The girls’ night at my house was a top story for some of the
girls at school today; though I’m not sure whether that’s because it was a slow
news day or Rowen and I managed to pull off a socially successful event. Either way, I am glad that our friends had
fun; Rebecca did seem to be happier today; and she and Jenny seem to be a bit
better today too.
It was no surprise to anyone that football was the top news
story for the guys, and Michael and Tim were right in the middle of that –
especially during their weight training with Kyle and the other guys this
morning and at lunchtime. While there
are quite a few Peyton Manning supporters among the guys, they’re mostly
rooting for the injury-comeback story – or they’re Colts fans wishing he was
still playing for Indianapolis. That’s likely why the Broncos have the edge
in support here for the Super Bowl; but neither team really has any die-hard
fans in Witch Falls.
That won’t put a damper on any Super Bowl parties around here; but there
would be more enthusiasm if other favored teams were going to be in ‘the show’
this year.
We had a fairly quiet day at school; though this is a long
weekend that really doesn’t feel like one – at least compared to the big,
summer holidays or Thanksgiving. Band
practices are fun – especially now that we have some experience with concerts
and parades that make all of the work feel worthwhile. Tim feels a bit left out while Michael,
Rowen, and I are at band practice, but he manages to stay entertained while
waiting for our study session at the computer store – whether that’s watching
basketball practices in the gym or hanging out with other teens around the
school.
There isn’t anything exciting to report from doing our
homework; though we did get to do a tour of the future data center after the
work crew wrapped up for the day; and it’s coming along great so far. They still have six weeks to go before the
grand opening plans for the first weekend in March, and a lot of the work won’t
seem to be as dramatic as the remodel is; but it’s still cool to watch it all
come together. Rowen’s parents won’t
ever be rivaling Google or Microsoft for data storage capacity, but they are
going to have some cutting-edge technology that’s really cool – literally if
you count the special air-conditioning and liquid-cooled systems for the
servers.
Michael and I needed to make that tour fairly short because
we needed to be back at my house in time for dinner. One of the reasons we were hanging out at my
house tonight was so that we could do a joint Magi lesson with Mom. I love working with Rowen too when we get the
chance to do that, but it’s even more special with Michael – especially when we
get to create things together. That
feels very much the same as it does when we’re playing music, singing, or doing
our Tai Chi forms.
If Mo and I are both still around whenever you read this in
our future, remind me to thank her for agreeing to go on that detour to check
out this amazing little town with what I thought was an ironic name at the
time; just in case I haven’t done that lately in your ‘now’. Talk about a tiny little decision having a
life-changing impact! That’s actually a
perfect example of why the Sight can be so difficult to use when even a
seemingly unimportant choice turns out to have an enormous impact on the
future. In case you’re wondering, yes, I
wanted to make that side trip and felt good about doing it; but I also had
absolutely no clue about what was to come in those next months. That changed the first time Ethan and Ehlana
had me use my Sight together with them, but as I’ve mentioned before - keep in
mind that what we do see is still what’s supposed to happen; not necessarily
what will.
Moving along, we didn’t do anything fancy for dinner – just
soup and bakery bun mini-subs; so the clean-up that Michael and I took care of
was easy. Mom did Ethan and Ehlana’s
Magi lesson first, so Michael and I had our music practice then before taking
our turn at some Magi play time. The
council is taking baby steps with new Magi training, and it would be impossible
for Mom to do lessons with all of the kids and teens anyway; but Michael is
really making remarkable progress. Dad,
Aunt Leanne, and Uncle Adam have learned a lot since they started working with
Mom and me, but they’ve also needed to adapt and even unlearn habits that hold
them back from full use of their abilities.
Michael and Rowen have been much more adaptable and accepting of new
techniques; and that’s helping them to become more powerful Magi than they
would have been without Mom’s help.
That makes me wonder how that will affect Gwyneth. I’m certainly not suggesting that being
trained by Corwyn Hathorne would have been better for her, since I sure didn’t
want that for myself and wouldn’t wish it on anyone; but Gawain and Kellie are
as limited in their abilities to train her as the Magi here would have been if
they’d attempted to train me without the archives or Mom’s knowledge and
experience. Add to that the fact that
Gwyneth is so much more powerful than her tutors and has shown some real lack
of morality from what we know; and it’s a bit scary to think about how wild and
dangerous she could turn out to be – not to mention the risks to everyone
around her if she just experiments with her abilities and learns what she can
do by trial and error. I sometimes wish
that there was something I could do to help Gwyneth, since we are related; but
I don’t think she’d accept what I’d have to offer – even if doing that was
possible now.
That train of thought brings up a lot of
what-might-have-been possibilities; but I really don’t want to go there –
especially right before I go to sleep. I
do occasionally have nightmares about what life might have been like for me if
I’d grown up as Kirsten Hathaway; and try not to think about that very often.
The good news is that I can dream about the bit of alone
time that Michael and I had tonight after we did the bedtime routing with Ethan
and Ehlana. We only had a half hour or
so for that because he wanted to get home early; and I was okay with getting an
early start on my bedtime studies and work; but we did our very best to take
advantage of every minute we did have; and we were happy campers by the time he
headed home. I got changed; climbed into
bed with Mandy; and spent the last, not-quite three hours getting all of my
studies done. It’s not that far past one
o’clock, but I’m ahead of my study and work schedule; and even got some of my
family business work done that was on my plate for after-school tomorrow. That works, since we have a family business
and future plans meeting after dinner tomorrow; and I’d like to have an early
night to get some extra sleep ahead of a couple of birthday party days on
Thursday and Friday.
It’s a good thing this is just a four-day school week; or
I’d need to sleep for half the weekend to catch up from all of the action! Getting some down time right now sounds
pretty good too, though, so...
...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
