I think I still have two daughters

Well College has been going on for the past few weeks and the girls have adapted to it very well. Elena gets up very early on Monday, Wednesday and Friday about ten to six, dresses and is out of the house before I am out of bed at 6:10. Yes I do go back to bed after I help get the dogs outside, but it counts, I'm up at 6:10.
Nastia on those days is going in early too, sometimes, even though she doesn't have class that early. She hangs out with friends and so far both have kept out of trouble. I haven't been able to remember their schedule except for the days Elena needs to go in early. Their night class on Thursday seems to be working out, I remember it mostly. I suggested to Nastia last semester that she might want to take a night class. Her reaction was, "Go to school at night, I don't think so!" But when her sister and her got into a class with a teacher that had a reputation for being very tough, they switched their class together to Thursday nights. The class is called introduction to multiculturalism. Living in metro New York you should be able to teach a master class in it.
      With all this running around for school they still have work. They both work on the weekends and some nights during the week. With both being college students they also feel they should be able to go out during the week. Teri and I have really tried to accommodate them. Elena is working until nine and texts says she wants to hang out after work with Jasmine and will be home before midnight. When I see those texts I quietly chuckle

and text her back be home by ten. I know it's unfair, but so is her staying out until sometime before midnight. And I know she is just testing us and flexing her wings preparing to fly on her own. Me texting ten pm is also a negotiating point for her to counter how about eleven? Eleven, that's ok. Nastia says Elena talks about when she is twenty she will tell us when she will be home and not ask. Sometimes I fall for the bait Nastia lays at my feet. I rant a little bit about how it is mine and Teri's house and our house, our rules. Then I calm down and remember I need to wait until it actually happens.
Life is not really boring I guess and it could always be worse. Not that this is bad. It's really rather easy. When I look back on it all after the girls have moved out and I am writing about them from a distance, I'll miss these times. When I get melancholy like this all I have to do is remember that Nastia has said she is in no hurry to go anywhere. So I guess when she marries David she's expecting to move in here. I don't know whether to laugh or be afraid.

I forgot that last week was the tenth anniversary of the girls being adopted by us. We want to take them to a Russian Restaurant, but all of them seem to be in Manhattan or Brooklyn. Maybe not.




















/