My Life In Pasta

I am up late and plan to be up all night. I have too many things due tomorrow, all of which I left to the last minute. I am hungry so have found a box of Presidents Choice White Cheddar Macaroni. I don't even know how I have that, I should not eat it as I am still trying to avoid all starches. However, it is good stuff and I'm hungry and I need something to keep me going for the rest of the night.

I stand at the stove and think, "I'm 26 years old. What adult is up at 2am on a Thursday making Kraft Dinner? Certainly not the type of adult I thought I would be. Am I even an adult? I certainly thought I would be an adult by 26."

And so I think about my life in terms of pasta...

Parents - Growing up my parents would make pasta using the dried bags. The kind you get at the grocery store for a couple of dollars, there would always be a few floating around the cupboards and pantry. This was easy and could be paired with homemade cream or tomato sauce, either made that night or brought out from the freezer. I had this same type at friend's houses as well. A great thing to feed a pile of people in a hurry, off to soccer practice or dance class, easy to throw leftovers into tupperware for work the next day.

Grandparents - My grandparents have a pasta maker, it attaches to the end of the counter and you use it to stretch and then cut pasta that you have made from scratch. Granny would make the dough and Pa would help the kids with the little metal machine that we got to crank. A slow and delicate process. I don't even really remember how the pasta tasted just the joy of making it.

Students - Kraft Dinner in all its varieties. A solution because I had just left home and didn't know how to cook. No time, no money. Writing papers all hours of the night, sleeping in computer labs, and eating the pasta right from the pot. A box was never enough to share between two people but eating the whole thing yourself is difficult and leaves you uncomfortable full. The dishes stay dirty for a long time, but the colour never fades.

Yuppies - I heard on the radio this morning, "Yuppies like to serve their dinner guests fresh pasta." Of course they do, and I'm sure they picked it up at some cute little store in Little Italy on the commute home from the office. After such a busy day it is nice to have a few friends over to have dinner and discuss important issues. Talk about wine parings while worrying about who is trying to contact you on your Blackberry.

I don't know which of those I want. I don't know where I want to be in life. However, I do know that I wish I wasn't awake right now.