is not me.  It's my son's girlfriend.  Skye.  she's in the eighth grade, like my son.  She was here yesterday when I came home.

that was a shock.  Usually, she's an idea, an illusion, a picture on the cell phone, a text message, a faint voice on the other end of the line, a destination--not  a real live breathing smiling girl sitting on my couch.

she's a nice kid.  she's very pretty.  i'm not surprised that she's very pretty.  my son has quirky standards, and many pet peeves.  People can easily annoy him and any little personality or physical quality that doesn't quite measure up to his mood at the moment will automatically end his interest in you.

Even when he was very small--about 6 years old, other kids got on his nerves by being kids.

"Do you want to play over at Charlie's house?" I'd ask.

"Nah, he gets too close to my face when he talks to me," he'd say.

I thought that was odd.  To prefer not to have a friend then have one that likes you.  And really, he could just have said, "Dude, back up a bit." and Charlie would have benifited from it, but no. 

So, Skye has managed to pass all the tests, fill all the critieria and clearly not get to0 close to him.  I wondered why he brought her here.  He never brings her here.  I gave her a shirt.

My son and I had gone shopping the night before but we didnt try stuff on, we just bought it and left.

"So, this shirt is too small, I have to return it." I said to them.

"Oh yeathat sucks." he said supportively.

I showed it to Skye.  "It's cute.  Do you like it?"

"Yeah, it's cute," She said shyly.

"Then you take it--it'll fit you." I said.

"You just don't feel like going  back to the store," my son said.

"No, I don't." I said.  and I handed the shirt to her and she took it and sai dthanks.  because it is a cool shirt, she was glad to take it. I bought it at the "Cool store" where all the 8th graders shop. that could by why it was too small for me. 

I invited her for dinner and she said she'd stay but she left.

that's alright.  I feed my daughters boyfriend 5 times a week anyway--he'll just eat what extra I made.

I wondered if she was mad at my son.  If after a year of never coming to our house, I wonder did she complain that maybe he was embarassed about her.  Did she wonder if he didn't want to let his family meet her.  but really, I'm sure he was ashamed of his father and I and he was afraid we'd be wierd, and talk and be friendly and try to feed her.  I'm sure that was annoying.

I found out that she can throw a snowball really hard and that was a quailty that my son found admirable.  I wondered what would happen  when he finds something to not like about her--then I didn't care and ate dinner.