House Guests

My carefree, bachelor lifestyle is over – I have “roommates” again. Kris and Ted (my landpeople) came back from wintering in Arizona and are now occupying the house again. Having people in the house again would have been a big shock to my system had I not had a dose of it the week before.

A few months ago my friend Sam put a post on Facebook asking if anyone in Seattle had a place that he and his friend could stay for a few days. Having a huge, empty house all to myself I told him they could stay at my place. The day they came over I learned that Sam’s friend was not a boy as I had expected, but a girl named Elle. I’d never met Elle before, but we became fast friends. She actually lived on the same block as me in Provo and we have more mutual friends than a Russian has turnips. Elle and I became fast friends and 24 hours after meeting each other we both agreed that it felt like we had been friends for a long time. Having Sam and Elle around for the weekend was so great. We chatted, watched TV, made food, and sometimes just sat around and read. It was nice to just have people around again.

The one issue with their being here is that I had to undo all the bad living alone habits I had acquired such as never shutting the bathroom door. I had to remind myself to do it a few times, but I successfully remembered to close it. Another habit I’d picked up was not turning on lights. Since no one else was in the house I’d usually only have the light on in the room I was in. When I went to another room I would turn off the light, walk through the house in the dark, and then turn on the light when I arrived at my destination. The first night Sam and Elle were here one of them used the bathroom and shut the door when they exited. I later went to use the bathroom. As usual, I walked down the hallway in the dark and turned to go in to the bathroom expecting the door to be open. It was shut, however, which I hadn’t expected. I slammed into it with quite some force nearly knocking the glasses off my face. I was a little more careful after that.

I was excited when Kris and Ted came back, but it did take a little getting used to. Having lived alone for months I was used to things not changing while I was gone. It was odd to come home and suddenly see a bouquet of flowers on the kitchen table, or a car in the garage, or a blanket on the wrong chair. It was also odd to see food in the fridge that isn’t needed to make quesadillas. It’s been great having them back, though. They’re both awesome and they make for good company. Another odd thing is that instead of feeling like the house is mine, I now feel like a guest here. It was an odd, but expected shift.

Today as Ted was putting stuff in the freezer he said, “Hey, look at this.” He pulled out a reimbursement check from the school district that I had “lost” in January. I had looked all over the house for that check and somehow I put it in the freezer. Like I said, it’s nice to have them back.