Happy 10th birthday, Patrick!
After helping Rowen and her parents with Patrick’s birthday
party tonight, I’m not sure what’s scarier – crossing over or a gang of nine
and ten-year old boys in full weird mode.
The gang of boys probably gets the slight edge today, but since there
was more tween drama for me to deal with at school today; it’s a close
call. I do have to wonder if the all-day
rain, and the humidity that came with it, had anything to do with why the weird
and tweeird levels were running so high.
My morning started out normally with Tai Chi and a standard
work and school day breakfast. I went
over to Rowen’s house early so that I could wish Patrick a happy birthday, and
we could give him at least one ‘cool’ present to help get his big day off to a
good start. We’d ordered him an
outdoor-size R-C helicopter, and if the hugs and smiles were any indication;
I’d say our gift choice was a hit – though I’m also sure he’d never admit to voluntarily
giving us those hugs to his buddies or anywhere else in public. With all of the rain, he wasn’t able to take
it out for a spin before we needed to get to school, but he did take it out
onto the back porch; get it to hover; and move it around a little before
putting it away in his room. Rowen’s
parents went to work early so they could drop us off at school on the way there,
and I pretty much immediately entered the tweeird zone within minutes of
walking into the school.
The reason for getting a rare ride to school is irrelevant
when you’re basically dry and comfortable, and the girls who want to be mad at
you aren’t. I was really tempted to
point out that they could have stayed dry too if they weren’t too cool to wear
rain gear; but managing to control that little urge didn’t keep me from sliding
into deeper tween trouble for the rest of the day. Maybe it really was the weather affecting
everyone, because I’ve generally been fired up all day despite the weirdness,
and from my perspective, nothing happened to justify having anyone mad at me
over anything.
The test and project marks we all got back today were the
same as always for me, but I fell further into the doghouse with Lisa every
time Michael, Rowen, and I were announced as the only three recipients of one
hundred percent scores. With everyone
staying indoors at lunchtime because of the rain, we weren’t alone in the music
room today, and the extra musicians included Lisa and her two best
friends. You’d think from their reaction
to seeing Michael and I practicing that we’d spent the whole time making out
instead of playing music and having fun.
Please don’t take that mental picture anywhere it wasn’t
meant to go – I am not crossing over!
Getting back to the school recap, not even a mid-afternoon
appearance of her daily anonymous gifts was able to turn Lisa’s mood around,
and by the time we were set free after last class; I was surprised that it
wasn’t snowing around me instead of raining.
Rowen and I definitely didn’t hang around and wait to hear any more of
the nasties that had been directed my way; and headed for my house first so I
could pack an overnight bag and have a little visit with Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana
before moving on to Rowen’s place for the rest of the night. I wonder if Lisa and her friends would still
have said some of the things they did today if they knew that I was able to hear
pretty much everything they said whenever I was in the same room or area – even
when I’m not paying any attention to them at all. Today was definitely full of examples for why
having some of my abilities is sometimes not very nice at all.
The transition to birthday party helper mode put a welcome
end to the tweeird for the day, and while Patrick and his buddies tested the
limits of our patience over and over again tonight, Rowen and I managed to have
quite a bit of fun too – especially when we were helping and hanging out with
her parents. The party was already
starting by the time Rowen and I got there.
As normal, most of the ‘country kids’ had come home with Patrick
straight from school; and they were already playing video games in the living
room when we joined Patricia in the kitchen and were put to work on getting
everything ready for Patrick’s birthday dinner for twenty-two.
While we mostly tried to stay out of the way of Patrick and
his buddies, Rowen and I did need to make occasional forays into the living
room to deliver snacks and drinks. Bowls
full of munchies don’t stand a chance against a pack of boys, and being
anywhere near that action was like watching a scene from just about any B-grade
monster-swarm or pack movie. That was
bad enough, but Patrick and Scott in particular needed to impress their friends
by razzing us and dragging out their full arsenal of pranks and jokes – and
their pals were more than happy to help them out whenever possible.
There was a reprieve from that during dinner; mostly because
Rowen’s parents had invited some family to the party too, and the boys had to
tone it down a bit while Patrick’s grandparents and cousins were here. Rowen and I didn’t really get much of a break
from the work during dinner, since we helped Patricia with running back and
forth between the dining room and kitchen with more food or drinks one way and
empty dishes the other. The snacks
didn’t appear to do anything to diminish the appetites of any of the boys, and
it was nearly as scary watching them demolish nearly every scrap of food and
still have no trouble demolishing two Olde Bakery cakes and mounds of ice
cream.
While his new helicopter was still one of his favorite gifts
of the day, the new mountain bike that Patricia and Owen game him tonight was
Patrick’s top birthday gift of the year.
I’m sure that our new bikes had a lot to do with why he wanted to switch
from his old BMX bike to a full-suspension mountain bike like ours, but his new
bike was enough different, and guy-cool enough to make sure that he didn’t have
to worry about getting razzed about it by his buddies. If the admiring looks and comments are any
indication, there’s a good chance that he won’t be the only guy making that
switch this year. The rain didn’t really
stop at all, but Patrick still took his new bike out for a spin after dinner
during a little break when it was just sprinkling lightly. He still couldn’t take his new helicopter out
even into the lighter rain, but he did do another back porch demonstration for
his buddies before they returned to their video gaming competition in the
living room.
Rowen had never needed or wanted a separate play room, but
while we worked with her parents in the kitchen after dinner; they were
seriously considering doing a third floor game room like Uncle Adam and Aunt
Leanne have at their house for Patrick to hang out in with his friends. I liked Rowen’s suggestion for putting that
game room in their storage barn instead, but while her parents thought that was
funny; they weren’t interested in the major expense that would be involved in
turning the old hayloft area of the old barn into a year-round, livable
space. Whether they do eventually
convert one of the guest bedrooms or not, after tonight; Rowen is seriously
considering soundproofing her own room.
Once the kitchen was cleaned up, Owen needed to go back to
the computer store. They weren’t open
tonight, but he was again helping some of their customers with their tax
software issues. Rowen and I had a
little free time then to hide in her room; do our homework; and have a little
music practice. We didn’t completely
escape from getting bugged while we were doing that, since Patrick, Scott, and
a few of their buddies made a couple of special visits to us when it wasn’t
their turn to play video games just to keep themselves entertained.
Sometimes their antics were funny, and the rest of the time,
we just tried to deal with them and remember that little brothers only have one
birthday a year. Patricia timed the
bedtime snack to coincide with Owen’s return home, and then we all worked
together to get through that, and attempt to get ten boys off to bed when they
were all on sugar and snack overload and in the mood to keep the party
going. Getting them split up into
separate rooms didn’t really even help all that much – they just went into
stealth mode and coordinated their actions through iPods or computer messages. That’s what Rowen’s parents get for raising
their kids in a full-immersion computer store environment. The pranks and gags from then on have been
quieter, but all of the guys wanted to take their turns trying to scare us, spy
on us, or play their little practical jokes; so Rowen and I dealt with that
until her mother put her foot down about three-quarters of an hour ago and
ended their fun for the night.
I haven’t been able to do any of my usual bedtime studying
tonight for obvious reasons, but I have been able to do the rest of my nightly
computer checks and deal with a couple of work-related email while Rowen and I
have been having a little bedtime girl chat and she’s been surfing for YouTube
videos on ‘my annoying little brother’ rants.
We’re just about ready to call it a night – it’s going to be crazy
around here in the morning; and we’re on the breakfast for fourteen work
crew. I may get up even earlier than
usual just so I can hopefully avoid any bathroom pranks when I grab a shower
after Tai Chi; since I’m sure that the boys will use their favorite
creepy-crawlies on us again in the morning if the get the chance to do
that. Rowen and I are both doing a work
make-up day tomorrow, but after today’s action; we’re both going to be ready
for a quiet night or two if we can swing it – especially since we’ll have Gil’s
birthday party to deal with on Friday.
Suddenly, I’m feeling the need to not dream of soft, fluffy
bunnies.
Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging
out!
