Miranda...oops! I mean Melinda

I'm sitting up late and waiting for my laundry to get done. I've considered leaving it in the laundry room overnight and going to bed. But I've had my skivvies stolen (no joke!) on more than one occasion so I don't really feel like taking that risk tonight. For a funny true story about stolen underwear go here.

So here I am, googling aimlessly and checking my Facebook (add me!) every ten minutes. I'm on my fourth second cup of coffee (of course) and I am getting rather bored.

Tim's still up with me, he's sitting over there in the living room watching CNN. Naturally I've heard the same 3 stories now two or three times. You know how CNN is right? It's all on rotation. Currently I'm listening to one story that I am so sick of hearing about. You've probably already guessed, but that story I'm referring to is the Michael Jackson's death investigation story. Man. That Larry King is sure eating it up too. You'd think that Larry, being as old and (seemingly) distinguished as he is, would have better things to talk about. Like oh I don't know, the war in Iraq/Afghanistan?...maybe the 3 hikers being held in Iran or even the reality show murderer guy... at least Anderson Cooper talked about those stories right before this. But nope. Instead Larry, looking meticulously fastidious in his usual suspenders and colorful tie, is questioning some unheard of dude about one of Michael's many doctors that may or may not have had something to do with his death. ugh!

*stepping off my soap box*

Guess what I'm listening to? Apparently Third Eye Blind has a new album. Didn't know this until about 20 minutes ago. It's called Ursa Major, it's pretty good, as far as Third Eye Blind goes. I used to listen to them a lot, so this brings me back to my "college days". One thing is for sure, you can definitely tell who you're listening to. Stephan Jenkins has a distinctive voice, and Third Eye Blind in general has a pretty distinctive sound. The song Summer Town on Ursa Major, definitely has a beat that is reminiscent of Semi-Charmed Life. Which I don't really mind so much because that song rocks my socks! OK........

...crickets chirping...

I left for a moment but I am back. I've gone and found Semi-Charmed Life to rock out to. I can't sit here and talk about that song without hearing it! This song definitely strikes the memory nerve. When I moved to Seattle for school, I encountered many things for the first time. One thing that is odd, but I think is cool, is my first experience with REAL radio stations. Good ones compared to Juneau's offerings. I found a station that played top hits (of course) and I listened to that station a lot. This song was on a seriously heavy rotation at the time...

*cue the dream sequence*

In college I shared an apartment with two girls from Moses Lake, Washington. I wasn't arriving in Seattle until 2 days before orientation. But their parents were driving them in a week early to set up the apartment. (side note: AIS didn't really have dorms, they leased apartments around town. I got placed in some apartments about 20 minutes from the school. The funny part? My particular place happened to be one of about 15-20 apartments leased by AIS in a complex made up mostly of retirees and middle aged professionals. haha those poor old people) My two future roommates called me one day before I left Juneau to ask what things I'd be contributing to the new digs. My answer? pretty much nothing, I had a microwave. This didn't seem to upset them. Apparently their parents were providing the essentials.

Actual apartments people!! I googled them!

Now, I'm not sure you can tell from my previous history lessons on me. This information will be needed at a later point in the story so pay attention: I might have been what you would have called "preppy" or maybe even "girlie". My personal tastes at the time included the colors purple, pink, blue and white. So when I'd gone to Bed Bath & Beyond with my aunt to pick out my new bedroom supplies these are the colors I went with.

Finally the big day arrived and I walked into my very first apartment. I opened the door and met my new roommates. Melinda and Megan....and their parents....and their siblings...and their boyfriends. I only got a few moments to drop off my stuff in the entry way and then we ALL went out to dinner. (It's funny. Now knowing Seattle the way I do, it turns out that we couldn't have picked one further away. I didn't realize how absurd this was at the time, but we went to dinner about 40 minutes away...because we just drove until something looked good. It's a wonder we found our way back.)

After the families dropped us off and left for their hotel, I finally walk into my new place and get my the tour. They kindly let me have the second, smaller bedroom for myself. Being the best friends that they were, they decided to share the master bedroom with 2 beds in it. Awesome. Sort of. I really liked that I got my own room but for some reason my room had a weird wall. Let me explain: this wall wasn't really a wall, it was an accordion style door that ran the entire length of the wall against the living room. I am not really sure why this door existed but it did.

Speaking of the living room. As soon as entered it I got a taste of my new roomies' preferences. On the wall above the fireplace was what would be Halloween decorations in any other person's home. However we were a month away from said holiday, and just to clear things up? The plastic spider and web were still up when I left for Christmas vacay. Our couch was a chaise style (kinda cool actually) black and I think beige...but the actual color escapes me now. I was able to deal thankfully I didn't have to live with the rest of the decor that clued me into their "goth" style. Most of the skulls and other nonsense was in their room.

Megan dated a nice guy named Lloyd. He was kinda quiet like Megan, and compared to Melinda they hardly made a sound. She was loud and obnoxious (nice most of the time, but obnoxious). Melinda's boyfriend I never saw after the first night because he went back to Moses Lake.

I remember I'd begun to get settled in and Melinda apparently had a problem with my "perkiness" and the brightness of my belongings. I couldn't help but overhear her complaining to Megan outside of my open bedroom door (hard to miss, which I think was her point). "She's just so bright! I mean look at her room it's like rainbows and sunshine! blah blah blah!" haha it's kind of funny now but at the time I was offended. It wasn't like I was imposing my style on them (cough cough), it was all confined to my room. Thankfully, Megan felt the same way as me and told Melinda to cool off.

We got along fairly well, I don't want to decieve you with such a silly story. That was just one of my funny anecdotes about Melinda.

Megan wasn't my roommate for long. She got "sick" after breaking up with Lloyd and decided she missed Moses Lake. She dropped out and it was just me and Melinda. and.... Lloyd. Apparently in Moses Lake, it's OK to share your bff's bf. Because Melinda and Lloyd hooked up and he practically moved in. We didn't get a new roommate since we were still only about 2 or 3 weeks into school and no one new was enrolling at that point.

Which leads me to story number 2:

I began to get comfy in my surroundings. Lloyd, as I mentioned, was thuper nice. He always made a point to include me in what ever. I'm not sure Melinda appreciated that. Lloyd hung out a lot and the two of us would play Nintendo together while Melinda was at work or even if she was there. I usually tried to give them some space....

So one evening I was playing video games with him and we were having friendly conversation when Melinda came home. I decided to leave them alone and head off to my room. He told me there was no reason to leave, but I never liked the whole "third wheel" feeling, so I declined. A few moments later I was lying in my bed about to put my headphones on when I hear the two of them talking. I missed the first part of the conversation, but came in somewhere around Lloyd saying "she's not so bad"....silence....and then Melinda shrieking/laughing "You like her don't you?!?!" followed by a hissing shh sound. Lloyd didn't appear to like her tormenting teasing him about this considering the short proximity (remember, weird wall/door folks?). This convo piqued my interest so I perked up, but alas, her shriek had all but ended it. All I heard after that was "you do don't you?" and "shut up".

Just to make another thing clear, she was teasing him because she found this hilarious. She wasn't threatened, or at least didn't sound it at that moment...

Alas, my friendship/roomateship with Melinda ended not too long after that. I went home in December for winter break and came home to a new girl, Andrea. I walked into my apartment to find that Andrea was moving my things into the big bedroom, in fact she was just about finished when I walked in. She appeared normal in the looks department, and it didn't look like I'd be hearing any complaints about my color choices... however, the bitch was touching my stuff! I asked her what was going on, and where Melinda was.

Apparently Melinda dropped out over break, and being the beginning of a new semester the school was moving her in. Andrea had actually moved in over the break as Melinda was moving out. Maybe as one last dig at me (or maybe she was jealous after all!) Melinda told Andrea I'd wanted the big room all along so to go ahead and move my stuff.

Really I didn't mind too much. I got over the initial shock of it all, and it didn't look like we'd be getting a third roommate so I got the big room to myself (whew!). Plus I was actually excited to meet her because she seemed more like me.

Little did I know that I'd soon really miss Melinda...

But that my friends is a whole other story.

*side note*

About 4 years ago I walked into Pagliacci Pizza on Mercer Ave in Seattle. I was pushing my baby boy in his stroller, he must have been just a couple months old at the time. I walk up to pay for my order, and who should be the cashier??? MELINDA! Of course, I couldn't quite remember her name (I called her Miranda...oops!) in fact I started typing Miranda several times in this post before I realized my mistake. haha. She recognized me, but couldn't recall my name, so I reminded her. She actually came over to my table shortly after. We caught up for a minute or two. Turns out after she'd dropped out she'd never gone home to Moses Lake. She got married to someone a few years before our encounter and she also had one or two kids. And yes, I asked whatever happened to Lloyd (I couldn't resist!)...she looked at me weirdly "Lloyd? Wow I haven't thought about him in years!" She didn't know what had become of him.

*end side note*

I mentioned to Tim earlier that it is sad I have no pictures to document this short time in my life. I moved to Seattle in early October and was gone by the following February. And even though this was a rough period in my life emotionally, I still have some fond memories. I didn't make life long friends with my first roommates, but I will always remember them. I have only one picture of my dear roomie Melinda. It is her senior picture that for some reason she felt the need to give to me shortly after we'd met. Sorry folks, outta respect for her I won't post it. Since I don't speak with her I can't get her permission. Too bad for you, cuz it's a doozy!

Night y'all!