One thing you learn very quickly when you’re dating a Ukrainian is the importance of Vodka glasses. Not that it really mattered to her, mind you, but the first time I met my girlfriends father, one of the first (if not THE first) thing he asked me was where we kept the vodka.
Now, I don’t “keep” vodka. I keep toilet paper and paper towels and an extra set of towels in case someone crashes over and maybe a bottle of wine somewhere for a special occasion. But her father left the Soviet Union the day after it collapsed: he’s self-described as “Old-School Russian,” and he wanted to make sure that this schlub his daughter was dating kept a bottle of vodka on ready.
Unfortunately, I didn’t. And his first impression of me was hardly positive.
For his next visit, I picked up a bottle, as well as some barware from ClassicHostess, picking up a set of six green tinge Vodka glasses. It’s amazing; my job hadn’t changed, my looks hadn’t changed, nothing about me made me more qualified to date this man’s daughter than the first time he’d met me.
But I did have a new addition to my barware.
By no means am I suggesting a set of six green tinged vodka glasses is what will make the difference in impressing your in-laws.
But it was for me.