April 29, 2003 - 12:02 a.m.
Holy crap. It's midnight. Where do the evenings go?
So Inga read my entries tonight. She said she liked them. I haven't put anything nasty about her in them, so she should like them, dammit! Actually, there's nothing nasty to say. We remark on this frequently, typically when a bit tipsy. "Isn't it weird how well we get along?" "Yesh." (I stumble, fall over.) It makes me think of other roommates, something I've wanted to write about for a while. Here comes the speed edition, meaning I don't really stop and edit. Forgive any typos please.
TIP Duke University:
This was the summer of 1993. I was at Duke for one of their Talent Identification Programs, studying international relations. My roommate was a girl from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The girl in the room next to me was also from Alabama, Birmingham I think. They were smart, funny people who were from the Deep South. That fascinated me. We were only roommates for 3 weeks, but we stayed in touch for a couple years.
TIP London:
Summer of 94, studying Shakespeare through another Duke program. I don't remember the girl's name. She bought a black velvet/flourescent tourist souvenir with the sites of London on it and hung it up in our room. I was the snob with a print of Van Gogh's Sunflowers on my bulliten board. We didn't get along. No one got along with her, but fortunately after half the time spent feeling out of place, I made friends. Just not with my roommate.
Freshman Year:
I talked to my roommate a few weeks before school started. She was from Baton Rouge, I from Dallas. We felt comfortable at least with where the other was from. I met her for the first time by the door to our respective room. It was August in California, and she was wearing shorts. What took me aback was that she was a below-the-knee amputee. One of the first things that popped into my head was "Why didn't she mention that on the phone?" I still cringe a little bit at my ignorance then. She didn't mention it because it wasn't a big deal. She lost her leg after a bad break when she was 5. She grew up used to it, basically. It did slow her down slightly at times, but barely.
We hit it off almost immediately. She was more adventurous than I, so she pushed me to do things. I kept her on track with going to her freshman chemistry class until I realized it was hopeless. She and I were both studying French. We liked similar music, but also spent a lot of time discussing the types of music we weren't familiar with. It was one of those perfect pairings. We liked each other so much, we ended up living together for the next 3 years, except for a semester when we were abroad, and I went to visit her in Paris while I was in Spain.
Writing about what a close friend she was makes me a little sad about how things have turned out. We never had a falling out, but she did get married and moved to France. This makes communication a little difficult. I forget to email her for a while, she'll get back to me belatedly, and another 5 months go by before we touch base. She said she's going to be in Florida this summer for a bit, and I'm definitely going to try to see her.
(This was supposed to be the speed version, and I've already typed for 20 minutes. So much for brevity.)
The Two Lauras:
Sophomore year I moved with the Freshman roommate to a suite of rooms in a tower on campus. Two girls names Laura moved with us, and a girl named Tara. Tara and the other four of us had a stormy relationship, but minus her, we were quite the foursome. One Laura was cute and brilliant, scoring a perfect score on her SAT and studying physics while keeping up a steady pot and boy habit. The other was beautiful and social, brilliant as well. She also had tumultuous boy relationships. We had way more fun than should be allowed. One day I might write about all that, but I was keeping a journal at the time, so the antics don't necessarily have to be replayed.
The Apartment:
After the Freshman Roommate and I got back from study abroad, we moved into our first apartment with the physics Laura. That was great. Our disputes were always minor, thanks in large part to the fact that we all had our own rooms and there were no boyfriends around at that point. Our liquor cabinet was impressive. We had some great adventures, too.
The Apartment, Phase II:
The summer after junior year, Freshman Roommate went to France to hang out with her boyfriend all summer. To cover rent, she had a friend of hers from her study abroad move in. This girl was nice, but there were two main drawbacks. 1. Her boyfriend, also a very nice person, basically moved into her room without paying rent. 2. She didn't drink. At the same time this happened, Laura's boyfriend Bob returned from his study abroad experience and moved in too. It was a full house. We ended up bonding over jigsaw puzzles, of all things. Laura, Bob and I would drink and work on puzzles, and the other two would just work on puzzles.
The Apartment, Phase III:
This was the final phase of the apartment. The Freshman Roommate reclaimed her rightful spot for senior year. The addition of Bob was sometimes a hinderance to the fun girl moments that we had the previous year. For the most part, though, we got along splendidly, and I was sad to see everyone go their separate directions after graduation.
My next roommate experience was at the Compound, and that's definitely something for another day. All told, in the year and a half that I lived there, I had 22 roommates.
I leave you with that frightening figure.
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