There was only one college bowl game today,
and I was looking forward to the upcoming football off-season; but Tim was
happy to remind me that the professional football playoffs started today too –
and we just had to watch the games while having our teen hang-out night and
sleepover at Rowen’s house. I’ll get to
that part of the update soon, but let’s start from the beginning of the day.
Tai Chi was good, but Michael skipped it
again so that he could help out at the Inn with the breakfast rush and have a
second evening off to join in on the fun at Rowen’s. We were having another play day at home, but
had chores to do after breakfast first, so we got all of the work done –
including a shopping run that Mom did with Ethan and Ehlana while Dad and I
stayed home and worked. That didn’t
actually leave a lot of time in the morning for us to actually do much playing,
but we still had fun; and the soup and sandwiches lunch together was good
too. The family play day continued after
lunch, but I didn’t actually get to play all that much before it was time for
me to pack an overnight bag and head over to Rowen’s house to help out with
some work there to get everything ready for a teen dinner and hang-out evening.
I wasn’t in the loop for the negotiations
with her parents, but the details had been finalized by the time I met up with
Rowen. Rebecca and Lucas were the only
extra overnight guests along with Michael, Tim, and me; with that decision
mostly made so that Patricia and Owen wouldn’t have too many teens to deal with
for breakfast in the morning. We were on
our own for dinner, and while Michael and I pitched in for the cost of the
food; Tim took care of picking up frozen pizzas, wings, snacks, and drinks
while Rowen and I got her house ready for company. Rowen and Tim were free to invite as many
friends to come over for the evening, and only had the end-of-party restriction
of a one o’clock time limit. From what
Rowen told me while we worked, it was Tim’s idea to invite everyone; so she was
very glad when we did not end up with every teen and tween in town at her house
tonight for dinner or the evening.
There are some advantages to last-minute
plans – most of the older teens already had other commitments. We did get about half of our classmates
either come for the entire evening or stop in for visits; ditto that for some
of the guys on the football team and girls on the cheerleading squad; and
Patrick and Scott had a couple of their buddies stop in for a while after
dinner too – probably just to have the bragging rights that go along with
attending a teen party when you’re their age.
That isn’t exactly a wild and crazy event when you’re in our little
town; but boys are generally easily amused anyway. ;^)
So Rowen and I cleaned the living room; got
guest bedrooms ready; gave the rest of the main floor a once-over; and cheated
to do all of that work because nobody else was in the house while we were
working. It’s funny that Tim, Patrick,
and Scott all seemed to arrive just in time – when we’d finished the
chores. Yes, Tim did do the shopping;
but it wasn’t exactly work for him to get to pick out all of the food, snacks,
and drinks for the night – and he got a ride over here with the bags of
groceries and bakery treats. I didn’t include
Michael in that because he was working at the Inn until the prep work was
finished for the dinner rush. So was
Rebecca, and Lucas had been busy on the farm with his father all day; so they
didn’t join us until the rest of our guests had already started arriving and
Rowen and I had started cooking pizzas and wings.
That’s when the fun really kicked up a few
notches for us – even though Rowen and I still had a lot of work to do while
our boyfriends and friends mostly hung out in the living room and the guys
watched the first of the two first-round pro football playoff games. We had at least a couple of girls keeping us
company most of the time; with Sally and Gretchen spending the most time with
us while their boyfriends were busy watching football and playing video games
with the guys too. To be completely
honest; I’d have picked doing the cooking over watching football anyway; though
I did miss out on the cuddle time I didn’t get to have with Michael – not that
we would have done much of that before, during, or immediately after dinner
anyway.
We had twenty-four to feed, and since
slightly more than half of them were teen or tween guys; that took a
while. Taking care of dinner was part of
the agreement with Rowen’s parents, and while she didn’t negotiate it; they
opted to go out to dinner at the Inn instead of joining us for pizza and
wings. I’m sure that they’re glad that
they did that – and then moved on to visit friends instead of coming home and
putting up with the noise level that twenty to thirty teens can generate – even
in a big house like theirs.
The only news I’m going to add for the
dinner part of the night is that Rowen and I told a few little white lies to
the boys while we cooked and fed everyone.
I’m not apologizing for that or anything – it was the only way we could
divert some food to the girls in our group without just having them wait until
after the guys were stuffed – which didn’t actually happen. Tim, Lucas, and some of the other guys just
moved on from pizza and wings to dessert and the snacks without taking a break. In case you’re wondering, no, we didn’t make
a mistake with our grocery order or dinner plan – the guys just kept eating as
long as we kept the food coming. It was
our choice to stop cooking pizzas after two hours of non-stop oven action – and
we could cook them two at a time. We
used up the rest of the pizzas for our midnight buffet that was also a cue to
our friends that the party was wrapping up and it was time to head home by one.
While Rowen was the official host tonight,
I was there for her every step of the way; so we didn’t get to have much play
time until after the dinner clean-up was out of the way. That wasn’t too much work, since we had opted
for using the fine Chinette, plastic utensils, and bottled and canned drinks;
but it was after eight by the time we joined Michael, Tim, and the rest of our
friends in the living room. An extra
television was set up and dedicated to the football game; the boys were using
the big screen for their gaming; and the girls mostly watched as our boys played
and talked about what we’d all been doing over the New Year part of the holiday
– and about heading back to school again on Monday. Some cuddle time with our boyfriends was an
option now and then too – usually when they weren’t taking a turn with a game
controller in their hands. The boys, as
usual, talked football, and while the NFL games were co-leaders for the
entertainment this evening; it was the college bowl games that they talked
about most – particularly when it came to the new playoff format for the top
four teams.
None of that was particularly interesting
to me, but I add it here in my journal because it is something that’s important
to a lot of my friends; and a part of life here in our little corner of the
world. The guys would tell me that their
sports enthusiasm is more interesting and important than any girl-chat topics
if they were being honest – though most of them know better than to actually
admit something like that to a group of girls in public. They’re not entirely wrong about that, since
we didn’t exactly sit around and solve world hunger and poverty while they were
playing video games and talking sports; but we were at least talking about our
own lives instead of living vicariously through a bunch of strangers on sports
teams that have absolutely nothing to do with us personally.
I’m not going to do any rants tonight; so
let’s move along.
While we didn’t get to watch and chick
flicks, and didn’t even bother putting any music on to just add to the noise
level; Rowen and I did have fun for the rest of the evening. We started cooking more pizza for the midnight
‘buffet’ at eleven-thirty; and worked through until after everyone except our
approved overnight group had left and gone home. Lucas, Rebecca, Michael, and Tim pitched in
to help with most of that work and clean-up too; but Patrick and Scott were
sent up to bed when Patricia and Owen got home and turned in for the night
after just a quick update from Rowen and Tim – and a short visit with the rest
of the teens. Going to bed after we had
the kitchen and living room back to normal again was an option; but all six of
us wanted some cuddle and wind down time with our significant other first; so
we did that in the living room for nearly an hour while not really watching
music videos on the big screen.
The only alone time Michael and I had all
evening was when we split up for the goodnight kisses; and we did that in his
bedroom while Rebecca and Lucas were in her room for that and Rowen and Tim had
the living room to themselves. I was in
Rowen’s room; changed; in bed; and already well-into doing my nightly computer
checks by the time she joined me and then went to take her turn in one of the
bathrooms to get ready for bed. That’s
why I’m writing this while we’re just getting started on our girl chat recap of
the evening – though she’d rather still be in the living room with Tim; and I
wish my goodnight alone time with Michael had been as hot as her minor make-out
session with Tim apparently was.
That thought has pretty much diverted all
interest I have in computing or this update, so I’m going to wrap this up;
continue with the much more interesting chat with my best friend; and then get
some sleep that will hopefully include some entertaining dreams that have
Michael starring in them in a clothing-optional sort of way.
I am so out of here! Until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
