Urban Families and Dinner Parties

We pardon the interruption from my regularly scheduled blog entry to bring you this special bulletin.

While this may not be much of a "news flash," and it's something that I could have written about months ago, this past week presented itself with the perfect opportunity for me to talk about some very special people: my urban family.

While I may not be blessed with a family of my own in DC resulting from marriage or kids, I am very blessed to have made some amazing friends over the past 9 years that I consider to be my urban family. Nearly all of us come from somewhere else, some are happily paired up with the loves of their lives, some are begrudgingly single, and some are just along for the ride. And the great thing about this urban family is that it has no limits. It can grow to great lengths and evolve over time to something just as precious. It can be dysfunctional (in a fun way) and full of great adventures and I now know that in recent years, this urban family will be here for me when I need them most. Sometimes the need is obvious, other times it's simply in the form of  a good meal and conversation, to distract from a stressful week. In whatever form this family arrives, it's always right on time (except for Aniello, he's always late...but he makes up for it in charm and large amounts of wine).

And this brings me to the point of this post-I'm fortunate to have a regular seat at the dinner table with some friends and neighbors. On occasion, we venture out of the neighborhood to try someplace new. Several weeks ago the idea came about to finally try Thai X-ing, a family-style Thai dining experience that I'd been told would be the closest thing I'd get to authentic Thai food here in DC. They were mostly right in that department, but regardless of authenticity, I can't debate the authenticity of this amazing group of urban family dinner patrons this week.

We joked that the group of us really did represent the microcosm of DC professionals in their 30s. We were four gay men deep (that's what he said?), five single women, and one very lucky straight guy. As is dinner party tradition, we shared stories around a particular theme, this one was travel, and best of all, we shared a ton of food. From pumpkin curry to marinated chicken legs and entire fish, we gorged on these Thai delights in a restaurant that very much resembled a family dining room.

They say that food is love, and I'm all for showing the people I care about how I feel through food. I hope to continue to share my life and my meals with friends throughout this year. We truly are a "Modern Family." And I wouldn't trade mine for the world.