Cassie's Journal - Jan. 31, 2012

Aunt Leanne would tell Rowen and I that we’re spending way too much time around Mom and Dad, but we did resist temptation and go to work at the computer store and office after school.

Since I couldn’t be outside, I settled for playing with some of my South America family businesses instead. The most satisfying part of my work today was arranging some extra help to some of the towns near the epicenter of the earthquake; including some financial support for one of our companies’ employees and their families.

Mom wanted to do Magi lessons with Ethan, Ehlana, and me after dinner while Dad was working in the office, so that worked out to be a good time for us to talk with her about those changes to the study plans for the twins. That did mean letting her know a bit about the ‘why’ behind the ‘what we need to know’, though I’m sure she has more questions that we just shouldn’t answer for her quite yet. The bottom line is that we’re all moving in the right direction now; and Ethan and Ehlana are particularly happy about having new challenges.

With three hours of archive studies, Japanese lessons, and an email and entertainment check behind me now, though, I’m ready to call it a day – and month; since February has already started.

Live, but half-asleep, from Witch Falls; this is Cassie Proctor, signing off!

Cassie's Journal - Jan. 30, 2012

Plan, meet reality!

When I have a spare hour or two, I should read a book or three on time management. I know that there is a lot of work for me to do, and all of that is very important, but it was way too nice a day to give up after school play time for; so I didn’t. Rowen and I spent our after school until dinner time riding our bikes; playing at the park; and enjoying the unbelievably warm, end-of-January weather.

We had a lot of fun, so I don’t regret the play time at all as I’m sitting here, writing this, at one-thirty in the morning; but I am very tired. Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne did the after-dinner Healing lesson/niece and nephew play time with us, and while they spent some time with Mom and Dad after Ethan and Ehlana went to bed, I’ve been here in my room, working on my computer.

I’ll need to work on mastering multiple languages at the same time as I go along, but I will do that in stages; and only be studying the basics of one language at a time. Since I’d picked to start with Japanese, learning the basics will probably take three to four weeks; depending on how much time I spend on it. My study plan after that is to keep building on those basics while also adding new languages. Thanks to the internet; a practice chat buddy in just about any language in the world is only a few clicks away.

Anyway, I’ve done my usual nightly computing; studied in the archives for an hour; and then spent the last hour or so listening to Japanese tutorials while also practicing writing the alphabet. Japanese written language has three scripts that I’ll need to learn. Kanji will be easiest for me, since it’s based on Chinese. Hiragana is a phonetic alphabet, while Katakana is the best choice for transcribing other languages into Japanese. My photographic memory helps a lot with learning to read and write the symbols; be even I need to practice a fair bit before being able to write competently.

I need to get some sleep. The last day of January has already started, and if the forecast holds; it’s going to feel more like another spring day than mid-winder. We’ll see if Rowen and I can resist the temptation to skip our after-school work to go play again. I don’t have anything else to add for tonight, though, so...

...live from Witch Falls; this is Cassie Proctor, signing off!

Cassie's Journal - Jan. 29, 2012

***Restricted Access Journal***

Ethan, Ehlana, and I spent some time using our combined Sight this afternoon; and had a long talk about what we all needed to get done over the next eight or nine months. We’ll be letting Mom, Dad, Aunt Leanne, and Uncle Adam in on some of that fairly soon, but today we mostly made some decisions on what the three of us would be personally doing with our education and Magi training.

Since I’ve already been working on that, the only real adjustment I’ve made is to how much more I need to start concentrating on learning new languages. My new goal is to master five languages a year. I know, that seems like a lot even for a Magi Master, especially with everything else I have on the go; but that is something that I seem to have a special talent for that’s more than just because of my photographic memory. I actually started that tonight by spending an hour studying Japanese.

Most of Ethan and Ehlana’s education will be the same, but they also have specific things that they each want to learn too that they’ll either need to start doing on their own, or we’ll talk with Mom about doing things with them a bit differently than what we did with my early training. Ethan’s going to need to know a lot about History; including Magi History. Ehlana is going to study the sciences – particularly Biology and Medical Sciences. We’re all quite sure that there is a connection between what we’re being allowed to see of our future and the fact that we each have special talents for, and a love of, the fields that we’ll need to become experts in.

We also will be putting a few things together over the next month or so to get ready for our upcoming chat with the parents, aunt, and uncle; but that really won’t take us long – especially when we put our little Magi Master heads together! I’ll save that news for then, and though this won’t seem like particularly interesting news in the future; I am keeping this entry protected until having the information open to other Magi won’t offer hints to our collective future that shouldn’t be revealed yet.

So, while you can only be reading this from sometime in the future, this is coming to you live from Witch Falls; and I am Cassie Proctor, signing off!

Cassie's Journal - Jan. 28, 2012

It’s probably official now – I’ve become small-town!

That realization came thanks to a quartet of glances from a quartet of girls at the Mall. They were about the same age as Rowen and I; and apparently our enthusiasm at the start of our shopping adventure was ridiculous to cool city kids. I’m only mentioning this in my journal because Rowen and I actually paid attention to those glances and overheard the quiet snide comments and snickers; and talked about it later. Rowen really didn’t like that we were being made fun of by those girls, but I advised her that there’s probably no way for me to ever turn down the enthusiasm when I’m getting to spend a whole day with my family and best friend; doing one of our very favorite activities. Since this may be an early warning sign of impending crossing-over, though, I do hope that Rowen won’t have to temporarily pretend that she doesn’t know me if she moves up to the next level without me.

If those girls had seen us when we met up with Violet, I probably would have been laughed at some more. Okay, so I’m almost eleven, and probably should cut back a bit on the bouncing; but everyone would be happier if there were more and better hugs in the world (I know you’re thinking it Aunt Leanne; but don’t go there again, or I’ll start locking all of my archive journals for ten or twenty years).

Getting to the news of the day; the shopping was a blast. Rowen and I got to spend a lot of time with Violet – especially when the six adults wanted us out of the way while they did some gift buying that they didn’t want us to know about for some reason. That worked for us; since we all had some Valentine’s Day shopping to do too, along with the gifts that Rowen and I wanted to pick up for some of our friends’ upcoming birthdays. Helping Violet with picking up Dillon’s Valentine’s gift was the most fun, and we had all of that done by the time we met for lunch in the food court with the parents, aunts, uncle, uncle-to-be, and the twins.

After getting our fast food fix, it was time for a little clothes shopping that the guys in our group set their favorite girls free to do while they found something else to do for a couple of hours. Violet was able to shop with us until three o’clock; and then Dillon, Jake, and Stephanie finally made it to the city after working the lunch shift at the Inn. We all met with them near the Mall entrance where we’d all parked our vehicles, and after saying goodbye to Violet; Mom, Aunt Leanne, and Aunt Deborah decided that it was time to head over to Wal-Mart for our supplies run before we stopped for dinner.

We ended up hitting a Home Depot too, and Rowen and I mostly entertained Ethan and Ehlana at both stores while six of our favorite adults took care of the boring part of our shopping trip. Aunt Leanne might have preferred another fast food meal, but the guys all wanted to sit down and have real food instead; so it ended up being nearly eight-thirty by the time we were on the road for home. That was a fairly quiet trip; mostly because Ethan and Ehlana slept most of the way, so Mom, Dad, Rowen, and I tried not to wake them up by talking back and forth between the front and back seats.

Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, Aunt Deborah, and Nick had taken Dad’s truck to the city so we’d have enough storage space; so everyone came back to our place first. Rowen and I helped Mom with Ethan and Ehlana while Dad had lots of help to unload our things and get them into the house. Patricia helped out with that a bit when she walked over to get Rowen; and then they both stayed for a little visit with Mom after the twins were fed and tucked in for the night, and Dad had gone to help with the deliveries to Aunt Deborah’s and Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s houses.

When Rowen left, I was sent up to bed too; but I’ve been playing in my Jacuzzi, and on my computer, since then. That’s included a late night chat with Violet after she got home from her date with Dillon; and an archive study session while I waited to wind down enough to sleep. My reading was temporarily interrupted when I needed to get out of the Jacuzzi and eventually snuggled in bed with Many; and then I worked through a very detailed Healing study that had taken the Magi at the time several decades to complete.

I don’t really have any plans for Sunday. Mom and Dad both plan on working in the office, and Rowen will be busy with a family day; so I’ll probably just help out by watching Ethan and Ehlana while Mom and Dad are busy. Now that I think about that, I should really get some sleep to be ready to keep up with my little brother and sister, so...

...live from Witch Falls; this is Cassie Proctor, signing off!

Cassie's Journal - Jan. 27, 2012

We had the usual gang over for dinner and a movie night, and Rowen stayed for a sleepover; since we’re going shopping in the morning anyway. She worked at the computer store after school for a couple of hours instead of her usual Saturday shift, and then came over to our house in time for dinner.

There really isn’t anything else to report for today. Nothing particularly exciting happened at school; the dinner conversation was mostly about Aunt Deborah and Nick’s wedding plans; and the movie was a no-think action flick that was only moderately entertaining, or worse, according to a poll of the girls after it was finally over. With a big shopping day ahead of us, Rowen and I went to bed shortly after the movie ended, and though we’ve spent a bit of time surfing the net on our computers since climbing into bed with Mandy, once I finish this journal entry; we’re calling it a night.

Until tomorrow – live from Witch Falls; this is Cassie Proctor (and Rowen Emerson), signing off!