When I moved back into my house last August one of the first
things my roommate Rick asked me was when I'd be moving out. This didn't make me think that he hates me,
he just really wants his little brother to move in this Fall. I initially tried to be friends with Rick,
but despite living together for almost a year and half we aren't that close
(like, we're not even Facebook friends).
He mostly just stays in his room and we occasionally run into each other
in the kitchen. He only ever starts a
conversation with me when he wants to know when I'll be moving out. Most of the conversations I start with him go
like this, "Hey, could you take your clothes out of the dryer? They've been in there for two
days." He's actually a super-nice
guy, we just never clicked (Except when Sarah comes over. We she comes over he'll talk to us for 40
minutes, but she's way pretty so...).
Two weeks ago Rick again asked when I'd be moving out and
then he asked again last week. Feeling a
little unwanted I decided to move out at the end of the semester. I started going through all the leads I had
of people looking for roommates.
Nothing. Then I went to the
housing board at the Institute and even emailed a stranger about living
together. No reply. I had exhausted all the options I knew
of. And then Laura came to the rescue.
She forwarded me an email she'd received on the Peace Corps
listserv about two retired women renting a room. The email said that they were looking for an
international tenant, preferably female.
Not being either of those things I wrote them an email expressing my
interest in meeting them. I
strategically mentioned that I'm Mormon so they would know I not smoke, drink,
or have raucous parties, but I also mentioned that I'm gay so they wouldn't
think I'm some Glenn Beck loving conservative (I also assumed from the email
that the two retired women were partners so I wanted to be like, "Hey, we're
all gay here!"). It worked like a
charm because they asked me over to meet them the next day even though I'm a
tall, white, American male.
I don't know if they'd like me posting their names online so
I'll just call them A and B for now. A
has owned the house for 35 years and it feels so homey and welcoming. I instantly wanted to live there. Both A and B have graduate degrees in
Education and are both retired teachers and that instantly made me want to live
with them. As I got acquainted with them
they kept doing cute little things that old couples do. For example, after A showed me a picture of
her struggling musician son, B grabbed a plaque off of the bookshelf to show
me. A said, "Don't show him
that!" and B said, "Why not?
It's wonderful." It was a
"Teacher of the Year" award that A received a few years ago. B is very obviously proud of A and wanted to
show off her accomplishment to me. It
was adorable.
 |
| Where I'll be living in May |
Talking with A was a lot like talking to my mom. She'd start telling me something important
about the house and then go off on a random tangent and I'd have to say,
"Sorry, what were you saying about watering the plants?" These ladies are awesome and I couldn't be
more excited to live with them. And then
A told me how much the rent is and I nearly jumped in the air and clicked my
heels for joy. I'm not moving in until
May, but I'm going to dinner with A next week so we can get to know each other
better. And their little house is
perfect for me. It's $75 cheaper than my
current place, a mile closer to campus, and I'll have an adult size bed. I'm super-excited. This will be my third time living with
retired people (fourth if you count my parents).
This is kind of how my life works
out. I try my best to make the most sensible plans and then some completely random opportunity that I never envisioned pops up and
it works out better than I could have imagine.
Like last semester when my Spanish teaching contract wasn't renewed and
then I got a job as a TA for an art history class that pays me the same amount
as my teaching job, but requires a lot less work. And now I am randomly moving in with two
retired lesbians and my life is turning into a foreign film again. You know, the kind of movie where nothing
really happens, but the setting is a little out of the ordinary and some young person
sits around talking with old women while eating cake. Yeah, that's what life is about to
become.
