THE HOT RUSSIAN

Today I went to a little beach party held by some high schoolers I know from church-related functions. One of my best adult friends' son was there, and I told him I would drop by. Plus, free food!

After an hour I overheard someone say "Don't worry, Janelle [the host] isn't missing, she's just waiting for Mike. He's lost."

Then we talked about how it was impossible to get lost finding Ledbetter Beach. It's the only beach in front of Santa Barbara City College and it's a very long beach. Then someone said to me, "It your Mike, Phil."

My Mike?!

See, I brought Mikhail (the Russian) to Calvary Baptist's youth group last Wednesday, where he met some of the aforementioned high school students. Apparently Janelle invited Mikhail, aka "Mike," to this beach bash when they met last Wednesday.

And apparently she thought he was something of a catch and spoke to her friends about him, because as Mike approached the group, another girl said "That's Mike? Janelle exaggerated."

I didn't know whether to feel happy that someone thought Mikhail was cool and cute, sad that someone else didn't think he was all that attractive, or protective because someone was slightly insulting one of my students.

In the end it didn't matter. The critic changed her tune and within ten minutes was flirting unabashedly with my Mike.