I started Monday Night Dinner when I moved up to Boston after college, which is an astonishing eight years ago now. I fortunately had roommates who more or less shrugged and said, ‘sure, if you want to invite all our friends over and cook for them every week, go ahead’.
In eight years we’ve adopted people who got brought to Dinner as a guest of a guest, and acted as the most terrifying review committee for prospective wives, girlfriends and husbands. We’ve also lost members as people do such unconscionable things as move away to go to grad school, or swear that they love us but just can’t take the weather in Boston. As a side note, it’s a lot harder to convince someone that winter in Boston isn’t all that bad if they’ve actually lived through three of them.
This is a holiday weekend, and one of the best things about holidays is that sometimes you get people back. We get to hear about their new boyfriends, and their exciting thesis topics, and reassure ourselves the scary roommate who thought fabric softener was a high ticket luxury item is no longer in the picture.
The thing about Dinner is that once you’ve been a regular part of Dinner, you’re always a part of Dinner no matter where you live. We’re kind of like the mafia that way. We’re also like a family that way and we like it when our far flung members come on home even if it’s just for a visit.
Monday Night Dinner 