October 28, 2009
An Introduction.

Dylan is sick in bed. Girls night out is off. Ray is at school. Chuck and Natalie are still asleep. Randy walks around above me. Richa has left for the day. Fatu remains asleep? Quiet in her room.
How many people live in our house? Three boys, two cats, a vacant dog, one mother (me), a girlfriend, two boarders and an infrequent boarder. Our lives are full.
Randy is a journalism school professor. Bright, interesting, engaging. His family remains in the Kansas City area while he becomes acclimated to the Columbia life, but primarily, to the requirements of teaching.
Richa is a physician, pediatrician. Twenty-seven. Indian. From north India, Delhi. She is a wonderful person to hang out with. Engaging, funny, intelligent. Her boyfriend/fiance visits from the University of Texas, he is also Indian. I am learning some Indian cooking. Best to go to the source.
Fatu is from Gambia. She will be visiting only for another week, then her studies are complete and she will return to her homeland with her husband.
Chuck, my oldest. Nineteen. Tall, thin, some would say, gangly. Handsome, beautiful hair: thick, shiny, ringletted curls. Plans on starting college this next spring. Talks to Randy. Gets advice. Works at Subshop.
Natalie. Chuck's girlfriend. Stays with Chuck in what used to be my office, now a fifth bedroom. Works at a candle shop. Attends Columbia College. Also nineteen.
Ray, eighteen. A senior in highschool. The 'brilliant' one. Plans on attending MU next fall. Handsome, quiet, tall. Serious, but always with a beautiful laugh.
Dylan, the baby. Seventeen and the tallest and thinnest of my children. Junior in highschool. Good with numbers. Beautiful baby boy, nearly grown.
And then the cats: Star and Ron Paul. The dog: Huxeley, the fierce shih-tzu, gone, but not forgotten.
Me, Ruth. Mother, nurse, generalist. Eighteen years divorced. Lover of music, visual art, architecture. Reader, watcher, baker, runner, gardener, friend: The recorder of this year, our daily/weekly/monthly lives. The last year that all three boys will be under one roof.
This is our record. The last of our halcyon days, the beginning of further adventures.