Happy 13th birthday, Brock!
Since we’re going to be away next weekend, it was an all-day
chores day here at the Proctor family homestead. Spending some quality time gardening was high
on the to-do list; and I was drafted to spend several hours getting up close
and personal with nature while helping Mom with that work. I loved getting to have that time to talk
with Mom while we worked, but I’m not a big fan of all-natural fertilizer – if
you know what I mean. The teen boys
helping Dad with loading the truck this morning were less polite about what
they called the bags of fertilizer, and by the time Mom and I were finished
this morning; I could totally relate to why they referred to that part of their
job with such disdain. I had to scrub
for a half-hour this afternoon when I was getting ready for the party before I
felt – and smelled – clean again.
There’s probably a simple explanation for why that’s never bothered me
before, but I’m sure that Rowen and the rest of Brock’s party guests
appreciated the fact that I do care now.
That shower didn’t happen until this afternoon. I scrubbed up as best I could when we stopped
for lunch, but we had that meal out on the back porch so that we didn’t have to
stop for full clean-ups, and then Mom and Dad kept me busy until about
three-thirty. The rest of the jobs that
I was involved with included the van and truck wash; some work on the dock; window
washing; and driveway, sidewalks, and paths cleaning. I was definitely ready for that long, hot
shower by the time I was set free to get ready for the party.
Rowen mostly got ready for the party on her own, but came
over in time for a little bonus hairstyling action when she brought her
overnight bag here for our post-party sleepover plans. Brock’s party was only starting about a
half-hour before they were going to have dinner, so nearly all of his ‘kid’
guests got there in groups during the first fifteen minutes. Michael walked there with Rowan and me, and
though that got some attention from our friends, I was actually glad that he
had some time to get staring at me out of his system; and Rowen had pretty much
gotten the grins and suppressed giggles out of her system by then too – at
least until we got back home again after the party.
Brock’s party wasn’t really all that much different than
Gil’s had been last weekend; but Rowen and I both had more fun tonight. His parents went with a barbeque dinner that
included burgers, hot dogs, and chicken along with the usual salad, veggie, and
snack sides. While we ate indoors, it
was nice enough to spend some time outside after dinner; and Rowen and I were
part of the group that hung out in the back yard while some of the guys were
playing video games. There were some
games going on in the back yard too, and included tossing a Frisbee around and
some new tween drama. Rowen and I were
the only girls to join in for the Frisbee action, and though we were no
directly involved in any of the tween drama tonight; we did quietly – and
hopefully, secretly – enjoy the entertainment.
Lisa was still avoiding me, which was a good thing; but she
found out tonight that I might not be the girl she should be worried about
chasing after her ex-boyfriend. I
should’ve written ‘girls’, since there were two girls giving Michael a lot of
their attention – plus Nora; if you include her own interest in Michael’s romantic
future. The first girl to start hanging
out with Michael was one of Brock’s visiting cousins, and she introduced
herself to him about a minute after figuring out that he hadn’t come to the
party with either Rowen or me. She kept
close to him until we all started filling plates for dinner, and then sat next
to him for the hour and a half or so that we were in the dining room.
Sometimes it actually is fun having the photographic memory,
and catching every little detail of what’s going on around me. Brock’s cousin – Bristol – is very pretty, self-assured, and
seemed to be quite experienced at the art of flirting with boys. She also had parental supervision, and I had
to work hard not to laugh every time I saw a ‘that’s my girl’ look from her Mom
that reminded me a lot of Aunt Leanne; or the worried frowns from her father as
he kept a very close eye on Michael.
I’m sure that Aunt Leanne will not have a ‘that’s my girl’
look on her face when she gets the party recap out of me tomorrow, but I was
grateful to have Bristol there to keep the tween drama away from me; and no,
Rowen, I really was not even a little bit jealous. Somebody else was, though, and Michael found
himself in the uncomfortable middle when Vanessa decided that she needed to
hang around with him, Tim, and Nora.
That put him deep into the tweeird zone – especially since Bristol was more than
willing to take on the home-town challenger – confident that Vanessa was no
match for her. I wasn’t jealous, but I
did feel sorry for Michael.
I was actually surprised to see Vanessa doing that, since
she does have a guy that she’s ‘sort-of’ been dating for a while now. He wasn’t at the party, but I’ll take a wild
guess that he won’t be impressed to find out that she got into a flirting
contest over Michael.
The only time I spent with Michael while we were at the
party was when he and Tim escaped from the tweeird zone for a while and played
Frisbee too. That is part of the reason
why Rowen and I had so much fun, but Michael probably made things worse for
himself for the rest of the evening by showing off his natural athletic talent
and seriously impressing Bristol. I thought that Rowen and I did pretty well
too, but for some reason; nobody noticed.
Okay, Rowen – Michael and Tim noticed. Are you happy now?
Since Rowen’s teasing me as I write this, I’ll take a moment
to mention that she was particularly entertained by the party-time tween drama
involving ‘Tommy’ and his girlfriend. All
was not as cozy with them as usual, and ‘Tommy’ was actually fairly annoyed
tonight. This is the first time we’ve
been to a party or dance that they were at where they weren’t making out at all
– or for half the night like usual. I’m
sure that was mostly because she was busy most of the night helping one of her
girlfriends, and that was also the reason why he was unhappy with her – not
because she was helping a friend; but what she was helping her with.
After staying outside until nearly dark, Brock’s party
guests either picked watching a movie in the living room or hanging out with
the video gamers. I’ll freely admit that
I didn’t pick watching the movie for Rowen and me because the action flick the
guys had decided to watch was so good I didn’t want to miss it. I was there with my drink and little bowl of
popcorn for the tweeird zone show.
Michael had Bristol
and Vanessa sitting on each side of him on one of the sofas; with Nora and Tim
next to Vanessa. Maybe I shouldn’t have
found that so entertaining, but I did, and from the rueful grins Michael
directed my way anytime he looked at me; I’m sure he knew exactly how much fun
I was having with the whole scene.
There are probably some guys who wouldn’t have a problem
with two girls wanting to get up close and personal with them at the same time,
but Michael practically jumped every time Bristol
or Vanessa made contact with him. He
tried to ignore every hint or not-so-subtle invitation to get closer to each of
the girls, but playing hard to get just seemed to make the contest more
interesting for the girls. While Rowen
and I were amused, I can tell you that Lisa was not. I’m not sure what the appropriate separation
time is supposed to be before moving on from a tween relationship; but it
apparently isn’t two and a half weeks – at least from Lisa’s perspective. I’m not sure whether she even noticed that
Michael didn’t do anything to encourage Bristol
or Vanessa. Lisa’s mad was mostly
directed at Vanessa, and though she wasn’t happy about Bristol either; I guess
Brock’s cousin at least gets cut a little slack for being a visitor; and
probably not knowing that he’d so recently broken her heart.
Rowen thinks that Vanessa is hoping that now that Michael’s
actually had a girlfriend that he won’t be as dense as he was the first time
they’d ‘dated’.
I have no idea what Vanessa was thinking about Michael’s
reactions to her and Bristol tonight, but I can tell you that he was ready to
escape from them the moment the credits started to roll at the end of the movie. There was going to be another movie after
they had a long enough intermission for a round of washroom breaks, but Rowen
and I were again heading home then instead of staying for the double-feature. What happened while we were saying goodbye to
Brock and our friends, and thanking his parents, has kept Rowen entertained
ever since.
First of all, Rowen, those jokes about Michael hanging out
with other girls all night, but coming home with me are getting old fast. He did not ‘come home’ with me – he walked
home with us as far as his own house.
You know he was just taking the opportunity our exit gave him to escape
the tweeird zone.
Yes, I did give him a goodnight hug, but you didn’t seem to
have a problem with any of the hugs I shared when we were leaving the party;
and you could have hugged Michael too, but were probably too busy thinking up
all of these zingers to have time for that.
If you’ll be serious for a moment, I can tell you that he really needed
that hug by then.
That’s your idea of getting serious for a moment? Alright, maybe Michael did seriously need a
hug from me specifically, but if you’re trying to use that as a good reason for
why I should cross over, that doesn’t even remotely offset all of the examples
we had tonight for why I shouldn’t. I
can’t even imagine acting like Bristol
or Vanessa were at the party; or ever playing those kinds of games at all.
Moving along won’t really be an option, since Rowen will
likely keep the jokes coming until she falls asleep, but let’s get on with the
rest of the recap.
After getting home – or after the hug with Michael, as Rowen
just added – we had a little visit with Mom and Dad in the living room before
coming up to my room and getting ready for bed.
While we hadn’t wanted to stay at Brock’s party to watch another action
flick, we weren’t going straight to bed either; and moved into the lounge with
pillows, blankets, snacks, drinks, and our computers. Rowen picked out a chick flick that just
happened to be about a guy; his closest, female, friend; and the ‘other’ girls
who wanted to date him. I’m sure that
was just a coincidence – not!
Our girl chat hasn’t all been about Michael, though Rowen is
having a lot of fun teasing me about all of that. She’s wanted to talk about ‘Tommy’ too, and though
she feels a bit guilty about it; she can’t help but feel a little happy that
all is not perfect with him and his girlfriend.
Finding out that she isn’t right for him would be a fairly important
step along the way to discovering that Rowen is the perfect girl for him.
While Rowen has been playing, teasing me, and not very
subtly trying to convince me to cross over; I’ve also been doing my usual
nightly computing and some random surfing.
There isn’t much news to report from around the family. Violet wasn’t getting together with Dillon
this weekend, but did go out with some girlfriends for a movie and pizza
night. Sometimes Rowen and I wish we
could do things like that too, but we’d never permanently trade the advantages
of big city life for what we have here at home – even if that does mean we
don’t have fast food or pizzerias; and can’t see the latest movies when they
first come out in theaters very often.
I guess there isn’t much else to report for today. Rowen and I aren’t ready to call it a night
yet, but I’m going to wrap this up; put my computer away; and just relax and
watch the rest of the show. We don’t
have anything specific planned for our play afternoon tomorrow because the
weather may not cooperate with any outdoor fun; but I’d really like to go for a
canoe ride if we can. We’ll see what
happens.
Anyway, that’s it for tonight, so...
...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor;
logging out!
