College Life: A New Series, Episode 1, Roommates

It's probably good that Momarazzi didn't come to college with me, all things considered, but I sure wish I had pictures of some of these people and events.

It's my intention that for your summer entertainment, I write a series of posts about some of the stupid, hilarious, dangerous, risky, and otherwise noteworthy incidents of my college days. Names have been changed to protect...everyone but me.

I graduated from a small, Christian high school in 1984.   We had a whopping 62 in our graduating class.  The Engineer was one of them.  We'd been dating since December.  I was off to Colorado State University, home of a good math program, and a fairly straight forward path to simultaneously obtaining a teaching certificate.  My whole life I'd known I wanted to be a teacher, and I'd always loved (and excelled) at math.

CSU was a comfortable distance from home (about an hour). I was fairly certain there would be no unexpected drop-in family visitors, yet I could easily go home for the weekend should I choose.  

The Engineer was going an uncomfortable distance away to a tiny town in Iowa, home of the Alma-Mater of both his parents, and home town of his mother.  We did not want to be separated.  However, we were reasonable people (surprising, isn't it?) and decided that we'd date others, and just see what happened between August and Thanksgiving, which was when we'd next see each other.

My entire family moved me into the dorm, which I'd chosen carefully, but not carefully enough.  I'd read the descriptions, and chosen the one with the courtyard, with suites, connected by a shared with the other room only, and NOT communal locker-room type bathing amenities.  I was on the fourth floor, on the inside, with a great view of the courtyard.

As we trudged up the stairs with all my stuff, we were greeted at the top with a big sign, "Fourth Floor Girls Have Firmer Thighs!"  That suited me just fine.  All that was left was to meet my roommate, and our suite-mates.  I was of course hoping to be first to stake my claim and all that territorial stuff, but when I entered my (oh my gosh were they small) room, I found that she'd already done so, had stuff strewn everywhere, and had something in every closet, drawer, etc. No discernible difference between "my side" and "her side."

I did not like this at all.  It was bad enough to be sharing a room, but I had NOT pictured to co-mingling of our lives quite to that extent.  She had left me the bed under the window, for which I was grateful.  Now all that was left was to meet her, and set some ground rules of co-habitation.

Meeting the farmer's daughter from small-town Iowa would have to wait though, as she was already off being the social butterfly.  She'd left me a note, though, which I appreciated.

Ms. Mary-Jo Butler turned out to be quite the, um, interesting roommate, and the other room of our suite was occupied by ONLY a junior who had earned the privilege of a single room. Meeting Ms. Cheerleader USA had to wait, too, because she came two days later.  Can you see me fitting in well with these two?  Make your predictions now.

Do you have some college stories to share?  Anyone else who writes random stuff on their blog want to join me in this summer series?

~Tina, lots of up her sleeve, but had to set the stage