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The kitchen is not my favorite room in my house. I enjoy my living room, I find the bedroom comfortable and I even like to poke around in the basement. My kitchen is not comfy cozy. It’s small. There was not enough room for a small table, so we converted the table space to cabinets and counter space. I have several stools that can be pulled up to the counter. In short, the kitchen is functional. It is a place to store food and dishes and cook meals. For some unknown reason, this small room seems to become the center of many parties.
My first friend, Fauna, arrives for the party. I am still in the kitchen cooking. As much as having a holiday party is a traditional, it is also traditional that our friends are late for the party, so after a few years, I have learned that I shouldn’t have food prepared for a certain time. So, Fauna comes into the kitchen to talk while I am still preparing food. This is good, there’s only two people. Fauna has known me long enough that she instinctively knows when to move out of my way. (Mind you, I have been married for more than 12 years, and Jafar still doesn’t know when he is standing way). We talk and I cook. Jafar at this point seems to know that if there are two women in a kitchen and he does anything that can be labeled “dumb male”, he’s in trouble, so he stays out of the kitchen.
The next family arrives. Into the fray enters one male, one female and one child. The one child finds other children more fascinating than adults, so she just zooms off to join the fun. Food and drinks are set out in the kitchen, but the stools aren’t even in kitchen, so I would think this would not encourage people to stop and talk. Actually, at this point in time appetizers are set in the dining room. But this is where it gets crowded. Added a third female to the kitchen wasn’t bad, but now Jafar had a friend, and two males together aren’t as scared of entering a roomful of females. Now, it is getting crowded. At this point, I am just doing the finishing touches for dinner. The next couple enters, and suddenly the kitchen is crowded. Fauna keeps directing people to the living room, but people keep gravitating back to the kitchen.
Admittedly, if it is just women in the kitchen, it isn’t bad. Women are useful in the kitchen. Men take up space, and they take up more space than they should. When the women were in the kitchen, space didn’t seem to be an issue. Maybe it’s because women are more aware of other people’s movements and they anticipate what is needed in a kitchen. Or maybe, it is because these women all know me, so they make sure they are on the edges of the kitchen and when they see me whirl around they move.
So, as more people entered, the party finally moved off to other rooms. The food was done and I had more freedom to walk throughout the house. Finally, the night winds down, and we are back in the kitchen. At first, it is just women and we are doing nothing but talking. We aren’t cleaning or eating, we are just standing and talking. Finally, I bring in the stools. And we sit and talk. I survey the scene. The kitchen probably had more action than the rest of the house during the party. At the end of the evening, as good friends sat and had good conversation, the little kitchen became a comfy cozy place.
December 10, 2001 |
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