Happy 1st kid-freedom day of the school year to
all of the lucky parents!
With twins at home, Mom isn’t in that group of celebrants,
and with Alicia back at school too; she actually has more work to do now
instead of less.
We’ve had beautiful weather for our first day back in
classes; but it started out fairly cool this morning – the first real break in
the heat and humidity in a while. Tai
Chi by the river was a bit chilly; while feeling just a little more special
because it was the first school-day workout that Michael and I did
together. Though his parents were
already at the Inn; Michael didn’t stay with us for breakfast because he still
had things to get done before meeting up with Rowen and me to walk to school.
Mom had picked up Olde Bakery muffins, bagels, and
croissants to have this morning instead of doing a big breakfast; and made up a
fresh fruit salad to go with that while I was grabbing a shower and getting
dressed up and ready for school. Ehlana
came upstairs and talked with me while I did my hair through until I was ready
to carry my bags and saxophone downstairs.
Our breakfast chat was mostly about school and work. Dad teased me about not slacking off now that
I had a boyfriend to distract me because he really liked posting all of my
perfect report cards on the wall in his law office. He just wishes that he could post the
unofficial report cards for Ethan and Ehlana too. They’ll be starting their Grade Twelve
studies this week, but Mom hasn’t decided on a schedule yet; and they are going
to be too busy with post-holiday weekend work and errands to start that today.
Yes, I’ve been there; but it still feels strange that
they’re High School seniors while I’m in Grade Eight. I wouldn’t change any of that even though Mom
and I aren’t hiding anymore – even though it isn’t always fun playing ‘normal’
tween.
Let’s move along to the school part of the report. Rowen, Michael, and Rebecca all met up with
me here. I was on the front porch by
then doing the goodbye hugs and kisses with Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana. The twins had bonus hugs and kisses for my
friends; Dad took a couple of pictures with his phone to send around to friends
and family; and Michael and I were teased a bit when we needed a minute to
figure out how to juggle our bags and saxophone cases so that we could hold
hands too.
This is a good spot to mention back-to-school fashion
thoughts; and the first one I had while walking to school was that Rebecca was
going to be the hottest girl in the Grade Nine class; and she can do that
without wearing tiny little dresses, low-cut tops, or micro shorts. Michael was appropriately happy with how I
looked today, but Rebecca’s his sister; so it probably never occurred to him
that she’s still far enough ahead of Rowen and me on the development curve to
be extremely noticeable to anyone who is paying attention. There were lots of guys and girls paying
attention to Rebecca too; and the move up to high school student meant that she
was getting new attention from older high school boys who wouldn’t even
consider girls in Grade Seven or Eight as potential girlfriend material.
For our year, I’ll modestly suggest that Rowen and I managed
to make an impression – or at least we were able to impress the boys we wanted
to get dressed up for today. Except for
a handful of rebels without a cause who were making various, irrelevant social
statements; every kid and teen was dressed up or at least in new school clothes
today. I seriously doubt that Michael
and Tim helped each other pick out clothes; but I think that they won the guy
side of the fashion contest for our class; and they both look really great in
casual-dress khakis and collarless dress shirts. I’m going to give Nora and Vanessa the edge
for the girls; mostly because they managed to pull off looking really good in
clothes that I’d never even dream of wearing.
Since we’re back to school on a Tuesday, we started out with
the Day Two schedule; though our classes were shortened so that we could have a
longer home room period and deal with things like locker assignments and
locks. I may be one of only a few kids
in our class who will think that our Day Two classes are the best since we’ll
also have English, Science, and Geography; but we get to start the morning with
Music and will have Computer class right after lunch, so I’m going to love
that.
Having Uncle Nick – Mr. Ayres – for our teacher may be
stranger than I expected. Sure, he’s one
of our youngest teachers, and very handsome; but I’ve definitely never looked at
him the way some of the girls in our class are watching him with big eyes and
dreamy smiles. The guys are being normal
tweens and playing it cool; but I think that Uncle Nick is off to a good start
with most of them too. Tim razzed me
about never being able to get away with anything this year with my Uncle
teaching us; and then he teased me about never doing anything that Uncle Nick
could take home to Mom and Dad anyway.
When we finally got to start our classes and head for the
music room; Michael, Rowen, and I found out that band practices were going to
start next Tuesday after school. That’ll
work out great for Michael; since it’s one of his days off anyway. Tim wasn’t particularly interested in joining
the band, but I think he did wish that he could be hanging out with us even if
he isn’t into playing music as much as we are.
Mrs. Robinson gave us a quick review of the Grade Eight course outline;
and then we got to spend the rest of the time playing some new music. Getting to do that with my boyfriend sitting
next to me put a whole new spin on the fun for both of us; and that was enough
to keep me smiling through English and Science classes.
Lunchtime was fun too; though there was some tweeird too
that started when Michael and Tim led Rowen and me to the ‘couples club’
table. The fun came from sitting next to
Michael and holding his hand a lot; being readily accepted into the group even
though there were some of our friends looking surprised – especially when Rowen
sat with Tim across the table from Michael and me; and talking with friends
like Sally and Joshua after not seeing them much all summer. That break was shortened too, and then it was
on to Computers, Health, and Geography classes for the afternoon.
There were some first day back relationship issues going on
today, and the only one I’ll specifically mention here is between one of my
classmates, Allen, and his girlfriend, Molly.
She’s in Grade Nine with Rebecca and Jenny; and she’s quickly realizing
that it’s tough having a younger boyfriend when making the move up to high
school. From what I sensed today; I’ll
guess that Allen will be joining the Grade Eight singles group very soon. That leads nicely into the more general topic
of available tweens and teens in our class.
Though they are single too, I’m going to exclude Tim and
Rowen; since they’re only interested in each other right now even if they’re
not openly acknowledging that yet. Not
including them – or Allen – we have seven singles. While dating older boys or girls isn’t completely
out of the question, it also isn’t all that common for the Grade Eight-Nine
gap; so the dating pool is a third or more smaller than usual. That’s probably why the games have already
begun today. There are more girls than
guys; and nobody wants to be left standing alone when the music stops. Only having two guys and five girls in that
group of seven makes that micro singles scene even stranger.
I hadn’t really thought about that in context with what’s
been going on with Vanessa and Nora over the past few months, but since Rowen
and I had been the only girls in our class who had never dated before; the
prospect of having no dating options for the next year or more. Yes, Tim is technically a third single guy,
but Nora won’t be getting back together with him; I doubt that Vanessa would
consider dating her best friend’s ex; and that leaves him with a fairly limited
dating pool too – with Rowen being best in class by a lot in my humble opinion.
The point I’m getting at, though, is that there is going to
be at least one or two girls trading places with Rowen and me in the
odd-girl-out singles club. The big
difference will be in the fact that our membership was voluntary. Dating in big, city schools has challenges
too, but even an inter-school relationship in small towns is long-distance and
tough to work out except for older teens who can drive. With that in mind, I really hope Vanessa and
Nora find new boyfriends soon; or I’m likely going to be on their verbal hit
list for a while.
None of that action really affected my day, and with the
shortened class times; it seemed like a very short afternoon. We had the usual blast of first-day homework
assignments, and Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I did that work together; but we
needed to do extra after-school visits first before doing that at my
house. Michael and Tim checked in at the
auto shop while Rowen and I stopped to see her parents at the computer
store. Miranda and Jacob were home by
then; though they’d worked half of their day off at the Inn;
and the rest of it doing chores around the house with no kid support. We all stopped in to see them, and Rebecca
and Jenny were there already; so we got to hear about their first day of high
school too before moving on.
I was snacked-out by then, but Michael and Tim were happy to
help Ethan and Ehlana out with some Olde Bakery treats while we did one last
daily recap. All of that running around
and chat time meant that we didn’t start our homework until it was already past
four-thirty. Getting to study with Michael
and Tim was great, but Rowen and I did have to trade that off against doing our
homework as quickly as we’re able to do it.
By the time we finished our assignments, we didn’t have any play time
left before needing to split up for dinner; but we did make plans to get
together and go to the park after having our meals.
Mom and Dad had Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Leanne, and Uncle
Adam over for dinner; and my school report was only part of the
entertainment. They weren’t having
another future plans meeting; but Mom and Aunt Leanne did start putting
together their school and work week schedules – at least through until Aunt
Leanne will be off with her new baby.
Mom does have meetings coming up this week with Miranda, Aunt Grace,
Sharon Palmer, and Nancy Emerson; but she’s tentatively hoping to make Tuesdays
her work and charity meetings day so that she can put the twins in KidZone full
days every Tuesday for that; and on Fridays so she can do her shopping and
errands.
Every time I start thinking that I’m too busy; I’ll try to
remember that Mom has to run our family business; keep a cover job going; take
care of three kids; do her own ongoing studying and training; teach Grade
Twelve high school to twins; and keep up with Magi lessons for a dozen or more
students.
I’m thinking that right now because it’s going on three
o’clock in the morning; and it’s been a really long day. My schedule is going to need some work too if
I want to figure out how to juggle everything without either using time-phasing
regularly or going with two or three hours of sleep a day. Both of those options aren’t very good.
I was on the after-dinner clean-up crew tonight, so Rowen
stopped in to get me on her way to Michael’s house. Tim was already there when we brought Ethan
and Ehlana along and joined them. We
started our play time at the park with some football action. That was hardly my personal preference, but
there was a scrimmage game already in progress; and Michael and Tim were quite
happy to be drafted. Ethan wanted to
watch them play for a while, so we joined the group of kid and teen
spectators. Michael made sure that Ethan
got to have a special football moment for one of the plays, and after a half
hour or so; Rowen and I were able to move on to the playground with Ethan and
Ehlana until Michael and Tim were finished playing with their friends.
That didn’t actually leave us much time to hang out
together. We needed to have the twins
home by eight; Michael, Tim, and Rowen all needed to be home by nine on most
school nights; and we had Ethan and Ehlana hanging out with us in the lounge
until Mom came to get them from us at eight-thirty. That last twenty minutes went by way too
fast, and the short little goodnight hug and kiss Michael and I were able to
share after Rowen and Tim started walking toward her house wasn’t all that I’d
hoped it would be; but Michael needed to get home too – and I had a lot of work
waiting for me when I went back inside.
First up was the bedtime story with Ethan and Ehlana. After doing that and helping to tuck them in
for the night; Mom did a long Magi lesson with me and gave me the full, normal
archive homework to go along with the lesson.
So much for having my Magi teacher take it easy on me for the first day
back to school! I seriously needed to
get to work after that, so the goodnight hugs and kisses with Mom and Dad were
short too; and then I came up to my room and got to work.
Since then, I’ve spent two hours in the archives; another
hour on the family business; and multi-tasked my first lessons in the
Sino-Tibetan language of Wu. It’s more
accurate to say that Wu is a dialect family, and while I’ve known Chinese since
I was a toddler; the variations in some dialect families are sometimes so wide
that even communicating between the different languages isn’t possible. That makes it a bit like learning a whole
bunch of new languages; but I do have some advantages that make doing that
easier for me.
It is still a lot of work, and that’s one of the reasons I
stayed up late to get a good start on the new language group I’ll be studying
for the next few months. I won’t bore
you with the details about languages that you’ll likely never need to know
anything about; and I’m ready to get some sleep anyway so I can be ready for
our first Day One schedule classes.
Michael will be back to work tomorrow, but we’re still going to work out
a way to do most of our studying together; so we will get to spend some time
together before he’s busy helping out in the kitchen or after he’s finished
there for the night. I’ll guess that the
parents will take the homework first position on that choice. Hopefully Michael won’t get razzed too much
on the days that we have to do our goodnight kisses at the Inn
before I go home!
That sounds like a perfect thought to head off to sleep
with; so I’m going to wrap this up and get started on that nap.
Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
