The morning sun slanted across my lap, warm and comforting. I loved the dining room, so full of light from rows of windows on three walls, simultaneously roomy and embracing. I'd imagined it as a center for family gatherings like those of my childhood. Sunday dinners at home, putting on our best manners and church clothing for the fanciest meal of the week eaten not in the kitchen, as on the other six days, but in the dining room at the table set with our best silver and china. The dinners were for polite conversation that, although it often devolved into hilarity, had to remain proper and with little, if any, controversy. These meals were what I missed most when I left home for college. Re-creating them was what I hoped for the dining room at Miriam's House. Here, like my imaginings about women automatically liking me, was another script that was never followed.

The morning sun slanted across my lap, warm and comforting. I loved the dining room, so full of light from rows of windows on three walls, simultaneously roomy and embracing. I'd imagined it as a center for family gatherings like those of my childhood. Sunday dinners at home, putting on our best manners and church clothing for the fanciest meal of the week eaten not in the kitchen, as on the other six days, but in the dining room at the table set with our best silver and china. The dinners were for polite conversation that, although it often devolved into hilarity, had to remain proper and with little, if any, controversy. These meals were what I missed most when I left home for college. Re-creating them was what I hoped for the dining room at Miriam's House. Here, like my imaginings about women automatically liking me, was another script that was never followed.