Cassie's Journal - August 4, 2013

Happy 13^th Birthday, Denise!

I think that she mostly did have a happy day, but the big tween story at her party wasn’t happy at all, and quite a scene for those of us who were near the epicenter of Nora’s break-up with Tim.

Before I get to those details, let’s get to the morning and afternoon news first.  It was still raining this morning, so we were indoors again for Tai Chi.  Michael came over for that, but then we were at our own homes for breakfast before meeting up again at church.  Tim and Nora weren’t back to normal this morning, but they did sit together during church and Sunday school; and were talking to each other and their usual group of friends.  He didn’t say more than a couple of words to Michael, Rowen, or me; and just saying ‘hi’ to us earned him hard looks from Nora that had a lot to do with why he didn’t push the issue.

While Rowen, Michael, and I were more affected by what was going on with Tim and Nora, the spotlight for nearly everyone else was on Amy and Jared Spencer – and their little bundle of joy, Drew.  With a long line of well-wishers around them both before and after the service, I only got to spend a few moments with them; but Amy is doing great, and Drew is absolutely adorable.  One bit of news that I picked up while talking with them was that at least some of the incoming Grade Four kids are upset that they’ll be getting a substitute teacher while Amy is on maternity leave with Drew.  She’s planning on coming back in January, so they will at least get to have her for the rest of the school year.  I can relate to the kids being disappointed, but then I only got to have Amy for my teacher for a handful of weeks.

Denise’s party didn’t start until one-thirty, and though it was still sprinkling lightly after church; it was clearing up by then and we only had a couple of little showers while we were at Quarry Lake.  While Mom and Dad drove Ethan and Ehlana home, I walked with Michael to the Inn first before going home and getting changed and ready for the party before having lunch with Mom, Dad, Violet, Ethan, and Ehlana.  Michael was set free a bit early from the lunch shift so that he could come out to Quarry Lake with Rowen and me; and he had time to stop in at home to change and pick up a few things before Violet gave us a ride to the party.

There weren’t any organized games today, so after having a little visit with Denise and her boyfriend, Kris, we went swimming and played on the slides, rafts, and diving platforms in and around the lake.  Tim and Nora got there sometime after we did, and were busy hanging out with some of the other couples until about an hour before Michael needed to head back to town and the buffet shift at the Inn.  Nora didn’t come with him; and we found out tonight that his play time with us had been negotiated and reluctantly agreed to.

Unfortunately for Tim, he apparently wasn’t supposed to have fun while with us; and Nora wasn’t happy to see that we were having a blast together.  Since she and Vanessa didn’t really do anything except keep an eye on us the entire time instead of playing too; I’ll guess that how Nora was obviously feeling made Tim’s happiness even harder for her to take – especially since he’d been comparatively subdued while hanging out with her.

The real problems didn’t start until after Michael left for the Inn.  Tim dutifully returned to Nora’s side as promised, and Rowen and I went back to playing in the lake mostly on our own until going over to the picnic pavilion that Denise’s parents had booked for the day and offered to help out with getting everything set up for dinner.  Our offer was gratefully accepted, and that kept us busy for the half hour until we sat down for dinner.  We were really happy to help out, and didn’t mind ending up on our own at a picnic bench on the edge of the dinner party after nearly everyone else was either seated or had reserved spots close to Denise.

We weren’t alone for long, though Rowen didn’t know why Tim came and sat with us until he explained it to her later.  I did know why after doing a quick memory scan; but I won’t repeat the pair of comments that Vanessa and Nora made about Rowen and me that earned Tim’s disgust and anger.  He tried to hide that from us, and Rowen and I both played along.  That was mostly because we didn’t want to distract anyone else from concentrating on Denise and making her dinner party special; but also because it was more fun to enjoy the birthday entertainment and just enjoy hanging out together.

It took nearly an hour and a half to eat, do the cake and ice cream dessert, and have Denise open her gifts.  Tim, Rowen, and I all helped out with cleaning up, packing, and getting everything loaded into a truck and minivan.  That earned some more comments from Nora and Vanessa, but the help was needed; and we had to wait a while before going for one last splash in the lake before Violet was coming to pick us up again anyway.

The big scene with Nora happened about fifteen minutes after we’d gone into the water again.  She and Vanessa intercepted us while we were walking from the beach over to one of the water slides; and things got ugly fast.  Writing about the details of that nasty little fight would be pointless, but I will mention that Tim didn’t just stand there and let Nora and Vanessa blast him without defending himself; and Rowen and I stood up for him just as he had a few choice things to say about how badly the other girls had been treating us for no real reason other than that he and Michael had the audacity to be friends with, and love, two of the kindest, nicest girls that any of them knew.

You can imagine why the way he’d phrased that particular assertion didn’t go over very well with Nora or Vanessa; and some extremely nasty retorts were directed at all three of us.  While I still wish that I could learn to keep my mouth shut sometimes; I don’t regret standing my ground despite the fact that it also hurt to see Nora in tears and both girls about as angry with me as they’ve ever been.

My experience with actually witnessing break-ups is fairly limited, but I am sure that when Nora told Tim that she was finished with him in a blistering, minutes-long rant it ranked among the worst for tweens in our little town.  Nora also made sure that a handful of our friends and some innocent bystanders heard that last part of the fight; so the three of us were tween outcasts for the rest of the time we were at the campground.

We didn’t feel like partying anymore, but we did go back into the lake; float around; and talk quietly until it was time to meet Violet in the parking lot.  Since Tim wasn’t expecting to get a ride home with Nora now, he came with us; and while Violet was curious about that, she didn’t say anything about it until a little while ago when she stopped in to chat with me on her way to bed.  When we got home, Tim went to check in with his parents first, but then came back over to hang out with us until Michael could join us once he was done at the Inn.

While waiting for Michael, we spent a little time with Ethan and Ehlana until Mom took them upstairs for their bath, and then we went outside and sat on two of the benches by the river.  After spending a lot of time in the water already; we didn’t really feel like going swimming; though we did hop in with Michael when he wanted to cool off for a few minutes after a hot evening in the kitchen.  Tim seemed to want a little time too before he was ready to tell Michael about the fight and too-public break-up with Nora, and just in case he wanted a little time to talk with Michael without Rowen and I around; we went inside after our swim to get changed and pick up snacks and drinks for four before returning to the benches by the river.

Tim had started telling Michael about everything that had happened at the party after he’d left; and it was obvious that Tim was still a bit shocked at the vehement and abrupt end to his first serious relationship.  Being in shock didn’t mean that he was devastated too.  After hearing some of the things that Nora told us and apparently believed; he’s sad, and sorry that things were ending on such a bad note after spending a year together that had mostly been good for both of them; but relieved too that she’d made that final choice.  If Nora had stopped short of breaking up with him; I think he would have taken that step anyway.

The chances that we were getting verbally bashed tonight were high, but we didn’t do that in return.  Instead of doing anything like that, or trying to console Tim with insincere platitudes, Michael helped him to remember some of his favorite adventures with Nora while suggesting that Tim focus on those good memories instead of the fights and unpleasant moments that had been sprinkled throughout their year together.  Rowen and I didn’t have much to contribute to Michael’s little trip down memory lane, but we offered our support and an occasional hug.  Rowen sat on the same bench with Tim while Michael and I sat together and held hands.  They were close together, but only brushed shoulders or arms a few times.  Tim looked like he appreciated her choice to sit right next to him instead of at the other end of the bench or with Michael and me.

Before moving on, I should be fair and point out that just because we weren’t saying anything nasty about Nora or Vanessa that I wasn’t thinking some bad thoughts – and I doubt I was the only one.  The fact that we don’t talk trash even when we might really want to is one of the reasons why Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I do love each other.

That brings me to the part of our little riverside chat when Michael pointed out to Tim the way that Nora must have interpreted his comment about why they were friends with, and loved, Rowen and me.  What was surprising for all of us was that after being a bit stunned to look at that differently than he had at the time; Tim admitted that he actually did love us.

Then he promised to deny it if we told anyone about that admission. ;^)

We sat out there for quite a while before Tim was ready to go home, and Michael went with him again tonight just in case his best friend needed some guy talk time.  There may have been some back yard witnesses, but hopefully a full round of hugs and the one goodnight kiss that Michael and I shared won’t be a big news story around town tomorrow.  After Rowen, Michael, and Tim left, I went inside; gave Mom and Dad the condensed version of the party news that we didn’t tell them while Ethan and Ehlana were with us earlier; and then they went to bed when I came up to my room and opted for a shower instead of a soak in the Jacuzzi.

I had been sitting in my window alcove working on my computer for a while when Violet stopped in to get the party report.  She hadn’t been surprised to hear about Tim and Nora, or that the break-up scene had gotten nasty.  Her advice for helping Tim and dealing with Nora and Vanessa was welcomed, and though she didn’t say anything; I got the impression that she was basing that on some information about Tim and Nora from other sources and not just a lot more personal experience with this sort of thing that came with living in cities and going to big schools.

While Violet went to bed after our chat, I continued working on the family business project that has been my main work focus tonight.  I finished with that about twenty minutes ago; and wrapped up the usual nightly computer checks before getting to this update.  I’m ready to get some sleep, but want to mention a few things that are happening this week.

First up, and most important to our future plans, is that Aunt Grace officially starts her new job as CEO of the lab.  She’ll work from home for most of the next year until the building is completed; but she’ll have a lot to do as she works with Uncle Adam, the construction companies, and all of our suppliers.  Uncle Mark will be working at the clinic with Uncle Adam starting tomorrow, and while they don’t plan on splitting the practice and having Uncle Mark take half of the patients; some planning has gone into making the integration go smoothly.  About half of Uncle Mark’s schedule for his first week is booked; including a back-to-school check-up for me and appointments for Ethan and Ehlana.  Most of the recruits will help to spread the word that Uncle Mark is a great doctor too – and I’m sure he’ll be popular with some of the men and women that find it weird to have Uncle Adam for their doctor now – like former classmates, teachers, and babysitters.

Since more than half of the college-bound students will be leaving for school this weekend, there’s a going away party that’s mostly for the departing seniors on Friday night.  They’re having dinner at the Inn and then moving over to the Jacobs’ house for the rest of the evening.  I guess that time has run out for me to stay in denial.  While I won’t be going to that party, I may stop in to help out at the Inn for a while since they’ll be a bit short-handed with so many of their teens having dinner there instead of working.

I will be getting to spend some time with Jake and Stephanie this week, because Michael invited me to spend the day with him and his family on Tuesday.  He doesn’t know what his parents have planned; but we’re going to spend the entire day with Jake and Stephanie because it’ll be Jacob and Miranda’s last chance to do that before they leave on Saturday.

It’s late, and tomorrow could be a very interesting day if there’s more Tim and Nora tweeirdness.  I need to wrap this up and get some sleep, so...

...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Cassie's Journal - August 3, 2013

It was still raining a bit this morning, so Tai Chi was indoors; but by the time we started cleaning up after breakfast, the rain ended – temporarily.

The good news that came along with the break in the rain was that our ballgame was on for noon.  Unfortunately for our team, though, the Panthers won the game seven-to-six when we came up short during our last at-bat.  I’d like to say that it was a good game, but it really wasn’t.  Hits were hard to get, and more of the runs were scored on both sides because of fielding errors than from clean plays.  While the ball diamond had been groomed, the grass in the outfield was still wet during the game; and that made the ball harder to catch, throw, or hit while wet and slick.  There were a lot of pop fly, tips, and foul ball outs than hits today.

Carolyn was especially upset about that, and she really didn’t like losing both of our games against the Panthers.  We’re still in a good position to make it into the championship game against the Panthers; but there’s no chance for us to be the home team now – not that being the home team helped us out today.  Rowen and I went along for the post-game ice cream stop at the Emporium, but there wasn’t much enthusiasm; partly because we were all disappointed, and because most of us were damp, dirty, and uncomfortable.

Being damp and dirty was the main reason why Michael, Rowen, and I went for a swim after he met up with us to spend his afternoon break with us.  Tim didn’t come over too; and Michael told us that Tim had decided to try and have that honest talk with Nora that Rowen had suggested last night.  The fact that Tim didn’t come looking for us this afternoon or evening probably meant that he and Nora were at least talking now even if that didn’t say anything one way or the other about whether they’ve been able to work anything out or not.  I’m sure we’ll have a better idea about that when we see them at church tomorrow.

I skipped over the action from this morning, but there wasn’t really anything newsworthy going on anyway.  Michael stayed for breakfast and helped with the cleanup before heading home when Rowen left for the computer store.  I mostly helped out with the housework until I needed to get to the park for my game; though I did a little family business work too.

While I grabbed a sandwich before leaving the house, Mom and Dad put together a little picnic to have with Ethan and Ehlana while watching my game.  Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Leanne, and Uncle Adam all stopped in for visits and to offer their support; but Aunt Leanne can’t comfortably sit on a bleacher for hours right now; and they all had other things to do this afternoon too.  The one good thing about noon games is that there seems to be more parents that are able to stop by to watch while on their own lunch breaks; so more of the girls on both teams were happy to have the extra support.  I can appreciate that more this summer while Aunt Leanne needs to cut back on her cheerleading for our team.

Ethan and Ehlana had gone with Mom and Dad after the game to do a little running around town, so they only caught the tail end of our swim; but then Michael, Rowen, and I played with them until Michael needed to go back to the Inn.  Rowen stayed until she needed to meet up with her grandparents and brother for dinner; but we moved our play time with the twins up to the lounge when it started to rain again.

There really isn’t much else to add for the rest of the evening.  We’ve had a quiet dinner and evening indoors.  Violet had dinner with us, and we all had a play time Magi lesson with Mom and Dad; but then I came up to my room for some Jacuzzi time when Ethan and Ehlana were getting ready for an early bedtime.  Michael and I had decided this afternoon that we wouldn’t get together after he was finished work – unless Tim needed us – so that we could both get to bed early.  With work at the Inn and the party tomorrow, he’s going to have an extremely long, busy day; and I’m overdue for a normal night of rest even though I’d have really liked to spend an hour or so with Michael.

Violet and Dillon are hanging out in the living room with Jake and Stephanie, but I didn’t go downstairs after my bath.  They need the time together without being bugged by anyone now that they’re down to less than a week before Jake and Stephanie leave for New York.

I’m still trying not to think about that too much – or about having Violet and Dillon leaving for college in two weeks.  Right now, I mostly just want to pack up my computer and get some sleep.  Dealing with parties, impending partings, and everything else that’ll be going on for the next week or two can wait until I’m fully re-charged.

Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Cassie's Journal - August 2, 2013

Congratulations Amy and Jared – it’s a boy!

Drew Spencer became the newest resident of the Ridge River District early this morning.  We heard the news when Aunt Leanne came over for Tai Chi and breakfast after spending a couple of hours at the clinic with Uncle Adam and the Spencer and White families when her own pregnancy – and Uncle Adam’s absence – was keeping her awake anyway.  Amy and Drew are doing just fine; and while Jared was a bit shaken up by the whole thing, he’s going to be okay too – and he’s already a very proud new Daddy.

Though Uncle Mark doesn’t officially start work at the clinic until Monday, Uncle Adam got to find out one of the benefits of having two doctors in town when he was relieved of duty for a few hours this morning so he could go and have a nap while Uncle Mark took care of Amy, Drew, and a few regular patient appointments that couldn’t be rescheduled.  We got to hear all about that and about Drew too while we had dinner together tonight; but I’ll get to that part of the report in a minute.

Having Aunt Leanne with us made Tai Chi and breakfast more fun; though she exercised with Mom and Dad while I continued my lessons with Michael, Ethan, and Ehlana.  Michael went home and on to the Inn after we’d finished our workout, and I didn’t see him again until he was finished helping out with the post-lunch clean-up.  While he and Rowen were busy working at the Inn and computer store; Dad had agreed with my suggestion to get the lawn cut today in case it was either raining tomorrow morning or too wet to cut; so I started working on that as soon as the kitchen was cleaned up from breakfast.  I ended up weeding all of the gardens too instead of doing any work in the office, but I didn’t have anything that absolutely had to get done this morning anyway; and I’ll catch up sometime this weekend on the work I do want to get done before Monday.

I hopped into the river for a cool off swim before stopping for lunch that also helped to wash away most of the garden dirt.  Mom and Alicia went with a quick and easy lunch, so it didn’t take long to eat or clean up.  Rowen came over after having lunch with her parents; and we played in the back yard with Ethan and Ehlana for a while until Michael and Tim met up with us and we headed out for some trail riding at the park.

The clouds gradually grew deep and dark over the next few hours, but the rain held off until about a half hour before dinnertime.  Getting to spend some quality time on the bike trails was great, and we followed that up with another very entertaining swim with Ethan and Ehlana before going inside for a snack break.  We ended up spending the rest of the afternoon and most of the evening indoors after that; and Michael and Tim were both added to the dinner guest list.  Mom and Dad weren’t doing a dinner and a movie night, but they had invited Grandma and Grandpa over for dinner.  Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, Uncle Mark, and Aunt Grace were added mostly so that they’d all have a little less work to do tonight after a busy baby day at the clinic.

Saving them some work meant that Mom needed some extra help.  Rowen and I were drafted for the before and after dinner work crews, and while we were busy; Michael and Tim played video games in the lounge and kept Ethan and Ehlana entertained.  The rain didn’t affect the meal plan tonight because Mom had already decided not to have anything grilled.  She instead went with two casseroles, corn on the cob, and Dad’s mashed potatoes with bacon and cheese.  Yes, that’s mostly because it’s my favorite; but Rowen, Michael, Tim, Ethan, and Ehlana all love it too.

In addition to the baby stories, there was some other news we heard about from Aunt Leanne while having our meal.  Tops for the family was that Josiah was going to spend the weekend with Chrissy and her family.  Going shopping in the city for some of the things he needed before leaving for college gave him a good excuse for the trip, but I’d say things are getting serious with them fast; since they’ll be at school together anyway next weekend.  Aunt Leanne also had a chat today with Jenny’s Mom, and though we’d already known that Joel was going home to spend a couple of weeks vacationing with his mother and step-family; Emily’s perspective on that was different than Jenny’s or Joel’s.  Mrs. Warren does like Joel just fine, but she thinks that a little time apart after practically being glued to each other during most of July will be good for them.

Since Michael and I want to spend a lot of time together right now too, if not as overtly and demonstratively as Jenny and Joel, I won’t comment on that; but Rebecca will like getting her best friend back for a while.

We haven’t been involved in the getting ready for college action that’s been going on with Jake, Stephanie, Violet, and Dillon; but that topic was on the dinner chat schedule too.  Getting ready to leave for college is different for Jake and Stephanie than it is for Violet and Dillon or Josiah and Chrissy; mostly because they’re packing light and will buy a lot of the things they’ll need once they’re in New York.  Violet and Dillon will have Violet’s car, and though they’ll be limited by dorm restrictions for the first couple of years; they will be able to take more with them from home than they could if they needed to travel by airplane.

Note to me: stop in and visit Stephanie’s Mom more often after they leave for school next weekend.  Miranda will still have two out of three of her kids at home, but Samantha’s one and only baby will be away for a lot of the next four years; so she’ll probably need some regular cheering up for a while.

While the adults weren’t going to be watching a movie after dinner, that’s what Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I decided to do once the post-dinner work was finished.  Before we moved up to the lounge to do that, though, Rowen and I had decided to have a sleepover, so I ran over to her house with her while she packed an overnight bag and grabbed her flute; and Tim invited Michael to stay at his place for the night whenever they did eventually finish hanging out with us; so they went over to Michael’s place so that he could get what he needed too.

We were going to invite Ethan and Ehlana to join us, but they ended up having some play time with Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, and Dad instead; so it was just the four of us in the lounge – and my room while we played a little music in between the movie and video gaming that Tim had suggested would be more fun for him and Rowen.  I’m sure that the second movie was also supposed to be girls’ choice had nothing to do with his sudden interest in doing something else.  I will cut him some slack on that, though, since it would be a bit inappropriate for us to make him sit through a romance movie in close proximity to Rowen while in the middle of a big fight with his girlfriend.  I don’t know how much Nora knows about how much time Tim’s been spending with us for three nights in a row now; but she wouldn’t be happy about it.

Tim needed to talk about his problems some more tonight, and we mostly did that after the movie; the goodnight hugs and kisses that Ethan and Ehlana stopped in for on their way to bed; and our music play time.  I haven’t really thought about it until he brought it up, but we all have another Quarry Lake birthday party on Sunday afternoon and evening for Denise Burroughs.  She invited Michael, Rowen, and me; and Tim is worried about what’ll happen there if he and Nora are still fighting.  We weren’t able to help him out with those worries, other than to promise to be there for him if he needed us; and Rowen gently suggested that he should try and sit down with Nora and have a honest talk with her about everything he’d been discussing with us for the past few days.

Once you’ve read these last few journal entries, Rowen, I’m sure you’ll get why I don’t think that Tim should tell Nora the truth and nothing but the truth.  Yes, they do need to talk about their problems to have any chance of working things out; but even that is going to be tough to do right now when they’ve both dug in and don’t seem interested in compromise.

The funny thing for us again tonight is that even with having that fairly serious chat; we had a really great afternoon and evening together.  Outside of her involvement with Vanessa’s plans for Michael and her problems with Tim, I like Nora; but also understand that we’ll never be best buddies simply because of our different interests.  That won’t change if she and Tim make up; and she won’t want to do the things we like to do together – especially right now while her best friend is still mad at Michael and me.

Hopefully Tim won’t have more problems once word of our goodnight hugs and kisses on the front porch hit the town gossip network in the morning.  I’m sure there were witnesses, and Michael, Rowen, and Tim all teased me about getting the boys mixed up when I gave Tim a big hug and kiss on the cheek before saying goodnight to Michael.  Those jibes led to Rowen hugging both boys too; so how Nora takes that news flash when she hears about it will probably depend on how wildly the story grows and changes between now and then.

All I can say in our defense is that Tim really needed those hugs and kiss.  Since Michael was going home with Tim, and we had those witnesses too, our goodnight hug and kiss was short and sweet tonight.  He and Tim started running as soon as they hit the ground, though they were going to get wet whether they walked or ran over to Tim’s house.  Rowen and I watched them from the front porch, and had smiles and waves for them when they looked back toward us before going out of sight around the corner by Rowen’s house.

It was going on eleven-thirty by then, so Rowen and I checked in with Mom and Dad before coming up to my room and getting ready for bed.  We’ve been having a nice long girl chat since climbing into bed with Mandy while playing on our computers.  Rowen has been entertaining both of us with appropriately-themed YouTube videos to match our chat topics, and I’ve been doing my usual nightly computing and a bit of family business work.

We probably won’t know until sometime in the morning whether our game is on or not at noon depending on whether the rain ends early enough to have the ball diamonds ready to use by then.  The morning games have already been rescheduled, and from the looks of the weather forecast; it’s a good thing that I did cut the lawn and weed the gardens this morning.  Whether the game is on or not, Rowen’s working at the computer store in the morning, and I’ll either be helping with house cleaning or working in the office on the family business; it’s now after one; and time for us to get some sleep.

Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Cassie's Journal - August 1, 2013

I totally get why Nora was mad at Tim on Tuesday, and the reasons she has for not wanting Tim to hang out with Michael, Rowen, and me; but dumping on him for going to our riding lesson when that’s something that his parents paid for in advance for the entire summer session is taking her demands at least a step or two too far.  To be fair, I only heard about her rant from Tim during our second riverside chat in two nights; but it didn’t sound like he was embellishing the story very much or even putting a spin on it that made him look better.

Their latest fight didn’t happen until this afternoon, and since we’d had a really good morning riding the trails and then going for a swim with Ethan and Ehlana after getting home again; the contrast between fun and misery was something that made things worse between Tim and Nora – at least from his perspective.

We don’t need to re-hash the details of what we talked about tonight, but while Tim has been in trouble with Nora lots of times while they’ve dated; he’s sure that this time is different and much more serious.  I’m a bit conflicted about the situation because I know he’s upset and having a tough time; but this is also strengthening our friendship – all four of us.  That’s actually one of the differences from other fights they’ve had; and another is that it doesn’t sound as if he’s trying to charm or joke his way back into Nora’s good graces.  Tim didn’t have any answers to his problems when we split up tonight and he and Rowen again left Michael and I alone on the dock so we could have some alone time; other than that he’s sure that he won’t give in and accept a ban on hanging out with us.  Since they both seem to be drawing that line in the sand; the drama is likely to continue for a while.

Let’s move away from that story for a minute, and I’ll cover the rest of my daily report.  Michael came over for Tai Chi and breakfast again; and he’ll probably do that for the rest of the riding lesson mornings this summer.  Ethan especially likes having him around; and he and Ehlana both kept Michael entertained while we ate and cleaned up.  Rowen and Tim came over with time to spare before we needed to hit the road for the ranch, so they sat at the kitchen table with the twins and joined the chat in progress while Michael, Violet, and I finished our work.  Violet drove us out to the ranch again, and we had Christie and Cody Carter leading our lesson and trail ride today.  That made all of the girls and boys in our group happy, including about half of the kids and tweens who had crushes on Pamela and John’s youngest daughter and son.

Christie finished high school a year ago, but isn’t going to college like most of her classmates and friends are.  She is traveling and working with other horse experts during the off-season at the ranch; mostly because her passion is trick riding; and she wants to train specialty horses.  That is really going to be a cool job; and it’ll be great for the Ridge River Ranch reputation too.  Cody’s starting his senior year, and though he doesn’t talk about it with us; I know from Pamela that he’s planning on going to college after graduating – just as his older brother and sister did.  Kyle Landry has the most-popular senior title locked up this year – especially if our football team has another great season; but Cody will probably take over the hottest guy designation from Jake.  The big difference for that from last year is that Cody has never had any serious girlfriends while Stephanie had Jake off the market early.

I don’t want to think about back-to-school tonight, and that little blurb went off on a little side-trail; so let’s get back to the update.

The trail ride was a blast, and I really loved the little break we had where Christie showed us a few new tricks she was learning while we were giving the horses a rest and water.  As I already mentioned, Michael and Tim stayed with us for the swim with Ethan and Ehlana after we got back to my house; and we played for nearly a half hour before Michael needed to run home to finish cleaning up and getting ready to help out at the Inn and Tim went home for lunch.

Rowen stayed, and after having our noon meal on the back porch with Mom, Violet, and Alicia; we spent most of the afternoon playing with Ethan and Ehlana.  We took them for a bike ride around town, including a tour of the construction sites and a short visit with Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace.  After that, we met up with Michael and played at the park for an hour; stopped at the Emporium for ice cream; and then went for another swim before he needed to get back to the Inn and we went inside to help Mom with making dinner.

The food was ready by the time Dad got home from the office; and Rowen and I had to eat quickly so we could get to our baseball practice early – as requested by Carolyn so we could put in a little extra time to get ready for our big game against Palmer’s Panthers on Saturday.

Coach Sarah is just as competitive as her daughter, but Carolyn manages to get her friends and teammates working harder than her mother would push us.  I don’t know how the game will go against the Panthers, but we couldn’t possibly be more prepared than we are right now.  I really would like to win this game too, and don’t mind tougher practices; but not everyone on our team was having fun; so we may need to lighten up a bit if they’re getting too stressed about trying to keep up with the better players like Carolyn and Jenny.

Rowen and I needed to hop in the river again after we got back from our practice, and we took Ethan and Ehlana in with us again.  There was time to play with them in the back yard too until Mom wanted to dunk them in the tub before getting them ready for bed.  We helped her with that, and then Michael and Tim came over in time to do the bedtime story and snack with us.  Once Ethan and Ehlana were tucked in for the night, we went outside for another long, lazy swim; and then we sat on the dock again and talked until a bit after eleven o’clock.  Michael needed to go home and get some sleep because he was helping out at the Inn both at breakfast and lunch; but we wanted to have a little more alone time than we’d had yesterday; and it was eleven-thirty before we reluctantly shared one last goodnight kiss – or maybe two or three of them. ;^)

Violet and Dillon were somewhere else tonight, and Mom and Dad had gone to bed already by then; so I came straight up to my room, got changed, and have been working on my computer since climbing into bed with Mandy.  I haven’t even had very many chats in other languages this summer, but tonight I had two internet chat friends check in with me while I was online; and spent nearly an hour in total talking to them in two different languages while doing some family business work and my usual nightly computing.  There was also an email from Dawn asking me what I was doing for the first weekend of August; and a couple of email answers from notes I’d sent out last night that brought me up-to-date on some of the action going on around the Proctor, Johnson, and McEwan families.

Rowen and I are both working tomorrow morning before taking the afternoon off to play with Michael – and possibly with Tim too if there is no major change for him with Nora by then.  Since there’s more rain in the forecast heading into the weekend, I may switch my office work time and mow the lawn in the morning instead if it looks like our morning yard work might get rained out on Saturday.  Hopefully rain won’t get in the way of our ball game; but I guess if we do get stuck with rain on a Saturday it’s better to have it on a weekend when we don’t have any major fun plans.  Considering how bad the forecasts have been this summer even a couple of days out, though, we’ll just wait and see how it turns out.

I’ve been working and chatting longer than I should have after not even getting started until nearly midnight, so I’m going to put my computer away and get some sleep now while I can.

Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!

Cassie's Journal - July 31, 2013

Up until a couple of hours ago, I expected this to be a very short update.  Tai Chi this morning had been about the most exciting part of the day until then – including the Fix-it Uppers ball practice.

That all changed when Tim met up with Michael when he was done at the Inn; and they both came over to go for a swim and hang out with Rowen and me.

Before I get to that, Michael came over for Tai Chi, but then went home right after that.  I split my time this morning between working on the family business in the office with Mom and Violet; and doing some housework that was mostly running a couple of loads of laundry and cleaning most of the third floor except Violet’s room.  We had sandwiches and veggies for lunch, and then Rowen and I had a lazy afternoon that included spending some time with Ethan and Ehlana; hanging out with Michael during his afternoon break; and not doing much of anything at all.

Rowen stayed for dinner, and then we had Emma with us at the park to help us keep Ethan, Ehlana, and Naomi entertained while our parents were playing baseball.  I guess that was a little more exciting than Tai Chi, but the play time fun was offset by the parts of the practice we watched that didn’t show much improvement in our team play – or prospects for the last two games of the season.

I do not need to use my Sight to predict that I won’t likely need to get a cheerleading squad together for the co-ed championship game.  The fact that I like to win as much as Aunt Leanne does has a lot to do with why this season has been harder on me than on any of the Fix-it Uppers players.  I really need to work on that, but then considering what I do know about my future; that drive to win may come in very handy.

Getting back to the story, Rowen came home with me after the practice was over, and Michael and Tim joined us while we were still doing a bedtime snack with Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana.  We fed them too, and after doing a round of goodnight hugs and kisses with the twins before they went up to bed; we grabbed towels and bottles of water on our way out to the river for our swim.  Once we were on our own, Tim advised us that he was still in the doghouse with Nora, and that hanging out with us tonight was going to make that worse; but he wanted to talk to us too, and needed to vent and blow off a little steam of his own while we played in the water.

Working off some of that energy was the main reason why we actually went for a swim downriver to the bridge and back along with playing with the glow-in-the-dark water games.  Most of the talking came after we got out of the water and sat on the dock.  I don’t know if Tim told Michael everything either before or after they were with us, but he didn’t tell Rowen and me the specifics about how his fight with Nora had started.  He just told us that he’d experienced yet another foot-in-mouth moment that Nora was not forgiving him for without terms of surrender that he wasn’t willing to accept.

In a nutshell, Nora doesn’t want Tim to hang around with Michael anytime Rowen and I are around.  Since Michael is spending most of his free time with us; that’s a bit of a problem – not to mention the fact that we really have fun together.  Our conversation from that point on was fairly serious, with a few touches of humor; and more than a little tweeirdness.

This was also another example where I think that I suck at being a tween if for no other reason than my apparent inability to keep my mouth shut.  The good news for Tim is that my blunt truthiness is complimented by Michael’s steadfast friendship and Rowen’s quiet thoughtfulness and earnest compassion.

There were several levels of tweeird for me, with the first being because I knew more about what had happened with Tim and Nora than he was willing to tell us.  That made answering some of his questions a bit awkward; and Tim may have wondered how I reached some of my assertions.  The way that Tim kept looking at Rowen was tweeird too – especially when they were talking directly to each other.  Finally, Rowen definitely looked like she was deep in the tweeird zone; and the empathic vibes swirling around all of us was fairly intense.

Talking about all of that with Tim had been because he needed us to be there for him, but it’s also made me think more seriously about my own relationship with my classmates and friends.  Setting aside the obvious rivalry reasons for why I’ve had problems with Lisa and Vanessa; I’d gotten along just fine with all of the girls in my class until they started crossing over.  Finding out about Rowen, and then being able to sense all of the Magi has made a difference too; so the council is at least partially right about their concerns though that’s still just one factor.

Changing common interests; financial and social status; and personal talents and abilities are all more important now too.  I tend to think of things like that from the perspective of how that affects me; and don’t consider how it affects how Vanessa, Nora, and some of the other girls feel about me.  Friends like Sally and Gretchen don’t care about those differences, and though we don’t really do a lot of things together if for no other reason than because they live on farms and we don’t see them much during the summer; we get along just fine, and have fun together when we are doing things that we all like to do.  That isn’t the case right now with about half of the girls in our class.  I don’t know if that’s temporary, or whether it will change now that Michael and I are a couple and might eventually get to join the couples club too; but I do need to think about that a bit more and try and change that a bit if I can.

Getting back to Tim’s current problems, our collective comments and advice did not include bashing Nora, stroking Tim’s ego, or suggestions about whether he should or shouldn’t be dating Nora.  We did talk about all of the issues I’ve been thinking about since then, along with a couple of specific issues that apply to his relationship – like why he was initially attracted to Nora; and how important that particular common interest was to their relationship.

That would be where my blunt assessments were most uncomfortable for Tim – and probably for Michael and Rowen too.  I’m sure that Tim and Nora do have some other interests that they share, but if they were both honest about it; I’m sure they’d admit that exploring their physical attraction at a mutually acceptable pace has been the main reason why they’ve been together.  Most of the laughs happened during that part of our chat – especially when Tim countered my comments by asking me how that was any different for Michael and me – or any of the other tween and teen couples.

Michael was interested in my answer to that question, though he knew as well as I did what the differences were for us.  I’m not actually sure whether Tim did or not until then.  It’s possible that he hadn’t thought about a lot of things when it came to Nora.  Now that he was basically being asked to make a fairly significant choice; he really needed to take a close look at what was most important to him – including how important his friendships with Rowen and me were to him.

He didn’t have any answers when he went home tonight, and we didn’t help him to feel better; but Michael’s sure that we did help him; and that Tim would appreciate the honesty and sincerity without the tween games or pandering.

When Tim was finally talked out, he and Rowen left together so that Michael and I could be alone for a few minutes before he went home too.  We didn’t really take that long saying goodnight to each other, but after spending so much time talking about a relationship that wasn’t going very well right now; the kisses and heart-felt ‘I love you’ exchange meant a lot to both of us.

Mom and Dad were in the office, and Violet and Dillon were in the living room when I got inside; so I made two quick stops to say goodnight to all of them before coming up to my room.  Getting wound down enough to sleep has taken a while, but I’m pretty much ready to call it a night now after playing a little music and spending the past hour and a half working on my computer.  With Riding lessons and baseball practice tomorrow, I should have climbed into bed with Mandy before now; but I’ll manage to survive on the four hours or so of sleep that I will get.

Being awake to see the end of July and the start of August didn’t have anything to do with why I needed the extra wind down time tonight; but being into August now will probably have a lot of kids and teens thinking about how close we’re getting to the end of summer and start of another school year.

Now that’s something I really don’t want to be dreaming about tonight; so I’m going to put my computer away and think about more interesting things – like goodnight kisses and everything else I love to do with Michael.

Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!