Happy 13th Birthday, Michael!
He isn’t trying to start a trend or anything, but we were
both really happy to spend most of the day together with our best friends
instead of having a big party that his parents didn’t have time to throw on a
Sunday anyway.
Michael and I skipped Tai Chi this morning, but Rowen and I
were still busy from the time we woke up and took turns having showers until we
walked over to his house with about fifteen minutes to spare before we were
supposed to sit down for breakfast. The
birthday hugs and kisses this morning weren’t as fiery as they were at
midnight; but we had company with us this time.
We didn’t really have all that long to actually eat breakfast; get
Michael to open his gifts; and have a short conference call with Jake and
Stephanie before we needed to clean up and go to church.
Jacob wasn’t experimenting today, but the food was as
awesome as always, and Michael does have really great favorites; though Jacob
cooked up a few extra options too. The
chat with Jake and Stephanie was the most entertaining part of the morning, and
while I’m sure that they’d have liked to be having breakfast with us instead of
whatever their choices were going to be today in their respective dining halls;
but it sounded like they expected to have more fun there for the rest of the
day than they’d have had working at the Inn today – even with the studying they
were going to be doing all afternoon with some of their college friends.
Michael’s birthday fun continued after his breakfast party;
starting with getting a gift from Ethan and Ehlana when they stopped in with
Mom and Dad so they could walk with us to church. I don’t know if Aunt Leanne or Uncle Adam mad
the decision, but they drove to church today; and I don’t think that Aunt
Leanne will be doing any more long walks at least until after the baby is born. They’d already gone into the sanctuary by the
time we got there, so I stopped by to share some hugs and kisses with them –
and with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Mark, and Aunt Grace before going to sit with
Michael and his family.
Since Michael wasn’t having a big party today, he was given
a couple of gifts during Sunday school; and our friends helped to keep the
birthday fun going for him while we were at church. We’re in a bit of a lull for extra activities
right now; and that won’t pick up again until we start getting ready for the
Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. While
that means that we don’t have anything extra to do to help with kid and
teen-led special services, our lessons are interesting; and becoming more
challenging now that we’re getting old enough to deal with more serious
theological and social issues.
Sometimes I miss the stickers we got for memorizing bible
verses and making the crafts every week; but I wouldn’t trade going back to
those days if that meant giving up things that I do like about being older now
– like having a boyfriend! ;^)
After church, Michael, Tim, and Rowen came home with me and
we had lunch with Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana before Michael and I took off;
went over to his place; and spent the afternoon playing together in a
clothing-optional sort of way until we needed to be at the Inn for dinner.
Oh wait – that was just something I dreamed about last
night! We did have lunch at my house and
go to dinner at the Inn, though. When you eventually read this, Aunt Leanne,
let me know whether your first thought was ‘that’s my girl’ or not.
I’m sure that Michael and I would have both enjoyed that
dream if it had been our reality today; but we had fun playing with our friends
instead. We went biking on the trails;
played a little football; picked up afternoon snacks at the Emporium and ate
them while sitting by the falls; and the boys played some video games in the
lounge while Rowen and I got ready to go out to dinner. After seeing us once we were dressed up
again, they suddenly felt the urge to go ahead of us and stop in at Michael’s
house so they could change back into the clothes they’d worn to church. Rowen and I helped Mom with Ethan and Ehlana
until we were all ready to leave; and then we picked them up on the way to the Inn.
Miranda and Jacob were too busy to stop and have dinner with
Michael, but pretty much the entire Bassett clan was there to celebrate
Michael’s birthday. Grandma and Grandpa
Bassett were acting as semi-official hosts for the dinner, and Michael, Tim,
Rowen, and I sat at the table with them – and with Erica and Caleb. Erica and I had Jessica with us a lot too;
though she was at the table next to ours with her parents, brother, Aunt, and
Uncle when they could get her to sit down and eat. Sophia had dinner with Ethan, Ehlana, and my
parents at the next table over, and while Naomi and Aiden are their best
friends; Sophia is next-closest to them among all of the kids their age.
Since Caleb is on the football team and Erica is one of the
cheerleaders I wasn’t surprised that football was at the top of the
conversation list during dinner. While
Kyle Landry and our defense gets most of the glory on our team, Caleb is our
primary running back; and does what he can while working with an admittedly
weaker offensive line. He helps out with
special teams defense and kick returns too; but he’s also smart enough not to
get himself killed trying for extra yards.
Since he has to practice against Kyle four days a week, that’s
definitely a smart way for him to play the game!
Tim had already given Michael, Rowen, and I the game recap
from Friday, but we got to hear most of it again. Fortunately for Rowen and me, Erica had some
non-football stories to chat about too, with my favorite being about Jenny and
Garth Green. Okay, that was partly
related to football, but only because Garth apparently needs to learn not to be
distracted by his new cheerleader girlfriend while on the field; and Jenny
needs to learn not to distract the boys – unless she’s doing that to the
players on the other team. I’m not sure
if giving that idea to Jenny is a good idea.
I can picture her taking that challenge to heart in a big way; and our
team doesn’t exactly need that kind of help to win games.
We really had fun during dinner, and I really like Michael’s
grandparents a lot. They’re a handful of
years younger than my grandparents, and have a slightly different relationship
with their grandchildren than Ethan, Ehlana, and I have with ours; but they
love their family a lot, and are very proud of them. Erica and Caleb sat with us because Erica is
closest in age to Michael, and while I’m writing about their grandparents; I
want to mention a couple of things that I sensed tonight while with them.
I know the Magi Council is very concerned about
relationships between Magi and non-Magi – particularly with kids and teens –
but I’m not sure that their worthy goals are always pursued or personally desired. Hopefully this won’t offend anyone in the
future, but I got a very strong impression that Michael’s grandparents were
particularly happy about Erica and Caleb being together – and they were both
excited and pleased that Michael and I are dating.
Maybe I should check in with Ethan and Ehlana to find out
exactly how much they told the council while getting them to agree to let
Michael and I know about each other. I
was so happy about the news at the time that I didn’t really question the how
they made it happen all that closely.
Anyway, my point here is that even council members have a
natural desire to see their Magi children and grandchildren matched up with
other Magi. The Bassett family is
actually a nice little microcosm of our town.
Edward and Rosemary had two Magi and one latent child. Their kids ended up with one Magi
relationship, one pairing of non-Magi, and one mixed couple. They have eight grandchildren, of which five
are Magi and three are latents. Of the
four grandchildren who are currently in relationships, we’ve already
established that two of them have Magi partners while the other two are in
mixed, Magi-Latent relationships.
None of that will be news to future readers of my journal,
but I point it out to show that even in a family that is successfully diverse;
there is still a bias toward wanting Magi couples. That’s perfectly natural, and may often be
subconscious, but when you look at that in context to a family like the
Bassetts; that factor alone doesn’t affect the outcome of those relationships –
particularly when it comes to the children.
In this case, two out of five of the Magi grandchildren are in the
family with two non-Magi parents. That
certainly supports the theory that perfect matches have more to do with that than
whether one or both parents are Magi too.
I’ll write more about that and some other things that I’ve
been working on related to that in our Magi Project archive later this week; so
if you’re interested in more of that, just cross-reference the date and check
out the rest of my work on this there.
Getting back to Michael’s birthday adventures, while Jacob
and Miranda couldn’t stop to have dinner with him, Rebecca did take a quick
break to grab some food and sit with us shortly before their parents brought
out a large birthday cake and had everyone in the dining room sing the birthday
song to him. There were a few more gifts
for Michael to open then too from his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins;
and he did that while the cake was being passed around until every slice was
gone. There are rarely leftovers from
birthday cakes at the Inn on a buffet night!
You may be wondering about what Michael wished for when he
blew out the candles. He didn’t tell me,
but I was able to sense it; and have every intention of making that wish come
true for him.
No, I’m not going to tell you what he’s wishing for most
this year; but I can tell you that his wish from last year worked out for him,
so he’s a big believer in them now!
When we were ready to leave the Inn
after finishing dessert, Michael and I did a quick visit to the kitchen for
some goodbye hugs, kisses, and thanks; and then we went back to my house with
Tim and Rowen. Ethan and Ehlana joined
us for some video game action until it was time for them to go to bed, and then
we joined them for the bedtime snack and story with Mom and Dad before Tim and
Rowen made up a pair of non-excuses to head out and leave Michael and me with
about an hour of alone time before he needed to get home. School night curfews aren’t always fun, but
we made the best of the time we had; and didn’t even bother to turn the
television on and pretend to watch something.
No, we didn’t make Michael’s wish come true tonight; but I
am fairly sure that he went home thinking that this has been his best birthday
ever so far.
Mom and Dad were working in the office when Michael left, so
I had a little visit with them before coming up to my room again and getting
ready for bed. Mandy was ready to sleep
by then, but I’ve had a lot of work to get done tonight – more than usual
thanks to some extra business-related emails.
I had the usual weekly updates from my college cousins and friends too,
but it’s nearly three-thirty in the morning now; and none of my work, studies,
or personal correspondence included anything particularly worth reporting in my
journal – though that could just be my current perspective. If I reconsider that assessment sometime
tomorrow, I’ll add that to my next update.
For now, I just want to crash for the few hours I have left
until it’ll be time for morning Tai Chi, so...
...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
