Happy 29th birthday, Uncle Adam!
The sun was out all day; the temperature warmed up; and Aunt
Leanne got to have a day off from her morning sickness. She had some fun teasing Mom about timing her
morning sickness around her husband’s birthday better than Mom did while
pregnant with the twins for Dad’s birthday; and I have a feeling that it will
be one of those jokes that will live on to be dragged out and dusted off now
and then for years to come. Mom might
have wished that she’d felt better that day, but she and I also got to find out
how much our new family and friends really loved us when they all pitched in to
help; so I wouldn’t have changed anything about how everything had turned
out. There’s also that whole
after-midnight, it’s officially your birthday surprise that Mom started Dad’s
birthday out with that morning; though I don’t really want to think about that
any more than I want to think about the kinds of birthday surprises along those
lines that Aunt Leanne likely had – or is still having – with Uncle Adam for
his special day.
My day started out with Tai Chi and a normal school morning
breakfast. I was running ahead of
schedule, and met up with Rowen at her house.
We were involved in a minor snowball fight that Patrick and a few other
guys started while walking to the school, but managed to do that without having
serious casualties or tween drama. I
can’t say the same for the rest of the day.
There were several Grade Seven student casualties for both of our tests
today, and though I wasn’t the only one to get the bonus questions, I got
razzed by some of the guys for being the first to provide those answers during
the test post-mortems.
Lisa was particularly unhappy to again be reminded that she
isn’t getting the same kind of grades that Michael is; but that I am. She was even more annoyed with me after
checking up on us during our lunchtime music practice – and not liking what she
saw. Our afternoon test was in
Computers, and by then, I was getting fired up about Uncle Adam’s impending
birthday dinner; so I even managed to finish my test before Rowen did today –
early enough that I had my one hundred and four percent mark back before the
end of class. That little news flash set
off another round of razzing; a pair of grins from Rowen and Michael; and a
frosty glare from Lisa that turned to ice when she noticed her boyfriend
grinning at me. I’ll guess that if Lisa
knew that I could just as easily ace a forth or fifth-year college-level exam
in just about any subject, she would not feel any better about me.
Moving along, while the rest of the afternoon was a bit
frosty for me, it was nice to have warmer weather for the walk home. Rowen and I were still doing our normal
Thursday work night, though I only worked in the office until it was time to
get ready for our dinner at the Inn; and to help Mom with Ethan and Ehlana so
that she – and they – could get ready too.
Dad did a quick change and freshened up after getting home, and then we
drove over to the Inn; meeting Uncle Adam,
Aunt Leanne, and the rest of the dinner party guests there. Ethan, Ehlana, and I had Rowen, Patrick,
Naomi, Michael, and Rebecca sitting with us, and yes, Michael sat next to me;
again thanks to Ethan.
Miranda and Jacob had been invited too, and though they each
took some time to sit down and eat with us; they both mostly worked too. There were other guests juggling work
too. Uncle Adam’s Mom was there for the
entire party, but his Dad only caught the tail end of it after closing the
Emporium for the night. Ditto that for
Rowen’s Dad; Naomi’s Mom; both Hannah and Nathan Draper; and a few others. We started out with two ‘adult’ tables, and
had three crowded groups by the time the dining room was being set up for game
night.
We – the kids – were mostly on our own except for a little
time with Uncle Adam when he was opening his gifts; and doing the birthday cake
and song. March Break and Easter were
our top two dinner chat topics with a side trip down snowboard memory lane that
Aunt Leanne instigated during one of her visits to our table that were mostly
so she could tease me; crack a joke or two; and continue her matchmaking
campaign. Listening to Aunt Leanne
tonight, you’d never know that Rowen and Tim were out there on the slopes too,
and that Michael and I were never snowboarding alone; but Rowen seemed to think
that Aunt Leanne’s version of events didn’t need facts to get in the way of the
entertainment, and she reminded me that Michael and I had, in fact, been
snowboarding together while conveniently skipping the fact that she and Tim had
been right in front of us the entire time.
Ethan, Ehlana, and Naomi did way too much giggling over the whole thing;
and Rebecca was just as amused as Rowen was.
I should be grateful that Aunt Leanne only had time for
cameo visits with us while she was mostly busy with hosting the party; helping
Uncle Adam have a happy birthday; and when she was trying her best to help him
win the senior championship once the gaming started. There were jokes about Uncle Adam getting
lucky on his birthday when they actually managed to with that championship, and
I’ll pretend that I don’t know what Aunt Leanne meant by her comments about
just how lucky Uncle Adam had been so far today – and still might be again
before the night was over.
Getting back on track here, while Aunt Leanne was busy, that
didn’t keep her from getting in a few zingers and nudges during the gaming part
of our evening, and since Lisa and Nora were there with Michael and Tim; her
efforts were not universally appreciated.
I was already in the tweeird zone for being in close proximity to
Michael when Lisa got to the Inn while we both
looked like we were having too much fun.
Since we really had been having fun, even with Aunt Leanne’s
contributions; I couldn’t really bring myself to being particularly worried
about what Lisa or anyone else thought about it.
Ethan and Ehlana were having fun too; and their
entertainment tonight included a dozen or more visits to see Michael while he
was playing the different games with Lisa.
Sometimes they’d want to sit on his lap or get picked up and carried
around; while other times they just seemed to need random hugs – or kisses, in
Ehlana’s case. Lisa directed some
suspicious looks at me, but I didn’t need to fake my reaction to her unspoken
accusation, and if my brother and sister have some ulterior motive; they aren’t
sharing that information with me. There
weren’t any signs that I saw to suggest that Aunt Leanne had recruited them as
part of her master matchmaking plan, and it’s not as if Michael was the only
person in the room being hit by random acts of hugging from my adorable brother
and sister.
Rowen and I managed a top-ten finish in the junior
championship, and though that was good for us, it still earned me some more
razzing for playing better with Michael; and also because we finished ahead of
him and Lisa – yet one more reason for her to be annoyed with me. This week, Aunt Leanne volunteered me – and
Mom and Dad – to help with the post-gaming clean-up because she couldn’t stay
for reasons we won’t discuss. Rowen
didn’t stay, and neither did Tim, Nora, or any of the other tweens and teens
except Michael and Lisa. Can you say awkward?
Ditto that for the goodnight hugs and kisses. It’s not like I hugged or kissed Michael, but
I’m apparently not supposed to share hugs and kisses with his parents, brother,
sister, or Stephanie when his girlfriend is in the room with us. It had been a fun night, but by then, I was
glad to climb into the back seat of the van and head for home. We did the bedtime routine with Ethan and
Ehlana right away, and then I came up to my room to get changed; in bed with
Mandy; and started on my studying. I put
my wards up so that I could kick things into a higher gear tonight while having
a chat with Mandy. I should probably
stop talking to her about the tweeird moments in my life, but her advice is
usually entertaining while also being totally inappropriate for human
application. I’m sure that Mom and Dad
would have a problem if I tried taking her advice.
Wow, I don’t want to be thinking along those lines when I
fall asleep. Let’s talk about anything
else!
I worked on our Magi Project archive tonight, and that was
mostly because I’d been noodling some ideas about things I’d sensed while we
were snowboarding. It’s too bad that we
can’t do scans of Magi and latent people while doing high-intensity
sports. The results would likely be very
interesting. Rowen wasn’t the only tween
or teen to really shine on Saturday, and though my little memory-tutorial
helped some; most of her success was all her own doing and abilities. Memory-transfers could be a nice teaching
tool sometimes, but I’m really interested in studying why there wasn’t an
obvious pattern to which members of our group excelled at skiing or
snowboarding while others didn’t. When
I’m saying ‘excelled’, I mean it to be relative to each person’s natural
ability. I haven’t really had any
opportunity to study Magi or Latents in an environment where intangibles like
fear play a significant role in performance.
So far, my noodling has only come up with some ideas of which directions
we could take for that kind of a study, and if more snowboarding will be
involved; I’m definitely signing up to go on those trips.
The archive work was followed by my language lessons, and
I’ve finished all of my nightly computer checks too, so once I finish this
journal entry; that’ll be it for tonight.
It’s only going on twelve-thirty, and the bad news is that I’m still too
wound up to sleep. Maybe I’ll try
playing my keyboard for a while and see if that helps. Whatever happens, at least we only have one
more school day to go until the weekend.
We don’t have anything other than the work day on Saturday planned, but
a quiet weekend in would be a nice break before we gear up for the March Break
and Easter holidays.
There we go again with bunnies cropping up in my thoughts at
bedtime. I’m going to give that music
practice a chance to help me sleep now, so...
...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor;
logging out!
