Cassie's Journal - February 4, 2013

I’m still hopeful that this will be the last day for a while where football is at or near the top of the conversation list for the guys, but most of the girls my age and older at school are now interested in one thing – Valentine’s Day; that’s almost equally annoying to me; and will certainly be the top story for the next two weeks.

I wonder if our parents would let Rowen and I go to Australia and spend that time with Grandma and Grandpa instead?  Probably not.

Today would have been another good one to take off from school – or to at the very least keep my mouth shut during all non-educational activities.  While it hasn’t been a big problem in the past, correcting boys on Super Bowl game statistics just because you can is apparently a bad thing for me this year.  Some of the guys were annoyed; others were impressed; and the girlfriends of the boys in that second group were not happy with me either.  The worst of that happened at lunchtime when one of my comments led to a rapid-fire mini test of my football knowledge that Tim, Michael, and a couple of the other guys in our class threw at me.  Aunt Leanne’s love of winning must be rubbing off on me, because I could have fudged an answer or two; but didn’t.  Then again, it was a test, and I’ve never fudged answers on them in any of my classes either.

Whether my response was nature or recent nurture doesn’t really matter.  The results were that I earned bonus rep points with some of the guys; lost them with the rest; and made things worse for myself with the girls I least needed to do that with.  Rowen and a couple of other girls thought the whole scene was very entertaining – especially outdueling all of the boys on the football trivia.  I’m glad I could help make the day more fun for them, but still should have just kept my mouth shut instead.

Since we didn’t really want to have anything like that happen again today, and weren’t interested in being around for any girl chats that would be all about Valentine’s Day, the school dance, and boys; Rowen and I decided to spend our after-school play time in my room instead of going to the park or doing something else outside.  We did our homework; had a music practice; played with Ethan and Ehlana for a while; and our own girl chat time did not include anything about football or Valentine’s Day.

After the gang we had over yesterday, it seemed very quiet here tonight, but I’ve been busy too.  After cleaning up from dinner, we all had some play time together before Dad got to work in the office; Mom did a long Magi lesson with me; Ethan and Ehlana’s bedtime routine kept us busy for an hour or so; and I’ve been in my room working on my studies and nightly computing since then.  Mandy and I talked for a while at first, but she’s been sleeping for a couple of hours now; and even Mom and Dad are sleeping – though they weren’t when they first went to bed.

No, let’s definitely not go there.

I didn’t completely catch up on the leftover work from last night, but finished enough of it that I should be back on my little internal study schedule again in another couple of days.  Mom gave me a fairly heavy archive assignment, but I also have more time to get through it; so that won’t be a problem.  News around the world is often a bit depressing, and I don’t want to go there tonight either; but I should probably do a Magi Master kid’s perspective sometime soon.  I am very glad that my future won’t revolve around any level of politics; though since I will be working for an international family business, completely avoiding politicians and bureaucrats won’t be possible.  I can’t even avoid that now even when my family business jobs are essentially anonymous.

There’s always more to do, but it’s late; I’m tired; and I’m ready to call it a night, so...

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

Cassie's Journal - February 3, 2013

Congratulations to the Baltimore Ravens – the Super Bowl Champions this season!  San Francisco was down early, and tried hard to make a comeback – possibly with a little help from a third-quarter stadium blackout – but they were still a few points short when time ran out.

If you’re looking for more of a live recap on an event that would be history for you; this is the wrong journal for that.  I’ve had a great day, but that was because of a lot of girl time; chick flicks; and playing games while the boys were busy with yet another annual man event.  The game didn’t interest me at all, though I have memorized the stats so I’ll be ready for tomorrow if needed.  If the guys can get it all out of their systems tomorrow, Witch Falls will hopefully be a mostly football-free zone for the next five or six months.

That’s something worth celebrating today!

The lounge and my bedroom were a bit crowded fairly regularly for most of the afternoon and evening except while we all had dinner in the dining room.  We ate a bit early so that wouldn’t get in the way of the start of the game, so that gave us – the girls – time for two movies in the afternoon, and three more after dinner.  Rowen and I didn’t watch all of them because we spent nearly as much time playing with Ethan, Ehlana, and the other kids.  Ethan and the other boys might disagree, but they really did spend more time playing with us than with the men in the living room.

While I’ve had a really good day, there actually isn’t much else of interest to report.  We mostly had the same gang here as last year; the games are getting a bit more advanced as Ethan, Ehlana, and their friends can do more this year; and the chick flicks were a mix of new and old favorites plus one animated feature that was picked specifically for the younger kids.  Rowen and I didn’t really get any time to just hang out on our own, but we liked getting to spend the time with some of our favorite women; and I had the bonus of basically not getting teased about boys by Aunt Leanne at all.  Hoping for that to be the start of a new trend for her is probably too much to ask, so I’ll just be grateful for the day-long reprieve.

Since the party wrapped up late, I’ve only managed to get through about half of my usual nightly computing and studying, but I’m not going to stay up later to finish the rest.  I will try to put in a little extra time every night this week so I can catch up; but we’ll see how that goes – even Magi Master tweens can get a little distracted in the days leading up to their birthday.

Anyway, it’s after one, I’m tired, and it’s time to get some sleep, so...

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

Cassie's Journal - February 2, 2013

This won’t take long tonight; and I’ll be off to sleep early for the second night in a row.

Mom, Dad, and I worked all day, and only stopped for meals and a couple of short breaks.

Almost everything Mom and I did was either the usual house cleaning or to get ready for the Super Bowl party tomorrow.  Dad took care of his usual chores in the morning, and then hid in the office all afternoon; and Alicia took care of Ethan and Ehlana while the rest of us were busy; though they spent some time with me too while I was getting everything in the lounge ready to be chick flick central tomorrow.

The only non-work part of my day was our after-dinner Magi lessons.  Helping Mom with bath time for Ethan and Ehlana was fun too, but meant another clean-up of the bathroom once we were done; and I took care of that while Mom finished getting the twins ready for bed.  Once Ethan and Ehlana were tucked in for the night, I was ready for some quality time with my Jacuzzi.  I’ve been doing my usual nightly computing while in the tub, but I need to wrap this up; finish getting ready for bed; do my second bathroom once-over of the night; cuddle with Mandy; and get some sleep.

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

Cassie's Journal - February 1, 2013

Let’s start today’s report by finishing the one I gave up on last night.

Having a school night sleepover was one of the top highlights of the day, and Rowen and I had a lot of fun after we got home from the Inn.  We helped Mom with getting Ethan and Ehlana to bed while Dad went to work in the office; Rowen spent some quality time getting reacquainted with my Jacuzzi; and we had a nice, long chat while I was busy with my usual nightly computing and studies.  Rowen had been sleeping for more than an hour by the time I got around to writing my journal, and it was probably a combination of being tired and frustrated about all of the tween nonsense that had me ready to just crash and forget about everything for a few hours.

I was better again by morning, and having Rowen over gave Dad an excuse to make pancakes and bacon for breakfast; which helped to get our day off to a great start.  Playing dress-up and taking some extra time doing our hair was fun too; Fridays are usually very popular at school; and that has all made for a really good start to February.

The start of the new month also put Valentine’s Day at the top of the girl chat list at school; with the dance next Friday a big part of those discussions.  Rowen and I could end up being the only girls in our class not going to see Abby this weekend – or going to Crystal Springs – in search of the perfect dresses or outfits for the occasion.  I’m okay with that, but Rowen wishes she was a member of the couples club with ‘Tommy’ instead of his current girlfriend.

One really good thing that happened today that helped me out in tween land was that the non-plans for my birthday became public knowledge after Sally asked me about it this morning.  Lisa in particular seemed very happy to find out that not only was I not doing a friends party; but I wasn’t going to the dance either.  That helped offset the mess from last night, but I also kept a low profile as much as possible all day too.  Ditto that for after school.  Rowen and I were both doing a make-up work day, so after being set free from our last class, we headed for the store and home; and I only took a short break with Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana before going to work in the office until dinnertime.

I should have mentioned that while the girl talk was all about love and Valentines today, most of the boys were in full football mode with the Super Bowl now just two days away.  Football fever wasn’t a problem at home, but since we’re hosting a Super Bowl party here again this year; it meant that we were having a work evening instead of a dinner and a movie night so that Dad would be able to take Sunday off.

Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne still came over for a while after dinner, but that was mostly so we could all call Grandma to wish her a happy birthday.  She and Grandpa had already been celebrating her big day – and would be doing that for two days; just as they’d done for his birthday.  That chat was fun, and so was most of our evening – even if most of us were working too.  I put in some extra time on the family business; we had a little impromptu future plans meeting; Mom and Aunt Leanne went over some real estate business both for the family business and the projects here at home; and Uncle Adam, Ehlana, and Ethan played with the twins’ lab stuff and talked about their plans for the lab and the work they wanted to do there.

Mom and Dad are still working in the office now, but I came up to my room after Ethan and Ehlana were put to bed and Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne went home.  I’m already tucked in with Mandy; took care of my basic nightly computing earlier; and I’m skipping the archive and language studying in favor of a few extra hours of sleep.  Doing that this early on a Friday night could cost me some cool points if my friends find out, but I’m tired; and it’s going to be a busy weekend with extra work tomorrow to get ready for the Super Bowl party on Sunday.  It’s a good thing that we’ll also be doing a chick flick movie afternoon and evening too, or I’d be wishing that Mom, Aunt Leanne, Ehlana, and I were going away for the weekend instead.

That’s actually an awesome idea!  Maybe we should think about doing that next year!

Anyway, that’s all for tonight, so...

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

Cassie's Journal - January 31, 2013

Happy Birthday, Patricia!

Rowen’s Mom doesn’t like anyone making a big deal about her birthday anymore; though she hasn’t gone so far as to try and stay twenty-nine like Grandma Eleanor does.  She agreed to a small dinner party at the Inn tonight, but the only other concession she allowed was agreeing to a kid-free night for her and Owen.  We won’t add any comments on what they’re doing while Rowen’s here with me and Patrick is staying with the Faulkners.

I don’t really want to write about the continuing tween saga that continues to intrude too often into my otherwise blissfully happy life; but there was more of that again today at school – and especially during dinner and game night at the Inn.  The birthday fun this morning and at dinnertime offset the weird a little, but we hadn’t gotten a lot of snow yesterday; what hadn’t been ‘used up’ for our snowmen and games already had passed its optimal play potential; and Rowen and I were more interested in staying warm today than in eking out what little bit of snow entertainment was still left to be found outdoors.

That was the main reason we were in the music room at lunchtime, and Michael did not impress Lisa by making it three lunchtimes in a row where he spent more time with us – with me – than with her.  It was probably just me, but it sure felt like there was a cold draft coming my way from the general direction of Lisa’s desk all afternoon.  Rowen and I were skipping our work night, but we did our homework at the computer store; helped her parents for a while so they’d be able to close up early; and then went home to get ready for the birthday dinner and pick up an overnight bag for Rowen on our way through to my house.

The weird on my day kicked up a few notches when Aunt Leanne finally got her hands on me for the first time after hearing about my adventures yesterday.  Unfortunately, that didn’t happen until we met up with her and Uncle Adam at the Inn, and she provided way too much entertainment for everyone close enough to catch any of her comments and jokes for the rest of the evening – with most of the laughs coming at my expense.  I had expected it to happen eventually, but Aunt Leanne was definitely on a roll tonight, and though I’m glad that she helped everyone have so much fun; my life would have been a lot easier if I’d stayed home all night instead.

I’m sure that you’d like to hear those jokes too, but I’d really rather not go into all of the details here.  There were jokes about having boys fall for me; knocking them off their feet; unorthodox ways of getting them to take their clothes off; and the benefits of a photographic memory to generalize a few of the joke sub-categories.  Use your imagination from there.

I did play along, as always, and even thought that a lot of her comments and jokes were funny; but I already had enough tween problems to deal with, and none of this was helping me – or Michael – with Lisa and her friends.  Just finding out that I’d been at the Inn for dinner had given Lisa enough of a reason to be upset with me; and I’m sure that she eventually got the full recap of Aunt Leanne’s antics by the end of the evening.

Maybe I should take a sick day tomorrow.  It’s really too bad that some of my teachers know that I can self-heal pretty much anything, and that taking a sick day would be completely bogus.

Though Michael and I unwillingly provided a lot of the dinner entertainment, some of us actually remembered that we were supposed to be celebrating Patricia’s birthday; though she quite happily encouraged Aunt Leanne’s efforts – probably because it kept everyone from concentrating on roasting and toasting her instead.  She wasn’t able to completely escape from that, and Rowen and I especially had fun hearing some old stories about her Mom – except for a couple of them that tied in just a bit too closely for comfort to the jokes about Michael and me.

Rowen and I were at a kids’ table for dinner, and we took care of Ethan and Ehlana while the parents were busy.  By the time our food orders were delivered, I’d hoped that being out of the way would encourage Aunt Leanne to give me a break, but she sat right behind me; and the ongoing jokes and teasing was loud enough for everyone in our little group to hear.  Miranda helped her out nearly every time she stopped by for a visit or to make sure that we had everything we needed, but Michael didn’t even come out of the kitchen until just before the games started after getting teased by Aunt Leanne during his one and only foray into the dining room.  Having Lisa there for the game competition didn’t keep Aunt Leanne from teasing Michael whenever she could, and he looked like he wanted to escape just as much as I did.

I seriously need to move on from all of that.

Rowen’s Mom had fun at dinner; we did the cake and ice cream dessert; she opened her gifts; and then she and Owen went home to get started on their kid-free night.  Those of us staying for game night had nearly a half hour before that started, and though I declined Aunt Leanne’s and Miranda’s generous offer to let me help Michael in the kitchen; Rowen and I did help get the games set up while the dining room was being cleared and cleaned.

Since I really do want to skip writing any more about my tween problems, I don’t have much else to write about for the actual game night; other than that I spent most of it trying to dodge Aunt Leanne, and stay away from Michael and Lisa as much as possible.  That wasn’t always an option, and Rowen and I had to compete against them for two games tonight.  Winning both of those matches didn’t help me, but the worst was having Aunt Leanne ask Michael if he was losing his shirt to me when we were playing cards.

So much for moving along – I concede defeat.

No, that doesn’t mean I’m going to cross over just because Aunt Leanne wants me to do that.  It means that I’m going to skip the rest of the daily recap; shut down my computer; and try very, very hard not to dream of bunnies.

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