Pepe's roommate was a guy with a very large head. He didn't wear fitted hats because the hat stores did not carry his size. A La Bamba burrito is not even close to the same size. BigH was a cool guy except for one thing, after eating the previously mentioned burritos, he could clear a small football stadium. But that is neither here nor there... BigH was a legacy at the school. Something like 9 or 10 of his brothers had went through the school before him. So he knew what was going on better than some of us more inexperienced n00bs.
My roommate was Red Hat Jef. We had talked on the phone a couple times before we met the first day. There were some things we were allowed to bring into the room and some things we were not. We were allowed a refrigerator in our room as long as it was 3.0 cubic feet or less. I got a small refrigerator as a gift for graduating high school so I offered to bring it. RHJ asked me about the size and I of course said 3.5 cubic feet. I had read the regulations and I didn't think I would be strung up by my ankles for a measly 0.5 cubic foot (roughly 3.75 gallons of volume - or half the amount of beer consumed by the average college Freshman in a weekend).
RHJ had different ideas, he said the refrigerator was too large and that he would bring one that met the size requirements. Umm, OK. I guess. I know one of us was not going to have enough beer and it was not going to be me... So I will bring the dorm room sized microwave, which I didn't have. So how is this going to work out. RHJ seemed a little high strung.
We finally meet on the first day of orientation. RHJ had a shorter drive than I did so he made it to the room first meaning that he gets dibs on which side of the room he gets. The rooms were designed with very little flexibility, bed, desk, dresser on one side of the door and a mirror image on the other side. For whatever reason, he chose the left side as you walked into the room.
I meet his family. They are all business. They are getting RHJ moved into the room with a machine like efficiency I would associate with a German assembly line robot. RHJ and his father are discussing how to build a loft to give more space on his side of the room. Then, they are done moving stuff in. He gets a hug from his mom and sister and a handshake from his dad and they walk out leaving RHJ and I, along with my mom and dad.
RHJ remains all business for a while. He loosens up eventually. I think he started loosening up after a couple weeks. I was signed up for a "Work Study" program as a form of financial aid. I chose security based on BigH's recommendation. As a result Pepe and I would "work study" in the security office in the evenings. I would get back to the room kind of late. RHJ would sometimes already be in bed. But the funny thing is, I could talk to him and get a mostly coherent response. We had some normal conversations and we had some extraordinary conversations. One such conversation was about homework in a class I was taking. It was a computer science class and I didn't have any experience in computer programming. RHJ on the other hand was a Computer Science major and had been programming computers for years. I was asking him about my homework and he was helping me through some of it, even though he was asleep... then I would ask another question about the homework and he would answer, "I had a hamburger for dinner." Then I would ask if he was awake, and he would say, "Hamburgers are good."
This sleep talking became a regular occurrence in my college life. Me being the benevolent person that I am, I have to share the fun. I start bring Pepe back to the room to talk to RHJ. I think at first RHJ was a little angry with me for continuing to talk to him when he was asleep. He may have also not liked that I was bringing in an audience. My answer was for him to stop talking to me while asleep. I don't think he saw the humor in that. I know he didn't think it was as funny as I did.
At one point during the year I think we finally pulled RHJ out of his shell, or the workload was getting to him, I'll take the credit since I'm writing this... Anyway, I come back from a class and I find him sitting at his desk (under the bunk he and his father made...) and he is making trails of rubbing alcohol on his desk then lighting it on fire and watching the fire follow the path he traced. OK. I like burning stuff as much as the next guy but the desk is wood. So I suggested he go into the hallway since it was tile, plus there was a much larger area for trails. After a while the trails were becoming a bit boring, plus the authorities (Resident Adviser or Sophomore Adviser) came back to our floor while we were in between conflagrations. So we move the activities back to RHJ's desk. Then he spots a gift his then girlfriend gave him. Here is a pretty accurate picture of the gift:
It will not burn so why not put alcohol in it and light it on fire. It was pretty cool at first but then it got pretty hot after constant refilling with alcohol and relighting. By this time Pepe had joined us and I think he gave the warning that it would break (having had a similar experience in High School chemistry lab with me as his lab partner... hmmm wonder what happened). Sure enough, it broke. My next question is, why would his girlfriend think a good gift for him would be a cat candle holder thingy? I don't know, but I will speculate:
- Maybe she thought the room incandescent lighting was way too modern
- Maybe she liked to roast marshmallows very slowly over an open candle flame
- Maybe when the relationship ends she would have something to use as a projectile
- Maybe she was a little freaky and liked a little hot wax during intimate times... I never asked for those details.
So there were some more adventures during college but I will leave it there for now. So fast forward to college graduation. Both Pepe and Red Hat Jef get jobs before graduation. Pepe goes to work for the company he did an internship with the previous summer because he is competent. RHJ also has a job because he is a CS major with a personality and good personal hygiene... which I am told are highly sought after traits in that line of work. I was not as lucky, I did not get a real job until August, two months after graduation.
Pepe and RHJ were both working in Indianapolis so they decided to room together to save costs since neither was from Indianapolis or had other friends or relatives they could mooch off of. After I found a job the Chief and I moved to Columbus, Indiana about an hour south of Indianapolis.
One thing I just found out was the Pepe and RHJ did not always get along when they lived together. I knew there were some squabbles as there always are between roommates. I lived with RHJ for a college year and we didn't have any yelling or screaming matches. I think I was only pissed off at him once or maybe twice during our time together. One I remember was I came back from a weekend with the Chief (at a neighboring college) and I found RHJ on my bed instead of on his in his loft. I was pissed off for a minute until I realized he was very, very ill. Then I got over it very quickly. I honestly don't remember another time.
I also lived with Pepe for the remaining 3 years of college and we had one or two minor disagreements. Even though we lived in very close proximity especially year 2 and year 3 of college when we lived in the same room in a house owned by BigH's family. Since they had at least 14 children go through the same college it made good sense for them to buy a house in the same town and rent out rooms to their children's friends. We called BigH our "slum lord."
Pepe and RHJ had a number of disagreements that varied in intensity while living together.
It just so happens that after one of these minor altercations the Chief and I happened to visit. Only Pepe was home at the time. As I understand it when Pepe and RHJ lived together they had some shared resources. For example milk and bread and maybe some other food items like ketchup, mustard, etc. It was the responsibility of the person who emptied said resource to replace it. At the time of my visit this system wasn't running smoothly and RHJ was pissed off about Pepe drinking all the milk and not replenishing the stock in a timely enough manner.
RHJ was mad and decided to break the communal atmosphere and purchase his own supplies, like milk. In order to mark his territory in the refrigerator he put a post-it note on the milk saying "MINE." I think this is great fun. I find the remainder of the post it note pad and proceed to write "MINE" on all the post it notes and place them on items in RHJ's room, in his bathroom, in his books, inside his clean laundry, inside his workout gear, in his CD cases, in his VHS tapes, on his Tivo, under his pillow... you get the idea. It turns out that this was actually a good thing, it broke some of the tension between the roommates, plus it entertained me greatly.
Three or four years later, long after Pepe was married and moved out and RHJ had changed apartments at least once and maybe twice, I get a call from RHJ saying he found a "MINE" note in one of his books.
That is satisfaction.
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One thing I just found out was the Pepe and RHJ did not always get along when they lived together. I knew there were some squabbles as there always are between roommates. I lived with RHJ for a college year and we didn't have any yelling or screaming matches. I think I was only pissed off at him once or maybe twice during our time together. One I remember was I came back from a weekend with the Chief (at a neighboring college) and I found RHJ on my bed instead of on his in his loft. I was pissed off for a minute until I realized he was very, very ill. Then I got over it very quickly. I honestly don't remember another time.
I also lived with Pepe for the remaining 3 years of college and we had one or two minor disagreements. Even though we lived in very close proximity especially year 2 and year 3 of college when we lived in the same room in a house owned by BigH's family. Since they had at least 14 children go through the same college it made good sense for them to buy a house in the same town and rent out rooms to their children's friends. We called BigH our "slum lord."
Pepe and RHJ had a number of disagreements that varied in intensity while living together.
It just so happens that after one of these minor altercations the Chief and I happened to visit. Only Pepe was home at the time. As I understand it when Pepe and RHJ lived together they had some shared resources. For example milk and bread and maybe some other food items like ketchup, mustard, etc. It was the responsibility of the person who emptied said resource to replace it. At the time of my visit this system wasn't running smoothly and RHJ was pissed off about Pepe drinking all the milk and not replenishing the stock in a timely enough manner.
RHJ was mad and decided to break the communal atmosphere and purchase his own supplies, like milk. In order to mark his territory in the refrigerator he put a post-it note on the milk saying "MINE." I think this is great fun. I find the remainder of the post it note pad and proceed to write "MINE" on all the post it notes and place them on items in RHJ's room, in his bathroom, in his books, inside his clean laundry, inside his workout gear, in his CD cases, in his VHS tapes, on his Tivo, under his pillow... you get the idea. It turns out that this was actually a good thing, it broke some of the tension between the roommates, plus it entertained me greatly.
Three or four years later, long after Pepe was married and moved out and RHJ had changed apartments at least once and maybe twice, I get a call from RHJ saying he found a "MINE" note in one of his books.
That is satisfaction.
-
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