it, and have a lot of fun with the people I work with, and the kids who come in for horse camp.