2004-05-21 - 3:13 p.m.
so i just had a brief moment of panic, asking myself "into what have i gotten myself?" in regards to the sublet situation i found for this summer. i am going to have three roomates/housemates/loftmates/whatevermates. it's been a while since i've shared a space with this many people. let's take a little trip down roommate memory lane, shall we?
- birth - big enough to sleep in a bed: shared a room with my parents, apparently. i have no memory of this.
- big enough to sleep in a bed - age 5: shared a room with my older brother j. i have few memories of this, except the time i wet my bed and had to nap in his bed. then i wet his bed. also, i remember one morning helping each other get changed for school to "surprise" mom. maybe it was her birthday or something. specifically, we were not yet coordinated enough to button the sleeves on our catholic school uniform shirts. probably my brother was able to do the left hand sleeve by this point.
- age 5 - age 18: i have my own room - first the big one downstairs, then the little one upstairs, then the big open one upstairs. my older brother sells this big open one to me when he goes to college. yes, that's right, sells it to me. $50 and a promise (soon broken) to keep it clean.
- age 18 - age 19: freshman year at college, share a double dorm room with eccentric from new hampshire.
- age 19, summer: sublet a house with three 20 year old boys. share a room with was-eccentric-but-is-gradually-becoming-actually-crazy boyfriend. there is also a crazy stray cat that the year-round renters have "adopted". it has worms and is mean and nasty and spies on us having sex. we pay for the vet trips to fix the worms.
- age 19 - age 20: sophomore year at college, share a double dorm room with kooky soon to be best friend from vermont.
- age 20, summer: share a double dorm room in seattle with fellow union internship participant, a rather dull starbucks employee from california.
- age 20, late summer & fall: rent an adorable two-bedroom apartment w/ then kooky best friend from vermont in adorable country town with no stop lights yet 4 restaurants with extensive wine lists.
- age 20, winter & spring: move back into slight smaller upstairs room of my family's house.
- age 21, summer & fall: have single dorm room in apartment-style dorm in pietermaritzburg, south africa. share kitchen & bathrooms with folks from south africa, lesotho, and ethiopia, including one unmarried couple and one nun. all interesting, yet still sane, remarkably.
- age 21, winter & spring: back to parents' place.
- age 22: rent two-bedroom apartment in philly w/ then best-friend, a punk rock elementary school teacher from jersey.
- age 23: rent two-bedroom trinity house in philly w/ friend of friend, an eccentric ex-green beret italian film studies ph.d candidate from florida.
- age 23 1/2: housemate gets married to woman he met three months ago. now share two-bedroom trinity house w/ eccentric ex-green beret italian film studies ph.d candidate from florida and his eccentric artist wife from south korea.
- age 24: get very own apartment. get very used to it.
- age 25: get job in nyc. sublet a four-bed"room" loft in williamsburg w/ 3 people i have yet to meet.
