I was a bit fired up for the first game night at the Inn of the school year, and I should have held back more
than I did; but it was really great winning the junior championship with
Michael too. Tim and Rowen came in
third, so we weren’t too far outside the norm; and not having as many teens to
compete against as usual made a difference.
It was strange to be there without Jake, Stephanie, or
Dillon; and that has a lot to do with why there were less teens. There were hardly any high school seniors at
the Inn tonight; while Jake and Stephanie
would normally have about half of their classmates hanging out with them on a
normal game night. Rebecca and Jenny
didn’t have as many friends with them tonight either; and I wonder if the
switch to high school has made some of them too cool to play games with their
parents and family. We’ll see how that
goes – the lighter crowd tonight could just be because people were busy with
the first week back to school.
It was a good gaming night for the Proctor family, because
Mom and Dad won the senior championship.
There were fewer adults playing than usual too, but they may have won by
virtue of being one of the least-distracted teams. Aunt Leanne spent a lot of the evening in
baby-talk mode; Grandma and Grandpa were talking travel with their friends;
Aunt Deborah and some of the other new moms were discussing babies, maternity
leave, going back to work, and daycare; and the teachers were all trading first
week back to school stories with their friends and family.
That comment about Aunt Deborah just brought to my attention
the fact that I haven’t mentioned in my journal updates that she’s started back
to work at the clinic this week. I must
be putting in too many hours – and getting too tied up in my own little
world. She’s working part-time while
easing Leah into a combination of daycare and family babysitting; and she and
Uncle Nick also didn’t want to make it too big of a shock for Leah with both
parents suddenly away from her all day after they’d both been home with her for
most of the summer. Aunt Leanne and Aunt
Liz will be part of that family babysitting plan when they feel up to having
Leah with them while they’re home with their new babies.
Getting back to game night, I mentioned that Tim and Rowen
were the third-place team tonight, and while I’d expected to be Michael’s
partner; I hadn’t been sure if Rowen would be playing with Tim or Rebecca
tonight. Jenny came to hang out with
Rebecca, and with fewer junior players tonight; Rowen and Tim had pretty much
had few other choices. They didn’t
actually have a problem being paired up, and we all had fun; but I’m not sure
whether Tim would have played with one of the other guys instead if that had
been an option. Rowen would have been in
full shy mode and wouldn’t have asked him with so many people around. Placing third was pretty good, though, so I
hope that’ll be enough to convince Tim to keep Rowen as his game night partner
from now on – unless we feel the need for an occasional guys-against-the-girls competition.
I started this update with the game night at the Inn because it was my favorite part of the day; but let’s
back up and run through the rest of the action for the day.
Michael came over for Tai Chi and breakfast this morning
before going home again while we both got ready for school. Our second music class was even more fun than
the first one; and I really, really love getting to start the day with music –
and share that time with Michael. That
reminds me that Michael and I need to get back to my guitar lessons; though I
have no idea when we’re supposed to fit that into our schedules. The rest of our classes were full-immersion
lessons with normal homework assignments plus some first major project
announcements. Rowen and I have always
loved working together on our homework and projects, and I hope that adding
Michael and Tim into the mix will make that even better – though we won’t be
able to work at Magi speed while they’re around.
We breezed through English and Science classes this morning,
and there was another lunchtime football scrimmage that Rowen and I again
joined in for. The guys aren’t razzing
us as much – or at least they aren’t bugging us about the audacity of girls
trying to play football. Most of the other
girls think we’re slightly nuts to play, but Sally and Gretchen looked
interested in joining us; and we might see them give it a try too sometime
soon.
It was back to work after lunch, though nearly every kid and
teen in our school loves computers; so getting to play on our computers for the
first afternoon class wasn’t exactly work for any of us. Health class can get tweeird thanks mostly to
the guys, but the topic today didn’t really give them all that much comedic
material to work with. Geography is the
toughest class of the afternoon for some of my classmates; but since
memorization is a big part of that subject, and I’ve long-since memorized
pretty much everything to do with the subject; my biggest problem is playing
‘normal’ Grade Eight student.
Our after-school study session was at the Inn
again today, and the only change with that from yesterday was that I decided to
stay with Michael and help out in the kitchen after we were finished our
homework. Tim went on to play football
at the park again, while Rowen ended up going to the computer store to put in a
bit of extra work while I was busy – though I know she’d been tempted to go and
watch Tim play football. They’ll both be
getting into having late dinners with their families now that the summer
business is finished. Landry’s will
still have extra farm equipment work to do for another couple of months, but
they won’t have the extended showroom hours that Tim’s mother and aunt share –
and that make for odd meal times.
Rowen’s parents will be cutting back their weekday store hours starting
this coming Monday.
Helping out in the kitchen isn’t really too crazy on a
normal weeknight. At the Inn, it’s kinda like doing a really big family dinner –
except with a bigger menu and individual orders. With Jake and Stephanie away, Miranda had two
other teens working with a Thursday night crew that didn’t really change much
from year-to-year; but it still felt like we were just hanging out around the
kitchen while our extended family helped out with getting the meal ready. When there’s a dining room full of customers,
like at the Sunday buffets, it definitely doesn’t feel quite that homey with
everyone working as hard as they can.
Miranda seemed to especially like having me there tonight,
and I’m going to keep coming back for more of the fun, hugs, and kisses. The fun included dinner for two for Michael
and me when we had our little break to eat that came complete with a candle
that Miranda dropped off in the center of the table as a joke on her way through
the kitchen to drop off some orders and pick up others. We didn’t really need the romantic nudge, and
though there weren’t any witnesses; I’m sure that all of the girls – including
Miranda and Rebecca – suspected that Michael and I shared a few candlelight
kisses while we were on our break.
They’d be right about those suspicions! :^)
The after-dinner clean-up was comparatively easy too. Michael and I helped with all of that, but
Rebecca stopped to eat late, and then helped to get the dining room cleared and
ready for game night. I’ve already
covered my highlights from the games; and Michael and I walked home with my
family while Jacob and Miranda had other helpers doing the final clean-up in
the dining room. That early departure
was entirely so I could have a few minutes to say goodnight to Michael on his
front porch in a mostly non-verbal way without Miranda having the urge to
whistle at us from inside the house. Of
course that didn’t save us from Aunt Leanne; but we’re just going to get used
to that since we have no chance at all to change that particular little force
of nature.
Okay, technically I could; but Mom would never let me, and
we love Aunt Leanne quite a lot just the way she is anyway.
I’m okay with taking those thoughts of goodnight kisses into
dreamland with me, but let’s finish this report before I get side-tracked. After getting home, I helped Mom with Ethan
and Ehlana’s bedtime routine. That
included a bath tonight because they’re going to be at KidZone tomorrow. That took the better part of an hour, and
then Mom did a Magi lesson with me in the office while Dad continued to do his
homework. After that, a busy school day,
and helping out in a hot kitchen; I was ready for some Jacuzzi time next, and
since I was already getting another late start to my bedtime studies and work;
I needed to multi-task that with my archive homework. Even with doing that, I’m now on my third
late night in a row; and my average bedtime will be right around three o’clock
– if I wrap this up soon.
Before I do that, though, let’s do a quick college and
cousins news update. Violet and Dillon
are enjoying their classes and making new friends; but are already finding it
tough to study with all of the distractions on campus and in their dorms. For Jake and Stephanie, it’s getting to spend
time together during the week that’s becoming a problem as they each make new
friends and get involved with study groups and on-campus activities at their
respective colleges. They may need to
skip seeing each other some days; and that will be a big change since they’ve
rarely not seen each other daily since beginning to date. I really like the idea of following that
dating model with Michael! Christina and
Josiah seem to be having the least trouble getting used to college life, but
that might be because they have a lot of common freshman courses; so they get
to spend a lot of time together.
For the teen cousins, it sounds like Grade Nine is going
well enough for Martin and Jonathan; though my sources for those reports are
from Dawn and Christina. Martin had the
big advantage of having Chris and his Grade Eleven buddies there to help him
out; while Jonathan has a few of Christina’s younger friends who are now
seniors at his school looking out for him.
The downside for him is that those friends are all girls, but then
that’s also the upside; since they’re beautiful, older girls. (One of her
friends sent a picture that Christina passed along to me.) I’ll guess that’s earned Jonathan some
attention with both the freshman guys and girls. Going back to school isn’t a big deal for
Chris, but then as I’ve mentioned before; he’s more interested in his impending
driving freedom.
While I’m thinking about them, while Chris and Martin both
love football, Chris hasn’t tried to play for their school team; and I doubt
that Martin will. They’re both decent
athletes, but big-school football is a lot different than at our school; and
they literally can’t compete against the big guys. Chris has played some other team sports, but
isn’t a hard-core jock by any stretch of the imagination. I guess we’ll see what extra-curricular
activities Martin will get into now; but I won’t be surprised if he follows
closely in his big brother’s footsteps.
Dawn and Jillian are popular, and being near the top of the
middle-school food chain should help them to have a good year for Grade
Seven. Their first-week stories make me
glad that I’m in a small-town school.
They already have things to deal with that just don’t happen here in any
grade. The few Magi that grow up
somewhere other than Witch Falls – like Violet and Christina – must have a
really tough time holding back in some of those kid and teen situations.
Maybe that’s one more reason why I’m exactly where I should
be. I’d likely get into regular trouble
trying to stop bullying, harassment, and everything else that goes on at big
schools.
Finally, Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and Kara are all having fun at
school, and Kaitlyn and Kara are both making new friends fast. I guess that Jaimie is too, and I’ve been the
new kid in the class a few times, but since I’ve been the only new student in
my grade the entire time Michael, Rowen, and the rest of our classmates have
been going to school; they can’t really relate to the new kid phenomena that is
the norm at city schools. I do really
like hearing that Jaimie is one of the kids who tries to help the new kids in
her class feel welcome and fit in.
Wrapping up the nightly computing recap, I didn’t get my
archive studying done until after my bath, and then I still had my language
studies and some family business work to do before getting to my usual news,
sports, and entertainment checks and this journal update. It’s closer to three-thirty than three; and I
seriously need to get what sleep I can before dawn. We have a dinner and a movie night tomorrow,
and Rowen and I are doing a sleepover here; so I definitely don’t want to be
too tired for that – especially since I plan on inviting Tim to join us – for
the dinner and a movie; not the sleepover.
You know you were thinking that – I know, because having
Michael and Tim stay overnight too crossed my mind too. I’m not sure whether I want that thought
following me into my dreams or not; but one way or the other, it is past-time
to turn my computer off and get started on my little nap.
Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
