College, Part Deux

At the outset, Kelly seemed to be fairly normal. She was a freshman and would be running track for SRU. We spoke once before the semester started so we could coordinate who would be bringing what. I still had no idea what happened to Heidi and Angie. What's the first thing Kelly and I did as roomies? Conspired to drive the unknown third roommate (whose name completely escapes me at this point) out of our room. Evidently, Kelly met her before I did and didn't like her, and I was all for having a big room, an extra bed all to myself, and fewer people to deal with, so I was on board. It took one day.

Kate and Little lived in the adjoining suite; we shared a bathroom. Little was my smoking cohort, we were the O.G. smokestacks of the group. Kate smoked occasionally but not truly until the following year, and Jamie smoked only in times of high stress. The thing was, North Hall was completely non-smoking, so we always had to make the journey out to the front steps - and for four or five months of the two semesters, we were dressed like Nanooks of the North - to smoke one lousy cigarette.

I wasted a few months of my time that winter on a guy, a guy whose antics and charades caused my grades to nosedive and nearly cost me a few friendships. Unsurprisingly and, when all was said and done thankfully, after three months I found out he was cheating on me, confronted him about it and then he had the girl he was cheating on me with break up with me for him via Instant-freakin'-messenger. What a sad sack. I should also mention that I pulled a very big friend faux pas with him: he was the very recent ex-boyfriend of Jamie, the girl who slept across the hall in her own room but may as well have lived in our suites. My faux pas caused much rifts between me and all of them.

But they forgave me. Yay!

After we broke up in January, I made it a point to move on. I pulled my grades out of the gutter and started to enjoy life more. Got my second tattoo. Discovered the frugal evils of MD 20/20. Landed my first waitressing gig at Cracker Barrel the day I moved out in May. Two weeks into that gig, I got a second waitressing job at Stable Pit 'n Pub in Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania. I'd work the Barrel from 8 or 9 a.m. till 4ish, then PnP from 5 till midnight. Guess who went home with pockets full of cash every night? Guess who also didn't have a social life?

My sophomore year was fun. I joined the Association of Residence Hall Students because Jamie roped me in and ended up actually having fun. I met a small group of guys from Pittsburgh, one of whom Jamie ended up dating for six or seven years, and through whom I would finally meet Rob. It would be two years down the line, though. I also changed my major that year: I started off a psych major and during the first semester, thanks to much prompting from my writing professor, changed it to English. Best. Decision. Ever.