Every other day Emily tells me that someday I’m going to get rich and famous writing a book about The Family Pantry, so I figure the time has come to get started.
I live on this hall, see. We’re the little extra freshman hall stuck over in MEP with sophomores and sororities. We are, courtesy of our RA, Alyssa, The Family Pantry or The Fam Pan, (that one’s probably courtesy of Laura.) Our walls are decorated with cut-outs of eggs, plastic signs that say things like “Jello”, and cereal boxes that are always falling down. It’s so great. We’re probably the only freshman hall left on campus without t-shirts, but hey! that’s okay–we have aprons! So we also don’t have a couch or dual-flush toilets like everyone else, but we have the Share Chair and who needs to flush up and down in the bathroom, when there are dance parties to be had?
I like to think that the name of our hall is just the most devastatingly appropriate thing in the world. First off: (*ahem*) We are a Family. There’s Mamalyssa, and her boyfriend, Papa John. We have whole halls of brothers and cousins on campus, and some of us even have adopted grandparents. And I was just thinking today that our living space really is just like a house, except it’s all bedrooms, and one huge bathroom, and has really ugly carpet. Anyhow, we love each other a lot. I, personally, am always in everybody else’s room, and have already begun to borrow people’s clothes. There are people on the hall to crack my back, lend me coloring books and come knock on my window in the evenings to scare the crud out of me.
And secondly, we are a Pantry. I know what rooms to go to to get tea, cookie dough brownies, and most of all, snow peas. We’re very big on the pea. And last night Maddie and I cooked The Best Dinner I Have Ever Had. And…it was. We made souffle, stuffed chicken, green beans, and crepes. It was a smashing success, and it’s going to be happening again. Don’t you wish were there? Yes, you do. But it was Fam Pan only (except Maddie’s boyfriend.) We are our own sisterhood! Who needs sororities?
Basically, I’m in a silly mood tonight, but I usually am around them. I love y’all. Thanks for loving me. I don’t know what I would do without you dears: gingers, music majors, and all. I expect lots of comments.
Alice with Paper 
Sounds like lots of fun! Your dinner sounds simply marvelous. Do you have a kitchen to go with the ugly carpet and all the bedrooms?
We had to go over and use a kitchen in one of the boys’ dorms…a really nice one actually. 🙂
Alice! I think you were actually in my room when you put this up. Which makes this post even better 🙂
I absolutely love you my dear! You and your hugs.
Basically, I’m going to buy your book when you’re famous. Then I’ll tell all my children all about you. And when we’re walking down the street in New York City and we see a HUGE poster of your face, I’m going to be so happy. and proud.
I’m so glad that I’m in your family– even though I am a ginger! I love you with my whole heart!
P.S. Can I make a reservation a few weeks in advance for a seat at the next dinner? mmmm yes?
mmmm yes.
So Alice, here is The Deal.
You continue to write these journal entries that bring Warm Fuzzies to my heart, and I will continue to read them. For forever. And then, someday, when your journal entries have turned into a collection of stories from the course of the entire year, put them all together in a Word document. And then print out that Word document. And send it to a publisher. That publisher with read The Manuscript, which it will be at this point, and he or she will realize the brilliance he is beholding. And The Manuscript will thus become The Book. And The Book will become a bestseller. Because, I will be buying it. Probably multiple copies of it. And it will continue to bring Warm Fuzzies to my heart for as long as I live. And the FamPan will live on, in spite of the refusals by the college to allow us girls to have housing groups.
And that, my dear Alice, is my Honest-To-Goodness Speculation for the future.
You can buy so many copies that you give them out as Christmas presents. And EVERYONE will love you.
Dear Alice,
YOU ARE SO WONDERFUL.
We are all about the Peas.
And here’s the story.
So I will be walking down the streets of New York someday, on my own because I will be a young, independent woman, and I will walk by a store window. Something will catch my eye and I will stop. Then I will look in the window and see a huge life-size cut-out of YOU holding your Family Pantry book. All around the cut-out will be copies of your book. I will look at the cover and see a picture of us from when we were freshmen in college and I will smile. I will call YOU first and then I will call Laura and Ali and remind them of this very night. I knew you would be famous. And all because of the Family Pantry.
Love you, the other ginger!
Thanks for calling me FIRST
Alice,
This is so true. We are a family. I loved how you wrote about it in a no nonsense honest way. I also love our hall. I’m glad that they built the apartments five years ago, and I’m glad that because of that they accepted an extra large class, and I’m especially glad that I got stuck in the overflow hall, even if the carpets are ugly at least we have carpets.
Being a person of few words and also completely exhausted from a night of fun with the Fam Pan, all I have to say is I love you all!
And I sure hope someone is planning on calling me too about this amazingly amazing bestseller fam pan book and Alice’s face in NYC. It is true, you all know how out of the loop and completely oblivious I usually am. Im going to need some guidance.
Anyway, Alice, way to some up the Family Pantry in a couple short, wonderful paragraphs! I especially liked the part about back-cracking… 🙂 It’s trully a good bonding experience.
Love!!!!
PS i need to fix the spelling on my post for Laura… Sum-up and truly.
thanks for you patience!
LOVELOVELOVELOVE ( i can’t type it enough)
Alice, I always love your writings. They are just what the hall needs to keep all of our memories in nice little packages.
We are not just a family by titles, but a family by heart and soul. I find myself calling this hall home more often lately. Ususally it slips by me and I don’t notice what I’ve said for a few moments, probably because the word home feels just right. It’s definition is appropriate for our situation in every sense. So to end with a variation on a very worn out cliche……….Home is where the Heart of the Family is.
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