Happy Birthday, Miranda!
I wish Miranda could have had the day off to actually
celebrate her birthday, but that wasn’t an option when they were getting about
a normal fall week or two worth of business in one day at the Inn. The only break she was able to get on her
special day was a get-out-of-clean-up card for the work after the last buffet
of the day was wrapping up – at about eight o’clock; and after a fourteen-hour
shift.
Compared to that, my day was all fun and games – though I
was at the Inn a lot this afternoon and
evening too; and I stayed until the work was done and everyone was able to go
home.
Michael went to the Inn
with his parents and sister this morning; so it felt a bit strange not having
him with us for Tai Chi by the river. We
went with a light workout today, and followed that up with a quick and easy
breakfast that was really just a snack to hold us over to the noon buffet. After eating and getting ready for the day, I
took Ethan and Ehlana with me to Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace’s house so we could
spend some time with Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and Jayden while they were getting ready
to head home. Their SUV was loaded by
the time we were to meet up with everyone shortly after the stores opened for
the last big shopping day before Thanksgiving.
While our cousins drove over to Witch Falls Road, Ethan,
Ehlana, and I walked; and we collected Rowen at the computer store on our way
to the designated spot in front of Palmer’s where our family was meeting before
splitting up again into mostly guy or girl shopping groups. Rowen and I were with Jaimie, Kaitlyn, Kara,
and some of the Moms and Grandmothers.
Ehlana was with the younger girls and babies; and the rest of the adult
girls. It felt strange to not have
Violet and Dawn with us too; but the shopping and girl time was still just as
much fun as always. Our available time
seemed way too short too; and it was time to meet at the Inn
for the buffet lunch long before we were ready to stop playing dress-up.
Mom and Dad had brought the minivan with them so we’d have
someplace to put our purchases without needing to make a trip home before
lunch, and that worked out great for me; since I didn’t end up going home until
mid-afternoon anyway. The buffet was as
awesome as always, and I loved that last hour and a half blast of fun with my
family and friends. It was as busy at
the Inn as I’d ever seen it, and even Miranda looked like she was feeling the
stress; so after eating and going outside to say goodbye to the Proctor and
Johnson families that were leaving; I went back into the Inn and joined the
work crew in the kitchen.
Nearly everyone may have been feeling the stress, but I
loved working with Michael, Rebecca, and the rest of the teens; and I was able
to help raise the fun level – even if half of that was because there were lots
of opportunities for teasing Michael and me.
I hadn’t actually been helping out for very long when Michael had his
first afternoon break about fifteen minutes after the second buffet sitting
started. We went for a swim at my house
so we could do that with Ethan and Ehlana; and then we had a little visit with
Mom and Dad in the office until we needed to get back to the Inn to help with
the main part of the second buffet clean-up and set-up for the third round.
It’s non-stop action in the kitchen even when there are
small lulls in the dining room as the flow of food and drinks moves from first
drinks and trips to the buffet tables to desserts and after-dinner
beverages. Michael and I worked through
the third buffet and into the start of the fourth and final dinner round; and
then we had another break so that we could go for another swim and then get
something to eat before getting back to work in time for the big, end-of-day
clean-up.
Miranda was sent home with plans to have a nice long soak in
the bathtub; but Jacob stayed until the dining room and kitchen were cleaned to
his satisfaction; and everything was set-up and ready to go for the breakfast
rush in the morning that was likely to be busier than usual because of first
day of school celebrations by kid-free parents.
Before I move on, I haven’t written anything about the cameo birthday
moments that Miranda was able to have scattered here and there around all of
the work. There were gifts for her to
open at least a dozen times throughout the day – including the presents that
Michael and I had picked up for her while in Crystal Springs. Her parents, brothers, and their families all
stopped in for visits and to drop off gifts too; and there was a fun little
phone call with Jake and Stephanie that included opening the gift they’d sent
for her and that Jacob had held until they could make that long-distance
connection during a lull in the action.
It was after ten o’clock by the time I got home, but there
was a little stop at Michael’s house on the way home for a short visit with his
parents and sister – and a goodnight kiss on the front porch – before I was
ready to say goodbye to Michael until morning.
Mom and Dad were still in the office when I got back, but Dad was just
finishing up a couple of little jobs after they’d taken a break to do a lesson
with Ethan and Ehlana and followed that up with a full bath and bedtime
routine. I gave them the condensed report
from the Inn, and then Mom came up to my room
with me to help me with getting ready for my first day on Grade Eight.
That mostly involved a little mother-daughter chat while we
picked out what I was going to wear.
Since I was starting that later than I should have; I used a little Magi
power to get my bags packed with the usual gear. My saxophone got a quick, Magi-powered polish
too; and I had everything ready by the time Dad stopped in to say goodnight and
take Mom to bed. Let’s leave that
thought right there and move along.
After a lot of hot hours at the Inn – and not the kind of
hot that I’m not thinking about right now in relation to my parents – I
seriously needed some Jacuzzi time; so I’ve been doing my nightly computing
while in the tub; and kicked everything into a time-phase so I still have a
chance at getting a decent amount of sleep.
I really didn’t want the mental picture of hot, parents, and
that kind of action in relation to time-phase applications; but it happened
anyway, and now I’m seriously wishing that not thinking about soft, cuddly
bunnies still worked on me.
That’s certainly not the kind of thought I want to wrap up
this journal entry with either, so let’s discuss the week ahead before calling
it a night. Tomorrow will be an exciting
day, but I also need to get back to my usual nightly archive and language
studies. I’m going to spend the rest of
this year learning a few of the Sino-Tibetan Chinese languages; and I
definitely need to find a way to kick up my archive work a few notches too;
though I’m starting to feel the pressure of juggling everything more all of the
time – especially now that I really want to hang out with Michael a lot too on
top of everything else I have on the go.
I don’t know when band will be starting yet, but we’ll have
that to do too; game night at the Inn begins
again on Thursday; and dinner and a movie night should be back to normal soon
too. Rowen and I are going to need to
change our work-play schedule; but we’ll wait to find out about things like
band practice first before making any decisions on that. The good news for here will be that the
computer store business will slow down a fair bit after this week until
Thanksgiving; and the store won’t be open on Sundays either.
We should have some comparatively quiet weekends coming up
for the rest of September, but that’s a good thing; since I may need more
weekend time to do my family business work and ‘real’ studies if everyday life
during the work week gets too busy. I
can’t run for weeks at a time on just a few hours of sleep a night; and we’ve
already established the downside risks of using time-phasing too often can have
on a Magi Master tween. I’m really not
in such a big hurry to grow up that I want to do it years faster than normal. I’m writing that while in a time-phased soak
in my Jacuzzi and nightly computing multi-tasking session.
How ironic!
That flow of thoughts does suggest that it’s time to finish
this – and my bath – and get ready for bed.
I have no idea whether I’m about to start a best-year-eve-so-far of
school tomorrow or not, but I do have a pretty good feeling about it; and
that’s usually a really good sign.
Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
