College Edition #2

Here is my attempt at recreating Valentine's Day 1996. My prologue to this blog post is that I am quite adept at getting people to talk with me. People just tell me stuff. A lot of stuff they probably shouldn't tell me, but I'm reasonably trustworthy & they must feel enough confidence in me that I won't tell. Most of the time, I don't mind hearing about people's lives. I like to hear people's stories although I usually don't tell mine in person. My theory is that I'm on this earth to learn, and I can't learn if I'm talking. Or I could be just speculating, and the real reason people tell me things is because I don't talk, the silence gets awkward, and they try to fill it with banter. I guess it doesn't matter which theory is true because the end result is the same: people tell me stuff.

And despite what my first college roommate says to me via post-it notes, I'm very quiet, and I like to observe things. I watch people (not stalker-like, but I try to pay attention). I often see things other people don't see, or I see one part & try to put together the rest of the puzzle.

The bottom line is that people are interesting.

Now let's go back to 1996 and warm up that time capsule! ZOOM ZOOM (my time capsule was made by Mazda apparently)!

During winter quarter of 1996, I moved out of Kristina's room. Thank my lucky stars for a resident director who let me get my own room. I still had to share a living room, kitchen and bathroom, but it was only with 1 other person. Name changed to protect the innocent. Let's call her Jessica. So Jessica and I each had our own bedroom, and we shared the living space. Jessica was nice enough. She was a bit of a partier, but she was relatively considerate and she was very much of a nester. Her dorm room didn't really look like a dorm room after she got done decorating it. She brought in some leather furniture, a really nice TV, a nice rug, and lots of accessories.

Jessica and I had only been living together for a month or so at this point. We didn't know each other very well yet, but so far it was going okay. So on Valentine's Day of 1996 (it was a Wednesday), I come from class in the afternoon. Jessica's bedroom door is closed, and it seems as if some sort of bedroom frolicking is going on by the noises. Hmmm... I wonder who is in there with her. She wasn't dating anyone. I set myself up to study on my bed such that I have a good view of her bedroom door. I try to set up my hair so that it looks like I'm not looking although I can see through my strands of hair. I wait, perusing my book but mainly staring at the bedroom door as I lie on my bed. Tick tock. It seems like forever, but finally Chuck (name NOT changed) emerges.

Chuck is one of those guys that women love, and I cannot figure out for the life of me why women like him so much. He's not that attractive. He's rude. He doesn't come across all that intelligent. But he's fun and likes to drink, and I guess that's what most college girls want. Anyway, he leaves, Jessica makes apple turnovers while humming (she was such a mom, she loved to bake & I loved to eat her baking), and I continue to study. I pretend to not have seen (or heard) anything. Things like this are what the dorm gossip mills go crazy over, and I hadn't quite processed it yet.

The funny part about this whole thing is that I can't remember what I did on Valentine's Day. I had a boyfriend then, and we probably went out for dinner. Ho hum, boring.

The next morning I'm going to class, and I see my friend Olivia (name changed to protect the innocent) in the elevator. There are other people in the elevator, and she tells me that she has to talk to me. I tell her that I'll come by her room that evening. Staying on top of the latest dorm gossip was of utmost importance, after all.

That evening I went up to Olivia's room. (She lives across the hall from Chuck, and she knew Jessica. I wasn't sure if I was going to spill my gossip yet.) She pulls me into her room and before I can get anything out, she tells me that she slept with Chuck last night. He was her first bedroom frolicker.

What?!? I'm doing mental math in my head, and all I can think is Ewwwwwww! since I knew of him and Jessica around 3pm the previous day. I'm sure my facial expression was kind of pained, and I had no idea what I was supposed to say to Olivia. I never liked Chuck to begin with, and now I really didn't like him. Olivia goes on and on about how he said he loved her and all the typical crap that girls love to hear. Oh, I bet he could say all that in his sleep since he's probably given the same speech 50 times.

That was a conundrum. What was I supposed to say? Should I break this sweet girl's heart by telling her what I heard/saw the previous day? She might think I'm lying, she may march over to Jessica and accuse her (and Jessica doesn't know that I know), she may cry uncontrollably. None of these alternatives seemed particularly appealing, and it really wasn't my business anyway. So I don't say much and try to muster some sort of enthuisiasm - however contrived. She's practically planning her wedding to Chuck, and I'm ready to storm across the hall and scream at him for what he did to my sweet friend AND my decent roommate.

But I chose the path of silence on all counts. I went back to my room with all my secrets. Jessica was watching TV, and I felt just as awkward around her as I did around Olivia.

Of course this story is not over yet. On Friday (the next day), I walk in the door in the evening with my boyfriend. I haven't told him any of this because, frankly, I didn't trust him all that much. So he and I are talking as we're walking into the living room, and guess who are on talking on the couch? Jessica AND Olivia. I just stop and stare. I try to recover before they wonder about my mental health and say hi. Then I go into my room, try not to hyperventilate, and get what I came in there to get. Jessica yells, "We were just talking about the butts of the guys in the dorm. Who do you think has the best butt?"

"Umm...I don't know," I responded as I rifled through all my stuff. My boyfriend was of course loving the conversation between these two girls. Whew, it sounded like the truth hadn't come out yet, or they would like be arguing or screaming or crying. I was starting to relax.

Olivia says, "I think Chuck does."

Jessica concurred with Olivia, and they started talking about Chuck more. Then I started to get nervous. This could go sour very, very quickly. I grabbed my boyfriend and practically ran from the room. Yes, running/avoidance is very much my coping mechanism of choice.

The truth didn't come out that night, but it came out shortly after. It turns out that there had been another girl as well as Jessica and Olivia. It was a horrible mess. Olivia's first love (Chuck) broke her heart and gave her herpes. Who knows where he got it from. Throughout the rest of college, I kept in contact with Olivia, but after she graduated, we went our separate ways. I hope she's doing okay, wherever she is.

And that is the notorious Valentine's Day of 1996 where stuff that I saw + stuff that I heard = really bad news.