We had a cool start to the day, but I went outside for Tai
Chi in Rowen’s back yard. Exercising on
my own isn’t as much fun as with Mom and Dad, but I really needed it this
morning once Patrick and Scott came to life and happily started bugging Rowen
and I right away.
I should also mention that the two houses behind the Emerson
and Carrington houses are really looking great now – which is a good thing;
because they’ll need to be ready for their new owners to move into them in less
than two months. They’re not really like
any other houses in town, but they also fit in next to two of the nicest old
estate homes too. Way to design those
houses, Uncle Blaine!
The next couple of hours were far from quite, thanks again
to Patrick and Scott; and Rowen and I were happy to be able to leave for church
a bit early so that we could walk there with Mom, Dad, Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne,
and the twins. I was under close
scrutiny at church and Sunday school, but Vanessa and Nora didn’t see anything
to get annoyed with me about – which seemed to irritate them. I don’t know what they expected, but Michael
was in the doghouse too; so I wasn’t alone – despite the fact that we weren’t
hanging out together this morning either.
Rowen and I barely even talked to Michael during Sunday school, and he
left immediately after church to get to the Inn
after the service went longer than usual.
Rowen came home with me after church, and we had Grandma and
Grandpa, and Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne over for lunch too. We were put in charge of keeping Ethan and
Ehlana entertained before lunch, and we were on the clean-up crew
afterward. That didn’t leave us much
time to get ready for our incoming study group; but we only needed a few
minutes to get some snacks put out in the lounge. Everyone except Michael came over for one
o’clock. He studied with us while on his
afternoon break; but that didn’t start until nearly two today.
Math was still the top study topic, but we worked on music
theory and history for our written exam; and some of us took turns practicing
for our playing tests too. The seating
arrangement was the same as on Thursday, and Michael sat with Tim, Nora, and
Vanessa while he was here except for while he and I practiced our playing tests
together. I thought that he did a fairly
decent job of friendly with Vanessa while dodging the not-so-subtle invitations
for much more, but that didn’t go over very well with Vanessa; and I wasn’t
surprised when she and Nora decided that they needed to leave when Michael was
getting ready to head back to the Inn. Tim went with them, and I’m sure that they
walked Michael to the Inn whether he wanted
them to do that or not.
Everyone else stayed until four-thirty or five; and then
Rowen and I cleaned up the lounge before going to play with Ethan and Ehlana
while the parents were busy getting dinner ready. Grandma and Grandpa, and Uncle Adam and Aunt
Leanne, had other dinner plans, but Mom and Dad invited the Emersons, Seagers,
and Drapers to do another barbeque pot luck – mostly so Ethan, Ehlana, and I
could all have some bonus play time with our best friends. Rowen and I had fun playing with the four
toddlers; and even Patrick managed to have fun with all of us without acting
too annoyingly goofy. Rowen should talk
to her parents about keeping Patrick and Scott separated more often!
The only comment I have about dinner is actually a note to
Mom and Dad: invite the owners of the
bakery over for meals more often! I’ll
rank their pot-luck contributions at least at a tie with the dishes that Jacob
and Miranda bring when they have dinner with us.
Dad had work to do in the office after dinner, and Mom had
parental help with the clean-up, so Rowen, Patrick, and I were sent off to the
park with Naomi, Aiden, and the twins to help tire them out while our parents
were busy. We had a one-hour time limit,
and when we got back; it was time to do a round of goodbyes before all of our
guests headed home. Mom did Magi lessons
with Ethan, Ehlana, and me after that; I helped her with getting the twins
ready for bed; and then we all had a little visit with Dad in the office before
I came up to my room for the rest of the night; and Mom and Dad took care of
tucking Ethan and Ehlana in before going back to work or to spend some time in a
Jacuzzi.
Since it wasn’t very long after Mom had decided on having a
bath that I heard Dad on the stairs again; I’ll take a wild guess that he
couldn’t concentrate on his work anymore for some reason. Let’s leave that train of thought right
there, and pretend that we don’t know what Mom and Dad have been doing since
then.
I didn’t spend any time in my Jacuzzi tonight. Instead of doing that, I had one more
practice to get ready for my music playing test, and then played my keyboard
for a while before sitting in the window alcove and getting started on a light
version of my nightly studies and computer checks. I’m not going to stay up too late any night
this week. The exams won’t be a problem,
but with the extra study sessions and everything else we have on the go; I
don’t want to get worn out either – especially with summer holidays now less
that two weeks away!
The only thing that was different tonight than normal was
seeing so many friends online. I had a
chat with Violet shortly after firing up my computer, and she’s ready for her
first exams in the morning, but she’s mostly getting excited about the
impending end to her separation from Dillon.
I’ll guess that it’s going to take something very serious – like a
girls’ weekend away – to pry them apart from now on. I talked to Rowen after that, and answered a
few Math questions that were messaged to me from two of our study group
members. Rowen won’t know this until
morning, but my last chat was with Michael.
He and Rebecca had been set free from the Inn
a bit early, and had been studying together since then. Rebecca wasn’t feeling quite as ready for her
exams as Michael did, and that was partly because her studying with Jenny and
some of their classmates hadn’t gone nearly as well as it had for our group. She isn’t in any danger of doing badly in any
subject, but she also doesn’t want to hurt the marks she has going into the
exams with lower scores.
Michael and I didn’t actually chat about Rebecca except for
that little update – he wanted to talk about what we’d each been doing since
he’d gone back to the Inn; which houses he’d like our study groups to be
working at for the next few days; and a little lamenting about not getting to
do any biking or having any play time because of exams. Since I’ve been trying not to think about
what my parents are doing to keep themselves entertained tonight, Michael’s
‘play time’ comments were not very well timed – at least from my
perspective. He might have a different
opinion – especially if he knew that I’ve been thinking about our walk home
last night while holding hands; and the goodnight hug and kiss. I’m going to pretend that those thoughts did
not include one where I wished that I hadn’t just given him a little peck on
the lips; but given Rowen a really good reason to tease me.
This is where I’m supposed to insert the “I am not crossing
over” line. The scariest thought I’ve
had since wrapping up that chat with Michael, though, is that there is a small,
but nagging possibility that it isn’t true anymore.
Now let’s pretend that I didn’t write that; and move on.
There were some email for me to deal with for the family
business, and I just answered one more Math question; but that’s all the news
from today; and I seriously need to start not-dreaming about soft(cute),
fuzzy(cuddly) bunnies(boys), so...
...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor;
logging out!
