Cassie's Journal - January 19, 2013

We’ve had another nice weather day in Witch Falls, and once the work was done around the house this morning, Rowen, Ethan, Ehlana, and I spent a lot of time outdoors enjoying it and having fun.

That seemed to be a theme today for lots of people – get the work done, and then play for the rest of the day.  For some of my favorite parents, that meant working all day and then having a date night out.  I don’t know who started putting that together, but Mom, Dad, Uncle Adam, and Aunt Leanne were all happy to join the dinner and pub party.  Babysitting services were available at the Bassetts house for the younger kids, and Rowen’s home was party central for the older kids and tweens; and Rowen’s parents ended up keeping all eight of us for the night.

Since date night was starting with dinner at the Inn, Rowen and I took care of getting Ethan and Ehlana ready for their night at the Bassetts after our play afternoon, and then we headed out with Mom and Dad to trade the twins in for Jessica Bassett before they went on to the Inn; and we went over to Rowen’s house.  Rowen’s Mom had come home from the computer store early so that she could get ready for their night out, and be there when the kids and babysitters started dropping in.  Alicia and Erin were leading the crew at the Bassett’s, so we had two of Alicia’s usual helpers, Kelly and Sue, taking care of us tonight.

‘Us’ included Jessica, Geraldine Sheldon, Lindsay Faulkner, and Emma Norton with Rowen and me for the girls; and Patrick had Scott, Emma’s brother Benjamin, and Jimmy Sheldon for the guys’ side of the group.  The good news for Rowen and me was that, including our babysitters, the boys were outnumbered two-to-one; and Patrick and Scott toned it down a long way from their usual because of a combination of extra kids and less-familiar babysitters.

That didn’t mean that all was quiet tonight at the Emersons.  The dinner pizza and wings was loud and a bit chaotic – especially after Owen and Patricia left for the Inn.  The boys were set up with gaming in the living room after that, and they kept the noise level up practically straight through until they were sent upstairs shortly before midnight.  Rowen and I took care of most of the entertainment for the four younger girls.  We watched a movie, but mostly played games, listened to music, and talked until Kelly and Sue had us wrap things up for the night too.

Once we helped to get Jessica, Lindsay, Geraldine, and Emma settled into two of the guest bedrooms, Rowen and I got changed and into bed too; but we’ve been surfing the next and chatting since then instead of trying to sleep when we weren’t ready to do that yet.  Not having Patrick and Scott pestering us has made winding down easier, and though it’s getting quieter in the house, we’re not the only kids still awake.  Judging by the sounds, there’s some portable video gaming going on, and the occasional giggling is proof enough that Rowen and I are not having the only bedtime chat among the girls.

I guess there really isn’t anything else for me to report tonight, and I definitely don’t need to write, talk, or even think about what any of my favorite grown-ups are doing on their date – or with their kid-free night for those that bonus applies to.  In fact, I’m going to finish this and shut my computer down too; then just let Rowen take care of the entertainment until I fall asleep.

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

Cassie's Journal - January 18, 2013

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

Yes, we did the birthday phone call yesterday, mostly because of the time difference, but now it’s officially his birthday, and he’s still celebrating it anyway too; though I wish we could be there to do that with him.

We haven’t had summer-in-Australia kind of hot weather, but it has been pretty nice again for mid-January, and Rowen and I were ready for a play day after school; so that worked out great for us.  So did dinner and a movie night with some of our favorite grown-ups; and the sleepover at my house that helped give Rowen’s parents a kid-free night after Patrick and Scott ended up doing a sleepover at the Faulkner’s.

All of that made for a great start to the weekend, and bonuses included Dad getting home earlier than usual – in time for the start of the movie; Rowen’s parents stopping in for a couple of hours after closing the store for the night; and a special bedtime snack and story adventure that included making and eating personal pizzas.  Rowen and I are still watching movies in the lounge; playing on our computers; and having a nice, long telepathic girl and cat chat.  The chat has been really good for Rowen, and she feels a lot better than she has for the past few days.  Mandy may have helped with that more than I did, since her suggestions of how Rowen should handle ‘Tommy’ might be cat-sensible; they would not work particularly well in the human tween world at all.  Mandy’s advice was really entertaining, and though I didn’t have much to offer in the way of advice; I think that talking about it all helped Rowen work a few things out for herself.

It’s been such a good day that there should be more for me to write about, but there really isn’t.  We had a good day at school; play time after that, including some park time with Ethan and Ehlana, was fun but uneventful; and there isn’t anything special to report from dinner or our movie time.  Since that seems to be it for tonight, I’m going to wrap this up and move on to a little surfing while Rowen and I finish watching the movie before going to bed.

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

Cassie's Journal - January 17, 2013

I’ve had another long, busy day.  There isn’t any news to report from school – it was fairly quiet and uneventful; though long weekend planning kept a lot of kids and teens entertained whenever we weren’t busy with our class work.

The only breaks I had today between Tai Chi and game night at the Inn were meals; our lunchtime music practice; and a conference call that Dad linked with us for to wish Grandpa a happy birthday, since it was already Friday in Australia.  Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne had dinner with us tonight so they could be with us when we made that birthday call, so dinnertime was fun too; and by then, I was ready for a break after another long family business work session in the office.

Grandma and Grandpa are having a lot more fun than we are here, and he’s going to celebrate his birthday for two days – one for Friday in Australia, and for his ‘actual’ birthday – which will be most of Saturday for them.  They have a lot of work booked for this trip too, so I’m glad that they are getting some fun days too between all of the meetings and travel.

We wrapped up our chat with Grandma, Grandpa, and Dad in time to walk over to the Inn for game night; and the fun continued there for a couple of hours, with a healthy dose of tween weird thrown in – though that was just for Rowen and me.  Mid-January boredom may have been responsible for the big turnout tonight, and that always makes for a longer night when there are so many teams vying for the junior and senior championships.  If Miranda was hoping that teaming up with Mom while Dad was in the city would get her to another win, she was disappointed when they didn’t even manage to place top five.  Rowen and I didn’t do nearly that well in the junior competition.  She was regularly distracted and annoyed by ‘Tommy’ and his girlfriend; and that might have had a lot to do with the fact that they were mostly oblivious to everything except each other.  The fact that they did even worse than we did wasn’t any consolation to Rowen.

That was more than enough to throw off her game, but my gaming wasn’t exactly stellar either, and I’m sure you can guess that might have something to do with Michael and my dear, incorrigible, and determined Aunt Leanne.  The meaningful looks, whispers, and passing nudges and nods she prods me with are bad enough, but she apparently thinks that Michael isn’t very bright if she believes that he didn’t see right through two ‘chance’ meetings at the snack and drinks table when she conveniently happened to need his help to carry a drink or snack to me because her hands were full with the other orders she was juggling.  Yes, he did as she asked, but knew from my reaction each time that the deliveries were bogus, blatant set-ups.  Judging by some of the looks I got from Lisa tonight; she wasn’t thrilled with Aunt Leanne’s efforts either.  With all of the extra-curricular action, it’s no wonder that the gaming was so mediocre.

It was heading toward eleven o’clock by the time we got home, and that was again partly thanks to Aunt Leanne, since she conveniently volunteered us to help with the post-game clean-up; and then we walked home with Miranda, Jacob, Rebecca, and Michael.  That was good for one more little strike against me with Lisa, and it’ll be two or three if she finds out about Aunt Leanne’s goodnight hug and kiss comment when she advised me that I’d ‘missed’ him after hugging his parents and sister.  Ehlana earned bonus sister points for immediately reaching out to hug and kiss Michael; getting everyone laughing, and rescuing me from a no-win situation.

After helping Mom to get Ethan and Ehlana tucked in for the night, I came up to my room; kicked the time-phase into high gear; and finished all of my planned studies and nightly computing in record time.  The only problem I have now is that I’m too wound up to sleep.  I don’t really write about it much, but anyone reading my journals in the future might be surprised to find out that there actually are so many things that annoy or worry me; since I basically never get visibly angry, and I’m perpetually happy and fired up in public.  So much of my life since moving to Witch Falls is so amazing and fun, I sometimes wonder why I even bother writing about some of these things, but I guess it does at least show that even Magi Masters have everyday, normal, real-life issues.

For me, tonight, those issues include wishing that I could do more to help Rowen, since she really is having a tough time with having crossed over, but hooked on a boy who is both currently taken and oblivious to her as anything more than one of the ‘other’ girls in his class – and certainly not a girl he’s ever been interested in the way she’s interested in him.  Telling her what the twins and I know about our collective future would probably help a lot, but that really isn’t an option.  Jokes and musing about Magi-powered solutions are only entertaining for so long before they’re not much fun anymore; and a medical or Magi cure for the ailment still isn’t available.  I might be more help if I could relate to Rowen on more than an intellectual basis for this, but I still really wish that we were all still on my side of the crossed over line – especially since if we were; this wouldn’t be a problem for her at all, and I might have the added bonus of no auntie matchmaking directed my way.

That’s the other issue keeping me awake.  There was no doubt that Aunt Leanne’s matchmaking moments tonight were harder on Michael than on me.  It’s not always fun knowing sensing things that others can’t; and that’s definitely true for me when it comes to him.  This is also another case where telling Aunt Leanne what I know might help convince her to stop; but it’s not something I can or will do.  Ethan, Ehlana, and I don’t always like it, but in addition to knowing what we do about our future, we also know what we are and aren’t supposed to reveal to others too.  Yes, that bugs Mom, Dad, and everyone else in the know about our having this particular talent, but trust me – it really is tougher for us.

I’m not really feeling better about any of this, and haven’t come up with anything useful while writing about it here, so I’m going to wrap this up and try a little sound-shielded music practice.  Maybe that’ll help make me sleepy.

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

Cassie's Journal - January 16, 2013

It’s definitely felt like the longest day of the week for me; mostly because I worked on the family business for nearly four hours in total between the after-school and after-dinner sessions.

Add in two tests at school; a long Magi lesson with Mom after Ethan and Ehlana were in bed; and another hyper-speed study and nightly computing session, and even though I’ve still managed to get everything done before midnight, I’m exhausted too.

There’s more that I could write about tonight, like Mom’s night in the city recap that thankfully skipped over the parts of her time there that the twins and I really didn’t want to know the details about anyway; but none of that seems as important as sleeping right now, so...

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

Cassie's Journal - January 15, 2013

My usual Tuesday after-school work plans were changed when Mom decided that she was due for a sleepover in Crystal Springs with Dad this week.

Instead of working on the family business, I helped Alicia with Ethan and Ehlana after we picked them up at KidZone; and we kept them entertained until Aunt Leanne finished work and took us home with her for the rest of the night.  I moved on from assistant babysitter to cook’s helper for a while, and then it was mostly playtime after Uncle Adam joined us and Alicia headed home.

Okay, it wasn’t all fun and games – at least for me.  Aunt Leanne took the opportunity to spend a little quality time teasing me about Michael – especially at the point in my daily recap when she found out that he joined Rowen and me for our lunchtime music practice; but Lisa didn’t.  I’m really getting tired of repeating the fact that I’m not interested in any boys, or in crossing over, and even if I was; Michael, and for that matter every other boy in our class, has a girlfriend.

No, Aunt Leanne, I’m not getting so tired of repeating myself that I’m going to give up, cross over, and start dating just to get you to stop bugging me about it.  I’m tired of seeing that particular topic pop up far too often in my journals too, so let’s skip the teasing and matchmaking details and get on with the rest of the story.

Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne led a Magi lesson with us after we cleaned up from dinner.  There really isn’t much that they can teach me, but they can work with Ethan and Ehlana; and I do learn other things that relate more to the ‘how’ they teach than the ‘what’.  The way they were taught was a lot different than how Mom’s been training me, and that’s one of the things that is going to be changing a lot now – though Mom can’t possibly train every Magi; and it will take time to teach other Magi her techniques.

While our lesson wasn’t challenging for me, we all had fun, and continued to keep entertained with some play time, a little television and cuddle time, and a long bedtime story and snack time.  All of that, and some bonus aunt and niece hair, nails, and chat time while I was getting ready for bed, had me starting my nightly studies and computing a bit later than I’ve managed for the last week and change, so I kicked up the time-phase into high gear; and still managed to get everything done before eleven-thirty.

Unless Mom’s using a time-phase tonight too, I’ll guess that Dad isn’t finished his work yet, but I’m not sending them any messages to find out if I’m right or not.  I really don’t need to know most of the details of what they’ve been doing tonight, and the recap of their dinner with the Malloys can wait until I see Mom tomorrow after school.  I wish that I could see Angela, Terry, and Valerie more often, but they’re at least as busy as Mom and Dad; and getting together for weekend visits just never seems to be an option.

Anyway, I need to wrap this up and get some sleep.  It’s not that I have anything particularly exciting booked to rest up for, but I will be doing back-to-back work nights now to make up for not getting much done today.  Except for school and game night at the Inn, it’ll also mean that I won’t have any play time with Rowen until Friday, so it’s a good thing that we get to have a three-day weekend so we can have an extra day of fun to make up for the lost best-friend time this week.

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