We’ve had a very long, busy day, and I’m
really tired now; so let’s get right to this update so I can get it done and
head off to sleep!
Tai Chi by the river was an option only
because the imminent rain held off until we were indoors again. Mom had a breakfast planning session ahead of
the long weekend that I was only involved in because I needed help with the
fruit and vegetable boxes deliveries after school. Dillon was drafted for that; but most of the
work that I wasn’t involved with was all about a last round of chores at home
and picking up the groceries and supplies we’ll need this weekend. Getting all of that done along with work and
everything else on the schedule for today was tough; but I do know that
everything did get done. Some teens
might be shocked to discover how that kind of thing can happen without their
help; but I am actually aware that the world doesn’t revolve around me. ;^)
Moving along, the highlight of the school
day was our afternoon work around town, and this year; it was once again our
turn to help out at the cemetery. As the
oldest students there; we were mostly in charge of helping the Grade One
kids. Michael and I teamed up to do that,
and we had a blast helping ‘our’ kids plant flowers and flags; along with the
clean-up parts of the job. Since we had
that rain off and on this morning, that work was fairly messy; so some of us
needed to hit the showers when we got back to school because we didn’t have
time to go home and do that instead.
While working with the kids was the highlight of our school day, I didn’t
exactly have much schooling involved in my school day because Michael, Tim,
Rowen, and I were also on the crew unloading the truck for the fruit and
vegetable baskets this morning, and I needed that shower because I was also on
the crew helping out with the order pick-ups after school.
For the record, our full order was nearly
double the first one; and that was entirely because a lot of the band members
were able to sell extra boxes to visiting holiday weekend guests or send extra
boxes out with family and friends that were going away for the weekend. I had extra orders for both of those options;
which is mostly why Dillon helped me out instead of Violet or Mom. He came and picked up my order with Dad’s
truck, and while I was finishing up at the school; he made deliveries to Uncle
Nick and Aunt Deborah, and Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace so that they had the boxes
they were taking with them for their family weekend away trips. I have extra orders for the Rice and McEwan
families, and they ordered some extras for friends too; so my order this month
was closer to triple the first one.
I’m not going to drag that story out. Dillon and I had fun doing those deliveries,
but that work was a bit rushed because I needed to get to the Inn after that to
help out with the dinner shift there.
The Inn was surprisingly busy, but I wasn’t there as an add-on to help
out with that – I was scheduled so that Miranda could save up other teen hours
for when she really needs them on Saturday and Sunday. We didn’t have a full house at the Inn
tonight, but would have if we’d still had just the original dining room
available. The work in the kitchen wasn’t
particularly newsworthy either, though, so let’s move on to cover the action
outside of the Inn that I missed out on while I was busy through until the Inn
closed for the night.
Mom and Dad are hosting Violet’s family
this weekend; though Grandma and Grandpa Rice are staying with Grandma and
Grandpa instead. Chris and Martin came
here in Chris’ new, used Honda; and they’re happy to be back together again
after Chris’ first year at college. I’ll
get to the family report in a minute, but let’s cover the rest of the weekend
guest report first. While the Proctor
side of our clan is having an ‘away’ holiday weekend, and so is the Johnson
family; Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne are hosting the McEwan clan at their house;
and Michael’s family is home this weekend too.
They’re mostly here to see Jake and Stephanie for the first time since
their wedding; which is mostly why Jake and Stephanie were set free from the
Inn as soon as the cooking side of the rush was finished so that they could
welcome his grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins home when they arrived.
I went home with Michael for a short visit
after we closed the Inn for the night, but the kids were in bed already and the
adults were all exhausted too; so I didn’t stay long. Michael’s cousin-in-law, Heidi, was the only
adult to already be sleeping, so I didn’t get to see her either, but she’s about
eight and a half months along with her second pregnancy; and the long trip was
really hard on her. Drew joked that she
only agreed to come along in hopes that the trip would put her into labor
early, but didn’t think it was funny when his brother, Eric, suggested that
Heidi really only wanted to go into labor while here because our doctors are
way hotter than her doctor back at home.
Those jokes could both turn into great baby stories for the future, but
since I haven’t seen Heidi yet; I can’t tell you whether there’s any chance she’ll
be ready to deliver early or not. Stay
tuned for an update on that for whenever I do get to see her this weekend.
After my short visit with Michael’s family,
I came home and joined the party in the living room that was really winding
down toward bedtime by then. I’d missed
out on all of the arrival work and most of the first round of storytelling, but
we did still have a nice chat for a half hour or so; and then Violet, Dawn, and
I had a much longer girl chat on my bed while Dillon, Chris, and Martin did a
bit of video gaming in the lounge. Dawn’s
top news from home was mostly about her flying lessons and hanging out at the
airport; though we talked about her school and friends too. The things that I can talk about with Dawn
seems boring by comparison to city life, but while Dawn wouldn’t trade places
with me; she does understand why Violet and I both love our little town so
much.
Okay, Dawn might trade places with me when
it comes to Michael being my boyfriend; but only if he’d move to Woodvale! ;^)
Moving along, Violet and Dillon went to bed
first; Dawn and I only talked for another twenty minutes or so after that; and
then she went to bed too. I closed the
doors to the lounge then, and Chris and Martin continued to play video games
for a while longer; but they’ve gone downstairs to their rooms now too. I’ve been doing some bedtime computing since
getting changed and into bed with Mandy, and while I didn’t have any family
business work scheduled, there were some emails that were work-related that I
could deal with; so I did. Maybe I
should have left that for next week, but I’m so used to being up late most
nights right now; I just wasn’t ready to sleep yet.
That’s something I’ll likely regret by
tomorrow night, since I need to be back at the Inn to help out with the
breakfast buffet; and that’s also why I need to wrap this up and get started on
my extended nap. It may have been mostly
a work day for me, but I did have quite a bit of fun while doing a lot of that
work; so I’m only a bit sad to have missed out on the family fun that I couldn’t
be here to enjoy. That trend is going to
continue tomorrow – and for the rest of the weekend; but I’ll still try to have
some family and friends fun around the work.
I should get used to that anyway; since it’ll likely be quite a while
before I’ll be able to take holiday weekends off from work again – if that’ll
ever happen. For all I know, Michael and
I will get drafted to help at the Inn on holiday weekends for the rest of our
lives!
Happy 15th Birthday, Reid!
That’s an abrupt switch, but I was about to
wrap this up and remembered that I didn’t start my update with that bit of
news. With the holiday weekend fun going
on, Reid didn’t try to have a big birthday party, but his girlfriend, Lily, did
set up a birthday lunch for him at school that all of his friends were there
for; and Reid did still have a small birthday dinner with his family, Lily, and
a couple of their best friends. Reid was
mostly happy to be joining the drivers’ club after getting his learner’s permit
this morning; so everything else was just a bonus compared to that
achievement. The only other bit of news
I’ll mention is that Michael and Tim picked out a fairly nice gift for Reid
that Rowen and I pitched in to buy for him.
Since Reid has a good chance of being the new quarterback for the team
for the next two seasons; I’ll suggest that Michael and Tim might have a motive
behind the gift choice, but I don’t really think they need to do things like
that; since Reid is nearly as much of a football fanatic as Tim is – and he’ll
be happy to have two really great wide receivers to work with on his team.
Okay, it’s definitely time to call it a
night and get some sleep when my journal update includes writing anything about
football in the off-season; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
