It was very cold again this morning, and since everyone had
a full day of holiday gossip; the weather was back up near the top of the Ridge River
grapevine network. We’re supposed to get
a bit of a break from the deep cold for a day or two – including the
near-freezing high we hit this afternoon; but then we’re also supposed to get a
bit more snow on Saturday and then start plunging back into the bitter-cold by
sometime on Sunday.
The cold didn’t really affect my day unless you want to
count a couple of chilly walks with Rowen.
We won’t count needing to help my boyfriend warm up from his early
morning walk over for Tai Chi because that was a lot of fun for both of us. He was helping out with some jobs at the Inn all morning; and headed home to get ready to do that
right after Tai Chi. I haven’t done a
Tai Chi update in a while; so let’s do that before moving along.
Now that we’ve mostly been exercising indoors for the past
two months, Michael, Ethan, and Ehlana are really doing great learning the
different forms and postures. They won’t
be able to just come out to the river in the spring and show all of those new
skills off like they can when we’re in the house and alone; but we will kick things
up a notch or three to make our morning exercises more fun for all of us. Mom and Dad are great together, and I think
that Michael and I will be that good together or better; but Ethan and Ehlana
are a bit scary they’re so good. They
assure us that it’s a twin thing, and I don’t doubt that; but that doesn’t make
watching them any less amazing.
After Michael left to go home and get ready for his morning
at the Inn, I helped Mom with making breakfast
while Dad got ready for work and Ethan and Ehlana got changed and cleaned
up. While we don’t usually do hot
morning meals on weekdays, we added eggs and hash browns to the menu; along
with bakery croissants and muffins that we warmed up right before we sat down
to eat. Ethan and Ehlana talked our
parents into inviting Naomi, Aiden, and Sophia over for a sleepover; and got my
okay to use the lounge for their movie night – and possibly to camp there
overnight too. I thought that was a
great idea, but for some reason, Dad had a problem with my suggestion that
Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I could do that kind of co-ed sleepover next weekend.
I wonder why?
Mom and I took care of the breakfast clean-up too, and then
I gave my rooms a once-over; grabbed a shower; started a load of laundry; and
had a visit with Mom in the office while waiting to move that load from the
washer to the dryer. She was doing a
family business work morning, so Ethan and Ehlana were playing on their iPads
while she did that. Once I had the dryer
going, I headed out and over to meet up with Rowen and the computer store.
We weren’t doing any work there, but went next door with
Owen to the old Electric and Light store to take a look around. Those stores, like most in town, are very
close together; and part of the renovation will be to connect them. That’ll actually be one of the biggest jobs;
though there are a couple of other changes that Owen wants to make, and those
three jobs will be about half of the renovation time – as well as among the
first jobs. While, as with their own
place, the Electric and Light business had both a store and workshop-storage
room; the data center won’t have a store.
Most of their business will be contracted, and what little local
business it will have they can handle through the computer store.
After looking around today, I’d say that their two-month
schedule should be easy to work with; and they’ll end up having lots of time
for the servers and network infrastructure that Owen will install himself –
though it sounds as though he may contract Jenny’s father to help out if he
needs the extra hands for wiring everything.
He’s definitely like a kid in a candy store when it comes to the new
toys he’s getting to play with for this – just as he still is when building the
custom notebooks for Mom. Some of the
equipment is already arriving; and he’ll be building servers and the rest of
the systems over the next month or so while the renovations are done; and then
have two or three weeks to get everything installed and up and running.
After doing our tour of the future data center, Rowen and I
stopped in to visit my grandparents for a while; and then she came home with me
for lunch. We were meeting up with
Michael and Tim for some more tobogganing after lunch; and Ethan and Ehlana
were allowed to go with us today – along with Naomi and Aiden. We added Jessica, Ryan, and Sophia to the
group at the last minute; and then headed over to our favorite hill along the
ridge at a bit after one o’clock.
I know that some of my friends and classmates don’t like
hanging out with their younger or older siblings, but we had a blast with our
little gang; and Rowen even had fun when Patrick, Scott, and Lindsay joined us
to play too. That was partly because the
two pranksters only needed to get one look from Tim to dissuade them from even
attempting a second prank – and had them aborting the first one. There’s one more little bonus for Rowen in
the boyfriend department!
We played for nearly two hours; brought everyone back to my
house; and did the hot chocolate, snacks, and sledding recap with Mom before it
was time for Jessica and Ryan to go home; and for Michael, Rowen, and me to go
with Tim to his house. I needed to pack
an overnight bag and drop it off at Rowen’s on the way; but we were still home
with time to play video games for a while until Tim’s parents got home from the
shop.
I really liked getting to spend more time with Tim’s parents
tonight. Michael obviously knows them
very well, and Rowen is getting to know them better since starting to date Tim,
but even when we’ve had our study sessions at Landry’s Auto; I haven’t spent
all that much time just talking with Martin or Tracey. Between dinner and the Bowl games tonight; we
got to have hours of chat time and fun with them. They’re different than my parents, but then
they’re alike in many ways too. Tim’s father
is definitely more like my Dad than his older brother. Tracey is more outgoing, but then that’s not
as obvious compared to her very active and enthusiastic sister-in-law.
What was most interesting for me with Tim’s parents was
getting to discover those little things about them – and people in general –
that you don’t get to know from casual acquaintance. That kind of understanding and familiarity
comes a little bit at a time; and we moved that along tonight. I don’t think I’ll get into that tonight, but
that’s only because I want to write a bit about Magi in a mixed family instead.
By the time any of the teens involved can read this in the
future, it won’t matter; though I still have issues with the Magi council’s
secrecy when it comes to Magi kids and teens.
Tim’s family is different than mine, Rowen’s, or Michael’s
because his father knows more about Magi than Jacob does; but he also isn’t a
Magi either. He and Jacob both know more
than Rowen’s parents do; but since Martin was there when his wife threw a
combine off of his brother and watched Mom, Uncle Adam, and me heal Lee; he’s
seen more Magi action than possibly every non-Magi in town that knows about
us. I don’t know how much else Tracey
has shared with him; but I think that it’s a safe bet that he knows more about
his son’s abilities than Jacob knows about Michael.
Okay, that news won’t be a surprise for any Magi in the
future; but I know it would be for certain teens if they knew about it right
here in my now.
That’s one of the reasons why I’m writing about this
tonight. Rowen’s parents know almost
nothing about her abilities, so things like dating wouldn’t have that added
component to them, but that’s different for Tim’s parents; and I wonder how
that affects mixed couples when it comes to having their children enter the
dating scene. I would expect that
two-Magi parents would naturally hope for a Magi partner for their children;
but that might not be the case for Tim’s parents. In Martin’s case, he may not even know enough
about all of the Magi to even speculate about that, though he does know about
me; and that’s a mental trail I’ll skip walking along. He probably does wonder how the two fired-up
and hyper-active members of our little teen foursome ended up with two of the
quietest teens our age instead of together; but then he isn’t the only person
in town to wonder about that.
Don’t take that the wrong way, because Tim’s parents
absolutely adore Rowen; and think that she’s very good for him – especially in
the education department as his grades improve the more time he spends with
Rowen and me. That may sound odd when
Tim has had the advantage of being best friends with one of the best students
in the school his entire life; but there’s no doubt that Rowen is having more
of an impact on him than Michael ever could.
One other thing that I wanted to mention is that Tim’s
parents are very proud of him. That can
be said for most parents, but the reason I bring it up is because Tim is in a
similar situation to his father. While
Martin was over-shadowed by his big brother, Tim has that issue with his older
cousins; and his best friend is a top student and extremely talented in both
music and sports. Sure, he has the whole
Magi thing, and it’s probable that neither Tracey nor Martin know about
Michael; but that isn’t something they can brag about. What I’m getting at is that Tim is outwardly
a pretty normal, average kid when it comes to his ‘public’ self. Yes, he’s also popular, handsome, and
out-going; but I find it interesting the different approaches each of us kid,
teen, and adult Magi take to developing our personal and public lives.
Oh, and by the time you read this, Tracey; your son is going
to be more than the best you ever dreamed or hoped for. Yes, Ethan, Ehlana, and I do know something;
and no, I can’t tell you about it now – and maybe not even all of it in the
future.
So we had a finger-food dinner that was a mix of options
from Chinese food to wings and potato skins; and then the teens in the house
got to do the clean-up despite Tim’s protests about hosting – not that he
really tried to get out of the work all that hard. He may talk tough, but I’ll guess that his
mother gets what she wants from both of her favorite boys pretty much every
time. That’s something refreshingly cool
about Tim’s family – it’s the girl in their trio who gets spoiled by the guys
instead of the only child.
Yeah, Tim does get to have some pretty cool toys, but then
so do his parents; and the girl who was given a bedroom suite by her adoptive
father is not going to comment on anyone else when it comes to being spoiled.
We finished the clean-up shortly after the first game
started, and then we joined Tim’s parents in the living room to watch football
for the rest of the evening. Martin,
Tim, and Michael had fun talking football together while Tracey, Rowen, and I
cuddled with our boys and often had our own chat going on ex-football. This was the first time I started to feel
that sense of family and belonging while at Tim’s house; and I hope that we get
to have more nights like this.
There really isn’t much else to report for that part of our
night. The guys flipped between games,
and Michael, Rowen, and I stayed until the end of the second game before
Michael walked Rowen and me home to her house.
It was colder again by then, so he and I didn’t spend much time on our
goodnight kiss; and Rowen assured me that the one she shared with Tim before we
left was better – mostly because they made some excuse to go off to his room so
they could take care of that without company watching them.
We weren’t surprised to find out that Scott was spending the
night too, and since he and Patrick had watched the bowl games with Owen; they
were still awake and fired up. What was
surprising is that they were good while we were hanging out together with
Rowen’s parents and having a bedtime snack; and they didn’t even try to prank
us or play any jokes at all.
Maybe they’ve made a New Year’s resolution not to do that
anymore. We can hope.
So after that little visit, Rowen and I got ready for bed;
and have been chatting and surfing the web since climbing into bed for the
night. We talked about everything from
our quickly dwindling supply of vacation days to the joys of alone time with
our boyfriends while Rowen browsed her way through YouTube vids and I’ve done a
light version of my nightly computing.
I’ve skipped talking with her about most of this journal update for
obvious reasons; but she’s preoccupied with the alone time she’s hoping to have
with Tim tomorrow night while Michael and I have our own plans for one last
play night at my house before we’ll be going back to school on Monday.
While we do have two days left before that inevitable event,
we don’t have any holiday-type plans for the weekend. It’ll be a normal work weekend for Michael;
I’ll have my normal Saturday chores; and Rowen will be at the computer store
for her usual Saturday morning shift.
We’re going to get together with Michael and Tim during Michael’s afternoon
break for a study session; though Rowen, Michael, and I all pretty much have
our holiday assignments finished anyway, so that’s mostly for show – and to
help Tim. I may go and hang out at the Inn for a while too, but this should mostly be a quiet,
rest-up weekend.
I won’t see Grandma and Grandpa again before they leave
early in the morning; but I’ll keep track of them whenever they’re travelling;
and it’ll be fun to see how difficult it is for me to keep track of their links
when they’re so far away – especially in India and Pakistan. Since many of these trips are to places they
probably wouldn’t have travelled to on their own; I’m really glad that they get
to have those experiences now – even though we miss them a lot while they’re
away.
That’s all I have for now, so I’m going to put my computer
away and let Rowen chat me off to sleep.
I don’t want to be too tired for that Michael and me time; or anything
else we end up doing this weekend.
Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
