(During last night’s class at Grub Street, I wrote about roommates during three different exercises. Which made me think about all the folks I’ve shared kitchens, bathrooms and general living spaces with over the years.)
1. Mom, Dad and Betsy, till I was 18. Lots of family dinners around the table, summertime road trips, Dad urging us to hurry before church on Sunday mornings, Betsy hollering for me to help her choose an outfit or type her English papers or bring her a washcloth in the shower.
2. Lindsey, during our first semester of college. Late-night laughter, pizza boxes, and so many bowls of ramen (left out to, ahem, ripen) that by Christmas I couldn’t stand it any more.
3. Akane, a quiet Japanese girl, during the spring of my freshman year. We didn’t talk much, but she never complained when I forgot to turn off my alarm clock in the mornings.
4. Jaime, in the fall before I went to Oxford. Red hair dye in the bathtub (freaking me out – I thought it was blood at first), and a few bonding moments over Friends and Saved By the Bell.
5. Joy, who shared my room, and 10 other girls, who shared our kitchen, in Oxford, spring 2004. So much cooking, traveling, laughing, crying, drinking of tea, sharing secrets and hopes and textbooks and recipes.
6. Joy and Bethany, junior year, in a little red-brick house on 16th St. in Abilene. (With Samantha, Joy’s beloved, snaggle-toothed dog.)
7. Kristin, Laura and Karen, in half of a Honolulu duplex, July 2005. We bought grapes for $10 a pound at Wal-Mart and tried to catch a gecko in Karen’s room and invited Scott over for breakfast on his birthday, and listened to Cole play haunting folk songs on his guitar.
8. Bethany, for our senior year in that same little house – repeated viewings of The Emperor’s New Groove, an impromptu party with no living-room furniture, playing Frank Sinatra before parties, and long evenings spent reading in the living room. (We were both English majors.)
9. Leigh Anne and Bethany (with brief appearances by several other girls), in my sister’s house the summer after college. Repeated viewings of Pirates of the Caribbean and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants; lavender bridesmaid dresses and broken air conditioners; lots of freaking out about the future from Bethany and me; and Leigh Anne’s despair over having to read Beowulf.
10. Moose, Bryce, Nick, Nathan and Jordan, in the “dungeon” of 9 Canterbury Road, during my first semester of grad school. Oh, how I loved being the girl in that crowd of boys – and oh, how they loved everything I baked for them.
11. Casey, Jaclyn, Eryn, Jessica, Katie and Mary Kate, also in the dungeon, the following semester. A totally different dynamic, but an equally fun one.
12. Lizzie, Jo and Grace, in a wee chocolate-box house in East Oxford, during my year abroad. We watched chick flicks and did puzzles in the dining room, moaned about schoolwork and laughed at the Muppets, helped each other dress for dances and costume parties, and curled up late at night with cups of cocoa, to set the world to rights.
13. Jeremiah. For nearly three years now (our anniversary is next month), first in Abilene and now in Boston. Those five boys (above) prepared me well to live with this one. And I must say, he is an excellent roommate.
Who’s on your list?
cakes, tea and dreams 
Another post, another great list! This made me smile just reading it. My list feels sadly small in comparison; I just lucked out and found my husband early!
1. My mum, dad and two big sisters, in our lovely house overlooking the sea. Too many memories to mention but I’m enjoying thinking of them!
2. Same house, same mum and dad, but the years I was still at home after my sisters went to uni were so completely different. A different dynamic, a more equal footing, and still a lot of fun.
3. Eleanor, Lynn and Chrissie in a damp and smelly cottage in the grounds of the outdoor centre we were gap yearing at. I may have shared a cottage with just those three but everyone there was one big family, Margaret and Alastair and Matt and Andy and Gary and Fraser and all the others, we worked and prayed and ate together, cleared leaves and walked on the golf course and watched Shrek repeatedly on the big screen as it was the only DVD we had!
4. Erika and Tsuey Yee and all the others we didn’t click with, the three of us against the world in our first year at uni. Messy shared kitchen, manky shared bathrooms, endless cups of tea and phone calls home and photographs everywhere, feeding ducklings from the kitchen window and being terrified by territorial geese in the doorway.
5. And finally, my Mr M, first in our higgledy piggledy pink flat in York, then in our swanky brand new flat in Edinburgh, and now in our own little two up two down house. Nothing prepared me for living with a boy, but after 8 years I’ve just about got the hang of it!
Oh gosh, I didn’t realise how long that was when I was writing it, sorry!
1. My parents and three siblings in a small farmhouse where we hung quilts over doorways to prevent “wasting” precious heat on the bedrooms!
2. My teenage husband and the four babies we birthed and watched grow into gorgeous people who have multiplied delightfully.
3. An assortment of extra children for various seasons during those growing up years.
4. And now, my handsome husband in our cozy empty nest. Ahhhhhhhhh.
Your list is impressive.
I didn’t have many roommates, but somehow almost all of them evoke bad memories (maybe I’m a too negative person).
1. My parents and my sister, until I was 18: We had great times, too, especially on vacation, but I strongly remember everyone coming in my room unannounced, my sister taking my stuff without asking, a lot of yelling and door-banging.
2. Tanja, when I worked in Slovakia for six months after high school: we had a lot of misunderstandings, with often even got worse by talking and explaining!
I was so stressed out that I longed to live alone which I happily did for most of my university years. Then I got anxious and lonely and was more than ready to move in with my husband.
3. My sister again. She lived with us for some months after she started university. I assumed she was finally grown up, but she behaved like a spoiled child. A lot of yelling, door-banging and taking our stuff without asking again.
4. Living with my husband is still the best thing in my life after more than 9 years.
5. My son, and soon my to-be-born daughter (yeah, we know now that it’s a girl): sleep deprivement, demands and some more yelling, but more fun, laughter and amazement that I ever had before.