I forgot my mom's 90th Birthday!!

It was my mom’s 90th birthday, the other day. It’s not often someone reaches 90 and I forgot to write about it. It was a small affair, just like last years party, except Eric and Lynn did everything. The scheduled it for Saturday the 22 of June about a week after my mom’s birthday. THey didn’t tell her and neither did they tell anyone else, so When I saw her on Friday the 21st and she asked me what I was doing on Saturday, I said I’m going over Eric’s. She asks why. Not being overly sharp, I just smile and leave as quickly as possible knowing she is not so quick these days and it would take her a few moments to get off the couch. I have to admit, it would take me just as long, if I’d been sitting.

On the day of the party the weather forecast said to expect late showers. Sean and Elena were working at Caliper tire until 4PM and they’d get there about 4:30. The party started about 2:00 Eric cooking up burgers and Ballpark Hot Dogs. I usually eat Nathans, but these were very tasty and it made me consider buying a bag. Everyone ate and sat around because it was too hot to do much else.Billy played water guns with Matt and Luke. My mom remembering how I used to play water guns with Cory and Ryan years ago encouraged me to get involved. I warned my mom anything that happened after this point was her fault. As luck would have it (for Nastia because all I wanted to do was squirt ice cold water on her) all the guns were taken.

Sean and Elena arrived and bought the rain with them. Soft of like God and Jesus arriving at a party. It started to rain lightly for about a minute or two then the heavens opened and everyone did a mental checklist of the supplies in their ark. It rained for a good half hour to forty minutes. About then God and Jesus decided to leave and took the rain with them.

Nastia had wanted to go swimming over at Harriet’s pool almost since she’d gotten there. She pushed me to go over because she didn’t remember how to get there. She and Wlwna went swimming over at Harriet’s in 2008, their first time and again when Leonhard and Annya were here. Leonhard and Annya were a second pair of Russian kids we were going to adopt a few years after the girl. They decided to stay in Russia. I wish they’d decided to stay because Leonhard is probably dead on some battlefield in Ukraine now.

We went over and I had to push Nastia into the water, it’s some kind of tradition or something. Sean, and Elena jumped in shortly afterwards and I took my time getting in. Maybe I was tempting Nastia to take revenge on me and try to push me. The water was like bath water after all of those 90+ degree days. I mostly lounged on the stairs at the opposite end of the pool while Sean leaned against the opposite side and the girls acted like they were eight and ten ago going into this exact same pool almost exactly 16 years ago when they came over. It was like a replay of their greatest hit from that time. Elena was the entertainment and Nastia the audience both being overly un-self conscious of what they were doing and just having a good time. Nastia notices me lounging over on the stairs and asks me if everything is alright. Now you can’t tell her what you just saw, it would ruin it all. Maybe I’m over-stating how they acted, but it was at least reminiscent of that time, all those years ago. There was a chicken fight with Nastia and Sean against Elena and I. They won both contests. At times like this I realize I’m not the man I was sixteen years ago when I could walk up the stairs in the house with both in my arms and put them to bed. In the game of chicken, my legs failed me when I tried to straighten up as Nastia got a hold of her sister and pulled her toward her. Sixteen years ago I would have straightened up and then moved back in and gone back on attack. This time I face planted into the water. For those of you future people who don’t know what chicken fights are, it’s an ancient game from back in the 1950’s or 60’s where people, usually teenagers, pair off and the girlfriend of just a female gets up on the boyfriend or male's shoulders. They square off and the girls usually get to go a little batshit pulling the other one off the shoulders of the other, it's empowering. The person on the bottom usually is just the legs moving around, you know just the horse in a joust. For the boyfriend it’s a time to do things together. For a 66 year old who doesn’t feel that old, it’s a blast, no wait, it’s a face first in the water of reality. When we got out of the water, most people had left the party. Those who remained sat around for a while talking and we were hom, I think before 6PM. It was nice to get together like that. Since COVID, I don’t get to see many people. Karl, Madeline, Kristen, Matt and their two kids. It was nice.