Question, what do Leo Tolstoy, William Faulkner, Stephen King, and Amy Tan all have in common?

They're all authors who have books on the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge! Every year I set a reading goal for number of books read, typically 100. This year I decided to be different and go for a specific set of books.

A few years ago I had attempted to start the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge but got distracted by life and quit. While thinking about what to set for this years challenge I decided to give the RGRC another go. I have located this list from Betty Vintage that I like the format of and plan to follow along and mark up the list as I go.

My goal for this year is to get through at least a third of the books on it. Ideally, I would like to take the books in order as found on the list. But, depending on availability at my library and other resources I may need to skip books and get back to them.

What's your reading goal for 2019?

Monday was absolutely gross, it was cold and rainy, and I had been out super late the night before at Manager's New Year's Eve party. Because of this, I spent the day cleaning my house, reorganizing my closet, and preparing my planner for the year. I did briefly leave to run to the barn, pay Cupid's board, and make sure she had her rain sheet on. Aside from this, it was a Netflix and snack type of day.

Tuesday I did my first run of 2018, a slow 3 miler through my neighborhood, without a watch to encourage myself to enjoy the run and not think about time. Currently, the Bluetooth on my phone is broken which means I have to plug my Garmin into my computer to sync it with Garmin Connect. Because of this, I've been extremely lazy about actually using my Garmin to track my runs because syncing the data is a bit of a pain.

Wednesday I dashed out of the barn after work. The temperature really plummeted and I may have panicked and bought Cupid a medium weight blanket. Thankfully I have Amazon Prime and was able to get same-day delivery. The blanket didn't arrive at my house until 8:00 so I had to go find her in her paddock in the dark. I'm lucky that Cupid is super nosey and wandered up to me to investigate what I was doing out in the dark. It was slightly creepy being at the barn in the dark, but it was also extremely peaceful just listening to the horses and seeing them relaxed.

Thursday I went back out to the barn after work, then headed home. I felt absolutely awful and just wanted to sleep.

Friday I made up for missing my runs earlier in the week and did a solid 45-minute training run. I went about 3.5 miles and felt really good after it. I thought about pushing the pace but because of the cold, I decided to take it slow.

Saturday I dashed out to the barn to hack Cupid and spend time with her. We worked through the intro dressage movements and on her simple changes through the center of the ring. One major item that we're having issues with is performing the changes on a diagonal as opposed to a straight line. After we finished our ride we ended up standing and talking to our trainer while she warmed up the kids. It amazes me that a year ago Cupid couldn't stand still but now she'll willingly stand for several minutes while I talk. My little pony is growing up!

After I got home from the barn I went for a quick run of 3 miles then came home to practice for orchestra. I ran my scales on both the flute and bari, then ran New World Symphony on the flute. It makes me so happy to finally play the entire New World Symphony, especially because it's one of my favorite pieces!

Sunday I accidentally overslept and ended up getting to the barn extremely late. By the time I got out there most of the usual Sunday crowd had finished and was heading home. Cupid and I just worked on our walk to trot transitions and trot to halt. She's gotten so much better at halting squarely when asked, so long as my cue is clear and consistent.

Later Sunday evening I had the first orchestra rehearsal of 2018. We ran the 1st and 4th movements of New World Symphony and received two new pieces for the summer concert. It's so nice to be back with the orchestra and finally get the chance to start putting the spring concert together. I'm super excited for this coming year with the orchestra, and can't wait to see if I get selected for any of the choir shows.

Total books completed this week: 3
Waistcoats & Weaponry by Gail Carriger, The Stone Girl by Alyssa B. Sheinmel, Red Heart Tattoo by Lurlene McDaniel.

It's hard to believe that we're at the end of the year already. It seems like just yesterday I was at Manager's New Year's Eve party wondering who would attend with me after Vegas moved. This past year has been full of so many changes, yet so many other things have stayed the same. In staying with the general theme (give me credit, I like to believe that this site has a direction. lol) here are the major items that happened to me in my running, riding, reading, and repeating!

Running
This year started slowly in terms of running. I did the bare minimum in mileage and ran races that I was a bit underprepared for. But I quickly turned it around and joined the Disney Springs Fit2Run Galloway Training Group which helped me jump start my running program into something more productive than it had been. While I'm only a casual member the group at the moment, because of the early darkness, I am looking forward to continuing my running journey with them. I was able to PR my 10k and place in my age group for a 5k because of them.

On the topic of my 10k PR at the Celebration Pancake Run 10k, it was a bit disappointing but it is a huge milestone for me. If you check out my races tab you'll see that my PRs haven't really changed in a few years. This is entirely my fault because I am the least consistent runner I know. I had hoped to PR in the 5k at the Jingle Jolly Jog, but my mental game wasn't there. I am so proud of my first age group award. I have lusted after them for, what feels like, ages so it is extremely exciting to finally have one on my wall! Ok, it's actually in a shoebox under my guest bed because I have yet to find a medal holder that I love, but that isn't the point!

Riding
Easily, the biggest thing that happened to my riding career, this year, was purchasing Cupid. I spent weeks last year debating about purchasing her, and I officially made the plunge on January 11th. I never imagined that my horse would be a little Welsh pony cross, who was green broke with a major attitude. But here I am, with my little Welshie who still has a major attitude, and is slightly better than green broke. Honestly, I wouldn't trade in our partnership for anything. Owning a green pony has taught me so much about riding, patience, and myself. For every step forward there are two steps back, but once we make a leap forward the landing is extremely rewarding.

In addition to purchasing Cue, I also uprooted her and moved to a new barn. Shortly after purchasing Cupid I realized that our current situation was not working out. The care wasn't what I wanted for my horse, I felt cheated out of my lesson package, and I was extremely nervous having my partner in a barn with minimal supervision. It took me until May to find a stable that met my standards. The major sign that this was the place for us was when we ran into our new trainer at a show before I had even told our old trainer we were leaving. The new trainer made several observations about Cupid and I, then commented that she would love to take us back to the basics because "she's a baby and there's no need to rush her". Hearing this proved to me that she would have Cupid's best interests at heart which is all I wanted in a boarding situation.

Moving Cupid was the best choice I could make for her. She's happy at our current barn, has put on much-needed weight, and is slowly becoming a solid partner for me. We still have a long way to go, and I miss jumping, but watching her move properly and understand what I'm asking has been worth everything we have been through.

Reading
According to GoodReads, I've read 112 books this year. My goal for the year was 100 so I am officially putting this in the win category for the year! A few of those books were the Saddle Club series because I started walking down memory lane and couldn't put the books down. What was really nice was that I'm able to get them from the Orange County Library Media Mall which means no awkwardly walking into the children section of the library or putting them on hold.

Two other series that I have really gotten into this year are the Finishing School series by Gail Carriger and the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. Hopefully I'll be able to finish the Finishing School series this weekend, so expect that review to come up in the near future!

Repeat
If you've been around for awhile you'll notice that I fashioned this blog after my running, riding, and reading life. So you might be questioning what this whole "repeat" business is. I decided the other day that I needed a header for my twitter account and my facebook page. The plan was to do a running, riding, and reading silhouette on a glitter background. While putting this together it dawned on me to do a repeat sign so the entire blog title was represented. I looked up repeat signs to get an idea and had an "I'm an idiot" moment. In music, there is a sign that informs the musician to repeat a section, this is called a repeat. Because music is such a big part of my life and I've openly discussed it on here it only made sense to take the Repeat part of my title and have it represent the music portion of my life.

I now present to you the newest "official" section of the blog. My Repeat section, or music discussion.

With that little intro out of the way, it's time to discuss my year in music!
In January I located a local orchestra that seemed like it would be at my skill level and was actively recruiting members, the Central Florida Community Orchestra. I signed up and attended my first rehearsal. It was terrifying and I almost walked away before entering the building, but I participated in that first rehearsal and loved it! The CFCArts #FluteNation welcomed me and has pushed me to want to become a better musician.

This year I participated in four different concerts with CFCArts; Jazz, Joel and John in March, American Roadtrip in June, Fiesta in November, and Once Upon a December in December. Once Upon a December was the first time, since college, where I've accompanied a choir. This pushed me to not only be aware of the rest of the orchestra but to also work on matching the choir without becoming the main focus.

Without the Orchestra, I don't think I would have found a group that feels like home or had the drive to pick up the saxophone again!

Overall, this is a quick review of my 2017. It was fun, it was great, but I can't wait to see what 2018 has in store for me!