Days as a Freshman: 44

Mood: Peaceful

“And I was all, ‘you can’t just grab my boobs without asking first!’”

Stacey pushed through our door without knocking; barging in on what had been a peaceful study session between Rebecca and myself.

Dropping her purse by the door, kicking off her shoes in the middle of the room, and letting two shopping bags collapse all over her desk, Stacey continued to scream into her purple rhinestoned phone.

“It’s like, if you’re gonna reach for them, you gotta ask my permission, you know?” Digging around inside one of the shopping bags, Stacey took no notice of the serene environment she had just disrupted. “Seriously. Anyway, I gotta go. If I don’t fold these shirts right now they’ll totally wrinkle.”

Clicking her phone shut with one hand, Stacey raised a pile of newly purchased polos in another and spun around towards us. “What’re you kids doing in here? It smells weird. Something’s burning.”

Rebecca rolled her eyes and turned her back on Stacey. “We’re burning incense. And studying. You know…the thing people do that makes college worthwhile?”

“Oh.” Stacey looked over at us and made a face, somehow completely tuning out Rebecca’s insult. “It’s a Thursday night. Definitely not a studying night.”

Stepping around our history notes and upturned flashcards, Stacey walked over to her bed and began to carefully fold her new shirts, handling each one like snow that would melt at the slightest pressure. “Didn’t see you at the dance last week, Grace. Didn’t you say you were going?” Read More »

I bet your roommate sucks. Don’t worry, I understand. I have a twin sister and therefore have had to share living quarters with another girl for my entire life.

It’s cool and all when you’re six years old, and sharing space meant sharing Barbies, but once you hit 18 and it’s time for college…you’re probably going to want your roommate out during playtime.

You’ve probably already set up your dorm room, but there’s always a chance it could be set up better,with more of your own space, and with something we all desperately need.

No f*cking drama.

First things first:

No bunk beds. I know, I know, they save space and all that, but top bunk is only cool at summer camp. Plus with your roommate’s bed literally attached to yours you might as well be attached at the hip too. And can I just remind everyone that there’s nothing sexy (or mysterious) about climbing into a top bunk with a guy you’re hoping to bone.

Just trust me. Read More »

As I write this I am sitting at my boyfriends house, hanging out with his roommates dog and watching Weeds onDemand while he is in class. I’m also wearing his sweatpants.

This wouldn’t be such an uncommon scenario if he didn’t live 1,000 miles away, if kissing him didn’t cost two hundred dollars and seeing him didn’t require vacation time.

But it does. And for that reason, the LDR (or the Long Distance Relationship) is a lot of work. And you have to work at it. While it is wonderful, the LDR sucks so you should be completely and totally sure its right for you. I don’t advocate them.

And we all know our guy blogger Andrew really doesn’t advise them.

In fact, I never imagined I would be in one. But we were right together and right for each other and I couldn’t imagine not being with him.

So, we’re together even when we aren’t together. Seeing each other every five weeks does not a relationship make, which is why even though we should be in our “honeymoon phase”, having sex and wanting to spend every moment together, we’re already having to work on the relationship.

The good folks at CNN also saw the problems that lie within the long distance relationship. In this article, they provided some good (if not a bit obvious) advice that help make the LDR work.

Communicate

Ugh, communication. Sometimes it sucks talking on the phone ALL the time. So many times I would rather just sit next to him and watch a movie rather than sitting on the phone talking to him about it. Despite the fact that I feel like we talk all the time (which I don’t really mind) it helps because I feel like I’m a part of his day-to-day life even if I’m not there every day. Just saying hi in the morning helps me make it through my day. Read More »

Days as a Freshman: 6

Current Mood: Confused

So, it’s almost been a week since I got here. A week and already it feels much longer. It must have something to do with living in the same place you to go to school at. You never leave anyone, so people and days just drift into each other to make this huge vague cloud of time.

Six days in, and its 50% great and 50% I want to turn around and go home. Part of that 50% of awesomeness is Sasha. The kid who sat next to me during orientation and who I’ve seen a few times since. He’s got a smile that makes me forget my name…and my ability to put words together to make a sentence.

I attempted to talk to him the first time at a bonfire that followed the ‘Welcome’ ceremony.

Standing with my roommates, shielding my face from smoke and wayward sticks piled high with marshmallows, I felt someone brush by me in an effort to get closer to the fire. Without looking I moved over, but stopped when I heard his voice.

“Hey. That speech took forever, huh?”

He was smiling at me again, a huge grin that took over his entire face. It was almost completely dark outside but I could still make out his smile. The first real friendly smile I had seen since coming to college. Read More »

When I started college, I thought my digs were pretty sweet. It was a private school—and all girls—so of course it was nice compared to most state schools I had looked at.

My roommate and I had awesome custom made matching comforters (be jealous), a TV, stereo, window AC unit, mini fridge and an illegal microwave. I mean, what else did two girls on the verge of the most exciting adventure of their lives need??

Apparently everything.

According to the LA Times, college kids these days aren’t just bringing their own expensive shit to pimp out their dorm rooms, but their schools (and subsequent building contractors) are totally catering to these high class kids that want dorms that look nothing like, well, dorms at all. Read More »

Ahh, to be a freshman again…

Long after the fact, I can safely say that there is no experience that can quite match being 18, fully on your own for the first time in your life, and living in a dorm surrounded by the hundreds of the horniest creatures on this green earth.

As a kid who had a pretty awful high school experience when it came to members of the opposite sex, I went into my freshman year with the attitude that I’d pretty much take on all comers. I turned down girls like a 15 year old boy would turn down an offer to look through Penthouse magazine.

Needless to say, it was a very fruitful year. Read More »

It’s mid-August. You know what that means…almost back-to-school time. When the fall starts to roll around, it causes me to reminisce of my early college years. The one particular experience that is forever implanted in my mind is my freshman year roommate.

Note: I swear that everything in this post is true. You really can’t make this stuff up.

Just four years ago, I was preparing to attend college in the big, scary state of New York after growing up in a small mid-western town.

Of course, no one that I even remotely knew or went to high school with was going to my school, and that was part of the excitement. I was going to be assigned a random roommate and had visions of us staying up all night sharing secrets, watching movies, and dishing about our latest biology class crush.

Well, little did I know, but I was moving in with the WEIRDEST person on campus. And, to make matters worse, this was before the days of Facebook, where I could have stalked her and been mentally prepared for what was to come. But, no, I had a friendly, casual phone conversation with what seemed like a sweet girl. Little did I know what was to come in the next year.

Example A: Chinese Fighting Swords. One day, I came home from class to find her unwrapping three large boxes containing something she had ordered off the internet. What were they you ask? Real, sharp, metal, will-kill-you-in-one-swipe, fighting swords. Three of them. She proceeded to then rub them against her skin and tell me how sexy the swords were. Yes, I feared for my life. Read More »

So you’ve already asked yourself whether or not you should hook-up with someone on your floor…now you need to know if hooking-up is acceptable while someone else is in the room with you and your hook-up partner.

Well I say, once again, it depends on each individual situation. Being an RA, I was always lucky enough to have a very large single dorm room all to myself; however, I did date guys that had roommates and you know, sometimes you just want to be somewhere different! Anyway, here are a few questions to ask yourself before committing this somewhat scandalous act.

1. Will you be loud enough to wake the roommate? I mean, I’m all for free expression but no one wants to be an extra in a porno. If you think you won’t be able to control your moans, then maybe you should take the party elsewhere. It’s just plain awkward if someone gets up and goes “uhhh…do you mind” while you’re in the middle of doing the nasty. Read More »

So craigslist is a very money site. I can find furniture, sell my used books and even find a creepy love interest if I’m so inclined. And when I’m ready for the real-world-working thing, I’m sure I’ll check out the job listings.

But, my friends, I’ve discovered a better site; it has all the gloriousness of craigslist but has been tailored to fit the college student’s needs — umarkt.com. Created to fill the void of an online marketplace for us, Umarkt helps to find roommates, housing and even sweet rides. It’s totally free and all you have to do is register to use it. Not many schools are listed yet, but they encourage users to add theirs.

So check it out!