There is no way that I’ll be able to cover
all of the news for today without dragging this update out for longer than I
can manage tonight – especially when I’ll need to be up early to work the
breakfast buffet shift at the Inn and already won’t have time for more than a
long nap after staying up late with Violet, Dawn, and the other girls that have
taken over the third floor of our house for the night.
My day started out great with Tai Chi by
the river and breakfast with the gang we have here for the holiday weekend and
wedding. It felt weird going off to
school while my cousins had the day off, and I could have skipped the day when
we were just working around town anyway, but those clean-up and decorating
chores are an annual tradition here; and I wasn’t going to blow off my
responsibility for helping out with that just to have a bit of fun with my
cousins while they were busy with things like decorating the church for the
wedding tomorrow.
Michael and I still had fun working with
our group of younger kids at the park, and since we were assigned the new
section of the park; we also got to walk the trails while cleaning up and
making sure that everything looks great for the Memorial Day holiday –
especially when the park will be a popular place to play over the next few days
now that the trails are officially open and ready to cyclists and hikers. There wasn’t much decorating for us to do,
since most of that is done at the cemetery or around the park pavilion for the
picnic on Monday, but we ended up having a great weather day for those chores;
and somehow managed to dodge the thunderstorms that were forecast for our area
today.
I don’t want to jinx anything for tomorrow;
so won’t risk messing with Mother Nature by commenting on the forecast for tomorrow. Flip the digital page whenever you’re reading
this in my future to find out whether that makes a difference or not; since I’ll
have to wait to live the next eighteen or twenty hours to know the answer to
that for sure.
By the way, yes, I could use the Sight to
check that out, but as I’ve mentioned before, that would show me all of the
possible futures, and while some are more probable than others; the future
hinges on too many variables to make the Sight useful for anything more than a
general guide for what we should do – and sometimes to warn or aid us with a
bit of helpful foreknowledge. That’s
definitely something to write about some other day when I don’t need to wake up
and get back to work in a few hours, though; so let’s move this along.
While I was busy at school – or at the
park; our family and some of Violet’s and Dillon’s friends were converging on
our little town for the weekend. That
included the Proctor and Rice clans; Violet’s friends from Woodvale; and a
handful of college friends. Some of the
Johnson clan is here for the weekend too; though they’re here for the holiday
weekend and not the wedding.
Collectively, that means that all of our family homes here are full; as
is the Inn; and Dillon’s family is helping out with some overflow housing needs
too. Mom and Aunt Leanne coordinated a
lot of the arrivals, but also had lots of help; and Dad took half the afternoon
off to help out while having Claire hold down the office while he and Aunt
Leanne were both busy. I’ll skip writing
more about their work too, but we are also heading into month-end; and there
are extra housing and apartment moves going on this weekend because of the new
apartment building and returning college grads.
I didn’t have time for any of that after
school because Michael and I needed to get to the Inn. Jacob and Miranda really needed us there
because Jake and Stephanie are off work until Sunday while they’re busy with
Violet and Dillon; and the Inn was very busy for the dinner shift – in part
because of the extra mouths we needed to feed for the wedding guests. Yes, there were family meals going on at
several homes tonight too, but Violet and Dillon couldn’t do that with
everyone; so Miranda used one of the small dining rooms for the rest of their
friends and more-extended family visitors – including about half of the guests
staying at the Inn until Sunday or Monday.
It is a holiday weekend, so we have an
all-hands-on-deck schedule; and Michael and I worked from the time we were done
school until we closed the Inn at ten-thirty.
For me, that included making sure that the new library-sitting room was
stocked and ready for the rest of the night and early-morning. I haven’t mentioned that little addition to
the remodel, but in addition to the twenty-eight amazing guest rooms, the
library is a nice little place that the guests can use to gather for visits;
get drinks and snacks; and even have a light, self-serve breakfast on Sunday
mornings – the only day the Inn isn’t open for a morning meal. I’ll likely help out with getting everything
ready for that first Sunday breakfast tomorrow night, but this time; I just
needed to make sure that the snacks and drinks were fully-stocked; the
coffee-maker was full and ready to go; and the room was neat and clean. That is going to be one more job added to the
list of closing chores every night from now on; but that’ll be easy compared to
the work that will now be added to the morning chores with twenty-eight rooms
to clean – or as many of them as are being used each night once they’re open to
the public in another week and a few days.
While I was busy at the Inn – and doing
pretty well with tips tonight too; I missed out on the light dinner for family
at my house that Mom and Dad hosted; all of the work that went into that and
everything else going on for that and the rehearsal party that followed the
wedding rehearsal at the church; and all of the fun that my family and a lot of
our friends got to have tonight. By the
time Michael and I did get home, that party was in full swing; the meal was
over; and we had to settle for munching on some leftovers in the kitchen before
heading out into the back yard to join in on the fun. By then, there were around one hundred and
fifty people there; so we didn’t get to have more than a cameo visit with
Violet and Dillon – and that was just one blip of fun for them in a long line
of similar moments they had all evening with their families and friends.
Violet and Dillon also needed to do their
private meeting with their wedding party, parents, grandparents, and Pastors
not long after we got there; so other than that little visit; we didn’t even
see them at all again for the rest of the night – though I have gotten to spend
some time with Violet after Dillon was sent off at midnight; and Violet
eventually ended up on the third-floor with her bridal party and some extra
girls after seeing most of the party guests out by around one-thirty. I wasn’t there for the start of that because
Michael and I helped out with the work around the yard and kitchen as the party
wound down – and until the work was done by a bit before two o’clock. Michael went home after that; I grabbed a
shower because I needed it before getting ready for bed and joining in on the
girl chat in the lounge; and then there was another half-hour or so of talk
time before Stephanie ordered Violet to go to bed – and then all of the girls
either headed for their rooms – or left to walk back to the Inn; since that’s
what some of Violet’s childhood and college friends needed to do after staying
late to help roast their friend.
Dawn stayed up and talked with me for
another fifteen minutes, but she’s sleeping now; and I’ve just been doing the
basic bedtime computer and email checks before getting to this update. After this little blast of immersion into
Violet’s wedding, that seems more-real to me know than it has even in this past
week leading up to the big day, but I feel very different about this wedding –
mostly because it seems as though I’ll be squeezing it into my too-busy work
and holiday schedule. This is one of the
most-important days of my cousin’s life; and yet that contrasts to what I
expect my day to be like as the only real break I’ll have will be time to get
ready for the wedding ceremony and then I’ll get to be there – and have a small
part to play – for the ceremony before getting back to work and helping with
the reception dinner that will just be a part of the overall dinner rush we’ll
have tomorrow night.
That’s something I can write about with the
next update – if I don’t just fall asleep by the time I get home tomorrow
night. I don’t have any other news for
today, though, and really do need to head off into nap mode while I can; so,
until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
