Happy 11th Birthday, Scott!
I had no involvement at all in Scott’s birthday fun today –
other than the gift that Rowen, Tim, Michael, and I got for him; and Rowen took
care of getting it to him for us. We did
see Patrick and Scott around town a couple of times today, but they were busy
with their friends; and didn’t even stop to talk with us.
There was more than one reason for that, and though they’ve
gotten used to the fact that Rowen and I both have boyfriends now; it seems to
be something that Patrick and Scott both think about more around this time of
year when they each ‘catch up’ to us again and are only two years younger than
we are. I think that was an even bigger
deal for Scott in particular today because of having Dawn and Jillian
here. They’re about halfway between us
in age, and though that only makes Patrick and Scott one year younger than them
despite being two grades behind my cousin and her friend; Dawn and Jillian are
into the tween growth spurt that’s left Rowen’s brother and best friend looking
like kids by comparison. Seeing that
difference between Rowen and me, Dawn and Jillian, and them was something that
I could tell affected both boys.
I’ve usually only thought about my age from the perspective
of being one of the youngest in my grade.
Scott and Patrick obviously have the opposite problem with being among
the oldest thanks to their March and April birthdays. That bothers them with situations like they
have with Rowen and me, but I think that they might appreciate the advantages a
bit more in the not to distant future – particularly when the girls their own
age hit their big, tween growth spurt stage and their enough older to not fall
too far behind the girls in their class.
The taller guys in our class definitely had an advantage with the girls
then; and felt less-awkward than the guys who had to deal with temporarily
being several inches shorter than most of the girls their age.
This update is meandering around a bit, but before I try to
get back on track, I’ll also mention that Patrick and Scott weren’t the only
guys noticing Dawn and Jillian today.
That fact might scare their fathers, considering how things are working
out for Violet and Dillon; but I doubt that they actually have anything to
worry about. Dawn and Jillian enjoyed
the attention and even flirted a bit while we were watching the football
scrimmage at the school football field this afternoon. That was almost as strange for me to see guys
that I know taking that kind of notice of Dawn as it was the first year
Rebecca, Jenny, and some of the other girls started hanging out with Chris and
Martin the first summer after they’d crossed over.
That thought does lead me down another little side trip
involving two of my classmates. Gretchen
and Elliott have broken up this week.
There’s some ambiguity about whether it’s ‘official’ or not yet, but
since Elliott was one of the guys taking notice of my cousin today in a way
that strongly suggested he considers himself a single man again; I don’t think
that it matters whether their break up is official or not. I’ve mentioned their deteriorating
relationship before, and didn’t expect Gretchen to be all that upset about her
change in social status; but I gave Sally a call just to be sure – and then invited
both of them to our dinner, movie, and sleepover night tomorrow.
That’s going to be yet another late night for me, and it’s
already late now; so I’d better move this report along so I can get some rest
and be ready for another day of fun and excitement.
Michael ended up skipping Tai Chi so that he could help with
the breakfast rush at the Inn instead – and
get a bit more time during the day to spend with us. While Tai Chi for four was still nice, I
missed the good morning hugs and kisses.
Mom, Rowen, and I cooked up a pancakes and bacon breakfast, and then we
were also on the clean-up crew with Dawn and Jillian while Mom got Ethan and
Ehlana ready for a bonus play day at KidZone with their friends. That was mostly so that Mom could have a
catch-up work day, and she was also running errands all morning so that she
didn’t have to do groceries and supply shopping on Friday. We were set free for the day once the kitchen
was clean; with our only instructions being to be at the Inn for lunch with
Grandma and Grandpa and then home by no later than six for the dinner part of
our evening entertainment plans.
Rowen temporarily split up with us then so that she could
take her overnight bag home; grab her bike; and deliver Scott’s birthday
present on her way to get Tim before meeting up with us again at the Inn. Dawn,
Jillian, and I helped Mom with getting the twins into the minivan, and once
they’d left; we got three bikes out of the storage barn and had time for a ride
around the new section of town on our way to the Inn. There really hadn’t been all that much
visible progress there since the last time Dawn had seen it, and Aunt Grace and
Uncle Mark were both out when we rode past their place so she couldn’t see
either of them again; but they still liked getting to see everything again and
it gave us something to do while waiting for Rowen and Tim – and for Michael to
finish up at the Inn so he could hang out with us too.
It’s been a really great weather day, and once we were
together and ready to go; we spent the entire morning riding our bikes except
for a stop at the Emporium to get snacks and our break to have those drinks and
munchies at the falls. This time, we
biked south into the valley and did a big country loop that covered about
fifteen miles. That part of our ride was
first, and after our break; we biked over to the park and rode the mail trail
there after checking out the lab and medical center construction sites. We did some teen socializing at the park too;
and that pretty much took care of the rest of the time we had until needing to
go back to the Inn for lunch.
While Grandma and Grandpa were hosting the lunch
specifically to spend time with Violet, Dillon, Dawn, and Jillian; they’d
invited the cousins too; so we had a fairly large group. Since my cousins and their friends were
sitting with my grandparents while we ate, Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I took care
of Ethan, Ehlana, Zack, and Leah so that our parents could enjoy the meal too
along with a bit of adult chat time.
That was an hour-long blast of fun, and then we were set free again to
play for the afternoon.
Dawn wanted to go canoeing, so we biked over to my house and
put three canoes in the water before heading upriver. We could safely paddle for forty-five minutes
before needing to turn around and head back so the boys would have time to get
to Kyle’s football scrimmage; and we spent the entire hour and a half enjoying
the first canoe trip for any of us of the year.
The water was still very, very cold; but we didn’t even have any close
calls with getting dunked in the river – though Tim joked about it a few times. Michael and Tim stayed long enough to make
sure we got all of the canoes back into the storage barn and then they went on
to the school ahead of the rest of us while Rowen and I took care of the rest
of the gear – paddles, life jackets, and the little cooler bag we’d taken along
for drinks.
By the time we got to the football field, the scrimmage had
already started; and there was a pretty good crowd of teens watching the action. Kyle had a good turnout of players too,
though that included some of the younger guys like Michael and Tim; and meant
that they couldn’t play full-tackle without worrying about injuring them. I know that Tim wants to make the team as a
freshman this coming season, but if he and Michael do get to play; I hope there
aren’t any guys playing against them who are as big and fast as Kyle is –
especially since I wouldn’t be able to get away with healing them of any major
injuries.
A bit surprisingly, that hour and a half was one of the best
parts of the day for me. Getting to
watch Michael and Tim do pretty well keeping up with the mostly bigger guys was
entertaining – especially when they each had a couple of moments when they did
a lot more than keep up while scoring touchdowns. The action on the sidelines was where the
real entertainment; though there were dashes here and there of teen weird too.
Seeing the guys checking out Dawn and Jillian was part of
the weird, but so was seeing Jenny acting a bit too chummy with Joel. They weren’t doing anything improper, but
Jenny sure had some eyebrows raised, and while Garth wasn’t at the scrimmage; I
have no doubt that one of his football buddies has mentioned it to him by
now. He won’t be happy to hear that his
girlfriend was spending so much time with one of her ex-boyfriends, and from
some of the stories we heard today; she’s spent a fair bit of time with Joel
while Garth’s been spending most of his March Break helping out at his family
farm and greenhouses.
That wasn’t the only teen drama going on around us, and that
was almost entirely due to visiting teens mingling with locals. It isn’t as if that dynamic is new to me; but
it does sometimes leave me baffled at the games that get played. Peer pressure and showing off always seem to
kick up a few notches when there are new kids and teens around to try and
impress – or at least overcome our small town image.
While Rowen, Dawn, Jillian, and I had fun chatting with the
other girls and commenting on both the football action and the guys who were
more interested in girl-watching than in the game; we were also ready to head
for home again when Michael needed to leave for the dinner shift at the
Inn. That put us back at home early, but
Violet, Ehlana, and Naomi were there with Mom, and we found out that Ethan was
hanging out with Aiden so that we could have a girls-only dinner.
I’m sure that Tim was glad that he’d stayed for bonus
football time instead when he found out about that; though he and Michael
weren’t going to hang out with us this evening anyway.
It was still very warm by then, so Mom decided to fire up
the grill and cook some chicken to go with a veggie and rice casserole and Olde
Bakery buns and dessert; so Violet, Rowen, and I helped with the work while
Dawn and Jillian played with Ehlana and Naomi in the yard. We ate, cleaned up, and then went for a walk
to the park; where we eventually gave Naomi back to her father and collected
Ethan from the Drapers. Violet and
Dillon had plans with some of their friends then, so Violet headed out again
shortly after we got home; and Rowen, Dawn, Jillian, and I came up to the
lounge to watch a movie.
Rowen stayed for that, but then she went home when we took a
break to help do the bedtime story for Ethan and Ehlana; and get them tucked
into their beds for the night. Dawn and
Jillian were up for more movies; so we got ready for bed and then flaked out on
the sofa in the lounge again to start a mini-marathon. Jillian lasted through one more show, but
then fell asleep shortly after the start of the next one; and Dawn crashed
about mid-way through that movie. I left
them in the lounge after that and climbed into my own bed. Mandy had briefly considered getting up from
where she was sleeping next to Jillian and joining me; but decided the effort
wasn’t worth it and went back to sleep instead.
I had some family business work to do, and my nightly
computing took a bit longer than I’d expected because of that; so it’s now past
one-thirty. Rowen wasn’t online, but I
did have a chat with Michael before he went off to sleep; and it sounds as
though they had a busy night at the Inn – even
without game night. We’re running out of
March Break time way too fast now, but we still have another two full days of
fun ahead before Dawn and Jillian will need to head home on Sunday – and
Violet, Dillon, Christina, and Josiah leave for college again too.
We didn’t really get to spend any time with Christina or
Josiah today; but at least we will see them tomorrow night when they’re here
with Violet and Dillon – and Christina and Violet are doing the girls’
sleepover with us too. Our plans for the
daytime hours tomorrow aren’t all that much different from today; though Rowen,
Dawn, Jillian, and I are going to do a bit of shopping in the morning while Michael
and Tim are busy. Biking, canoeing, and
football will likely be pretty much the same as today except for different
destinations.
I guess that’s it for tonight, and while I missed out on
good morning and good night kisses with Michael today, everything else was
really great; and tomorrow is going to be even better! I’m off to dreamland now, so, until next
time...
...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
