Depending on your perspective, this has
been one of those remember-forever kind of days, and since this is my journal;
I can assure you that I’ve mostly been very grateful for my photographic memory
today!
I’m sure you aren’t surprised to read that
the awesomeness of my day started with waking up still cuddling with Michael at
his house. We may only be thirteen –
almost fourteen in his case – but I could very easily get used to that. Yes, we’ll have to wait a few years before
that might be a regular option, but I’m definitely going to keep Michael; so I’m
okay with practicing now and then for that amazing future together! ;^)
The unplanned sleepover did mean that we
needed to rush around a bit to have time for Tai Chi at my house; breakfast at
his; and then get ready for football and cheerleader tryouts. Michael still didn’t know that Rowen and I
were doing that; so it was fun springing that surprise on the boys when Rowen
and I got to the school. Before I get to
that, though; I also want to again mention how much fun it was getting teased
by some of our favorite people this morning; and Rowen had fun with that too
after hearing the news while we finished getting ready for the tryouts at her
house before heading over to the school.
Aunt Leanne had fun with that this afternoon too; but I’ll get to that
part of the update in a bit.
I was in a very fired up mood this morning,
and thanks to the bonus sleepover with Michael; I was also at full power. That can be a scary combination – though not
to me. There were some other girls who
weren’t at all excited to see me in hyper-mode when all of the girls trying out
for the cheerleading squad met up at the school. If you’ve been reading all of my journals,
then you know that Vanessa and Nora were two of those girls, and as we’d
expected; Rowen and I were deep into the teen drama almost immediately.
There wasn’t any drama involved in it, but
our first stop at the school was at the football field to wish our boys good
luck with hugs and kisses that got them totally razzed by the senior
footballers – though that was also before word got around that we were at the
cheerleader tryouts too and hadn’t just made a special trip to check up on our
boyfriends. Our visit might have earned
Michael and Tim more of the wrong kind of attention than they wanted, but I saw
that Coach Robinson took notice of them too; and that was a good thing for
them.
We’ll get to the football report soon, but
let’s do the cheerleading tryouts news first.
Vanessa and Nora led the teen drama part of our morning and made it
obvious to Rowen and me that they were not happy to find out that we were
surprise competition for them. Let’s say
that they were annoyed to start with because it wasn’t until later that they
were forced to stop underestimating Rowen and realize that she might have a
genuine shot at making the squad. I don’t
think they were underestimating me; but they were likely hoping that I wouldn’t
accept a spot on the squad if Rowen didn’t make it too.
They’re actually right about that part; but
it still amazes me that Rowen’s bookworm reputation from childhood still gets
her overlooked despite the fact that she’s one of the best athletes our age and
definitely hot enough to be a cheerleader.
I’m not going to compare her to Vanessa or Nora, but I will note that
the head-start they had on us in the development department isn’t an issue
anymore.
Let’s try not to get bogged down on the
drama from today, because Rowen and I had an absolute blast at the
tryouts. Dani Draper and Linda Reynolds
are the senior returning cheerleaders, and while Dani let us know that she’s
the Head Cheerleader; Linda worked with her as a co-leader and friend. Tryouts are open to all high school girls,
and there was some new competition for spots on the team from grade nine, ten,
and eleven students; but nobody tried to compete against Dani and Linda. That’s probably an unspoken tradition or
something; but then it isn’t usual for other returning cheerleaders to get
replaced either – unless it’s for reasons that keep the girl from being able to
physically do the routines anymore. The
competition for the freshman spots is always the toughest, which is one of the
reasons why Vanessa and Nora are mad at Rowen and me now. They thought they were in for sure because
they were comparing their chances to the known freshman competition.
By the way, this might not seem all that
fair, but our squads do go with just eight girls, and two from each year – or at
least that’s what I’ve been told has been done for a long time now. I’m sure there are years when the freshman
picks aren’t as good as older girls, but in a small school like ours; that’s
how they deal with making sure that they don’t end up with a talent vacuum
every so many years if they have too many graduates from the squad at one
time. They also have to consider other
school activities, and it’s already tough enough trying to field complete teams
in all of the different sports and other extra-curricular activities. At least we have Carolyn Landry for the girls’
sports for another couple of years – she plays on just about every team we have
– and would do more if we had enough girls to compete in every sport.
I don’t know yet whether I’ll try out for
any teams or not. Let’s see whether this
cheerleading thing works out first and go from there. My biggest problem would be ending up with
too much on the go – as if I’m not there already!
Dani didn’t waste any time getting the
workout started; and Rowen and I were partnered for the stretching and warm-up
exercises. That was easy enough, but
then the cardio exercises and running laps on the track quickly gave Rowen and
me the chance to show that we were ahead of the curve for our physical
conditioning. We were first and second
on the run – and it wasn’t really all that close to the next group.
Oh, by the way, that was when we got to
really appreciate Michael’s and Tim’s reactions to finding out that we were trying
out for the cheerleaders – though they managed to do that without getting into
trouble with Coach Robinson. Some of the
guys did earn some extra push-ups because they spent too much time watching us –
all of the girls – while we were running our laps; but Dani kept us away from
the football field the rest of the time to avoid distractions for both the guys
and the girls.
We had a short break after our run, and
then it was time to start learning a few routines and eventually practicing
them as one big squad. I haven’t
mentioned Jenny yet, but she was in ‘our’ break-out group for learning the
routines along with her squad partner, Tammy Morris. We also had Dani lead our group while Linda
worked with the other group that included Vanessa and Nora. I knew that Jenny had been spending some time
getting ready for tryouts with Tammy and some of the other girls, and they did
great today; but so did Rowen and I – and we definitely impressed Dani and
Linda. Since we really don’t have very
much time to do that and earn spots on the team; that was a good start for us.
I don’t want to bash the competition, but
can also honestly say that wasn’t the case for most of the rest of the ‘new’ hopefuls
– including Vanessa and Nora. While I
didn’t offer this advice and they wouldn’t have listened if I had; there were
two main reasons for that failure to impress.
The first is that you can’t do your best if you’re angry – and things
went downhill for Vanessa and Nora the angrier they got with Rowen and me. The second problem is that Dani wants her
squad to be a team – without stars.
Showing off doesn’t really work when that also puts you out of sync with
the other cheerleaders – no matter how high the kicks or impressive the jump or
flip.
Okay, Rowen and I did some of that too, but
it was during part of the workout when Dani wanted all of us to show off some
tricks – not while we worked on routines where she was looking for precision
and uniformity. I love doing flips and
other gymnastics tricks as much as the next girl – even when we can’t do that
with some Magi-powered assistance.
Now that would’ve impressed the other
girls! ;^)
You could say that because of the way Rowen
and I were able to train for the tryouts that we had an unfair advantage, but
while I’ll concede that we do have advantages; I don’t see them as any more
unfair than any other natural talents and abilities that we have compared to
the other girls – or that they have different from each other and us. Then there’s also the fact that I know we
aren’t the only Magi trying out for the squad, and whether they used those
extra abilities for this or not doesn’t change the fact that it was an option
for them too.
I’ll guess that you’re wondering how they
did today; and yes, they were among the best too. Correlation isn’t causation, though; and I
can assure you that there are Magi here in town that do not have significant
athletic talent to go along with their Magi abilities. No, I won’t put any names to that comment,
since there is a chance that you, dear reader of the future, could be one of
those Magi I’m referring to and not know it. ;^)
Moving along, we were finished for the day
by lunchtime; though Dani gave us the homework assignment of bringing our own,
original routines – and the music to go with it – to our practice tomorrow
morning. That’s easy for Rowen and me
because we have that done already. I’m
sure that all of the returning cheerleaders do as well; but at least some of
the other girls hadn’t heard about that bit of news for this year; and a few of
them seemed to be in panic mode when we left for the day.
Rowen and I wandered over to the football
field before going home, and while we tried not to mess things up too much for
the boys; we did stay and watch until they took their lunch break and then had
a short visit and shared some bonus hugs and kisses before they went to have
lunch with the other guys and we went back to my house to have lunch with Mom,
Ethan, and Ehlana. I didn’t get the full
football report until later, but let’s get that out of the way now before doing
the afternoon recap.
Football is the sport for the high school
boys here, so it isn’t surprising that a big percentage of them try out for the
team. That would, you’d think, make it
easy to fill the team, but as I’ve mentioned before; safety comes first so
nobody plays if they’re not able to compete.
That’s the main reason why there aren’t very many freshman players in
any year; and it isn’t even that unusual for boys to end up waiting until Grade
Eleven before being ready to play.
In a way, that might be the biggest
obstacle for Michael and Tim – the intentional bias against freshmen whether
meant to be for their own good or not.
The good news is that they both impressed Coach Robinson today – and most
of the senior players too. They didn’t
do that in everything, but where they did do well; they really shone
brightly. They were the fastest runners
with only a couple of others close to them – Caleb Palmer and Lucas Norton. They were also the best receivers – which is
where they really impressed senior quarterback Jeff Morris. On the downside, they were middle of the pack
at best for tackle drills and other strength-related tests; but that isn’t
surprising when they’re compared to much bigger, stronger guys. While that wasn’t in their favor; they did do
very well avoiding and out-running tackles.
They didn’t exactly ace defensive tackling either; but made up for that
by being really good at breaking up passing plays – something that we had
worked on all summer specifically for that size-difference reason.
Doing that might sound simple, but isn’t
when you’re upwards of six or eight inches shorter than the other guys. Michael and Tim make up for that with speed
and better vertical jumping and timing.
Tim even managed an interception today, and while that didn’t remind
anyone of Kyle’s brute force takeaways; Tim is faster than Kyle once he does
get his hands on the ball.
Most of those details come from Michael,
but I doubt there’s much bias. If
anything; he’ll have understated his own accomplishments even if he doesn’t do
the same for Tim. I know that he gave it
everything he had today; which is why he was in need of a little tender, loving
Magi Healing tonight that I was happy to help him out with. We’ll need to be careful with that because it’ll
get a lot of attention if he’s looking too healthy compared to the other guys;
but I’m also not going to leave him sore and in pain when I don’t have to do
that – any more than I would have left Rowen with that broken wrist last
month. I wish that I could help Tim too,
but since that isn’t an option; he’ll just have to deal with the aches and
pains the old-fashioned way.
Well, technically, it’s the Magi Healing
that’s the old way compared to most ‘modern’ medicine; but you know what I
mean. That does give me an idea for
helping Tim, though. There are
homeopathic treatments that I could recommend for him that would work pretty well
for aches and strains; and that wouldn’t seem too strange to anyone when they
all know that Mom’s taught me Tai Chi. I’ll
talk to him about that tomorrow if he’s interested.
We’re just up to lunchtime in the update so
far, though, so let’s get back to the news of the day. Rowen and I took care of most of the
entertainment while we ate our meal with Mom and the twins; and then Rowen went
to do some work at home for her mother while I was drafted to help out at
Grandma and Grandpa’s house and Ethan and Ehlana were dropped off at KidZone
while Mom, Aunt Leanne, and I worked on getting the house aired out and ready
for my grandparents. They’ll be home
tomorrow afternoon sometime; and are back in the U.S. now as I write this with
just one flight left to go in the morning.
They spent most of the day on the west coast today instead of continuing
on after their big hop from Asia; and I’m glad that they took the extra time
instead of wearing themselves out. Along
with a grocery and bakery run, that took most of the afternoon; and Aunt Leanne
had fun teasing me about my sleepover with Michael.
I went home to get cleaned up after we
finished that round of work, and then went over to Michael’s house for
dinner. He was home by then after
finishing football practice, but was grabbing a shower; so I sat in the kitchen
with Miranda and Rebecca while Jacob finished cooking; and mostly just talked
about what they’d been doing all day.
Michael and I both did our football and cheerleading tryouts reports
during dinner; and then I stayed to help with the clean-up while Michael went
to his baseball practice. He wasn’t very
motivated to do that after a long day on the football field; and I doubt that
his play on the diamond was nearly as good as usual because I didn’t get to do
the healing thing until shortly before I went home tonight.
After Rebecca and I finished cleaning the
kitchen, I popped over to Rowen’s house so that we could do one quick
run-through of our original routines and practice the other routines we’d been
taught today; and then we met up with Michael and Tim at the ball diamond and
went for a swim at Michael’s house once they were finished their practice. We had a little chat time after that, but
then Rowen took Tim home to his house because he’d had enough fun for the day;
and Michael and I went up to his room to do a quick music practice for our teen
praise team music. I did the Magi
Healing thing after that; we had another short visit with his parents in the
living room; and then I came home so that he could go to bed and get some sleep
before getting started on day two of his football camp.
I should have tried to get more sleep too,
but I had a long visit with Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana after getting home that
included a Magi lesson with Mom. Then I
helped with getting my brother and sister off to bed; came up to my room; and
multi-tasked some family business work with a soak in my Jacuzzi. It took me another hour after getting out of
the tub to finish the work; I had extra nightly computing and email to deal
with; and had a short text-chat with Violet that was mostly because she was
studying and wanted to hear about the tryouts after finding out about my top
news story of the day from my email to her.
That does pretty much bring me to the end
of the news for today. While we’d
normally have a future plans meeting after Dad’s trip to the city, we’re not
doing that this week. We’ll do that next
week after the Lab officially opens, but Mom has enough on the go this week;
and didn’t need more on her plate – especially when we’re getting ready for the
holiday weekend on top of the regular work and getting ready for the open house
at the lab. I’ll do the full update on
the local family business and future plans issues after that meeting; but I can
tell you that we’re all very excited right now – and not just because of
finally being able to take Uncle Adam and Ehlana’s research plans to the next
level.
Right now it’s time for me to take my
personal energy level down a dozen notches or so and spend some time in
unconscious mode; so, until next time...
...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of
the Light!
