Mom was a mathlete who could never really write

After a bout of slamming doors and ruing the day she birthed me, mom calmed down and sat down for coffee. Dad makes coffee with one of those Italian things, so he can only make so much at a time. He was debating whether to make more coffee.

Dad: Are you satisfied in terms of coffee?
A.: I am. How do you spell "satisfied"?

"Satisfied" (удовлетворенный) is a big, consonant-heavy word in Russian (transliteration: udovletvorennyy). (That's the male form; udovletvorennya is the female).

Dad spelled it, talked about how when they were in school, it was on the grading scale.

Dad: I always had excellent grades in everything except handwriting, because I was a slob. Not for my handwriting, but for getting the ink all over the place.
Mom: I was always really good at math--I was in all kinds of math competitions. And I was always terrible at writing.
Dad: Always. It's like you refused to try.
Mom: S. [her first manager in the U.S.] asked me if I ever actually learned to write in English, but I told him I didn't write much better in Russian.
Dad: Irina [a family friend], who, as you know, used to teach language arts, once saw one of your mother's letters and was horrified. I think she used the word "ashamed."