Happy Birthday, Patricia!
Rowen’s Mom doesn’t like anyone making a big deal about her
birthday anymore; though she hasn’t gone so far as to try and stay twenty-nine
like Grandma Eleanor does. She agreed to
a small dinner party at the Inn tonight, but
the only other concession she allowed was agreeing to a kid-free night for her
and Owen. We won’t add any comments on
what they’re doing while Rowen’s here with me and Patrick is staying with the
Faulkners.
I don’t really want to write about the continuing tween saga
that continues to intrude too often into my otherwise blissfully happy life;
but there was more of that again today at school – and especially during dinner
and game night at the Inn. The birthday fun this morning and at
dinnertime offset the weird a little, but we hadn’t gotten a lot of snow
yesterday; what hadn’t been ‘used up’ for our snowmen and games already had
passed its optimal play potential; and Rowen and I were more interested in
staying warm today than in eking out what little bit of snow entertainment was
still left to be found outdoors.
That was the main reason we were in the music room at
lunchtime, and Michael did not impress Lisa by making it three lunchtimes in a
row where he spent more time with us – with me – than with her. It was probably just me, but it sure felt
like there was a cold draft coming my way from the general direction of Lisa’s
desk all afternoon. Rowen and I were
skipping our work night, but we did our homework at the computer store; helped
her parents for a while so they’d be able to close up early; and then went home
to get ready for the birthday dinner and pick up an overnight bag for Rowen on
our way through to my house.
The weird on my day kicked up a few notches when Aunt Leanne
finally got her hands on me for the first time after hearing about my
adventures yesterday. Unfortunately,
that didn’t happen until we met up with her and Uncle Adam at the Inn, and she
provided way too much entertainment for everyone close enough to catch any of
her comments and jokes for the rest of the evening – with most of the laughs
coming at my expense. I had expected it
to happen eventually, but Aunt Leanne was definitely on a roll tonight, and though
I’m glad that she helped everyone have so much fun; my life would have been a
lot easier if I’d stayed home all night instead.
I’m sure that you’d like to hear those jokes too, but I’d
really rather not go into all of the details here. There were jokes about having boys fall for
me; knocking them off their feet; unorthodox ways of getting them to take their
clothes off; and the benefits of a photographic memory to generalize a few of
the joke sub-categories. Use your
imagination from there.
I did play along, as always, and even thought that a lot of
her comments and jokes were funny; but I already had enough tween problems to
deal with, and none of this was helping me – or Michael – with Lisa and her
friends. Just finding out that I’d been
at the Inn for dinner had given Lisa enough of a reason to be upset with me;
and I’m sure that she eventually got the full recap of Aunt Leanne’s antics by
the end of the evening.
Maybe I should take a sick day tomorrow. It’s really too bad that some of my teachers
know that I can self-heal pretty much anything, and that taking a sick day
would be completely bogus.
Though Michael and I unwillingly provided a lot of the
dinner entertainment, some of us actually remembered that we were supposed to
be celebrating Patricia’s birthday; though she quite happily encouraged Aunt
Leanne’s efforts – probably because it kept everyone from concentrating on
roasting and toasting her instead. She
wasn’t able to completely escape from that, and Rowen and I especially had fun
hearing some old stories about her Mom – except for a couple of them that tied
in just a bit too closely for comfort to the jokes about Michael and me.
Rowen and I were at a kids’ table for dinner, and we took
care of Ethan and Ehlana while the parents were busy. By the time our food orders were delivered,
I’d hoped that being out of the way would encourage Aunt Leanne to give me a
break, but she sat right behind me; and the ongoing jokes and teasing was loud
enough for everyone in our little group to hear. Miranda helped her out nearly every time she
stopped by for a visit or to make sure that we had everything we needed, but
Michael didn’t even come out of the kitchen until just before the games started
after getting teased by Aunt Leanne during his one and only foray into the
dining room. Having Lisa there for the
game competition didn’t keep Aunt Leanne from teasing Michael whenever she
could, and he looked like he wanted to escape just as much as I did.
I seriously need to move on from all of that.
Rowen’s Mom had fun at dinner; we did the cake and ice cream
dessert; she opened her gifts; and then she and Owen went home to get started
on their kid-free night. Those of us
staying for game night had nearly a half hour before that started, and though I
declined Aunt Leanne’s and Miranda’s generous offer to let me help Michael in
the kitchen; Rowen and I did help get the games set up while the dining room
was being cleared and cleaned.
Since I really do want to skip writing any more about my
tween problems, I don’t have much else to write about for the actual game
night; other than that I spent most of it trying to dodge Aunt Leanne, and stay
away from Michael and Lisa as much as possible.
That wasn’t always an option, and Rowen and I had to compete against them
for two games tonight. Winning both of
those matches didn’t help me, but the worst was having Aunt Leanne ask Michael
if he was losing his shirt to me when we were playing cards.
So much for moving along – I concede defeat.
No, that doesn’t mean I’m going to cross over just because
Aunt Leanne wants me to do that. It
means that I’m going to skip the rest of the daily recap; shut down my
computer; and try very, very hard not to dream of bunnies.
Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging
out!
