Housing

Well, it's official! We don't have to live in cardboard boxes next year like we were planning to! :)

We got up at 7 and ran over to The Regency, where they were having a lottery picking of names to fill up the open apartments there. We'd been TOLD that since there were five of us, there was a higher chance of us getting one, because that was five names to pick from. But we were horribly disappointed when they paper-clipped all of our names together, giving us an equal chance of getting picked as everyone else. There were a TON of people there too, and it was freezing as we sat there for about two hours. We heard someone ask at one point how many apartments were left open, and the guy drawing names told her there were only two left. We kind of panicked, but at the same time we were still pretty calm because we knew that there were openings at The Elms. We were all really tired, so we started falling asleep on each other, and with each name before, we'd all said "This one will be us." But by this point I just didn't say anything and didn't even open my eyes or lift my head from Somers' shoulder when the guy said he was drawing the next name. And then he shouted, "McKenzie Stevens!" And it took me a moment, and then I opened my eyes and was like, "Oh my gosh, that's US!" So we got the second to last apartment. Hooray! And we ended up getting the apartment that Somers and I had looked around before, so we know EXACTLY what the inside looks like. We're right next to the manager, so I'm not sure whether we'll like that or not... We don't really have to worry about disturbing other tenants since there's none right around us, but at the same time, we don't know how the manager is going to be.

It was so funny, though, while we were all waiting for the drawing to begin, and even while it was going on. I was looking around at all these girls, wanting the spots that we wanted, and it was just this huge competition. I saw some girls just glaring at everyone, looking at everyone as potential enemies. And with each name that got called, the less people liked each other, because it meant that the other person might get the next spot and not you. And whenever a name was called, people would politely clap lightly, but it would die out quickly, and you could hear some girls grumbling under their breaths. The girls that were chosen would scream and jump up and down, glad they got a spot, while the rest of the girls looked on angrily, not happy at all for them because they'd taken a spot that could have been their's. It was just so funny. And I was thinking about how these girls all viewed each other as potential threats at the moment, but the girls that got chosen (that had been doing the same thing previously) would now be living with the other girls who had looked at them the same way, and no one would even think about how they used to be "enemies." Everyone would be all "buddy-buddy" and befriend each other and act all cheerful come next semester, and people would become good friends--but originally, they had all looked at each other as threats and had wished that the others wouldn't get chosen. I just thought it was pretty funny, seeing some of the glares girls were giving each other. And it wasn't even up to the girls whether they got an apartment or not--it was all up to chance. I just found it extremely amusing. :)

When I came home, I ate quickly, took some medicine (I'm sick again) and went to bed. And I've been asleep for six hours now, and just woke up. Holy cow. I better be able to sleep tonight. I imagine I will, because I could go to bed right now and sleep another few hours if I wanted to. :)

--Cate