I could not begin to describe how sick I was of living in the dorms. My roommates were awesome, my hall advisor was insanely cool and hung out with us all the time, and my boyfriend lived a few staircases away, but the power outages, water shut-offs, screaming frat boys, awful floor mates, lack of a kitchen, and midnight fire drills really start to take a toll on you after a while. We were only one month into our sophomore year of college when two of my roommates and I decided that something had to be done. We went apartment hunting.
After about a hundred answering machines, two apartments that reeked of cat urine, and somethat had questionable plumbing, we found it: Our New Home. It's a block and a half from campus, another block and a half from the town square, has three bedrooms and a huge kitchen and two full baths, and the rent is reasonable. We were in love.
We (Jill, Heather, and I) moved in on August 20th. We put our rooms together, discovered that we own three can openers and four sets of silverware, and met the girl upstairs. We're soon learning that there's always trouble in paradise.
To start with, our bathrooms: the smaller of the two bathrooms is haunted. The door opens and closes on its own. Sure, it might be wind and an old house, but it gives it more character to say "haunted." It's also kind of ugly. The bigger bathroom (and the one we all use) is gorgeous, but I'm pretty sure the shower was built for gnomes. Now, I'm kind of tall at 5'9", but the showerhead is lower than my face. My neck gets really wet, but I have to start doing gymnastics to wash my hair. It's a little odd, but it's totally something I can live with.
Somethings I cannot live with would be the centipedes. I have found two in under a week in my new home. The first was tiny (barely larger than a sewing needle) and I got rid of it with no problem. The second one isn't as simple. It's bigger. Much bigger. I have this thing with bugs where I can approach and dispose of anything with 8 legs or fewer. That's why centipedes are such a problem. The creepy crawlie was discovered around 11:45 the night before classes start, right after my a capella group had rehearsed in my house. I was getting ready for bed and almost stepped on it while walking to the (gnome) bathroom. I spent fifteen minutes staring it down and wishing we had bug spray before I had to whip off my glasses so I couldn't see the legs and trapped it under a small trash can. I left a note for my roommates in the morning warning them why they shouldn't move the trash can.
If you're currently laughing at what a wuss I am, let it be known that neither of my roommates has taken it upon herself to dispose of it. My boyfriend is coming over for dinner, so I might have to bribe him with mac n cheese in return for killing it for me.
But besides the acrobatics and bugs, the house is pretty darn awesome. I'm not enjoying being woken up by the maintenance guys and their power washers every morning, but it sure beats techno music and drunken yelling at 3am.
It might not be Utopia, but at least it's Utopi-ish.
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