A quiet morning to reflect on yesterday

Everyone is in bed still and I'm here quietly thinking about yesterday. It was a long hot day and if I could show you pictures of all the events and highlights of yesterday it would take hours.
   The day started at Ten AM when I picked up Scott at Tolstoy Nursing Home in Valley Cottage. I barely knew Scott and He just like me must of been wondering what we would talk about on the hour trip to Danbury. We ended up talking about our shared love of history. What made it easier was Scotts ability to tell a good story and him having a very interesting story about Tolstoy, his twelve kids, V.G. Chertkov and the founding of the Tolstoy foundation. It is a long and very interesting story. Too long to tell now The abridged version Tolstoy had twelve kids, his youngest born in the 1880's when Tolstoy was about 60 or so established the Tolstoy foundation in 1939 and around 1972 the Tolstoy nursing home is built and filled with people who were around during the Russian revolution. Scott worked in the nursing home and residents would tell him stories. A women who would die at the age of 101remembered being at the Smolinsk school when the Czar visited and she remembers the aplause was so loud that plates on a table were shaking. Things like this is what make history special for me.
   The real interesting part is when relatives of V.G. Chertkov, who was friends with Tolstoy during the last twenty-seven years of his life start to investigate his life they come across all the things he did, like building the first library in Moscow. And how when a group of his desidents go to a town named after him and the whole town shows up to greet them.
   Scott and I arrive at the hotel early and expect to have to wait. We are at the desk waiting to have the Russian women told we are here when one of the Irenes walks in and she goes and gets the other who were ready and waiting for us even though we were half an hour early.
   The trip from Danbury is either in Russian or no talking. At one point Scott asks me if I have any questions for the ladies, but I don't. My mind has been filled with other thing and the thought of questions never surfaced. The ladies ask about the girls school and everyones camp. They are told all three girls will go to camp at the school Nastia and Elena will attend in the fall, They would like to see the school. We make a little side trip first to Germonds pool where the three girls will get to swim for three hours. The ladies walk around and take some picture of each other with the the pools in the backround.
   Valentina, the oldest of the group aske me why they only get to swim for three hours. It was a good question. I had not real answer, so I told her they play games and have lunch at the school until they go to the pool. It is the truth, knowing the kids I think they would rather go swimming all day long.
   We stop at the school and the doors were open so we go inside and a janitor is inside and I explain to him that we are hosting two kids from Russia and theses are their escorts and they would like to see the school and he lets us. We look in the Gym then find an open class room, which was the class room Nastia happened to take Art in.
   We get to the house a little after one PM it is hot and everyone goes inside and sits in the living room. This is where it gets interesting. Nastia comes in for a moment, then leaves. The other two come in and leave. Elena stays upstair watching TV. Valentina in the rocker, Scott and one Irena on the couch near the window. The other Irena in a little antique folding chair near the couch and Natsha in the arm chair across the room. Me, I'm standing infront of the TV too uptight to sit, fielding questions from the ladies afraid to leave them alone to help Teri with the food.
   They ask questions and the one question like the one in Berobidzhan from the Russian judge who asked why are you adopting in Russia and not America is asked. Well this was less a question and more of a statement. Scott listens, hesitates, then reminds me he is just translating and doesn't want to insult me. I tell him he can't, all questions are fair game unless they are nasty. So he says Valentina says in Russia the kids are expected to come and sit with company for at least a little while when they first are here. Are you raising princeses? Looking back it was a fair question. Everyone should of come down to say hello to the guests and they didn't. There was lots of confusion and I don't do well in situtions where I feel people are judging me. Teri was busy with the food and I was busy with the guests. The girls are forced to come down. Elena is the most reluctent to show up. I don't remember if it was her or Nastia who slides in behind Natasha and the back of the chair and hangs her feet off the side. I try to get her to sit up and I'm answering less taxing questions when Teri saves me and tells me to cook the hot dogs and brown the chicken on the grill. Of course the chicken, having been in the crock pot is cooked and falling off the bone so browning it with barbeque sauce is not easy. When it starts to stick and fall apart I take it off the grill and put the pieces with the best side up. I fill up the rest of the platter with hot dogs and bring it inside. For some reason we had trouble sitting down to eat everyone was hungry and even though it was said by different people lets eat it didn't happen, which was fie except it was getting late and they had dinner plans in CT.
   We eat outside, where the temp had seemed to dip a little into the bearable range. We eat under umbrellas near the pool and about 3PM are ready to leave.
   We all pile into Teri's new Toyota Highlander and except for stoping for a bottle of wine and forgetting a bag at te house, we go back for it was an uneventful trip. Oh, yeah, I forgot I was tired on the trip back to Danbury, nothing happened Teri to your car. I did drive on a few rumble strips and a couple of white lines, but I stopped for a cold soda and was fine on the trip home and didn't kill anybody.
  One of the funnier moments was everytime we got out of the car, Valentina, who was sitting in the second seat would get out and close the door walking away leaving Natasha and one of the Irenes in the third seat and everytime she would close the door before I could get there. So I would up the door and help the two out of the far back seat.
   There is still a lot that happened with just the kids so I'll put it in a seperate posting.
   I was so involved with what was happening I didn't take pictures until the kids went swimming later. That is the next blog entry.