Happy 13th Birthday, Marcie!
It’s past one-thirty now, and while I didn’t need to do any
work tonight after getting home from Marcie’s party; I’m just getting wound
down enough now to be ready to sleep soon.
Tim would have something to say about that, since he gave Michael,
Rowen, and I orders to get a good night sleep so we’d be ready to cheer for our
team in their first big playoff game of the season; but what he doesn’t know
won’t hurt me. As usual with parties
like this, I’ve had a lot to think about and process; but I’ll get to that
after covering the rest of the news from today.
We had an uneventful start to the day, and though I’m
missing getting to exercise by the river, morning kisses with Michael are
better indoors without worry of an audience; and being able to practice more
advanced Tai Chi forms with him – and Ethan and Ehlana – is great too. Michael went home for breakfast today, but we
were just having the standard weekday fare; so he didn’t miss out on anything. I spent a little extra time getting ready
today, and had some extra fun with Ehlana while doing our hair and picking out
clothes to wear both for at school and what I decided to wear to the party.
Starting the school day out with music – and playing the
birthday song for Marcie – set the tone for the rest of the day; and her best
friends helped to make the rest of the morning and afternoon as fun as possible
while also working our way through the rest of our classes and one test. The sunny weather had the boys outside and
playing football again as the younger guys settled for scrimmage games while
dreaming of high school football glory.
Since Marcie doesn’t currently have a boyfriend, she happily
ignored the guys and enjoyed a special birthday ‘picnic’ in the cafeteria that
was still going on with a healthy dose of girl chat long after the boys had
gone outside. Rowen and I spent most of
our lunch break outdoors too, but we only checked out the football action for
about five minutes before moving on to wander around the school grounds; and
stop now and then for a few cameo play moments with some of our favorite
younger kids.
That’s about all of the news from school. After being set free, Michael, Tim, and Rowen
came home with me; but only long enough to do our homework at the dining room
table before the boys went home to get ready for the party; and Rowen and I
stayed together to do the same. We did
most of that play time in my room, but then stopped in at her house to drop off
her school gear and so that she could change into the outfit she wanted to
dazzle Tim with tonight – I mean wear to the party.
Dazzling the boys was a nice added bonus; though Tim didn’t
do anything more than keep a near-constant eye on Rowen all evening. That’s too bad for him, and his loss; because
Rowen was definitely dressed perfectly for cuddling as well as looking
spectacular. It’s a lot of fun getting
to watch as all of the shy in the world can’t hide just how beautiful my best
friend is, and though Tim still can’t figure out how to deal with that
combination; it was pretty obvious to the Magi Master in the house what he’d
like to do about it.
Here’s a hint, Tim – Rowen wouldn’t have a problem with
that. ;^)
Maybe I should just tell him that out loud instead of in my journal;
but Rowen would be mortified if I did.
Then again, she’d probably get over that a few dozen kisses into dating
Tim; so it might be worth it. I’ll have
to think about that for a while.
Moving along, Marcie’s party was fairly standard for a school
night teen birthday; including a dinner that most of her family was there for
too. She’s a member of the extended
Sheldon clan; though not of the Pub-connected members of the family. Her younger brother, Matthew, is in the same
grade with Patrick and Scott; though he usually hangs out with a different
group of guys. There’s no doubt that
Marcie and Rowen have annoying little brothers in common; and Michael really
enjoyed having the older guys around for an audience tonight – and for the
video game competition.
This is going to take the story off-track, but I really want
to write about some of the thoughts that have been on my mind all evening.
The Sheldons, like most of the other big families in town,
have both well-off and poorer members.
Marcie’s parents fall somewhere in the middle of the lower half of that
range, and though I’ve never been poor; I can certainly empathize with the
stresses. My abilities make picking up
on those stress vibes very easy; and Marcie’s parents were definitely feeling under
pressure tonight while trying to give their little girl the best birthday they
could. They had family support for that,
but it was impossible for me to miss the underlying sense of worry as scarce
money was used for gifts and the party that would have gone to paying bills and
daily living costs.
We’re working on helping out everyone in Witch Falls with
our future plans; but I’ve again been reminded tonight that those changes and
improvement in the lives of my friends and neighbors can’t come fast enough for
some. We should think about making a
list, checking it twice, and putting some families at the top of the ‘nice’
list so that they start getting help sooner than later.
As you’re reading this in the future, I hope that everyone
has a better life in your time; but don’t read those thoughts the wrong way –
especially since ‘poor’ is relative in Witch Falls. Nobody is starving or financially destitute,
but that doesn’t change the fact that I could easily write a check and make the
financial stresses for families like Marcie’s go away forever. The problem is that I can’t do that for
everyone in the world, no matter how much I wish that I could; and we want to
make a difference without blowing our super-hero secret identities.
The good news is that I can find some work on the side for
Marcie’s parents between now and Christmas that might just fall into their laps
in the next week or so – just in time to help them out with the extra money
they’d like to have coming in between now and Christmas. I’ll see about some longer-term help for them
after that, and though there won’t be high-paying tech jobs at the lab for
everyone, there will be lots of opportunities around here for everyone.
I hope that Marcie didn’t spend a second thinking about
finances or money today, but in addition to those musings; my thoughts have
been focused on the information I was getting all night about Magi and latent
teens – and the adults too to a lesser extent.
The teens in particular are very interesting right now; and not just
because I am one – or officially will be in a few months.
Raging hormones have quite the effect on the auras of both
Magi and Latent teens. That isn’t a new
discovery at all, but my understanding of the phenomenon seems to grow more
rapidly at parties and bigger events than at other times. I’m definitely getting closer to defining a
‘normal’ range in which the ‘power’ level of those auras can fluctuate. I’d love to have another example like Violet
to study, but there aren’t any teens in my class – or in Grades nine or seven –
with that potential to ‘cross over’. It
appears that a latent basically needs to be bursting at the seams and on the
edge of that line to make the leap to Magi; which would explain why it’s so
rare for that to happen.
While the Magi-latent study fascinates me, so does the
interaction of families – and how Magi and latent abilities have manifested
through the centuries. The Sheldons, for
instance, are of the original settlers – the Magi – yet the only Magi in their
family are through marriage; and just a few of the children from those
marriages. Sure, the latent potential is
high, but there’s no obvious reason for why the Magi in their family tree is so
comparatively weak to other original families.
The next-closest original family to the Sheldon’s for that
problem was actually mine – and I guess the Carringtons were there too; but
that’s all changed now. The Proctors
have the first ‘home grown’ Magi Masters in three centuries, and if Zack’s
potential is any indication; the next generations of the Carringtons are going
to be very strong Magi too. I guess that
leaves room for hope that the same can happen for any of the Magi families; but
I can’t help but wonder if we could do things to make that outcome happen – and
if we could; whether we should.
Answering those questions won’t happen tonight, but Ethan,
Ehlana, and I continue to sense that the Magi part of our collective future
will be changing in a major way in our lifetime. How much we actually get involved with how
that happens isn’t at all clear to us; but I’m sure that it will be an exciting
part of our future in Witch
Falls.
Returning to the party report, dinner was a buffet, finger
food event; and while the adults sat in the dining room, the rest of us pretty
much just found someplace to sit with our plates and eat – in the kitchen,
living room, or den; depending on what we wanted to do and who we were hanging
out with. We all crowded into the dining
room to do the cake and ice cream thing – and while Marcie opened her
gifts. Cleaning up after dinner was a
collaborative effort that about half of the guys dodged; and then Rowen and I
were with a few of the other girls in the den who were watching the guys play
video games while we had a little quiet girl chat time. We didn’t get to spend a lot of time with
Marcie; partly because she was spending most of her time in the living room
with the teens that wanted to watch their favorite Thursday night shows instead
of gaming – not that we would have all fit in either room anyway.
I keep up with the latest in entertainment and favorite
shows as much as I keep up with news and sports, but I’ve never really been
able to faithfully watch television series.
That has less to do with being a Magi Master than with my hyperactivity. Waiting to find out what happens next week is
not one of my strengths – not to mention totally unnecessary if I really wanted
to know.
If I temporarily lost you there, no, I wouldn’t need to use
the Sight to find out – those shows are filmed well in advance of air date; so
they’re history, not future events.
Watching them would be an option, if I chose to use the energy to do
that – though it would take using a lot of power; and I would never do that for
something that unimportant.
That’s getting off-track again, but my point is that I’d
even rather watch Michael play video games with his buddies when the other
choice is teen-targeted television.
Ditto that for crime or medical dramas, and even though I’ve come to
really love playing music; you can put reality talent shows at the top of my
television disinterest list. Let’s just
not go there and move along with the news of the day.
While we were at Marcie’s party, Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I
missed out on game night at the Inn. I missed having my usual Thursday evening
time with Michael’s parents and sister too, but the trade-off play time with
our friends was pretty good; so I’m not complaining. Our family and friends managed to have fun at
the Inn without us; and I heard all about it
after getting home from Marcie’s party at around ten-thirty. The party was over at ten, but Michael and I
spent a little time saying goodnight to each other on his front porch after
splitting up from Tim and Rowen on the way home. We were still there when Rowen eventually got
to her house, so it’s possible that she and Tim managed to find someplace
private for a little goodnight moment of their own – like maybe in the farm
equipment yard at Landry’s; but Rowen wasn’t online when I eventually got up to
my room and started working on my computer, so I won’t know the answer to that
until tomorrow. Tim didn’t walk her all
the way home, but she waved before going inside; so he was probably watching
her from the other end of the street before heading the rest of the way home too.
Our goodnight kiss was one of my favorite moments of the
day, but my night wasn’t over after that.
Ethan and Ehlana were in bed by the time I got home, but Mom and Dad
were working in the office – catching up on what they didn’t get done while at
the Inn tonight. I had a hot chocolate
and a chat with them before Mom did my Magi lesson. That took about an hour, so it was after
eleven-thirty by the time I headed up to my room. I stopped on the way up to check in on Ethan
and Ehlana, and while he slept through my kiss and getting tucked in again;
Ehlana woke up and we had a quick chat before she had a bathroom break and I
tucked her in again too.
Since I needed to wind down, I played my keyboard for a half
hour, and then got to work on my computer.
There isn’t anything interesting to report from my bonus studies, and I
really am pretty much ready to sleep now; so I’d better get to that and be as
charged up as I can be to help my friends cheer for our team at the big game. Football may not be my thing, but that game
should make for a pretty good start to the weekend – at least it will if our
team wins!
Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
