At Stanford each spring, students chose their housemates/roommates for the following year by forming draw groups. Housing assignments were done by lottery. Houses on the Row, the prime real estate, would get gobbled up quickly. Run-down dormitories at the campus fringe remained open. These self-assembled “cliques” would march to the student housing office, draw a number out of a cardboard box, and hope for some good residential karma.
The first year of my draw, my group drew #1920 from a pool of 2000 numbers. We were assigned our 6th choice, Columbae House, a co-op on the Row. Living at Columbae changed my life. I learned that year that cooking for your community, feeding one another, fosters something really wonderful. We applauded every dinner, literally, in gratitude for the food and for the cooks. We also literally broke bread every night--well, every morning around 1AM--when the designated bread baker pulled his/her loaves from the oven. Warm, fresh bread slathered with butter is amazing, even when you’re not in college and wasted from partying.
That year, I also decided to commit to vegetarianism. It has been 18 years.
I'll be back
It's May, and this is my first post of the year. 2011 has been ... interesting, to say the least. I've been absent these last several months because I've been attending to a lot of personal and family challenges.
But these are behind me now, and I hope to be back, cooking and eating and sharing with you.
But these are behind me now, and I hope to be back, cooking and eating and sharing with you.
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