The Book

My heart is exploding right now, because I am reading something extraordinarily wonderful for the first time in far too long.

The Book. (No, not that one.)

Background: I was ridiculously close to my roommates in college. Like, RIDICULOUSLY. I know I’ve alluded to it on here before, but I don’t think you realize the full extent of it. Julie, Dani, Kisha, and myself were friends ALL FOUR years of college, and lived together for a huge chunk of that time, including two years at our lovely little rent house dubbed "House 9." Also including our semester spent in Oxford, England. And if living in a foreign country with your BFF’s doesn’t bring you closer, I don’t know what will. (It’s either that or kill each other, and we very nearly did that too… (aside to the roommates: Camping Fusina. Am I right or am I right?))

At the end of our four years together, we had far too many inside jokes, stories, and tidbits about the people we had come across to ever hope to remember. We never wanted to forget and not be able to remember. So while they were still fresh in our brains, we wrote them down.* And put them in a book.

It’s 150 pages long.

Reading through it now, I know this is quality stuff, and honestly, it's not all inside jokes or things you wouldn't get! I think you'd like this even if you didn't know us. :)

There are sections on…
The Stars of the Show
Supporting Cast
House 9 Culture
Appendices
Etc.

The Supporting Cast is the people we came across, written in glossary style entries, complete with cross references. For instance…

John Doe**: aka Mystery Man, who Julie stalked from afar for a couple years. A design major who resembles the child of Lex Luthor and Shawn Hunter. His hotness is so overwhelming that Julie almost forgot that she had a boyfriend at the Graceland Too volleyball game in 2005.

James Smith: aka Magic James, who Valerie, Julie, & Kisha loved and hung out with for a chunk of sophomore year. James does cool magic tricks and once stole a squeegee from a Shell Station. He is friends with Robert Thomas and Richard Jones.

Guy Peterson: Famous for voluntarily sporting a very Brokeback looking GAP sweater around his shoulders during pledging his sophomore year. He is also Jane Smith’s celebrity crush. (Ex: at the grocery store…)
Guy: Hey! What are you guys doing?
Jane: Um… juice.
Val: We’re buying juice.

Joey: Handsome and adventurous descendant of Italian gypsies and Mexican Vaqueros with a political mind and a sensitive stomach. Boey fixes things at Houst 9 without being asked, writes magnificent blog entries, has been known to tame a mountain bike or two, and is half the reason why everyone in House 9 adores the Britney Spears song, Toxic.

David: Brother of House 9 who has been Supreme Chancellor of Christmas Decorations and basically one of our favorite people ever since Fall of 2004. D-Pok is the best, most responsible driver in Abilene and guards House 9 with an iron fist and an arsenal of airguns. When necessary, he can maintain a pretty fierce what-what face, and also has more cool points than anyone on record. D-Pok is engaged to Stephanie.

Lara: The baby and our 5th roommate. Truly one of the most creative and unique and awesome people you'll ever meet. Loves Ramen and stopped shaving her legs in 2004. (Umm... as of 2006.)

Katie: An English major, awesome scarf maker, other 5th roommate, realist, and Oxford junkie in every way you can be.

Jill West: ACU poster girl with big hair, perfect boobs, and a beautiful voice. Much to Kisha’s chagrin, she once washed her sweaters one at a time in the Gardner laundry room.

Bottom line: if you crossed our path in college, YOU are in this book!

We kept track of the sororities and fraternities (“Famous for being bubbly and sparkly, wearing yellow, and always winning SingSong.”), popular songs sung at chapel, broken down by category (ie “Chapel songs that you have to sing standing up or you’re a bad Christian…”), memorable professors, and landmark House 9 events, and so much more.

There’s a section on who we’d be if we were _______, such as cars, office supplies, Disney princesses, or characters in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants."

There are yearbook awards (Dani: Most likely to never have her electricity shut off because she didn’t pay a bill) (Val: Most likely to marry a man with really nice teeth and a polo shirt), nicknames, and pages upon PAGES of general House 9 memories (The Fusina debacle- all of it, but particularly the morning from hell where Julie tried to by Macguyver and use pretend sign language to communicate with a man who only spoke Italian, and Dani, speaking of the pay phone, said, “I’m sure I can figure it out, it’s not like Julie’s a genius!”)

We scanned in notes we passed in class, the box art for our “favorite movie,” and an extremely sexist flyer: “Women of ACU, serve your campus by inviting young men to these free events!” Mocking. SO much mocking. (Jaded? Me?)

There are heartfelt emails, things we love about each other, and so, so much more. Someone should seriously publish this thing, because it's absolutely real, strangely intriguing, and frankly, hilarious.

It's a book that means so, so much to me, and I wish I had one of these things for every stage of my life. Not many people have such amazing catalogs of... memories they can just literally flip to whenever they want.

I can't believe I do.

*Actually, Julie did about 95% of the writing and ALL of the design/layout/printing, so infinite hats off to her!
**Most names changed to protect the (mostly) innocent!