Dorm Life So Far

So, my first weekend in the dorms has gone fairly well, I think. I'm not a huge fan of living with another person, but that has more to do with the mental state that I'm in right now than it does the other person. Melissa is my roommate, and she and I get along very well actually. We were supposed to have a third, but she was moved at the last minute. This is fine with me because it means that I don't actually have to share a room with someone--which would not make me very happy at all.

Moving in was actually relatively painless, considering all the crap that I had. The college had a staff of people who were supposed to help out with the moving. Joel and I ended up needing to make two trips because I had a lot of stuff. The first trip, neither he nor I had to touch one single thing. It was all carried in by the move-in crew. The second trip, he and I ended up making two trips. Melissa also helped to carry some of my stuff in, which was quite nice of her. I ended up having all of my things situated before it was even 3 PM. I did have to rearrange the bedroom since the flow of the furniture just made things much more complicated than they needed to be.

The first night, we had a fire alarm go off at 11 PM, closer to midnight even, because someone took a shower and the steam set it off. Yesterday (day two), the fire alarm went off again because of a shower on the second floor. Needless to say, if this is going to happen every time someone takes a shower, it's going to get really old really fast. The upside is that we now know that Sylvania police and fire departments respond to fire alarms very quickly. Hopefully, we'll never have to find out how they are at putting fires out.

I spent most of yesterday hanging out with the girls from my floor. They all seem really cool, and I think we'll all get along swimmingly. One of the girls, M. Jay, is from Los Angeles. Why she decided to come to Toledo, none of us can guess! Lexi and Catherine are local girls like Melissa and I. We all went to the graffiti party together last night, but Catherine, Melissa and I all left early. M. Jay stayed and hung out with the basketball players, and Lexi ended up leaving early to go meet up with her boyfriend.

I'm pretty sure I'm also the only married student in the dorms, which doesn't really surprise me much. Everyone was really surprised that I was married--which is really only mildly insulting, considering the circumstances. M. Jay is in a long distance relationship as well, though, so at least another person on my floor understands what I'm going through.

I'm so grateful for Skype. I'm pretty sure that  I'd hate being so separated from JJ if we didn't at least have the video chatting. Last night, we watched most of a movie before I got too tired to keep watching. Today, we'll probably finish. I also had another teary interlude with him on the phone. It occurred to me yesterday that, though I'm not a very emotional woman at all, being separated from JJ has made me exceptionally teary. At first, I couldn't cry. Now, I cry almost every time that we talk. It's strange, and I don't really like it. I don't like being emotional. Not even a little bit.

The college hosted a graffiti party for us last night. Basically, you're given a free t-shirt and a sharpie, then you're expected to sign each other. I knew I would hate it when we walked in to blaring rap music and flashing lights that would have set an epileptic to writhing in about three seconds flat. I'm trying to keep an open mind about my fellow students, but it's hard to take them seriously when they participate in events like this. My night was further tainted upon discovering that, apparently, Lourdes doesn't expect to have fat students, and thus does not stock t-shirts above a size 2XL. That's fine--if you want to see every single roll of fat on me. Needless to say, I was relieved when I left.

Perhaps dorm life is not for me. I mean, I'm older than most of the other students in the dorms. I'm cynical and mean most of the time. I'm hardly a "fun" person to be around. I don't really know what it is that I'm going to be able to contribute to this situation, other than the biting humor of a bitter woman. And, let's face it, college co-eds don't really appreciate that sort of humor all that much. It's mostly suited for middle-aged women, married women, and gay men--which is why all of those demographics love me. The rest, not so much.

I guess we'll see how the semester plays out.