Our first day of the new school year is
finished, and while we’ve had a pretty good day; I have to say that there’s
been a lot more going on around town that has been more exciting than my Grade
Ten classes. Getting some rain and
thunderstorms put a damper on things too – especially for Michael and Tim’s
football practice after school. I’ll get
to that soon; but let’s start from the beginning.
The first fun news of the day was at
breakfast, when Dad gave Mom her fifth anniversary gift. No, he isn’t messed up over when it is; he
just couldn’t keep it a surprise from her while the work is being done on the
house over the next few weeks. Since
that work was started this morning; he had to let her in on the
non-surprise. Dad is having the back
porch turned into a sunroom for Mom. She
loves working out on the back porch when she can, and by the end of the month;
she’ll be able to do that year-round.
While it wasn’t a major job or anything, Uncle Blaine did the
architecture work for it; and it’s going to be very cool when they’re finished
the construction. There will be
skylights, floor-to-ceiling windows, and a couple of patio doors into the back
yard and next to the driveway. Next
spring we’re apparently going to put in a large patio for outdoor
entertainment, and probably re-do the driveway too; so the back yard around the
house is going to look very different by next summer!
Mom loves her gift, and while I’m happy for
her; let’s not write about how she’s thanking Dad for it tonight as I’ve been
doing my nightly computing and work. We
have company in the house too; but that’s also getting way ahead of the story,
so let’s move along.
The anniversary gift announcement was the
highlight of the morning at our house, but Tai Chi by the river was good too;
and I had fun getting ready for my first day of school. While I’m thinking about that, Grade Ten is
one of the years for new laptop computers at our school. Mom picked mine up a while ago, but to be
honest; I’ve barely even touched it until today because it’s practically a toy compared
to my ‘work’ computer. It is a step up
from my last school computer, though; and is fast-enough to handle our studies
and assignments. As usual, I dressed up
for our first day; took extra time with my hair; and had some fun with Ehlana
while doing that. She’s a bit conflicted
this morning because Naomi is starting Kindergarten today, and while she’d like
to hang out with her best friend; she’s also glad that she’ll be able to stay
home for another year, do her research, and continue her college
education. She and Ethan started their
senior year today; though they didn’t do much actual work today because of that
company I mentioned.
Since that’s come up again, the Malloys are
here for another work visit. They’re
only here until sometime tomorrow afternoon, but Terry wanted to be here for the
official start of the new bridge construction to make sure that there aren’t
any issues with phase one of the work.
Angela and the kids are here too, and this will likely be their last
visit here with Terry because she’s going to start back to work soon – part time
at first; and then eventually back up to full time once the kids are ready to
handle her being away from home for long work days. The rain and thunderstorms got in the way of
the construction crew today; but they’ve been doing prep work since the
Solar-Wind Farm opened and the crews weren’t needed out there anymore; so they’re
ahead of the original schedule anyway.
Terry, Angela, and the kids got into town by lunchtime; Terry spent the
afternoon working; and Mom and Angela had a play afternoon with the kids –
including a bit of outdoor play time in between the bouts of rain.
My school day started out with our new home
room in the computer lab. Mr. Sparks is
out home room teacher; and our first class of the Day Two schedule is computers
so we won’t need to move to another room on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and every
other Friday. We actually have Mr.
Sparks for our first two classes those days; though we had to switch rooms for
our second-period Geography class. Both
were fun for me; and so was our Math class before lunch – though most of my
classmates wouldn’t agree with me on that one.
The highlights of the morning for me were Michael’s reaction to seeing
me when Rowen and I met up with him for the walk to school; getting to hang out
with all of our classmates again after not seeing many of them more than once
or twice a week; and finding out what we’ll be doing at school this year.
Our lunch break was fun too, and we were
able to go outside for most of it; but then it was back to our classes again
for the afternoon. There’s an optional
class for us this year, and Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I are all taking Graphic
Design. It’s our first class of the
afternoon; it’s a combined class with a Grade Eleven optional; and we’re going
to have different teachers depending on the modules we’ll be doing. That’ll range from hand-drawn art to
multimedia computing; but we started out today with a history lesson on the
subject. We have a total of eight
students taking that class; and the rest of our friends are split among the
other optional classes – all of them combined with a similar or compatible
optional – usually the next level of the same course. The Day Two schedule wraps up with Sociology
and English. I’m good with that; but I
am definitely in the minority; and most of my classmates do not find either
class particularly fun.
I don’t get it, since they all speak the
language; and are generally very sociable! ;^)
My school day was not done when we were set
free from English class. It was time for
our cheerleading practice after that; and we could do that indoors while the
boys were stuck having their practice out in the rain. Rowen and I had a lot of fun with our fellow
cheerleaders; but Michael and I also didn’t get home until dinner was ready and
on the dining room table. That wasn’t
all bad, since the construction workers had gone home by then too; but I missed
getting to spend much time at all with the Malloys except while we had that
meal. The school day recap and news from
home and work took up most of the dinnertime conversation; and then Michael and
I needed to come up to the lounge to get started on our homework. We had three kids hanging out in the lounge
while we did that, so using any Magi power wasn’t an option.
The studying was followed by a bit of play
time; but that only lasted until Valerie was advised that it was bedtime; and
Ethan and Ehlana played along to avoid a temper-tantrum. Michael and I helped with getting the kids
into their beds or crib for the night; and then we had a bit of chat time with
Mom, Dad, Angela, and Terry in the office before Michael went home for the
night. Tim’s got him starting their
weight training in the morning again; and he wants to be ready for that and the
football practice after school. I came
up to my room after that; got ready for bed; and got to work.
I had a lot to do tonight – including
getting started on my next ‘real’ language study. I’m picking up the pace on that now that I’ve
studied enough languages now that many of the news ones will be easier to
master now. I’ll be learning Italian
over the next two months; and will try to learn five new languages between now
and the end of next June. I spent an
hour and a half on that first lesson; and then moved on to the family business
work. That took another two hours;
followed by my full nightly computer and email checks. This is my last job of the day, and since
that is all of the news for today; I’m ready to wrap this up and get some
sleep.
Since the Malloys will be on their way home
by the time I’m done my cheerleading practice tomorrow afternoon, I’ll only get
to see them at breakfast; but I hope they have a good second day here and a
safe trip home again. Now that we’re
back to school, Wednesday night is going to be a work night for Michael, Tim,
Rowen, and I again; so I’m also hoping that it’ll be one of my early-night
bedtimes too. I’ll need to do better
with that than I did last year; or risk having Mom intervene again. She has enough on the go without worrying
about me; so I’ll try to keep that from happening.
Yeah, I don’t believe me either; but I will
try to do better!
Doing that right now is an option instead
of finding more work to do or just dragging this out anymore, so I’m out of
here; and, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
