on roommates. part two.

The InterVarsity Years.

My last summer of college, in which i graduated, i lived alone. The only 3 months of my life i have lived alone. It was a great apartment. I was lonely. I bought a fish.

Leaving Austin, I headed into my future as a Full-Time Staffworker with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. But first, i had to raise some money.

My first stop was in Midlothian, my high school town, where i spent about 6 weeks fundraising with folks from my first church. I lived with my youth pastor, and his wife and son. The Wallaces.

In September, i saddled up my horses (not sure how many the Dodge Colt had) and went west. To Lubbock. I moved in with my two staff leaders, the Bolashes, while we looked for a family for me to live with there. (counting? I'm 3 months out from leaving college and added Five New Housemates already!)

Somewhere in the fall, we found the Bradleys, who had a perfect house for hosting me--their room was on one side of the house, and their grown boys' bedrooms on another wing with its on bathroom and a door that shut it off. I lived with them, a dear couple who were dealing with the possibility of selling their business and retiring, as well as discovering he had several unfortunate food allergies in the months i was there. I paid my rent by being the food-buyer, which i enjoyed, and keeping things clean and watered.

After my nine months in Lubbock, it was time to go. Frodo convinced me to leave my little growing Rivendell and forge on to fulfill my calling. So i moved to San Antonio, into a house with two women i didn't know, and a third i had met a few times at state-wide staff meetings.

I walked in the door in August of 1998 to meet Beth Hough. It was kindredship at first sight.
The house on Ridgewood turned out to be a lovely haven, much more like Rivendell itself than a journey to Mordor. (nothing at all like Mordor!) Living there, i saw The Matrix, You've Got Mail, and Magnolia all for the first time, three of my favorite movies.

The first year i was housemates with Beth and Amanda (not my sister!) and shared a room with Amelia. That foursome (the ABBA house, we called ourselves) ended when Amanda moved on and Dawn moved in (up to 11!) just in time for the most exciting part of "Days of Amelia's Life" drama, in which Jon realized he really couldn't live without her, proposed, and proceeded to plan a wedding.

Once Amelia ditched us for Jon, Pam moved in to my room. We had a revolving number of roommates that summer...Lina, Adrienne, the guys across the street...but i wasn't there for all of it, so we'll not try to pin that to my growing number, which i do believe is now up to 69.

Within a few months of Pam's arrival, it was clear that the Ridgewood days were coming to a close. Each of us was in need of a change for our various reasons. And i ended up moving into a dreamy apartment with Jen Creaney, obliviously living for six months one block from the childhood home of the man who is now my boyfriend! Weird, wild stuff.

At the same time, it became clear that it was time for me to leave InterVarsity, and as the weeks carried on, i realized that it was time to do what i had longed to do for four years: Move Back to Austin. Where to live? it wasn't clear. My move date was set for July 1, the end of 6 months on East Kings Highway. But i didn't know until days before, where my head would rest once i left!

Stay tuned for part three: The HopeArts Years!

(70 Housemates and counting!)