A few weeks ago my girlfriend Deb called me on a Sunday evening. Sunday evenings can be bleak when you’re single and don’t have kids — it’s the time of the week when one can feel most adrift. And winter is upon us — it’s dark by five these days and we’re all living with a tiny bit of dread knowing that the wind will start up again. “Why don’t we do dinner a couple of times a month?” Debbie suggested. “We could get single people together, and rotate it to different houses.”

So last night, we did. There were six of us — two people who have just moved to town and four of us who’ve been here for a while. I had a lovely piece of lamb shoulder from the half a lamb I bought last spring so I did Mario Batali’s recipe (it’s for shanks, but same difference) — braised lamb with orange and rosemary and green olives. Debbie made polenta, Robert brought a salad, and Margie did bright green brussels sprouts with bacon. We set the table, and toasted the new president and ate a lovely dinner together. There was lively conversation, nice wine (it helps that Debbie runs the wine store) and Mark, who has just moved to town and who had to duck out to do a radio interview with a station back in Michigan read us a couple of poems out of the book for which he was being interviewed.

It was so much fun. Next month is of course, kind of busy with holiday parties but we’re going to try to sneak in another Sunday night. Everyone agreed it was lovely to be together and somehow, the Sunday night vibe, as well as the general admission from all of us at that table that Sunday nights can get lonely when you’re single, well, it felt like something a little more than just a dinner party. We all agreed to get one another through the winter. We’re going to share food, and wine, and our art on Sunday nights and maybe this way the winter won’t seem so long.