I have expressed before that it's possible I'm turning into my mother. I would also like to gladly state I may be turning into my father. And due to the karmic qualities of life, I'd like to think I inherited the better qualities from both of them while my sister may have received the recessive ones (you still got the brains, kiddo). As much as this applies to personality traits, it also applies to bad vision and gray hairs. Whoo, I just love my 20/20.

Anyway, something I've noticed a lot in myself recently is my appreciation for people's behavior as guests, as well as their treatment of guests. My mother always told me when I was younger to say please and thank you, to clean up after myself, to help out and to never show up at someone's house empty handed. I follow those golden rules to this day.

At the time I didn't really appreciate Ma's lessons. She would send me to my friend's house with juice and cookies and sometimes I wouldn't want to take them because I was afraid I'd feel stupid or they wouldn't like the kind of cookies I brought and then I'd get embarrassed. And when I got home she would ask me if I offered to help Kiria Sasha with the dishes. I always resented that because I had enough chores at home and I liked to view going to friends' houses as a vacation. Vacation it was not.

Now I see how important it is to bring something with me when I make house visits. A bottle of wine, some flowers, some crackers and cheese, a six pack. Something! I think it's so rude to go to people's houses with absolutely nothing. What a classless hobo move. Your friends will not want you to come back.

On the flip side, I think there is a nice golden rule of how to treat visiting guests. And I can thank my Ba (Ma too) for it, as well as my Greek family in general as we are known for being particularly hospitable people. When you have guests in your house, always offer them something. You will notice here the nice interaction of the two golden rules. Nobody is losing anything. You bring something, you get offered something. You see?

I don't even like having to ask for water in someone's house. Ideally I walk in and am asked "can I get you anything?" "Thirsty?" Something like that. Anything else is juvenile and cheap - take my word for it. Also, your friends will want to come back to your house.

Since I've been groomed into a great hostess and house guest, I can close with the crowning sign that I've become my mother: anytime people break those rules with me I think to myself "who are these people's parents?!"