Cassie's Journal - February 9, 2013

Kids should get to have weekend birthdays every year!

Starting the day out with another big breakfast was great, and then getting to skip the usual Saturday morning chores kept the good times rolling.

We didn’t have spring-like weather today, but there wasn’t any rain, and it was still warm enough for biking and spending most of the day outdoors.  Rowen and I really decided to get away; packed a lunch; and started biking out along River Road.  We biked far past the whirlpool, but eventually returned there to sit and have our lunch before returning to Witch Falls.

That gave us lots of alone time to talk, and Violet’s breakfast dance report was high on the list for us.  We weren’t surprised to find out that both Rebecca and Stephanie had heard about everything at school, and they’d already known that Michael was going to give me a gift.  Violet had some ‘inside information’ on that, and since Stephanie was keeping an eye on Michael at the dance; she also knew how at least the dance part of the night had gone for him and Lisa.  The good news for both him and me is that roses go a long way to smooth over tween dating trouble; and Lisa apparently decided not to be mad at him anymore by the time they got to the dance.

Rebecca advised them that the word among the younger girls was that my not being there helped too; and though Violet didn’t have the details, Michael spent an hour or so at Lisa’s after the dance before getting home at the same time that Violet and Dillon dropped Jake and Stephanie off after they were finished helping out with the post-dance clean-up.  Violet had news about ‘Tommy’ and his girlfriend too, but Violet didn’t know that news was of any extra significance for Rowen when she passed it on with the rest of her dance recap.  ‘Get a room’, followed sometime later on by ‘but not a school classroom’ should be the only hints you need to know to get the gist of that part of Violet’s recap.  I’m sure you can guess that Rowen wasn’t thrilled, but that was one of the reasons why we didn’t want to be there last night.

There were also stories of apparently successful dates, and two that didn’t go well at all – including one couple from my class.  They did an old-style diner theme for the decorations and set-up that looked cool from the pictures Violet showed us on her phone, and it sounded like Violet, Dillon, Stephanie, and Jake all had a great night.  Since Violet was both tired and smiling non-stop this morning; I’ll guess that both the dance and her alone time with Dillon until whenever she did finally make it upstairs to her room made for one of those best-ever-so-far kind of date nights.

That’s enough tween and teen news for me, so let’s move on.  Our timing for the ride was good, since the traffic was mostly heading into town on our way out; and then outbound by the time we were going west again.  There wasn’t anyone playing on the river today, but there really aren’t that many people interested in canoeing or swimming the Ridge River in February.

Ethan and Ehlana were interested in some park play time this afternoon, so we spent an hour and a half doing that with them after getting back.  Some of our friends were hanging out there too, and we multi-tasked our playground fun with more Valentine’s dance news chat.  Rowen was particularly interested to find out that ‘Tommy’ missed his curfew after staying at his girlfriend’s house about an hour or so too long.  We learned more of the details about the date-gone-bad involving our classmates too; and I’ll guess that will be a couple that may not still be together by Valentine’s Day.  It sounded like the rest of our friends had as much fun as Violet and her friends did; but Rowen and I are still very glad that we weren’t there too.

We all went home for the rest of the afternoon once Ethan and Ehlana decided they’d had enough outdoor action for the day – or it might have been that Ethan didn’t want to hear any more girl talk.  We had a snack break with Mom, Dad, Violet, and Alicia; then played in the lounge until it was time for Rowen to head home.  Rowen and I entertained my brother and sister with a music practice that included both keyboards and saxophone for me while Rowen played along on her flute.  Rowen and Ehlana had fun teasing me a little more about my second-favorite birthday gift, but Ethan was as ready as I was to drop it and move on to anything else.  I really hope that does all blow over by the time we go back to school on Monday; but I’m not holding my breath that it will.

Rowen went home about a half-hour before Mom’s planned dinnertime, and it’s been a quiet evening around here since then.  Violet did a couple of lessons with Mom today, including one while we were at the park.  She had dinner with us, but then got ready to go out after we’d both helped with the clean-up; and was off and running again in time to meet up with Dillon at the Inn before going on to hang out at his house.  Mom and Dad spent a couple of hours playing with Ethan, Ehlana, and me.  ‘Normal’ toddler games are just for show around here when we have company.  Tonight we played with Ethan and Ehlana’s science lab for an hour and a half and solved that whole global warming problem.

Just kidding about the last part of that!

We did have fun, though, and Ehlana continually amazes the rest of us with just how especially brilliant she is when it comes to the sciences.  I won’t be surprised if she does solve global warming some day.

I came up to my room for some Jacuzzi time when Mom and Dad took Ethan and Ehlana up to do bath time with them, but I kept it short enough that I could still do the bedtime snack and story with them.  Mandy and I have been tucked into bed since ten-thirty; I didn’t really do much of my usual nightly computing before getting started on this; and I don’t plan on being awake for very much longer.  We don’t really have anything exciting planned for tomorrow that I need to rest up for, but I’ll be back to normal school night studies again tomorrow; and a little extra down time tonight is looking good right now, so...

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

Cassie's Journal - February 8, 2013

Let’s start out today’s report with a big “THANK-YOU!” for Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana.

Just as my saxophone was my top Christmas gift, getting a portable synthesizer-keyboard was my favorite birthday gift this year.  With a little help from my grandparents and aunts and uncles; I’m set up with everything else I needed from a portable stand and bench to music books and jump drives for moving music back and forth between my new synthesizer and my computer.

I won’t be able to show off for anyone else other than Rowen and my family for quite a while, but I have been reading up on playing the piano; plunked away on them a bit here and there at school or church; and can already play a mean piano app on Ehlana’s iPad, so I could actually play quite a few songs on my new keyboard right out of the box.  The only thing that surprises me about my newfound love of playing music is that I didn’t have any urges to do this sooner.  Maybe being on the run from a Dark Magi for the first nine years of my life had something to do with that; but whatever the reason, I’m really glad that I can do all of this now.

I had to wait until after dinner to get those gifts, but I did get to open a gift this morning; and had a new outfit to wear to school today.  Dad made pancakes and bacon for breakfast; Mom, Ehlana, and I had some dress-up and hair play time; and then my day went a bit sideways for a while.

Michael stopped in to drop off a birthday present for me.  Nobody will be reading this anytime soon, so I can safely admit, if only in my journal, that his gift was my second favorite – a plush, stuffed, orange and white cat that was a fairly close match to Mandy; accessorized with a little alto saxophone and neck strap.  I loved the gift, and Michael didn’t mind the fairly enthusiastic hug I had for him in thanks – or at least he didn’t until the tail end of it was witnessed by Rowen and Patrick.  They’d come over to walk to school with me, and I knew from the look on Patrick’s face that Michael’s plan to keep this little moment off the school news network wasn’t going to work out for either of us.  Rowen wouldn’t have said anything, but she made it clear that we’d need to talk later too; and couldn’t stop grinning at me from then until sometime after we’d started first class.

Some of my friends had cards and little gifts for me, and that was fun, but then the news that Patrick, with some help from Scott, launched into the school grapevine made its way to some of our classmates at lunchtime; and Michael and I were both in trouble from that point on.  Michael by far got the worst of it, but Lisa had a couple of comments for me this afternoon too; and nothing Michael or I had to say helped at all.  The guys all razzed Michael too, but I mostly only got watched a lot by both the girls and guys, and only had a couple of my closer friends actually ask me about it.  None of this made for a great way to go into a school dance date, but I do hope that Michael and Lisa work it out and have fun tonight.

One more piece of information that won’t make the school gossip or be public knowledge anytime soon is that Michael still doesn’t regret giving me the present or the hug.  I picked up that little tidbit from him during our music class – at the same time that we were both getting frosted glares from Lisa that were cold enough that we should have needed to wear our coats.  You can probably guess that Rowen and I decided not to hang around after school, and other than checking in at the computer store and picking up her overnight bag; we’ve spent the rest of the day here at home.

Mom and Dad were only having Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, Uncle Nick, and Aunt Deborah over for my birthday dinner, and since Michael’s gift and the problems that caused at school gave Aunt Leanne new material to use on me; I’m really glad there weren’t more witnesses.  Before I get to that, though, after getting home, Rowen and I did a little snack with Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana; we went up to the lounge to hang out and talk for a while; and then we helped Mom in the kitchen until reinforcements arrived and we were ordered to stop working.

Aunt Leanne came home with Dad, so it wasn’t long before the jokes started flying.  I seriously hope that some of those lines don’t get out to anyone at school.  If anyone at school starts referring to me as ‘Michael’s little sax kitten’, I might just forget about the rules for a while and use a time phase to drop that person off at the north pole or someplace else far, far away.  I’d have considered taking Aunt Leanne on a little time phase trip, but that could end up very strangely if we came back and she was suddenly several months pregnant, or whatever the equivalent would be depending on how long we spent phased.

I wonder if that would be a popular service?  “Magi Master’s Pregnancy Accelerator – Zero to Nine Months at the Speed of Light!”  That’s a joke, Aunt Leanne, and since you’re reading this for the first time years from now, no, it wouldn’t have been a viable option for you.  Even if I could hold the power level needed for the equivalent of nine months real time; how would you explain something like that to the non-magi?  I sort of doubt that being super hyper-active would work as an excuse for a one or two week full-term pregnancy any more than people actually believed that Lee Landry bench-presses farm equipment on his lunch breaks.

Getting back to the actual news for today, with the birthday gift from Michael jokes and commentary as a starting point, Aunt Leanne was happy to lead my birthday roasting; and it’s amazing how much material she’s managed to accumulate in the less than three years that Mom and I have lived in Witch Falls.  My best friend and brother and sister all found that a lot more entertaining than I did, but it wasn’t all bad for me either; and having dinner wrap up with my favorite Olde Bakery cake and some very cool birthday gifts was definitely one of the highlights of the day.

Rowen and I had my keyboard set up in my room, with some supervisory help from Ethan and Ehlana, by the time the post-dinner clean-up was done.  There was a break in the birthday party action when Violet got home.  She’d been delayed on the drive from Woodvale, and needed to rush around to get ready for the Valentine’s dance at the school.  Aunt Leanne helped her out with some hair and make-up support, and Violet was ready to go, and looked beautiful, when Dillon came over to meet up with her shortly before they needed to hop in her car and pick up Jake and Stephanie on their way to the school.

Violet had waited until Dillon was there to give me the birthday present from them, and hugging Dillon to thank him just gave Aunt Leanne a chance to tease me a little more about hugging boys on my birthday; and speculating on how Michael would feel about me hugging other boys.  Fortunately, Violet and Dillon could only stay for a condensed version of the rest of that story, though Aunt Leanne still managed a fair bit of embellishment, and then they were gone again, and Rowen and I were encouraged to put on a little mini concert in my room.  Our showcase included keyboard and flute duets; a sing-along; and a couple of short piano solos before we all went downstairs again to watch a movie in the living room.

Going off-track again for a minute, it was funny to think about the fact that we had two out of three of the women in our usual Friday night dinner and a movie group now.  Rowen doesn’t know about Aunt Leanne yet, so we couldn’t talk about that, but Aunt Deborah is starting her last trimester; and she and Uncle Nick are really starting to get exciting about the impending arrival of their first baby.  Ethan and Ehlana may have been messing with our aunts by picking the new Baby Geniuses movie to watch.  Since it was an utterly forgettable movie, I’m glad that we did find a little entertainment from talking about babies and the upcoming spare bedroom to nursery plans that would be starting in a month or so at Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah’s.  I’d add another pregnancy update for Aunt Deborah, but it’s still going so smoothly that just about every Mom in town is jealous.

So the third Baby Geniuses movie earned a ‘twenty thumbs down’ rating, and we did a bedtime snack and story together before Ethan and Ehlana went to bed; Rowen and I came up to the lounge to get started on our movie marathon; and the grown-ups returned to the living room for a little wind down time before my aunts and uncles headed home.  We’d had enough of baby movies for a while, and didn’t want to watch anything that might have us thinking about Valentine’s Day or the school dance; so we went with watching comedies.

After getting changed and setting ourselves up with pillows and blankets on the sectional, we were ready to relax, play on our computers, watch the shows, and chat until we fall asleep.  Rowen eventually got around to asking me about the big birthday gift scene with Michael this morning, and really started having fun with the whole thing after Mandy advised her that I loved Michael.  Thank-you so much for the help, Mandy.

Rowen is a moderately talented Empath, and that wasn’t exactly a news flash for her, but that didn’t keep both of them from having a little fun with me.  I didn’t help my case by having the cute stuffed cat tucked under my arm while they were teasing me, but it is soft and cuddly; and I do really love it.

None of that changes the fact that I’m still not interested in crossing over.

We stayed away from talking about the dance.  That was mostly for Rowen’s benefit, since she was already spending too much time thinking about how much fun ‘Tommy’ was having tonight with his girlfriend.  Everything else was fair game, including talking about finding a reason for a shopping trip to the city; plans for the rest of the weekend; and Valentine’s Day week avoidance techniques we might try using for the next four or five school days.  March Break is still five weeks away, but we spent a little time thinking about what we could do for that break from school too.

The third movie started about half an hour ago, but Rowen advised me that she wasn’t going to be able to stay awake for it; and then promptly fell asleep.  It isn’t actually my birthday anymore either, but Mom and Dad already let me know that I have a get out of housework card for Saturday, so I do get a bonus play day out of the deal; and Rowen’s taking the day off from work too.  Violet’s home from the dance, but she and Dillon are still downstairs, so I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to get the recap – though I’m not entirely sure I wouldn’t be better off not knowing at least some of the details.

There isn’t anything else to write about tonight, and I should get some sleep so I’ll be ready for our play day, so...

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

Cassie's Journal - February 7, 2013

I’ve officially been twelve now for a couple of hours as I write this, but I’m not trying for a two-day celebration; so I’ll leave the birthday recap for tomorrow night.

It’s been a busy day, and mostly fun; with a couple of exceptions.  The first came courtesy of my peripheral involvement in the Grade Seven tween drama that continues thanks to Michael’s decision to continue joining Rowen and me for our Tuesday-Thursday lunchtime music practices despite knowing that it annoys his girlfriend.  I suppose I should be glad that I haven’t crossed over and have to deal with those kinds of issues directly, but none of this stuff with Lisa is fun for me now; and there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do to make things better.

The second exception to a pretty good day came courtesy of Aunt Leanne while we were at game night.  I had been hoping that being an expecting Mom might distract her from at least one of her matchmaking missions, but Michael and I both soon found out that she was still actively on the job.  I am so glad that there won’t be a Valentine’s Day game night next Thursday!

For the record, Aunt Leanne, Michael didn’t need to be reminded about my birthday; the fact that he did know isn’t the big deal you tried to make of it; and while the rest of your comments, jokes, and nudges seemed to entertain you; they just made life a bit tougher for Michael and me.  Here we go with yet another Friday when I wish calling in sick was an option.

The best parts of the day, ironically, also included our lunchtime music practice and game night at the Inn.  Music practices are always fun despite the downside problems; Mom and Dad won the senior championship; and Rowen would suggest that we had fun with everything tonight, including Aunt Leanne’s teasing, jokes, and matchmaking efforts.  That may have been true for Rowen, but I’ll only concede that a couple of Aunt Leanne’s jokes made me laugh for real.

We had some fun during our classes today too, and my family business work went great.  After getting home from the Inn, we were all in on the full bath and bedtime routine for Ethan and Ehlana; and had fun with that for more than an hour before they were tucked in to their beds for the night.  Mom and Dad both went to work in the office after that, and I’ve been in my room since then; doing my usual nightly computing and studies.

Rowen and I are planning on staying up late tomorrow night and doing a movie marathon, so I should have been sleeping an hour or more ago; but got side-tracked for a while in our Magi Project archive.  It was a bit weird to see that Uncle Adam had already added a file for Aunt Leanne’s pregnancy, but being able to get more involved with that part of our project is going to be a lot of fun too.

I could get off-track again writing about that for a while, but I really do need to get some rest, so...

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

Cassie's Journal - February 6, 2013

Spring is back for a day or two, and today was definitely the nicest we’ll have this week.

I’ve been fired up all day thanks to the top family news story from yesterday.  Sunshine and bonus outdoor time at lunch helped keep the good day rolling; and managing to get through the entire day without any major tween drama was nice too.  Most of the kids and teens were outdoors whenever they could be today, but Rowen and I did our own thing at lunch; and stayed far away from the couples club.  The Valentine’s dance is the number one topic now, and most of the boys are doing their best to impress their favorite girls.  Yes, that is scary; and so is all of the girl chat that often goes into way more detail about relationships than I ever want to know about my friends and classmates.

Once we were set free from our last class, Rowen and I did our usual play night snack break at my house; got our homework out of the way; and then took Ethan and Ehlana to the park for some quality playground action.  Hanging out there was a popular choice with the kids and teens, so we had a lot of friends to hang out with; and Ethan and Ehlana had lots of help as they played on the swings, slides, and the rest of the equipment.  We finished up our play time with a walk along the path to the falls and back, and then Ethan, Ehlana, and I walked Rowen over to the computer store before going home again in time for me to help Mom with making dinner.

The rest of my evening has been quiet.  We had an easy dinner and clean up; Mom did a Magi lesson with me; and then I came up to my room to get an early start on my nightly computing and studies.  That helped me get finished early too, and I’m going to be sleeping before midnight if I hurry up and finish this, so...

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

Cassie's Journal - February 5, 2013

Aunt Leanne is going to have a baby!

Ethan, Ehlana, and I know enough about our collective future that the news wasn’t completely unexpected, but we aren’t allowed to know every detail; and finding out today after school was an awesome surprise.

This news won’t become public until late next week, once Aunt Leanne is far enough along for a positive pregnancy test.  Mom found out when she stopped in to the office while doing some running around town with Ethan and Ehlana, and I got the news directly from Aunt Leanne at the start of my after school break; though technically I was allowed to find out for myself while hugging her when I discovered her in the kitchen with Mom and the twins.

It’s funny when you consider all of the secrets I have to keep as a junior Master, but keeping this one is going to be as tough as not getting to tell anyone about Ethan and Ehlana when I found out about them.  I’ll manage, but it won’t be easy.

The top news, at least for our family, changed up our plans for the evening; but Aunt Leanne went back to the office after our break, and I still tried to work on the family business until stopping to help Mom with making dinner; though I got distracted from what I was supposed to be doing fairly easily.  We’d only been able to talk babies until Alicia got here for her usual Tuesday after-school shift, so it wasn’t until Dad, Aunt Leanne, and Uncle Adam got home and we sat down for dinner that we could talk about it again.

Uncle Adam is very excited too.  He couldn’t sense the baby yet passively, which is why Mom found out first, but he was able to do that tonight, and that was a really special moment for all of us too.  The phone call with Grandma and Grandpa was awesome too, though they weren’t somewhere they could do a link with us, so we couldn’t do the full-sensory experience with them tonight.

Taking the night off wasn’t an option for Dad, so we all had a work night together with a few Magi lessons mixed in – one each for Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne; Ethan and Ehlana; and me.  I continued working on the family business too, but talking babies was fun, and if you know Aunt Leanne; I’m sure that you can guess there were a lot of jokes and enthusiasm mixed in.  By the time you read this sometime in the future, I’m sure that many of those one-liners will become classics.  One of my favorites tonight was the suggestion that Uncle Adam was planning way ahead for Aunt Leanne’s birthday in October.  Giving her an early present was borderline too weird for the kids, and I needed to leave the room and get a drink refill when they started talking about things like ‘planting the seed’.  How many times do I have to remind my favorite grown-ups that there are some things that a kid just does not want to know?

There was some serious baby talk tonight too, and though a lot of what Mom discussed with Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam won’t start for quite a while; they’re going to be taking pre-natal Magi baby care to a whole new level – even beyond what Mom and Uncle Adam are doing with Aunt Deborah and her baby. (See the Magi Project archive for details.)  Pre-natal development is going to be one of the most important things that Mom and Uncle Adam do over the next few years; and it’s going to make a huge difference for future Magi.

Moving along, we worked and played in the office later than we should have, and Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam stayed until after Ethan and Ehlana went to bed, so it was already heading toward eleven o’clock before I even got up to my room and could get started on the rest of my work.  I started out with some Jacuzzi time while reading a couple of foreign language books; did my email, news, entertainment, and sports checks while doing my hair and getting ready for bed; and wrapped up with an hour and a half of archive study.

I’m ready to get some sleep, but before I do that, my day did start long before the after-school baby news; and I should include the rest of the story before wrapping this up.

Ethan and Ehlana were up early, so Mom, Dad, and I had spectators for our Tai Chi.  We had a standard weekday morning breakfast, and Rowen and I met about half-way between our houses before walking to school together.  We heard almost nothing at all about football today, but love was definitely in the air; and I tried my very best to hide from all of the tween and teen angst and weirdness.  Escaping from Valentine’s Day isn’t possible.  Decorations and crafts are popping up all over the school; themed lessons and projects are all the rage this week; and it seems like every iPod or alternate personal media player is loaded with playlists full of love songs operated mostly by girls who aren’t afraid to use them.

I’m sure that Michael was as grateful as I was that we didn’t practice any music that could even remotely be considered love songs at our lunchtime practice.  He’s getting himself into enough trouble with Lisa just by continuing to do these practices with us.  We don’t need to make things even worse by being overheard playing saxophone duets of love songs.  Rowen actually thought that idea was funny when I mentioned it to her after Michael left the room to meet up with Lisa, Tim, and Nora, but she knows as well as I do that I’m right; and while Lisa may not be interested in practicing with us, she and her friends always find some reasons to wander past the music room at least twice every time Michael’s practicing with us.

Other than annoying Lisa because of that practice, I managed to stay out of tween trouble for the rest of the day.  We had one test in the afternoon, and the other two classes were a combination of lessons and project work time.  The test was a breeze, and other than wishing I didn’t catch nearly as much of the girl talk as I did; the rest of the afternoon was mostly fun too.

That does pretty much wrap up my story for today, though, so...

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