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It's official: Sveta's coming to stay with me this weekend. It's not her birthday, but we'll be celebrating it. I won't say exactly when her birthday is to protect the innocent (her) and the guilty (me and whoever else wants to know) but suffice it to say that she'll be 18 when she arrives. Maybe she's been 18 for months. You'll never know. But she'll be 18 when she arrives.

My parents insisted on doing birthday stuff with us at least one evening because Sveta's family didn't do much, no party or anything. She didn't want me to make a big deal out of it, but damn it, you only turn 18 once, unless you're in Hollywood. So we're going to have ravioli, her favorite, the big kind filled with meat and cheese, and a cake, and Mom and Dad promised to wink at alcohol consumption if it's kept to a minimum. Despite my father's roots in the country, he is not a whiskey-sipper; he has a beer with dinner often enough, but I don't think I've ever seen him drunk. And my mother doesn't drink at all. But they're okay with it in moderation, which we'll do, at least until we leave their presence.

I wish I could say that I was making the ravioli myself, but filled pasta is one of the few dishes I've never mastered. I probably could if I tried, but I'll make a sauce from scratch, and Mom's baking a cake from scratch, and we know of some decent frozen ravioli, so we'll cheat a little. She's coming Friday evening, so we'll have the celebration Saturday when everyone's available. Probably a late dinner. Then on Sunday, I promised to drive her back to college, so I can see the place, maybe check out her dorm room, meet people... or maybe not that, because I don't know how comfortable she would be with that. Me, I'm fine screaming from the rooftops, "I love Sveta!" but she's a bit more subdued. Plus it wouldn't do for her parents to find out, I guess.

I will not be staying the night for that reason, plus she's got a roomie, who she says is cool but not that cool. Still, I'll get to take her back whenever, rather than having to worry about other people's schedules. Can you tell I'm looking forward to this?

I must confess, I tried to arrange it so that we might usher in her 18th year with a visit to Perry's, but that just wasn't going to happen. I'm too selfish, he's too busy, so I just didn't mention it to her because it didn't seem worth it to raise her hopes and then dash them. Don't worry, we'll usher her into 18 just fine, me and some rubber friends of mine.

I did wind up making a date (well, an agreement that we needed to get together at some point soon) with Perry for just me... because I'm selfish, like I said, and I could stand another session with that tongue of his. We'll see when that happens.

I've been busy on the phone this evening. If only I could get Mike to show up here, or Sheri, or Mari. I miss Mari. I talk to her, but I miss seeing her. We all do. It's rough. Not that I don't miss Sheri or Mike, but I've seen them more recently. I haven't seen my big sister in years. She's just so far away.

But talking of missing, I'm missing Sveta right now, before I even see her. I've got it bad. I think I might shout something from rooftops. It's a good thing I can't get up on our roof. Although... no, not at night... although...