Sam's best friends

This photo is a special thrill: Sam and two of his best friends from high school were over yesterday. Their school wasn't far so the bunch of them spent a lot of time here, so much so that these two call me "Mum" although they have serviceable mothers of their own. They're now in their late thirties. Duston is a hard-working man who supports his mother, his daughter, and two teenaged godchildren he adopted when their own parents dropped out of sight. He has managed to buy several rental properties. Tristan is an artist in special effects in films, was nominated for an Emmy and was at the Emmy awards last week, recently got married. And Sam is figuring out a new way to live, now six months sober after many years of drinking, some of them with these guys who also hardly drink now. 

I told them last night, as we ate pizza and drank soda water, that compared to Anna's friends, they were easy, all I had to do was keep them fed — vast quantities of spaghetti. Anna's friends were destructive, wrecked my house and stole stuff. She has since apologized. But these boys - just food, lots and lots of food. And a roof, and a Mum to keep an eye on things.

Proud of them all, that they love each other so much. So much laughter. Many laughs talking about how hard it is to actually sleep with someone in your bed. I could not agree more. And then Duston and Tristan talked about real estate prices and capital gains taxes. My boys. Surreal.