When your twenty-three year old daughter asks if her boyfriend can sleep over...

Yeah, tell me about it... There were other things that have happened this passed week or so, but this one tops the list. It all started in a kingdom far far away from here. In a land ruled by women, yeah, I know. they do rule, but not in the way you'd think or were taught or not in school. Anyway...(love those three dots today don't I) The weather in Buffalo, yes Buffalo, which is a couple hundred miles from us as the crow flys was experencing a very bad, even for Buffalo snow storm.They were talking at least three feet of snow. (As of today they are at about six and a half feet) There was a thought we'd get some of that snow. Granted the snow was all lake effect. For all of you non-meteorologist types 'Lake Effect Snow' is when cold dry air from the north comes across the still warm waters of one of the Great Lakes, in this instance, Lake Ontario and like a dry sponge, it sucks up the warm moisture from the lake. When it encounters the still cold land it can not hold all that moisture because cold air canot hold moisture that is why we all have dry skin in the winter and the result is the air drops that moisture causing, lets say it all together, 'a Buffalo Winter' God, those poor people. Now on this night, a Friday, Teri decides to make empanadas. She buys the dough, to make life simple. Me, I'd have tried to make the dough and make it a complex late running adventure. Nastia and Sean go out to dinner. Elena and Jessica are eating with us.

The empanadas are easy with store bought dough and once we get into a rythm, me doing what Teri wants me to do, it goes quickly. I end up frying the empanadas in a cast iron pan (I'd wanted to use the cast iron dutch oven my mom gave me but Teri wanted to use the cast iron frying pan, but not fry them because that would make them hard. She relented and after I turned my full attention to frying them I was able to get some of them to a light golden brown, almost soft texture. The four of us sit down to dinner and I have to text Nastia what we are having for dinner. I would have liked them to stay for dinner. So I text her a picture. After dinner Sean and Nastia come home and are going to play 'RageAgainst the Machine' a card game or something like that.Originally they were going to play at teh dinning room table but they changed their minds. So the girls,Sean and Jessica all go upstairs to play games.

I think it is funny when we get our first snow of the year to send a picture with the text..."Better let Sean know it's getting deep outside." I thought it was funny, Nastia's reply is, "ok". I was disappointed, but remember she was playing games and her boyfriend was there, or more specifically, HER BOYFRIEND WAS THERE.She's in that stage where and I'm sure we all remember and wish we could experence it again, she's in that 'New Relationship phase of her relationship where you can't get enough of the other person, but you're still hiding most of your affection, for him, from at least your father. That was about 9:30. At 10:25 I'm part of a group text asking if Sean can sleep over. It starts with 'Hey guys', when did I become part of hey guys? Does she use this all the time or is it only for these 'special favors' she wants? Yes, I've noticed her use 'hey guys' before but this is different, she wants a guy to sleep in the same house as her and I and it is different. Teri tells me to text, "If Elena can clean off the bed and someone get him blankets and a pillow and fix the bed right.And a tooth brush" Nastia asks and in retrospect, I understand, "Which bed are u talking about?" Boy her kids are gonna love or be banned from reading these when there teenagers. I reply without a thought of any other bed, "The office bed." Nastia's simple reply, "Ok" Teri, "Where were you thinking?" This is where it gets fun Nastia, "The extra bed in my room." Now, this is not a, ah... what's a good word, ah... bad or maybe... convenient as it might look, because I've left out the fact that for the last week Jessica, Elena's and Nastia's friend has been staying with us after her and her mother got into an arguement and Jessica was asked to leave in a loud voice (yes, I'm being a wise-ass. They had a fight and she threw Jessica out and in her anger, this is all second hand and biased, threw Jessica's phone toward or maybe near the (I can't think of a good word here. it's a re word I want to use and regressing or retreating don't fit. Especially retreating, it sounds like going back to the same house on Halloween because they have good candy. Let's just go with car, it's boring and I'm being pedantic- someone who is very concerned with the detais of a subject and tends to overly show off their knowledge, so car it is.) car. (Maybe she was not very good at sports growing up.... no lets not go down that road) We have veered way off subject here. We're so far in the bushes we can't even see where the road is supposed to be. So Jessica is staying here and sleeping in Nastia's bed. Nastia has a queen size bed and maybe she likes having someone in bed with her. When she sleeps over at Jessie's (she's the one with the child) she sleeps in the same bed as her. So, a recap to where we were...(those dots are a pandemic today) Nastia has asked for Sean to sleep over and has asked he sleep in the same room as her and Jessica in a bed next to her's. We can go back into the weeds and talk about sex and how you can't stop it even if you tried, but there are limits that neither Teri or I feel are right even in this day and age. After Nastia says 'The extra bed in my room' she quickly adds, 'But ya, I'll get everything for him.' Teri's reply to the first part, "Think again, buttercup." That's a cute way of saying, No f'n way is that going to happen. Defensively Nastia replys, now knowing she has pushed things too far, "LOL, Mom, relax". I have nothing to do with getting him set up in 'ol' squeeky', I go downstairs to shower. The bed he sleeps in, would be a newlyweds nightmare. Everytime you move in it, everyone on that floor who's not a deep sleeper (Me) knows. That entire night I get a good nights sleep. I wake up at six and Bandi has left a little gift in the hallway. As I start to clean it up, I take a quick glance into the partly open door(we have clips on the doors up there so the cats can go through and the dogs can't follow.) and I don't see him. I finish what I'm doing and lead Misha and Bandi outside so Athena can go down the stairs without Misha attacking her.It's Saturday, Sean and Elena have to go to work, but I can go back to bed. I don't hear Sean get up or leave. I might have heard him thank Teri for letting him sleep over. Elena says good bye and it is over. The boyfriend has slept over. The world is still turning and doom has not cracked. The end of days might still be coming, but it was not last night. Growing up I slept with my girlfriend when we went away somewhere, but I never slept in the same house with her as her parents.Nastia has slept in the same room as her boyfriend, at teh time when they went away. Sean and Nastia are talking about going up to Monticello Race track to gamble and stay ove. I think it is too early in their relationship. How long was she going out with the last guy before we let her stay with him over night in a motel? I guess it's an open question. She did tell me if they go to Monticello on her birthday, which I don't like, they will be dating two months by then. It's still seems a little too quick. I'd like to end this on ahigh note, but the Yankees haven't signed Aaron Judge to a long term contract and it won't hsppen until at least January. Buffalo is still shoveling out of almost six feet of snow and the snow blower I asked my brother to look over in October and then asked Bruce to look at around Halloween is sitting without a tarp, my fault at my mother's. What is a good high note to end on? I guess the best one is atleast we're not in Buffalo with my snow blower. /