Michael came over for Tai Chi by the river
this morning before going to the Inn to help out there, and while we were able
to stay dry while doing that; the Labor Day sale shoppers weren’t so
lucky. The good news on the weather for
me was that the heavy rain didn’t start until an hour or so after I was at the
Inn and helping out in the kitchen with the four buffet sittings.
While I loved the surprise of having
Michael with us for Tai Chi, and that made for a great start to the day; I was
soon immersed into the usual holiday weekend travel day chaos with my family
while we all got ready to go out for breakfast and shopping and my cousins all
packed up and loaded two cars and an SUV for the trip home. I didn’t mention it in my journal on Friday,
but Chris and Martin brought their car this weekend – a fact that mildly
annoyed Uncle Rick because they didn’t drive it all weekend; and basically just
wasted the extra gas for no reason other than to do the drive on their own.
By the way, I agreed with him on that, and
Chris and Martin just laughed at me and suggested that I take a look at how I
feel about that in a couple of years when it’s my turn to get a driver’s
license. They don’t believe me when I
assure them that I have no intention of getting my own car before going away to
college at the earliest; but that’s only because they don’t think small town
like I do. Sure, all of the ‘farm kid’
teens want to have their own vehicles once they can drive on their own so that
they can get around – even if that’s just to come into town – but I know what a
waste it would be for me to have a car just to drive to the city once every two
or three months for some shopping.
I will predict right now that Mom will lend
me the minivan more often than Dad will lend me the truck, though!
That’s taken this update totally off the
rails; so let’s get back on track. The
packing was done by the time we went to the Inn for breakfast. Chris and Martin weren’t in any hurry to go shopping,
so we – the girls – actually left them at the Inn to start our shopping
adventure when they went up to the buffet table for their third round. Miranda assured me later that my ravenous
cousins didn’t bankrupt the Inn by testing the limits of ‘all-you-can-eat’, but
from what I saw before we left; it’s amazing that they’re not as big as Lee and
Kyle Landry – particularly when their favorite ‘sport’ is video gaming.
Speaking of sports and Chris and Martin; I
should have mentioned earlier that they’re very impressed with Michael and Tim
for not only making the football team as freshmen but playing a really good
game on Friday night. I’m not sure what
they expected, since I’m sure that someone told them before they came to the
game that Michael was on the team; but they were definitely surprised. The good news for Michael was that having a
good game only left my cousins with the option to tease him about things like
how Tai Chi with me helped his game.
They razzed me a bit about being a cheerleader too, but didn’t really
have much material to work with there; and soon gave up on their attempts at
getting me riled up.
Rowen helped out at the computer store
today, so we didn’t get to shop with her, but Dawn and I had fun with our moms,
aunts, sister, and cousins while we made the rounds of the stores. I’m not losing my touch or anything, but didn’t
really buy much today. I also didn’t
have a lot of time to play because I wanted to be at the Inn in time to help
with getting the first dinner buffet ready.
It was all work and only short breaks here and there after that through
until the Inn closed for the night; but Rebecca, Jenny, Michael, and I had fun
together even with all of the work. My
family was at the first buffet, and while I missed having that meal with them;
I did take a break to do the goodbye hugs and kisses with them when they were
getting ready to leave and head out of town.
I won’t bore you with the cooking and
cleaning details of my afternoon and evening, and while we kept ourselves
entertained; there isn’t anything newsworthy to report from our gossip and girl
chat time. After putting in a fifteen
hour or so work day, Miranda and Jacob were exhausted; so Rebecca, Michael, and
I hugged and kissed them goodnight and sent them off to bed when we got
home. I didn’t actually stay very long
after that; but Michael and I did get to have a few minutes of alone time
before I moved on to my house for the night.
Dad was still working in the office then,
but Mom had gone up to their room for some Jacuzzi time after putting the twins
to bed. I did the goodnight rounds with
all of them on my way up to my room; and hopped into my Jacuzzi for a soak and
nightly computing multi-tasking. That included
a bit of family business work; but I kept all of that to a minimum
tonight. I’ll need to start my
school-year work and study routine again tomorrow, but I want to be at full
power for our first day back – especially since we have a lot of extra
activities on the go – like the grand opening of the lab. Dani still has to work out our cheerleading
practice schedule, but we’ll also have that after school tomorrow; and the boys
will be having football practice every day too.
Add in homework, my family business job, and language studies; and I’m
exhausted just thinking about keeping up with everything this year!
It’s a good thing that sleep is an option
right now; and I’m going to get right to that.
Since we’re about to start another school year, it’s time to change up
my journal ending. I still want to end
every day thinking about Michael, so let’s continue with the space movie-theme
with just a little leap from the Trekkie to Jedi universe.
May the Magi Force be with you!
