I’m writing this update from a tent again tonight. We hadn’t planned on camping tonight, but
Dawn and Jillian wanted to have a camping night without a big gang; so Rowen
and I are doing that with them – and it has been fun with just the four of us
out here by the river – though we haven’t been alone all night.
Before I get to that part of the story, let’s back up to
this morning; when Mom, Ethan, Ehlana, and I started our day with seeing Dad
off on his way to Crystal Springs. The cuddle
time after that was nice, and then we went outside for Tai Chi by the
river. With Dad away, Mom helped me with
my lesson this morning again; working with Ethan and Ehlana while I helped
Michael. He went home for breakfast
after that, and had chores to do for the morning; but other than doing a quick
run-through on the third floor and getting the clothes and towels to the
laundry room; Mom set Dawn, Jillian, and me free for the entire day.
When Rowen came over after breakfast, we hopped onto our bikes
and took Jillian on a tour of the new section of town and the construction
sites on both sides of the river. There
were still a couple of people working at each of the three houses that will be
getting moved into next week; but that’s mostly just a little finishing work
and final cleaning. Over at the lab
building site, you can actually see a lot of the workers moving around now that
they’re nearly up to ground-level; and the construction is going to be a lot
more interesting to watch soon.
After finishing our little tour, we biked the park trails
for a while; stopped in at the Emporium for ice cream; and then did a little
window shopping before going home again for a swim. We took Ethan and Ehlana with us for that;
and then played with them until lunchtime.
Chris, Martin, and Jonathan had a few friends with them for lunch, but
Violet and Chrissy were having lunch with Dillon, Josiah, and some other
friends; so that didn’t make for too much extra work. We helped Mom and Alicia before and after we
ate, but we also sat on the dock and had a little picnic away from the teen
weirdness that Dawn and Jillian didn’t really want to be around. That had the added bonus of putting some
distance between Vanessa and me; and helped to cut down on the number of games
being played today.
That doesn’t mean that there was no tween or teen drama –
the drama seems to be unavoidable these days.
Michael came over while Rowen and I were helping with the
clean-up and Dawn and Jillian were playing with Ethan and Ehlana. Chris, Martin, Jonathan, and their friends
had already left to go riding at the park by then; so he pitched in to help us
get the work done so we could go and play too.
The jokes and tween games started pretty much as soon as we biked over
to the park; and Michael was on the receiving end of some razzing from the guys
– led by Tim – because he was hanging out with four girls. I know that Tim was just trying to be funny,
but two of the people egging him on weren’t doing that innocently; and that
kind of thing can go viral and get way out of control – like it did this
afternoon.
By the time we left the park to go home and cool off in the
river, Tim knew that Michael was truly mad at him; Vanessa and Nora were very
pleased with themselves; and I still need to learn to keep my mouth shut.
Rowen and Michael don’t agree with that last part, and maybe
those guys did need to hear what I told them; but I really wish someone else
had done that instead.
I stayed close to home after that. We played in the water for quite a while, and
then set up our tent after making the decision to have another camping night –
while having a break on the back porch and watching a brief thunderstorm roll
through and drop a little rain on Witch
Falls. My lamented verbosity at the park probably
had something to do with why we not only didn’t have company for dinner; but
Chris, Martin, and Jonathan were eating elsewhere too. That left Michael and Ethan the only guys at
home for dinner; and we ate early enough so that Michael could get to his
baseball practice. Ethan and Ehlana
wanted to go to the park after dinner, so Dawn and Jillian took them there
while Rowen stayed at home with me – all of us knowing exactly why I wasn’t
interested in going back to the park again today.
Rowen’s told me that she was proud of her best friend this
afternoon, but I’d say that the best friend of the day award has to go to
Tim. I have to be careful with my hugs
these days for any boys around our age, but Tim earned one tonight when he and
Michael came back from the park with Dawn, Jillian, and the twins. He’d patched things up with Michael already,
and had come with Michael to clear the air with me too – even though doing that
put him in the doghouse with Nora. He
stayed long enough to go for a swim with the rest of us; but then he needed to
go on to Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house for the gaming action there that
Nora and Vanessa were already there for with the rest of the gang that was
hanging out with my cousins tonight.
Michael didn’t want to go and do that any more than I did,
so he stayed and played with us for a couple of hours. Ethan and Ehlana got him to tell them their
bedtime story, and after they were tucked in; Michael and I went for a little
walk by ourselves before doing our goodnight hug and kiss by the river at his
house. Rowen, Dawn, and Jillian were all
in the tent by the time I got home, but I went inside to have a little chat
with Mom before joining them there. We
don’t seem to be able to find the time to do that much lately, and didn’t get
to talk together for very long tonight either.
That’s just one more thing that we should do more often but won’t work
into our schedules very well; and that’s one of those things that really seems
strange sometimes compared to our lives before Witch Falls when we spent most
of our time together with nobody else around.
Our chat tonight included some discussion of my latest tween
issues, and though I still feel like I’m doing a lousy job of dealing with some
of my peers; Mom mostly agreed with Michael and Rowen – and suggested that
there isn’t anything wrong with dealing with kids my age on their level instead
of looking at everything I do through my own perspective and social and mental
filters. She’s probably right about
that, but then I have to wonder if she’d still feel that way if I applied that
theory to other tween applications – or if Ethan and Ehlana really started
acting their age all of the time.
Probably not. :^)
Moving along, after saying goodnight to Mom and going out to
the tent; Rowen, Dawn, Jillian, and I listened to music; had a nice long girl
chat; and went for a swim before Dawn and Jillian were both ready to crash for
the night. Rowen’s still awake as I
write this, and we’ve been talking about everything from Michael and ‘Tommy’ to
our plans for the rest of the week while I’ve been working on my computer. I took care of some family business work once
it was safe to do that; and Rowen’s mostly been surfing the web on her
computer. Since we’ll be paddling to the
whirlpool and back tomorrow, we should put our computers away and get to
sleep. Judging by the noise level we can
still hear at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house; they may be wishing that the
video game party will end soon so they can have some peace and quiet too. I should probably suggest to Chris and Martin
that they move the gaming to our house for a day or two to give Aunt Leanne a
break; but having to clean up after my lounge gets trashed wouldn’t be
fun. Maybe Mom could invite Aunt Leanne
and Chrissy over for a girls’ night sleepover instead!
I don’t have anything else to report for today, and though
it may be a while longer before Rowen and I do get to sleep; I’m going to wrap
this up and put my computer away.
Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging
out!
