Everybody hurts sometime*

Finally found an 80's song I can work into the blog.I did have to look up the artist, R.E.M About two weeks ago Nastia came home from work with a cough. She says she feels fine, “it’s just this cough.” Over that weekend two weeks ago, Nastia shares her cough with me and possibly her mother. Teri seems to start coughing just about the time I seem to be on the mend. About a week ago my cough came back. I don’t think anything about it. It gets worse and worse. By a week ago, Friday, I’m coughing my fool head off and in a very nice way (you know Joe, if you have sick time, you can go home and not get the office sick) my boss Leticia, emails me and asks if I want to go home. I came in that day because a month earlier I’d taken a sick day also on a Friday. She said I was Okay, so I went home. To be sure, I also took Monday off.

Now Nastia who started all of this is soldiering on trying to not take any time off, because she went on disability back when she broke her foot and didn’t want management to think she is not a dedicated employee. She worked on Friday, spent the weekend coughing and finally on Monday, she throws in the towel (boxing reference for all you future people) and calls in sick. I'm Home too, just because I can be. I’m coughing, still feeling okay, but I figure why not take another day and be sure. Nastia and I spend the day the same way I’ve spent the past three, watching TV and falling asleep. Come Tuesday, we’re both raring to go to get out of the house. During this whole time Elena cloistered away in her room or outside at work is fine, not even a throat clear during this time.

Now Nastia and I are back to work, but the congestion in our lungs still remains. Remember this is the congestion that everytime you change your position, from standing to lying down on the right side to lying down on the left side, it’s going to shift and you’ll start coughing again until it settles. This gives health care primo domo Primo domo: Primo means of the best quality : excellent, DOMO means "very". It's especially helpful when stressing appreciation or making an apology. When you buy something at a store, store clerk would say "DOMO ARIGATOU", meaning thank you "very much". You can also use DOMO as a greeting like "hello" . So, I’m saying very best, or very best hello.) Teri her opening to play doctor, but not in a fun way unless your idea of fun is to take nasty medicine and big horse pills. She forces Nastia to take medicine so she’ll quit coughing and can get a restful night of sleep. With me, well she gave up on me years ago and just makes sure the insurance is paid up to date.

Nastia continues to turn in her sleep and when she does, she coughs. I try to sleep on one side, preferably not facing Teri so I can cough and it won’t be as loud. Hey, I know, but it makes me feel as if I’m at least trying. Elena continues on as if nothing is happening. Not a sniffle, a throat clear,nothing. That Bitch!! Speaking of her, it was her and Matt’s anniversary. I really hate these types of anniversaries, especially with her and him because they have been together since, what, third grade?

I remember driving down to Rick’s Club down Lake Road across from the park to unload Elena and her bike so she and some kid she knew could go bike riding at Conger’s Park. I see this guy with his son unloading a bike. The father shakes my hand and we might have talked for a moment and off the two of them go. I don’t remember picking her up, but I must have. I think that is the first time I met Matt. I remember other times, like when they were not talking to each other, no, not recently,more like when they were still in elementary school. Maybe that’s another kid I’m thinking of, I’m not sure. My point is all the way back to that bike ride on that afternoon, all those years ago I had no idea that he would be such an important part of her life, go figure. It’s like after Nastia broke up with her previous boyfriend she kept saying she’d never meet anyone and I’d have to be her date on Valentines Day, four months away, then she meets Sean going to hang out with her sister and some of her sister’s coworkers. Life is so strange and funny. It reminds me of a line from a Rolling Stones song, it's been used so often, but applies to at least our life. You can’t alway get what you want, but you get what you need.** Teri is still out of work, money is tight again, but right now life is pretty good. Teri is not happy about not working ( yes, severe case of age discrimination), but she then is able to find time to do important things like take Amanda’s son, KJ and spend time with him. She seems mostly happy. There are times when she lets it bubble to the surface and you see all the guilt she feels for not having a job. She’s worked over 40 years and she said one day, “I never thought it would end this way, it’s not fair.” Do I really have to reference Nastia and that Stones song really. It’ll change, it always does, just not at your speed or time table. You Can't Always Get What You Want/ Song by The Rolling Stones Lyrics I saw her today at the reception A glass of wine in her hand I knew she would meet her connection At her feet was her footloose man No, you can't always get what you want You can't always get what you want You can't always get what you want But if you try sometime you'll find You get what you need I saw her today at the reception A glass of wine in her hand I knew she was gonna meet her connection At her feet was her footloose man You can't always get what you want You can't always get what you want You can't always get what you want But if you try sometimes, well, you might find You get what you need Ah, yeah Oh And I went down to the demonstration To get my fair share of abuse Singing, "We're gonna vent our frustration If we don't we're gonna blow a fifty-amp fuse" Sing it to me, honey You can't always get what you want You can't always get what you want You can't always get what you want But if you try sometimes, well, you just might find You get what you need Ah baby, yeah Ah I went down to the Chelsea drugstore To get your prescription filled I was standing in line with Mr. Jimmy And, man, did he look pretty ill We decided that we would have a soda My favorite flavor, cherry red I sung my song to Mr. Jimmy Yeah, and he said one word to me, and that was "dead" I said to him You can't always get what you want, well no You can't always get what you want. I tell you, baby You can't always get what you want, no But if you try sometimes you just might find, uh, mm You get what you need, oh yeah, woo! Ah, woo! You get what you need, yeah, oh baby Ah yeah I saw her today at the reception In her glass was a bleeding man She was practiced at the art of deception Well, I could tell by her blood-stained hands, sing it You can't always get what you want, yeah You can't always get what you want, ooh yeah, child You can't always get what you want But if you try sometimes you just might find You just might find You get what you need, ah yeah Ah baby, woo! Ah, you can't always get what you want, no, no, baby You can't always get what you want, you can't now, now You can't always get what you want But if you try sometimes you just might find You just might find that you You get what you need, oh yeah Ah yeah, do that

Pumpkin carving, KJ sleeps over and Halloween Parade (Less than two month until Christmas already!)

This last week or so has been filled with all the fun of the season (and some global warming thrown in). Last week it was almost 80 degrees over the weekend. I have two Fig trees and an Avocado tree (Oh, daddy, here plant this seed, it’s so big!!) and they have been outside enjoying the warm wonderful, rainy weather these past months. When it was 80, I figured I had some time before I’d have to bring in the trees. Well, this is not normal fall weather, because by Wednesday the weatherman/ woman was predicting a frost. Tuesday, we didn’t get a frost, but on Wednesday they said it would be a hard frost. Me, being the ever conscientious gentleman farmer, I waited until Wednesday night to bring in his trees. All three of the trees, the leaves had turned yellow and brown telling me it is time to bring them inside. In previous years, I’d brought them in earlier, only to have the leaves fall off them in the basement. Being lazy has its advantages. The next morning, mother nature takes her revenge on my wise ass. All the car windows have a hard, thick, winter white frost on them. I wanted to get out early that morning because I’d forgotten to buy lunch. I scrape all the windows and turn on my heater fan to warm the car. The fan doesn’t work. I rub the inside of the front window trying to clear it. I have the wipers going on the outside. Then I do the dumbest thing and I know all of you have done the same thing. I spray the windshield washer fluid on the window. We’ve all done it before. Hell I’ve done it before and I knew I shouldn’t do it, but did it anyway. Isn’t the definition of insanity doing the same time over and over again expecting a different outcome? Well the wipers spread a nice thin new sheet of ice over my window. I go back out and scrape it down. I get back in the car and begin to wipe off the fog on the inside again, but it isn’t fog, it is also ice. Earlier I was breathing while rubbing down the window and unknown to me I got some moisture on the window. Once the outside frost, the inside must have thought it would be a fun idea to do the same.

I scrape the inside, then the outside again and decide to pull out of the driveway, because it is getting late. I drive maybe 100 feet before I pull over again and have another go at my windshield. All this time the rear window that I scraped, leaving a small pile of white scraping in the middle of it, is as white as a bride's dress on the morning of her wedding. Tha window doesn’t clear until I’m almost at work. Fun times in New York, yea know! Sean and Nastia went to his mother’s house on Sunday to carve pumpkins. I haven’t carved a pumpkin in years. We’d (my mom) cut open a pumpkin, clean it out, carve it then we’d place a candle in it on Halloween. It used to be one of the highlights of Halloween. That and the candy and watching ‘A Charlie Brown Halloween’. A Lot of things have fallen by the wayside.

Halloween has barely survived the first twenty odd years of this decade. We adopted the girls in 09. They were lions at the Nyack Street fair that year. We went with Teri’s father and stood on the upper level of a building on Main Street. Two of the next three years, I think we got snow. One Halloween we did trunk or treat where a group of people got together and opened their trucks in a parking lot in Nyack and the kids went from car to car to get candy. I forgot why that was necessary. The last few years we’ll get little kids coming around in the afternoon to early evening. It will all be over by eight. I don’t see teenagers going out any more. When I turned thirteen, I thought I was too old to go out. The next few years after that I went out and had a grand time. Maybe teenagers are going to parties.

KJ, Amanda’s baby slept over our house two of the last three nights. Teri kept him during the day and there is a reason only the young should have babies. He was fussy all day and she was exhausted at the end of the day. She’d planned to make chicken for dinner last night, but I picked something up instead. He finally settled down sometime around eight and slept through most of the night, waking up around 3:30 like he did the previous night he stayed.

Teri on both of those nights said she would sleep in the living room. She said it was better not to move him and she thought she was being thoughtful. The two nights she slept in the living room, I have never slept in an emptier bed in my life. It was the weirdest, most uncomfortable sleep I’ve had in a long time. You have to remember when Teri and I sleep together, the dogs join us too. So it was her and the dogs missing both nights. Truly not a fun sleep. And I can’t believe Christmas is only 52 days away. Remember when Halloween was so far away from Christmas and stores didn’t start showing Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving? If Halloween gets any closer to Christmas, it's gonna squeeze Thanksgiving out. 52 days doesn’t seem enough time to shop for Christmas. I’ve already started a list. For me Christmas is 50 days of worrying about what to get people and two days of rushing around to find something.

I almost forgot about the Halloween parade in Nyack. Teri and I throw a couple of chairs in the car. Last year she thought it was an Okay idea to stand, I bought a chair. We pick up Nancy and for the first time in ever there is no parking at 55 Catherine St. Teri’s family home that was sold this past summer. We find a single spot just north of Main Street off North Franklin, a short walk to the parade. We set up our chairs, spaced out so when Sean and Nastia get there they will have space to put their chairs.

Nastia texts me, they are on their way, they don’t see any parking spots, they don’t know where they are, but they have a spot. They finally arrive, but they don’t have chairs and the three of us don't move closer. So when it is finally time for the parade. I feel like I’m in a different time zone. I'm so far away from Teri and Nancy. People begin to slip between the three of us. I take pictures of everyone, strangers appear in the pictures, hands, body parts block people I want to take pictures of. I get some good pictures. As far as the parade, it is not as good as years past. In the past Spring Valley would put on a great show. The costumes would be inventive and time would have gone into it. This year only one or two costumes were really that great.

After the parade we went out to eat at the Nyack dinner. Sean and Nastia get lost again and cross main street going south, swing around onto Rt 9W and finally arrive at the dinner. The food and conversation was good. Overall a nice night out. It wasn’t cold until a day or two later.

Cinderella's sweet 16.

I remember when Amanda turned 16. Her parents wanted to throw a sweet 16 party for her. Unlike her friends it was not affordable. When each of our girls turned 16, there was no thought of throw a party. I remember money was tight, but not awful. In 2014, the Mustang was on the road and I taught Nastia to dive using it. So I had two cars on the road, money must have been OK. By 2016, I wasn’t working full time and money was tight. There was never a thought for a sweet 16 for Elena. So neither of the girls got a sweet sixteen party. They may have both had parties, but it was just like any birthday party they have had before and since. Sallyann, Teri’s best friend, decided to throw her daughter, an only child, a sweet 16 party. My first reaction was why she's not anywhere near 16. My second reaction was the old man in me coming out, “Do I have to go?!” If I had actually verbalized that thought (28 years of marriage have taught me better) it would have sounded whiney, with a heavy nasal tone to it. The invitations arrived in September and per my usual attitude (well, it’s not today or tomorrow, I worry about it later,I forgot about it,) Like tide and time not waiting, the event came around.

They decided the theme was going to be a dress up masquerade party. In September, I didn’t care, but as always the days and weeks passed and suddenly I am faced with a dress up party in the following week to ten days. Teri her usual self got a pretty dress for Nastia and a slightly sexy pants suit (Hillary Clinton killed pants suits for me) and they were ready. About a week before the party, I announced to Teri, I am dressing in business casual, you know dress pants and a nice shirt, shoes not sneakers for the event. A couple of days before the event, Teri said to try on my suits.

To be blunt, I am still carring all that Covid weight (You know, during Covid , all there was to do was eat and drink alcohol. Why leave that stuff around if you weren't going to be here.) So I knew the two suits I owned (purchased sometime last century, most likely) were going to fit just like Steve Martin’s suit fit in the remake of ‘The Father of the Bride’ (Who forgot about the original with Spencer Tracy and don’t say who!) where his old suit is a good two sizes too small. Teachers tell us our bodies change during puberty, but forget to tell us it continues our whole lives and clothes like my suit won't fit. So I go with full confidence to Nastia’s closet (I put the suits in there when it was my closet back around 08), dust off the shoulders and struggle to put on the brown suit. (I’m thinking as I put it on, if it don’t fit I ain’t gonna wear this shit! Yes, I’m paraphrasing, sort of and stealing from Johnny Cochran in the OJ Simpson trial.) And yes the brown suit does not fit. I start a pile for Goodwill with the brown suit.

My second suit, I think I remember buying it in the 90’s or earlier. But that can’t be. I’d have grown out of it a very long time ago. However old it is, I slip on the jacket. It’s surprisingly a little big. I try on the pants, knowing there is no way my waist is the same as the day I bought it.It isn't, but the pants fit. I think I bought it at a men’s wear place in Pearl River that has been out of business more than thirty years. It was a well known place in it’s time, a fixture, but it’s been gone so long, I can’t remember its name. I slide off the pants and notice the sizing 32x38. They must have known a day like this would come up in the distant future (Andy’s Men’s wear, that's the place!!) and that I would be one of the last people on planet earth to wear one of their suits.

Because of some far-sighted men’s wear salesmen, I am now forced to wear a suit to Cinderall’s Ball. This is a non alcohol party and it takes me the longest time to understand why, ‘IT’S A SWEET SIXTEEN PARTY!!THEY DON’T DRINK’ Though the evening will cause some of the lucky parents to drink. Teri loads up the cooler. She puts some vodka, some Malibu Rum and some OJ and Lemonade in the cooler. I pack premixed lemonade and cherry vodka. It’s great and it is the hit of the party, for the adults. We arrived early. Over the previous week Teri had helped Sallyann put together the hall. She helped put together and arrange things. We arrive fifteen minutes early and Sallyann is still at it. She and her family have gone well and beyond reasonable for this party. Later when they serve food, I’ll take small spoonfuls of most items and my plate will be full before I’ve gotten to the halfway point of the food. Desserts planned are cookies, cakes, brownies, a chocolate fountain, which doesn’t happen. Just way too much. Sallyann’s daughter, Katie is dressed in a Cinderella princess dress. I find a seat at the most distant table because Teri is saying the music's too loud. We will be moved because unknown to me there are assigned tables.

The DJ starts spinning records(??) immediately. I don’t know the music, but it’s got a great beat and the kids (do I really have to really call them that, I’m really not that old, yet!! Can I call them children?) The creatures (I guess that’s not going to go over very well, How about the beaning I have little in common with, shortened to Bihlic) So the Bihilic are dancing, I’m watching, looking at my phone, taking videos(are they still called that, even though there is no longer any tape?) of my family. I come up with or maybe someone else does that it’s time to break out the liquid refreshments. I go out to the car with Elena, several times during the night. I don’t drink, but I do share and everyone who is on the receiving end is grateful. I give Sallyann one Malibu and OJand a cherry vodka and lemonade. She doesn’t turn them down. Sean dances with Nastia, Elena dances withTeri, Teri dances with friends. I hurt my knee and don’t dance. The party ends around 11PM and Teri stays to help clean up. THe girls, Sean and I pitch in. We manage to leave around midnight, home before 1. It was a fun party and I even got to wear my suit. I just wonder how Andy, from Andy’s Men’s Wear knew thirty years ago I’d need four inches more in the waist in the 21st century.

Elena's life, so far, Apple picking, Sean's birthday with his family .

Fall has finally come to the area. Previous to the last couple of days the weather was a touch too warm, warm enough to open windows at home, but not turn on the air. After a couple of rain storms, one a bit intense, the weather turned cooler and fall has officially arrived. Leaves are turning colors and falling, jackets are needed and the heater in my car again doesn’t work.

Teri is still looking for a job. She is starting to get discouraged, but she continues to look and send out resumes. Even if she says she’s not tough, I don’t know how she does it. Sending out resumes and writing cover letters, I’ve always hated it and was never any good at it. I recently looked at my resume wanting to update it with information about my current job. I got as far as writing the name of the company above The Crystal Spoon, enlarged the type and highlighted it. When it came to my job description, I could think of anything that was something I wanted to put there. I’m sure there is information, like how I’ve grown my accounts by anywhere between 80 and 93% over the last six months. I put it away and went on to this instead. I rather babble on about the girls then think about stuff like that.

Elena keeps staying late after work to talk with her friend Christian. Now usually I’d put quotes around the word friend giving it a salacious (Having or conveying undue or inappropriate interest in sexual matters) feel to it, but for someone who tries to act like none of the rules apply to her, at least at this point nothing is going on with her and Christian. Well I did tell you that Putin wouldn’t invade Ukraine and if he did the war would be over in weeks, not going on toward two years. Elena invited Matt over for dinner yesterday. We had a very delicious chicken dinner. There was butter, some spices and since I didn’t make it or help, I have no idea what else might have been mixed in with it. I do miss cooking. I went to BJ’s to get some stuff the other day. I picked up a case of Mountain Dew and told Elena if she stayed away from the energy drinks, I’d give the case to her. She agreed and I put it downstairs. That night she comes up from the cellar with it and I see her. She gives me a quick deer in the headlights look and when I don’t say anything she takes it up to her room. I figure a little bad in sugar and caffeine is better than alot bad power drinks. One day she will wake up with a caffeine hangover, like she has been warned and she’ll then be like all the rest of us. She’s still loving her job. Nastia just went back to work today (10/10/2023)She received workmans comp while out. She tried to go back the day after her doctor’s appointment on Thursday, because she’d had her fill of mother-daughter time. She told the Doctor to put Tuesday the 10th on the note, so when she tried to go back to work on Friday, the 6th, they sent her home until today, Tuesday, the 10th. She was so looking forward to going to work Friday. She purchased some carrots, sliced a pepper, added some cucumbers and she didn’t stay long enough to enjoy her lunch. This past weekend she dressed up and put on shoes different from the boot she’s worn these past weeks or well supported sneakers and by the end of Saturday night her foot hurt her. She’s going to have to be more careful, no heels careful.

She went to dinner with Sean and his family up in Orange county for his birthday. She told me (her first mistake) that she is going to let him drink and she’d drive home. She’d be driving after dark, in a possible rain storm on roads she isn’t overly family with going around a traffic circle where Rt 6 and the Palisades come together. I felt it was too much for her and her poor eye site to handle. I call Sean over just before they leave and ask him to not drink and to drive home. He agrees right off the bat and Nastia gets angry at me. They leave and have a fun night. THey go down to the Last Chance Saloon, down the street to finish off the celebration. Nastia invites me to join them and I do. I’m a little too old to wake up with a hangover (I’m not admitting I did, but I watched TV most of the day) and it was a fun night.

On Sunday, Nastia and Sean go apple picking up in Orange County. They bring back this medium to small size bag of apples. THey are all nice sized and look delicious. The bag of apples they drove up to Orange County for and picked cost something like $28.00. Sean was going to get two bags, but for that price he chose wisely, and got one. I may have misunderstand what they did that day. Maybe they didn’t pick them. Maybe these apples are special, chosen by the elven gods of the wilds of Orange County especially for a birthday boy. Maybe that is why they are so expensive. I really don’t know. This weekend they’ll become an apple pie or an Apple Brown Betty, who knows. Paraphrasing Shakespeare ‘An apple by any other price will taste just as sweet’

Family Dinner

My Family Dinner When I was a kid, we had a family dinner, sort of. I remember my dad having dinner with us when I was very young.It was maybe even before Ruth and Eric were born. Then as I got older my dad would finish work later and later, until he never made family dinner except on the occasional Sunday family dinner we had. When Teri and I adopted the girls we made family dinner a big part of the day. It was something she grew up with and I as I said above sort of did too. As the girls got older and were working part time jobs that started in the late afternoon and didn’t end until 10-11 O’Clock at night, family dinner looked like it would die like most modern American family dinners. When the girls got full time jobs and were home around five, family dinner made a comeback. Sean joined us recently as a regular and on some nights, from his expression and his head in his hands and the smile on his face there have been some nights where he might have wished he was not there.

Last night, like most nights conversation, I don’t know how it got to where it did, but I was the brunt of the abuse. I think it started with Teri and I talking about the person who had the last accident. I’ve waited years for this conversation because, even though it was like eight years ago, Teri is the last one to have an accident. So the conversation then veers towards how aggressive a drive I have been and remain over the years. Teri tells the story where I’m trying to pass a person on the right on Rt 59 in Nyack. Nastia tells the stories of how I blew off a person with the finger and sped around them , yes again on the right.The next story got a big laugh and happened in the Target parking lot. I don’t remember how it started but this woman did something that caused me to start cursing her out and she goes, “Nice talk in front of your daughter” implying Nastia is some young kid, who hasn't cursed like a truck driver since we've known her. I think this all started because Nastia said she is a good driver. This conversation is definitely a step up from talking about bodily functions and sex. It has always been a no hold barred time when we sit down to dinner. Almost everytime we do Teri is telling someone to put down their cell phone. On nights like this I’m glad everyone does. This is what makes family dinners special and prized. Some of the girl's friends don’t have or value family dinners. You just need to see things from someone else's eyes sometimes. It’s like the time Jessica (not the one with the child, Elena’s best friend) walked out to our backyard and said,”wow”. I’ve never seen the yard the same way since. Before she walked out the door that day I saw a pool, a trampoline and a yard that needed to be better tended. After that it is all different, special. Still not perfect, but more appreciated.

Fourteen years and one day ago, can you believe it.

It’s been fourteen years and a few days, Teri and I adopted the girls. It passed without notice,until I noticed. I texted the girls and Teri. My lackluster response from them was a ho-hm, ‘Oh nice’ with a smiley face and a quick addendum saying to ignore the emoji. So much for celebrating life changing events. I spent the holiday lounging in the chair in the living room, watching reruns of The Blacklist. Between rain storms, I did a little yard work, and shoveled a little more of the expansion of the driveway on the northside. All the time wondering what I’d do if I ever retired. I had things that needed to be done, but I lacked ambition. Fourteen years ago Teri worked at United Water. They treated her very well, giving her time off to handle our new children. That job was three jobs ago. I worked for Marcus Dairy and that is also three jobs ago. I always enjoyed sending in my resume for job interviews, later in life and all my previous jobs were out of business. Teri’s jobs just got tired of the area and moved away. One moved back to Canada, the other moved to Georgia, paying the new person in her job $10,000 more, real classy. Oh and he is a guy. The fun part is he didn’t know what he was getting into. This past summer was very hot and the units the company sells aren't made for high heat states. It must have been fun. Teri was glad she wasn’t there. Back to the past. I used to talk about this time in Russia often and it might be well known to some. I reread the blog from the time we first arrived in Birobidzhan to the time Fran and CJ made dinner in their apartment for the four of us, before we moved out of the apartments to the Hotel. Alot of it I’d forgotten. The girls had excessive energy during those days. Nastia would con people out of a few kopeks to ride a kiddie ride in the Pit Stop, a cafeteria style restaurant where we spent most of our time. We were there so often, I think they gave us a discount card. I remember ending most nights in Birobidzhan drinking beer and eating good food at the restaurants. I don’t remember most of what we ate.

I think about that plane ride back from Birobidzhan, first to Moscow and then to America. We didn’t have four seats together flying into Moscow. Nastia and Elena wanted to sit together and we were dumb enough to try it, you know it was one of those moves I’d shake my head about before I had kids wondering why they’d do something so obviously bound to fail and it did. Nastia went back to hang out with the stewardesses conning them out of a bunch of headsets. There to this day in an orange Aeroflot bag with other memories I’ve collected. We ended up separating them, but not before I had to chase Nastia up one aisle and down another thinking that every Russian on that plane was waiting, along with myself for me to lose my temper with her and do something really stupid, like hit her and make a scene. Elena sat with Teri and I sat with Nastia, both not very happy. We spent time in Moscow getting their American citizenship arranged, spending time in a McDonald’s where I learned to ask for coffee in Russian (It’s coffee, pozhaluysta) and on top of that the guy who served me spoke english. I was so wrapped up in ordering coffee for Teri, that I didn’t order anything except the coffee. I went back later and didn’t get him. We arrived home tired to a surprise welcome home party. A very nice end to a long trip.

It’s been 14+ years now and a lot has changed. The girls are now women with individual personalities you have to treat differently. One is working in a tire shop changing tires and doing brake jobs.learning about car repair. Her sister is working caring for children with developmental handicaps. Both are in relationships that may last forever. Time passes so quickly. I’m 65. I started this blog at 51 with the idea it would stop the day we set foot back on US soil. The adventures and the stories just continued and except for a time about eight years ago when I tried to stop the blog. I don’t see an end to it anytime soon.

Labor Day already??!!

It’s the evening of September 4th, Labor Day evening. We had London Broil and baked potatoes for dinner. It was a nice dinner, but the thought that summer is over and everyone is going back to regular work schedules. Not that it matters any more, but kids are going back to school. It’s so mind blowing. The dishwasher is humming and gurgling in the background, it was 90 degrees today. The mosquitoes seem to be out in full force, yet the summer is over. I dread the winter. I’m always cold, my skin is dry and if I don’t moisturize I itch. I know I sound like a whiny little girl. ( I’m sorry to all the whiny little girls out there, but I’m in mourning over the end of summer. Really summer started its exit, in the lower north east of the United States way back in the last ten days of July. We were still getting hot days and even the nights were rough. That is until around July 20th or so. Somewhere around there we got a cool night. I remember noticing it. I tried to ignore it. I didn’t even want to write about it. I hoped if I ignored it, it’d go away. But just like Nastia and the internet, it didn’t go away. It just kept on coming.

I remember as a young kid never understanding why the pool got cold in August. You know, I thought, maybe the pool was tired of summer too and wanted to close for the season. No, it was just one of the many hints that God leaves us to signal things are changing. Things don’t happen without a warning, I’ve come to realize. You get the hot summer days, but the nights get cool and the pool along with it. If you look close along the sides of the road in August, you’ll even see some leaves start to change. I remember when we had the milk trailers behind Bill Vines’ office in West Nyack. There was this big old willow tree that leaned up against the back of one of the trailers. Every August, some time after the nights started to get cool, the flat bed in front of the trailer would become littered with these small narrow leaves from the tree. They’d cover the flatbed and if you weren’t thinking about the future, you’d wonder what the heck is going on. Did the tree die? It didn’t, it was just quietly announced that summer was up and leaving, heading south for the holidays. Over the last two weeks life has gone on beyond the palisades. Elena was sick on a Wednesday, about three weeks ago. She calls in sick. Later in the day, after work hours are finished, she goes over Matts. As a kid, I was taught if you are sick, you stay home, even if you are feeling better. She didn’t.

The next Wednesday, she called in sick again, but she was not sick. Teri and I try to tell her she is risking her job by doing this. If you all remember back to being that age, some of you don’t because you are that age, but at that age you are very smart, you know it all. She didn’t want to hear it and walked away going upstairs as we tried to talk to her. I texted her and told her she was very disrespectful to us and we were just trying to let her know how it is out there. Her reply is she knows how it is out there. I didn’t want to get into a text war with her so I let it go. Her actions made it clear she is at the age where she is very smart because she knows it all and you can’t argue with someone that smart. Sometime around this time she also decides to sleep over Matts two nights in a row. It felt like we should prepare for her to move in with Matt, which would be a major mistake. Teri has told me Elena plans to follow Matt if he gets a job away from this area. So yeah, maybe we might just need to prepare for losing her. The week she slept over Matt’s I didn't see her from Wednesday until maybe Sunday. Nastia and I talked about her moving out. I told her she and Sean, who moved in officially this past week (I’ll get to it a little later) will want more privacy and will move out most likely within a year. I said she’d start coming over most every day. Then something would come up, like, I don’t know, maybe life and suddenly it’d be every other day, once every third day, once a week. You know how it goes. There’ll be phone calls and when will you come by. I can’t, the baby, bring them, it’s too much hassle, plus you said you didn’t want to be a babysitter years ago. Blah, blah, blah and so on until one day…So that is why I try to see my mother as often as possible. I’ll still have regrets, like with my dad, but hopefully less. Yes, Sean moved it at the end of August. He sleeps in the same bed as Nastia. They both pay three hundred dollars a month for the privilege. Their room is next to ours so nothing, most likely goes on in there and if it does, it’s not something I could or would stop. I’d just hope they’d be quiet. This is Nastia’s first step toward moving out, growing up a little. I know some people might get bent out of shape with what we are allowing, but there are extenuating circumstances, plus there is a responsibility she has to take care of. They can’t stay together if they don’t pay. Sean started staying here at the house every day about two, three weeks ago and Nastia has been with him every moment. With her broken leg he helps her do things. She hasn’t gotten on his nerves yet, so more power to them.

Nasia goes to a club and she takes a trip (fall)

Saturday, the day before Nastia's trip she is home. Teri agreed to baby sit KJ and Nastia is asked to help before she goes to a club on the Hudson in Newburgh that evening. She watches the baby until about 4 in the afternoon. Watching a baby more so when they are fussy like KJ is that afternoon is hard work. I just watched and I am tired after she hands him off to Teri.

Nastia asks me my opinion on what dress to wear for her grand evening. She shows me a snug fitting red dress that she does fill out nicely. I tell her it is a sexy dress. She shows me a black dress. I ask her which is more comfortable. She tells me the black one. I tell her she should wear the black one and even though heels look great, to wear flats if she is going to dance. Later in the afternoon, about the time Sean and Nastia are going, she comes down the stairs in the red dress. I notice, she looks at me and says, “Sean liked the way I look in the red dress better.” I asked her to take some pictures for me. As they head out the door Teri and I tell them to be safe and have fun. Later in the week Nastia will tell stories of the night. How Arrianna starts talking with these two guys, who have a boat and even though she is told to stick together, she goes to see the boat, coming back about twenty minutes later. Nastia tells me that while dancing she dips down and her dress rides up a bit too much. Sean notices and gives a quick pull down. I'm sorry, I need to make the joke, dis-ass-ter avoided. She said she was wearing a thong, so Sean catches a full moon. Even for me theses joke... I'm sorry there funny, I've got a smile on my face as I write them.

Later in the evening I’ll get a couple of pictures of her and Sean and a second of her and Arriana. They have reserved a room somewhere up there so we will not see them until Sunday. On Sunday, I’m sitting in the chair in the living room when I hear footsteps on the stairs going down and out the door. That is all I will see of her, Sean and Elena until 12:30 AM. Teri and I have a quiet dinner, leftovers I believe. Sometime around 7:30 I get a phone call from Nastia. I hear some strain in her voice and I hope that there has not been a car accident and everyone is okay. I then hear Sean’s voice and he goes on to explain that Nastia was riding a bike with hand brakes and she is heading for a tree and can’t stop, so like any sane person she jumped off. Somehow in the jump she landed poorly, hurting her left foot and can’t walk on it. At this time they are heading to immediate Medical Care. It’s Sunday around 7:30 and none will be open. They end up at the hospital in Middletown. She is still in pain and now the wait begins. Sometime around 9 she is seen and an x-ray taken. She has broken the fifth metatarsal bone. In English, it’s the outside of the foot nearer the little toe than the ankle. She is put in a walking cast and has to see an orthopedic surgeon to see what the next step is.

They arrive home at 12:30. Teri and I went to bed at 11:00 and I’d fallen asleep. When they come in Mesha barks and I wake up, my heart bounding. Nastia is like a drunk with crutches and needs help wherever she goes. Everyone settles into bed and eventually everyone goes to sleep. Elena gets up early to walk Matt and her new dog, at the time residing at Matt’s. I get up and go to work. Teri gets up and will eventually fall asleep in the chair. Sean calls in and switches his day off and sleeps in. Nastia will spend the day in bed. Not that she can’t move around, she just doesn’t try. Day 2 Nastia does move around. She’ll be in the cast for about six weeks. It’s a removable cast and eventually she will remove it to shower. Tuesday, we have dinner and everyone is gathered around the table. Elena reads a text from Matt outload. He is returning the dog to the shelter. His mom has issues with pets and the dog, his name is Raman, a two year old is not following the rules. So Elena and Matt’s first born is being returned. Raman is a boy, otherwise we’d have considered taking the dog. Since Bandi’s death, Athena and Mesha have almost acted like friends. Introduce another male and it might go back to the way it was with Athena restricted to the couch by Mesha. It would not be fair.

Elena's birhday, The Last Chance Saloon.

Elena came home on the afternoon of her birthday. She stayed with Matt until late, so her birthday celebration was moved to Saturday. ChoCho San was booked so we moved to the Japanese restaurant in the Palisades Center, Little Buddha.

We were a group of eight, so we didn’t share a table with anyone else. Matt and Elena, Nastia and Sean, Nancy, Teri, my mother and myself rounded out the group. I sat next to my mom and we talked about the last time she was here and she didn’t remember. At 89, I worry it’s the start of something, but she is also 89 and at 89 I’ll be dead twenty years most likely, so don't worry.

One of the chefs walks by our table and recognizes Nastia. It seems there is not a place on God's green earth where we can go that someone doesn't remember Nastia and stops to say hello.

At the Last Chance Saloon, the bartender comes around the bar to give her a big hug. At the pizza parlor down the street from the bar, a woman comes from behind the counter to give her a big hug. There seems to be not a person who has met her that doesn’t love her.

She tells the chef, “Remember I only like broccoli.” and he asks a waitress to get extra broccoli. We wait for the chef to appear. Because we wait longer than normal, management gives us free sake. I finish my beer and experience sake. I’ve experienced sake before, you know when the chef squirts a spray of it in your month.I guess that just barely qualifies. They warm it to almost a tea temperature and that is an odd experience for me. The outside of the small carafe is so hot, you either wait for it to cool or pour it quickly. I poured it quickly.

The menu is the same in every place, the jokes are slightly different. It is fun evening. Everyone is told to order what they wanted and they do. Some order steak, others order salmon and some order a combination. I have chicken and steak, it is very good. After dinner, the girls, Matt and Sean, are going to the Last Chance Saloon. They invited me. I wander down a little later, after they have left. I play a couple games of pool. I buy some alcohol for the girls and myself. Around 11:30 it began to rain and everyone walked from the house. Sean and Nastia head out just after it stops. Elena and I finish our game of pool, then head out. Her and I have to wait for a train to finish before we can head up the hill to the house. She is feeling no pain and I took a couple of videos of her. I have offered to not publish them if she pays me cash. If you want to counter the offer, please enclose a self addressed stamped envelope. Yeah, I know it’s a joke from a former post, but classics don’t die. Plus all of those millennials, I love to watch them scratch their heads, look confused and then ask what a stamp is and how do you get one to attach to an email. Life is just too short to not have this much fun.

More trip stuff and what the hell is Elena buying now?

The trips just keep on comin... part two:

They arrived in Atlantic City on Monday in the late afternoon. They went to dinner at a place called the Playground. I’ve never heard of it, but then again I haven’t been to Atlantic City in more than fifteen, twenty years. Last time I went Trump was a harmless crackpot trying to run casinos down there. They went to dinner at ‘The Rainforest Cafe’. I thought they were all gone after it closed down in the Palisades Mall something like twenty years ago around 2004. They dranks some at dinner. After dinner they gambled and if you use Elena math, she left with money, I think. She put in so much, cashed out, put some more in and cashed out. So I don’t really know what she left with. I only know as the expression goes…’The House always wins.’

The next day, a Tuesday, they spent time at the zoo in Cape May. That’s an area I love with all the old houses. Wednesday, they were supposed to go to the beach, but ended up rummaging through antique stores. I used to love doing that when Nyack was chock full with them. They were home Thursday, but she stayed over at Matt’s house until late and went back to work on Friday. Not having spent enough money at Atlantic City, on Saturday Elena buys her bearded dragon a new tank. This is the third one she’d had in her room for him. I don’t believe she’s paid for all of them. There’s still more, as game shows used to say. She also purchased a 55 inch ( far corner to opposite corner) TV set from Best Buy. I don’t know if she did any research before buying it. If it was me at that age, I’d have woken up that morning and thought, “I want a big ass TV!” and went out and purchased it. Come to think of it, she at least thought, maybe even said “I want a big ass TV” and then thought or said, “Along with a new tank for my dragon.

I was drafted to help her with the TV and the tank. We put the tank in the front living room mainly because I didn’t want to take it up the stairs. The TV and the wall hanger we took up to the room. The wall hanger is heavier than the TV. I could have walked her 55 inch set up the stairs by myself. When I was living in a third floor walk up in Stony Point and I woke up one morning and said I wanted a big ass TV or the equivalent in 1989 cool dude. It took me three stops along the short route to catch my breath. Remember this was the thirty-one year old me. That TV was only 36 inches, considered big for the time, but it also had a tube and weighed a ton. I later rolled the set down my front stairs when I tried to move it with a hand truck, thinking I was smart, down the front stairs when I moved into the Nyack House. Teri bought me a replacement for it just as flat screens were getting popular. I rolled the second one sort of down the front stairs when we got our first flat screen. Since it is not my TV I am very careful and read the directions to mount the wall hanger for the TV. I even get the correct size drill bit and use the mounting diagram. It all goes smoothly. The brackets go on the back of the TV and it’s a nice light TV so Elena and I pick it up, a couple of wires and suddenly the room is lit up with that bright fluorescent glow of too much TV right next to her bed. Ahhh, the good old days when I’d do something like this.

The trips just keep on comin...

The trips just keep on comin... The title sounds like the tag line for WCBS-FM from the 80's. The hits just keep on comin. Elena is celebrating her birthday in a big way this year, but she’s doing it with Matt, not Teri and I AND yes, I knew this day would happen, but just like getting old and fat, I didn’t think it would happen so soon.

Her grand plan starts with going to a heavy metal concert in the Meadowlands. Matt and her plan to go by train. After last Friday, if I were Matt, I don’t think I’d want to be far from a car if I’m not close to home, but taking a train is also a great idea too. The only worry is waiting the crowds out to get on a train when the concert is over and you want to go home. The concert starts at 6PM, an odd time to start, but it is a Sunday and people have to go to work the next day, except her. She has the week off until Saturday. She is planning to go to Atlantic City for the week. It’s going to be weird not seeing her for most of the week. It will be the longest she's been away from us, since Teri and I adopted them back in 2009.

Before She left to go to the concert, a concert with Metallica, if I didn’t say, She is asked to send a few pictures. By the time the night is over, it feels like she has live streamed the entire concert. She took a pictures of her and Matt before the concert starts,then she sends little snippets every so often of the music. They arrive at MetLife, well lets just say the two of them must have beat the ushers to the stadium. They arrive about 4:30. The videos of the concert start about 6:20 showing the stadium. And I think Metalica went on around 9PM. Elena’s last concert snippet is about 10:30. She will text she is in Nanuet around 12:20 heading to Matt’s house. (and oh, yes, I’m sure she sleeps in grandma’s bed.) Today, Teri and I both texted her around 7AM telling her to be careful and have fun. She replied bright and early at 10:23.

It started pouring around 6 this morning and if Elena and Matt left when they wanted to they would have been stuck in traffic and the heavy storms.

At 10:47 Elena began complaining Matt was taking too long and she wanted to go. Elena and Teri exchanged texts about her bearded dragon and his desired humidity levels. They left around noon and entered Atlantic City a little after 3PM to blue skies.

Their trip is covering most of this week and God, keep her safe and smart.Just received a picture from her, they are checking in now (4:29)

Another trip already, well, it is summer...

As most strange trips happen, this one showed up out of nowhere, turns on a dime and suddenly I’m not sitting at home in front of dinner watching TV. Wait, I just used that.

How about, it’s summer and the living is… no, wait, did that one too. The trip, the best parts the trip, no damn, used that one several times, all the way back to Russia. Well maybe we can just ease into it by saying I’ve just seen a face, I can’t forget the time or place, she’s just the girl for me and I want all the world to see we’ve met…mmmm… no that’s a Beatles song. Do you know growing up I thought you spelled beetles BEATLES, I didn’t get the play on words for years. (Beat- les, musical beat- les) Well, Teri and I went on a trip Sunday, yesterday and yes, hadn’t I ‘ve gone on enough lately, but this one was important and I thought might be fun. Teri has the possibility of working at a place in the Bronx across the street from the bat near Yankee Stadium. There were so many times I’d meet friends at the refurbished stadium at the bat. Little did I know all these years later after they tore down the ‘House that Ruth built’ I’d be taking distant pictures with my phone (A phone of all things, not a camera!!) of a new stadium…where the Yankees can’t seem to win a World Series.

We plan to leave the house at 10, Teri time and opposed to Muller time we leave at 10. Before we leave she puts the address in her GPS unit and it gives her three routes to take. And like deja vu all over again I’m questioning the program again. Could this be where skynet really becomes sentient (You better be getting the Terminator reference!!) The program keeps mentioning the McCombs Dam Bridge, the same one I crossed over on the previous Friday (There’s no toll, I’ll cross over it as often as I can.) but we don’t need to go into Manhattan. I keep pointing this out to Teri and she keeps not understanding what I’m saying. It gets more fun when we cross the Tappan Zee Bridge (Don’t even go there, we had this discussion during Friday’s trip) and I tell her to just follow the directions. She replies, and in hindsight, I understand, “ You told me not to follow the directions to the McCombs Dam Bridge.” Somehow we get started. We cross the bridge (Yes, I’m leaving it alone this time) Teri asks me if she is to follow 87 or 287? I don’t know numbers and I also see an opportunity to tell her about the time Elena and I approached this same intersection and how I told her how they had changed the way the road is built to reflect how traffic has changed. I think she told me to stop before she fell asleep, if she didn’t I’m sure she was thinking that. I get past the 87, 287 and the reconfigured exit 6 drama and are headed toward the Bronx. We see signs for Stew Leonard. I told her about the time I went to that store and they were giving out free chocolate chip cookies. It was a short story, I think she appreciated that. We calculated the price of tolls if she was to take this job at about $2,000.00 a year in current tolls. They're going up some time in the future.

We take exit 5 off the Major Deegan drive along deserted parking lots and at some point don’t make a turn which causes us to have to turn around. We find the location. It’s within a few hundred yards of the bat. Surrounded by parking garages. We park on an empty street. There’s no, well almost no one. A red Toyota is parked. We park behind it, so no one will notice us parked behind the red Toyota, on the empty street with all the ‘no parking signs’. We walk to the building, find the front door. It has a solid roll down gate with a camera, a reminder that this is still the Bronx. We find the correct parking lot she might park in if she accepts the job. I take those pictures of the bat, the empty street and the far away stadium. We’re there for maybe ten minutes. She’s done all the reconnaissance she needs to do. She wants to go. I ask her if she wants to approach the company and not make the wrong turn again, she says, “No, she is fine, she wants to go.” So we go. She drove so conservatively going down to the Bronx, I was very concerned if she could drive to this job without issues. On the way home, it’ll all different. She didn’t touch the third lane going down and was reluctant to pass anyone, she drove like an old person, (Yes, like an old lady!!) On the way home it was all 180 degrees different. I asked her about it and she admitted to being nervous. She said she’d be more comfortable going down to Newark at 7AM because she’d driven that route so often before, than going to the Bronx, right now. We have a late breakfast, brunch at the old Hogan’s Diner in Nyack, now just the Nyack Diner and we were home before Elena is out of bed. At 1PM her mother wakes her up by getting into bed with her.

A long strange trip

As most strange trips happen, this one showed up out of nowhere, turns on a dime and suddenly I’m not sitting at home in front of dinner watching TV. I was going to visit my mom yesterday when Teri called me and asked me to stop off at Rite Aid to pick up a prescription for Amanda. I told Teri okay and made a right turn to head toward Rite Aid instead of my mom’s. On occasions like this I alway hope that skipping seeing her is not a mistake. Yes, I’m being positive she would never intentionally leave, but some things are beyond everyone's control. Tonight, Friday I decided to again go see my mom. Lately she and Bruce are alway in front of the TV. It being too hot to do much outside. I arrive around twenty after five. I sit and the three of us start talking about random things. She asks about Teri and her job hunt, the girls and their boyfriends. Earlier in the day, about 4:17, Elena texts that Matt might be joining us for dinner.Teri says, “That’s fine, I’m making meatballs. At 5:10 she texts she is not home for dinner. Something came up with Matt and she is going to get him. At 5:16,Teri asks where she is getting him from? She doesn’t answer. Seven minutes pass and I look at the texts. Something is up and I ask her where she is going to pick him up? She answers, Long Island. I immediately get on the phone to call her. She picks up quickly. I’m guessing she was hoping someone would go with her. I ask her what is going on and why she is going to Long Island to pick him up. She gives me an answer I have trouble comprehending. I hear the words, but they don’t have meaning.I tell her to come to Grammy’s and pick me up, she can’t go alone. I did expect her to fight about it, but while writing this I realize she wanted someone to go with her. While I wait for her to show up My mom keeps telling me to sit down and relax. I tell her I can't. I'm so angry. Teri calls and I tell her what I can. I don’t know at this point how Matt got out there and why he has no car to get home with. Teri tells me not to be angry with Elena, or Matt. And I’m really not angry at them. I’m angry that it is Friday at 5:45, we need to cross the Tappan Zee Bridge (Just stop, there is no Cuomo Bridge!) go the Cross Westchester Expressway, cross the Throgs Neck Bridge, and then transverse Long Island all the way to Amityville (yes, this is a horror- come on now the movie, Amityville Horror. It may have aged poorly, but at one time…!!Just like the Exorcist!!) This trip we’re taking is going to get us back home at 10:00, if we’re lucky and don’t hit traffic. She pulls up a little before 6:00 and off we go. Elena has programmed her phone to tell us how to go. In the old days I reach into my milk case of tri-state maps and select the relevant maps to guide us on our journey. Well since Google Maps and the internet, I’ve thrown all my maps away. That’s not completely true. I saved them in my garage for ten years just to make sure I didn’t need them and I threw them out just recently.. Whatever program she is using has us going over the George Washington Bridge. I tell Elena,at $16.00 we’ll cross the Tappan Zee Bridge (Don’t get me started again!) Her map program adjusts quickly and it is just as happy to guide us going over the Tappan Zee Bridge. I do believe the map program really doesn’t care we saved somewhere around $10.00 just on a left turn down RT 59 instead of up RT 59 toward the Palisades Parkway.

Once over the bridge and yes Elena is driving I explain, like a guide on a New York City bus tour how originally the road went toward the Bronx and how now the exit look more like where the road goes because most people want to go to White Plains and not the Bronx.I’ll get into the Bronx later. If I had my handy maps with me I’d have gone the Cross Westchester to I95 to The Throgs Neck Bridge. No, not modern technology. Now it may have saved us time sitting in traffic, or it may have wanted us to sample a little bit of all the roads between Rockland County and Amityville and oh yes, the horror of it all! We go, Cross Westchester, to Sprain Brook, where I relate to Elena the fascinating story how when I was her age the Sprain Brook ended just after where we got on and the road would alway be empty, so we’d take it to Yankee games. Or I wanted to avoid boring her and said the road used to end back there. I don’t remember. We head down the Sprain, hit a little traffic and the program tells us it is time to embark on a quick scenic trip of the Cross Bronx Expressway. And hey, it gave me a chance to tell one of my Bronx stories( See I told you, I’d get back to the Bronx.) My story she is not so impressed with. It is a tale of empty burned out building in the 70’s and how it was an eerie waste land reminiscent of a science ficton or horror film (oh, the horror of it all) After a few minutes we exit the Bronx and head toward the Cross Island Parkway. I tell her my story about trailering my boat on the Cross Island, a road where only cars are allowed and how I was taking a girl out on my boat I liked, want to impress and the cops got on their loud speaker and threw us off the road. I made a mistake. We crossed The Throgs Neck Bridge, then took the Cross Island to the Long Island Expressway. I expected us to stay on that road, but nooooo, the program sent us to a connecting road and we ended up on the Southern State Parkway. It’s a road that didn’t prompt a story so much as a cautionary tail, or maybe a proverb, definitely not a haiku. Whatever it was I told her this was another old road built for less traffic going at a slower speed and over the years they have added lanes to make it even more dangerous.So she should be careful. This whole trip she has driven like a pro. She has been careful and patient. She honks her horn when someone cuts in front of her, but this is New York, so it’s expected. Sometime around 7:30 we pull onto this quiet side street just past some brand new right on the street, in your face condos. I’m sure they’ll go for over a million each (All you future people, at one time a million dollars was a lot of money, not what you use to tip your waiter in your time) We pass the right turn we need to make, but a second one appears that is just as good. We ask a guy walking (me ask a guy for directions? Yeah, Elena told me to do it otherwise I might still be looking for building 11) In front of building 11, standing there, waiting for the last several hours is Matt. Elena gives him a Forest Gump wave, you know when Forest is on his boat and sees lieutenant Dan on the dock.(Future people, you better know that movie, it’s a classic!)

Matt works as security in a hospital in upper Manhattan. He is having issues with his boss and as an outsider looking in with limited information, it looks to me like they want to get him to quit. He is told to ride with the ambulance crew who is taking a person to another hospital in Amityville. When they drop off the person the crew tells him they are not allowed to have passengers in the ambulance and can not take him back to the hospital in Upper Manhattan. Matt calls his boss who tells him he is on his own. So he calls Elena, who looks like she is very much in love with Matt and who was willing to drive all the way to Amityville on Long Island to get him.The people inside the Amityville hospital are just as kind as the people who stranded Matt and have locked the door so I can’t use the bathroom. (No problem,I dealt with it, no, I didn’t find a tree, I waited.) The program (sounds like the bad guy in a low budget horror film (and yet again, Oh, the horror) you’d think would send us back the way we came at least most of the way before we veered toward Manhattan, BUT NOOOOO!!!! It starts out the same.Rt 110 to Southern…then suddenly the Wantagh and other words Elena could not pronounce who is now doing my job, tech support and is reading the directions. I won’t bore you with all the roads we take. Lets just say if we didn’t drive on them coming down, we did on the way back. We end up back at Matt’s job sometime after 8:30. He gets out and Elena and I head home. She tells me in an aside that she needs to stop because she has her period. I'm okay with hearing that, I mean she is a girl and Nastia doesn’t not talk about hers. It is a little surprising when Elena talks about hers. The bigger surprise is when she says she was getting a little nervous because it was late. Now Elena admitting to femine issues is one thing but her in an asside to me that she is sexually active is like BigFoot. There are reports about it, but they can neither be confirmed or denied. Still when I was her age all I wanted to do was have sex, so I’ve tried to be cool about their sex lives. If I got upset about it,they’d just hide it.So I accept it. At moments like this when she admits something like this I always think back to the abuse they suffered in Russia. I know some of what Nastia suffered and I know there were four tramas Elena’s therapist wanted her to talk about, so I tell her I am happy she is having sex and I hope she is enjoying it and is being safe. She says she is. We then talk about soaking, and something disgusting that I won’t talk about. I’ve probably said too much anyway. We get home, after a stop at McDonalds to eat a little before ten. Yes, what a long, strange trip it's been.