saturday nights

tonight i had dinner with my parents. as we sat around the table eating homemade macaroni and cheese, (made with low-carb pasta and 2% cheese, of course) we listened to a prairie home companion.

well, my mother said, the dish is right, but a few things have changed.

as i was growing up, we spent every saturday night the same way. my mother, tired from going to graduate school, student teaching and raising three daughters all week, would make kraft macaroni and cheese. you know, the kind with the blue box and powdered cheese. she served it right out of the pot with a wooden spoon. saturday nights we had to be sure to have a bath as well to be ready for church in the morning. i have many memories of listening to garrison keillor while having my hair combed. i wrote about it in one of my college writing classes. the pink comb, having my hair carefully parted and and quality time listening to the soothing midwestern accent.

it was different tonight. we sat in the dining room, not the kitchen. two key members of my family were noticeably absent. and i had to go home to my very own house like a grown-up, i couldn't just wander sleepily up the stairs and fall into bed.