There was a risk of thunderstorms in the
area all day; so the early morning decision was made to set up the Memorial Day
picnic at the school instead of the park.
That change ended up making the day seem even more exciting for me; and
the really great news is that we didn’t even get any thunderstorms roll though
until the picnic was over and our families and friends were on the road for
home.
My morning started out great with Tai Chi,
and then I needed to do my own thing to get ready for the day and have
breakfast so that I could leave in time to meet up with Michael and Rowen and
walk to the parade staging area along Homestead Court. We were the first members of our band to get
there; which just labeled us as the new kids.
Since this was our first home-town parade, though, we didn’t mind
getting teased about that. We also had
time for a little extra warming up; and helped out with setting up the chairs
and music stands on the flatbed trailer we rode on while playing our little repertoire
of military marches and Memorial-themed songs.
We had the full band there today; including the graduating seniors.
We were warmed up and ready to go with time
to spare – especially since we were near the back of the small parade while the
bagpipes corps led the way for us. Every
Memorial Day has been special for Mom and me since we moved here; and that
feeling today was all that and more getting to really be a part of the parade –
especially getting to share that experience for the first time with Michael and
Rowen. The trade-off for that is not
actually getting watch the parade; but the service at the cemetery included
another first – having Pastor John leading us; with a little help from his
parents. There was one, last really
special part of the morning for me, and that was getting to do the family story
time after the service with Michael, Rebecca, and their family. Their grandparents may be very happy with the
city life now after retiring; but that doesn’t keep them from being very proud
of the Stone family heritage.
Maybe next year we’ll go around with the
Bassett side of his family so I can hear about that side of Michael’s family.
Michael and I helped out with packing up
chairs and music stands before we left the cemetery; and then we split up after
walking home together so that we could each help our own families with getting
food and picnic gear over to the school.
That was yet another hour of non-stop action; but then Mom and Dad set
me free for the rest of the afternoon – at least until the end of the
picnic. It had been cloudy for most of
the morning, but the sun was out by the time we were delivering the food to the
volunteers working at the gym. The
buffet tables were already set up indoors in case of stormy weather, so they
didn’t change that part of the plan; but nearly everyone set up their family
day camps outside in the school yard instead of using the gym or picking out
tables in the cafeteria.
Instead of hanging out with our families
this afternoon, Michael and I took Dawn with us; met up with Rowen and Tim; and
then went in search of some teen-rated fun – which led us straight to the best
part of the day for some of us. We went
to find Emma Norton so that Dawn wouldn’t be the odd-teen out, and when we
invited her to join us; we added Lucas to our group too. Five minutes later, we traded Dawn and Emma
for Rebecca – or more specifically, the two younger girls decided to do
anything else other than hang around with three teen ‘couples’ once Lucas was
conveniently paired up with Rebecca.
If you – like Aunt Leanne did later today –
are going to remind me about how I felt when she was trying to set me up with
Michael as a reason for why my matchmaking license should be revoked; I’m only
going to point out that both parties in this case really only needed a nudge to
get where they both wanted to be; which is totally different than my
situation. Add to that the fact that
they’re also at least a couple of years older than Michael and I were when Aunt
Leanne first started out on her matchmaking mission for us. If she moves the age limit down much farther;
Ethan and Ehlana will need to be afraid of that before they hit kindergarten!
Before I get too far into the Rebecca and
Lucas story, though, I should mention that Rebecca was also looking for a
reason to be anywhere other than hanging out with her best friend today –
mostly because Jenny was ‘playing the field’ and flirting with some of the
visiting, out-of-town guys. She’d wanted
Rebecca to help her out with those games, but Rebecca didn’t want to do that –
particularly since she knew how that was affecting Garth Green. Jenny was basically ignoring him all
afternoon, and though I knew they were on the way to being an ex-couple; it
really wasn’t until this weekend that it was obvious that Jenny had already
decided to move on – even though they haven’t technically broken up yet. I feel bad for Garth, but when we were around
him while the guys were playing some football after lunch; he just looked mad;
not broken up. He didn’t act like he was
on the market or anything, though; and just hung out with his buddies instead.
While the school yard isn’t as big as the
park, there was still enough room for everyone; a playground; and baseball and
football were both options for entertainment to go along with the usual picnic
games. The picnic buffet actually worked
a bit better out of the gym that at the park pavilion because they were able to
have more rows of tables and use all of the back exits along with the main gym
entrances from inside the school to keep the flow of guests moving along fairly
quickly without any really long lines.
We went for food somewhere in the middle of the pack after wandering
around for a while and hanging out with some of our friends; and then we sat in
the bleachers at the football field to eat our lunches.
While Lucas and Rebecca sat next to each
other, Michael and I did most of the conversational heavy lifting to get Lucas
involved; though it was easy enough for Michael and Tim to get Lucas talking
with them about football – as long as he didn’t get too distracted from his
close proximity to Rebecca. While he’ll
never read this, I should probably stop using the word ‘adorable’ to describe
Lucas whenever he’s around Rebecca – even though he really is that and then
some. For her part, I think Rebecca has
decided that Lucas is worth taking another chance on boys for. The fact that he was on the ‘skins’ team
during the football scrimmage probably had nothing to do with that decision –
the surprise hot factor that he normally hides under big, loose shirts was just
a nice added bonus for her. ;^)
They weren’t off hiding somewhere and
making out by the end of the day or anything; but they did hold hands for a
while after the football play time.
Lucas had followed Michael’s lead and offered Rebecca a hand when we
were getting down from the bleachers, and Rebecca had probably made his day
when she decided not to let go for the next fifteen minutes or so while we went
for a walk and picked up drinks and ice cream to cool off with. While we didn’t spend a lot of time with our
collective families, we did have little cameo visits here and there. We watched part of a baseball game that we’d
missed out on getting drafted for because the boys had been playing football;
but we had other draftees to cheer for.
I took a turn holding Zack for a while then too; but we moved on before
the game ended so that we could play a few of the fundraiser games too before
the picnic started winding down by four o’clock.
The Stone, Proctor, and Johnson families
were among the first to leave the school; mostly because all of our visiting
family had long drives that would have them home very late. For the next hour and a half, I was running constantly
while helping our houseguests to get ready to leave; doing a flying round of
goodbyes with everyone I could manage to visit before they were on the road;
and then helping out with the start of the post-guest cleanup. I had dinner at Michael’s house; where
Rebecca and I had a fun little girl chat about Lucas that confirmed to me that
she’d had as much fun this afternoon as I thought she had.
Michael and I met up with Rowen and Tim
after dinner so that we could do our weekend homework that was mostly exam
review assignments. We did that in the
lounge because we did have a little rain roll through; though that didn’t last
long before we ended the day with a really nice evening.
Rowen and Tim only stayed long enough for
us to do our work, and then they went over to his house while Michael and I
spent some time with Ethan and Ehlana until their bedtime to give Mom and Dad a
chance to work in the office without keeping up with kids too. Michael and I went for a walk after tucking
my brother and sister in for the night; shared a little cuddle time by the
river; and then shared a long hug and kiss goodnight before splitting up for the
night.
I’ve been working on my computer since coming
up to my room for the night; though part of the time included some Jacuzzi time
multi-tasking. There was a lot of
studying and work for me to get done tonight; so I’m coming up on four hours of
computer time now – an hour of language study; more than two on the family business;
and the rest of the time until now on an extended version of my nightly
computer checks. That included a
Hathorne Industries check that I’ll write about tomorrow with the news from our
future plans meeting; and some extra email from the around the family – both from
those who were checking in after getting home; and the members of the Johnson
and McEwan families that were away this weekend.
Getting some sleep is now at the top of my
to-do list tonight, and I’ve at least covered some of the highlights of the day
for me even though there was way too much going on today to write about
everything. Another holiday weekend is
in the books, and though it was a rainy break for a lot of people this year; we
really did mostly luck out again here in Witch Falls – almost as if by magic!
No, I didn’t tamper with the weather – that
kind of thing is really just too tough to control even for a small area – and the
potential for unintended consequences is just not worth the risk. A shield to protect a Magi from the weather
would be much simpler anyway.
That wandered off a bit, but I’m back now;
and ready to wrap this up and get some sleep.
We have a very busy couple of weeks coming up now, and while that means
getting ready for exams and writing them for me; the real fun is going to be
over at the lab as Mom and Owen start working on the computer systems there
with Andrew Jennings; and Dillon goes to work on setting up the lab with Uncle
Adam. Violet will be helping out too;
but that’ll just be so that she can help Mom and Aunt Grace – and probably give
Ethan and Ehlana some cover supervision there when Mom’s too busy.
I’ll save the rest of that discussion for
tomorrow night after the meeting too, though; and I really am out of here for
another night.
Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the
Light!
