Happy 19th Birthday, Dillon!
I hope he’s having a good day, but we only
managed to exchange a text message with him this morning, and while I sent him
an email tonight; he hasn’t answered it yet.
He’s probably just busy with his studies unless Violet managed to find
something better for him to do instead.
Depending on what Dillon was doing with his
classes and assignments, it’s possible that we had more fun here at home than
he did for his birthday. It was cool
outside this morning, but the need to exercise by the river again just had us
bundling up a bit so we could do that.
Hot chocolate or coffee with breakfast helped warm us up again; though
good morning and goodbye kisses with Michael before and after Tai Chi had me
feeling fairly warm anyway. Though the
twins were having a ‘home’ day, Ehlana and I still played dress up and did our
hair this morning before I left to meet up with Rowen and walk to school, so I
was in a really good mood by then; and Michael appreciated the results of our
efforts when he saw me again.
Easter was again the big news of the day
around the school and town, but everyone in our class is getting regular
reminders about our upcoming trip to Washington too; and we’re all getting more
and more excited about our impending capitol adventure that will be starting a
week from Sunday. There’s some teen
stress that goes with that for some of our friends; though that’s almost
entirely boyfriend-girlfriend problems, with a dash here and there of travel
worries and some social anxiety.
Let’s take those one at a time. I don’t know what it is about trips, or maybe
it’s just spring fever; but in a small group of teens, you really notice it
when six of them are having relationship problems. The couples that are having trouble are
Vanessa and Allen, Nora and Brock, and Denise and Kris. In the first two cases, Vanessa and Nora are
not happy with their boyfriends for various reasons, while Kris seems to be the
one looking for a way out of his relationship with Denise – one of the longest
in our collective and short dating history.
All of that seems strange and sad to me when spending the week in
Washington with Michael is one of the things I’m looking forward to the most;
but what I’m picking up through my empathy is telling me that at least some of
my classmates want to be single and free for the trip – and probably so that
they can play the field this summer too.
Yeah, I know it’s a small field; but then
there are more teens around here during the holidays, and Jenny isn’t the only
teen with an interest in dating teens from outside of Witch Falls. I’ll leave the dating game problems there and
move along to the travel and social problems.
Fear of flying for a few of my friends
includes dealing with all of the security at airports; and even my parents’
brush with air travel disaster on the way home from their honeymoon is
something that has come up recently. I’m
not afraid of any of that, but I can relate; and have done what I can to help
those classmates. Don’t get me started
on airport security. I really hope that
by the time you’re reading this in the future that people have come to their
senses and stop being so ridiculously intrusive into everyone’s lives.
Finally, the social stresses range from
separation anxiety from family and friends – like when Gil will be on the trip;
but not with Alicia – to worries about lack of spending money compared to
friends. I’ll help wherever I can with
both of those problems; though the money thing can get a bit tricky, so I might
need to recruit some help to make that work without risk of making someone
uncomfortable. I just hope that we can
all have a great trip and adventure together; though helping everyone won’t be
an option no matter how much I’d like to do that.
All of that has been as important to some
of us as the actual trip updates and preparation have been. The most important information that Mr. Ayres
talked about with us today was probably the suggestions and list he had to help
us pack for our trip – particularly since we each have a limit of one carry-on
and one checked bag; which will be particularly important on the return trip if
we take too much with us. I’ll need to
be as careful with that as any of the other girls; since I won’t be able to use
my Magi gifts to pack, sneak extra luggage onto the plane, or pop home with a
load of extra stuff using a time-phase – no matter how much fun it might be to
try one or all of those options! ;^)
Moving along, there isn’t much else to
report from our time at school; and our study session didn’t take long because
we really didn’t have that much to do tonight when our last day before the
Easter holiday is not going to be very productive tomorrow. The fun kicked up a few notches when we
picked up our bikes, the trailer, and Ethan and Ehlana and headed out for a
bike ride. As usual, we did a
construction site tour before going to the park; and then it was time for our
favorite boys to play some football at the park. Rowen, Ehlana, and I watched them for a while
and talked to the other girls and guys watching the action on the field; but
then we went over to the playground once Ethan had a chance to play with
Michael and Tim a couple of times. For
the record with that, Ethan still gets carried for most of those football
plays; but Michael now gets him to finish off the plays with running whenever
he can while ‘blocking’ for his little buddy.
We’ve had a sunny afternoon with
temperatures in the sixties; and that helped to make all of our park time a lot
of fun. When it was time to take Ethan
and Ehlana and go home for dinner; we brought Michael with us and kept him for
the evening while Rowen and Tim moved on to their own plans for the evening. Life should slow down a bit for Rowen now that
her parents can take a short break between tax day and the upcoming work on the
lab computer systems; but Tim’s parents may be a bit busier in the near future
as we get into all of the farm work that happens in the spring – and possibly
some personal vehicle sales thanks to tax refunds.
Our evening at home included a pasta and
salad dinner; a group Magi lesson; some play time for Michael and me with the
twins while Mom did some work in the office; and a full bath and bedtime
routine for Ethan and Ehlana before they were tucked into bed for the
night. Michael and I took care of the
bath, snack, story, and getting them tucked in for the night; and then we had
nearly an hour of quality alone time available to us before he needed to head
home. I won’t weird out any of the
parents reading this in the future; but we did take advantage of the
opportunity, and I’m a very happy camper tonight.
That left me with the choice between doing
less work and studying or stay up late; so I’ve compromised and worked until a
quarter to one before moving on to a short version of my nightly computer
checks and this update. I was shooting
for lights-out by one, and missed that; but there were some extra email
floating around because of the holiday weekend, and it took a bit longer to get
through them. There’s certainly a lot
going on around the family that we won’t be involved with at all here, and
though I’d like to spend some time with my cousins; I’m glad that they’re going
to all have as much fun as I expect we will during the holiday.
I’m not going to get as much sleep tonight
to get ready for all of that fun as I’d expected, so I’d better wrap this up
and get what rest I can before it’ll be time to come back to life and get going
again. Until next time…
…Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the
Light!
