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{ Thursday, December 12, 2002 }

I Have A Home.

 
I live in a house with three other girls. Tonight it was pointed out to me that we behave more family-like and less roommate-like than I guess most housemates do. Most every new situation is met with some sort of informal group discussion which ends with a pseudo-decision. And if someone's not home when we're finishing the project? We remember to stop and go "Ellie was saying that might look better over there." or whatever.

We cook communal meals and eat at the table when we're home. Even if that's at lunch time. We leave a plate in the fridge for anyone who's not home. Actually anything in the main kitchen is suitable for group consumption. I hear that in some homes they divide their food based on who bought it. We just throw in on the groceries...

We do each other's laundry (with care to ask the person how they want their clothes washed... you know "hey, who has towels?!" or "Do you want these bras in the dryer?"). We all work from all four wardrobes. The coats are communal property more or less... We pool our resources in any way that's fair. Cigarettes, condoms, ibuprofin, all those little bits of disposable what-not that not having decreases the quality of life so much...

We hang out together. We socialize together. Earlier tonight someone was in the shower and the door was open and two of us were in the bathroom. We're close.

There are some very small boundaries. Mostly anything you put in your room that no one has used before... well, we'll ask permission first...

I guess I'm really lucky to live in a comfortable home. It's not perfect all the time. No one's home is. We squabble. We have petty disagreements. We gossip behind each other's backs. But we have fun together and we share and we work together as a group.

With the Holiday Season approaching, I'm glad to live in a home and not in a room in a house. It's nice to have people around who care and who'll help and who I can help.

By the way, our house is the cleanest it's been since we've lived here. Tomorrow the termite inspector is coming and so we've cleaned the place as much as possible. I still need to finish the upstairs, but I can knock that out tonight. I'm kinda enjoying my clean bedroom. I put on a favorite mix tape and went nuts cleaning. So, I have to get up now and go upstairs and finish my part and get to bed so I can be awake and all when the guy gets here at one...

Kristie takes much credit for my participation in the cleaning festivities. She cleans all the communal living areas every day (because she likes it). She's been sort-of an influence on me. At least tonight...

posted by mary ann 12:37 AM


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