Field trip

Roommates are funny things, particularly when you go about recruiting them the way I did: I found an apartment I loved and then looked for people who would live here with me--not friends or acquaintances, but total strangers. (Honestly, when it comes to livability, I don't think it makes a difference. There's no way of really telling if an acquaintance is a total slob--even if you knew they were, it'd be hard to say no once the subject was broached--and by living with strangers, you have the fun of getting to know new people and circles of friends. And if you hate each other, it's not as if there was a friendship to destroy in the first place. Or maybe it really was an odd thing to do... too late now.) The getting-to-know-you process, as mentioned in my last post, has been somewhat uneven between the three of us. We're all students, but I had a summer internship whereas the other two were just hanging around the apartment together all day. They also had the liberty of going out at night and getting trashed together, and we all know how good one's judgment is at the end of a night like that. So they hooked up. This was confirmed by one of them last night (the two of us went to see Danny Deckchair, and there's a mile to walk between our apartment and the theater--good movie, btw), and apparently my not being around much means I've missed a significant amount of resulting drama. Thank God.

Unfortunately, there's a reason why that's one of those lines that should never be crossed. It's going to remain as a lingering possibility for one or both of them, and if it isn't mutual (as I suspect it's not), that just makes things worse. Hopefully I'll miss that drama too, because it's bound to reappear. And as for me, while I wasn't involved, it isn't something I'm likely to forget... hanging out with both of them together isn't nearly as comfortable as it was.

I learned this today when the three of us took a field trip to the Art Institute. In an attempt to feel like I'm not wasting my vacation time, I recruited both of them to join me in getting cultured (Tuesdays are free, too; how cool is that?). Neither one of them had ever been, and I myself hadn't been in months. It was a perfect day, and in my opinion, the Art Institute is the best museum in the country (well, maybe it's tied with the Met... it's been a few years since I set foot there and my taste in art has developed significantly since then). So we hopped on a train, toured the museum, and then grabbed dinner at McCormick & Schmick (expensive, but so worth it). Great day, right? Well, long silences kind of detract from one's enjoyment of all that... one feels obligated to be social, which means talking, and when that isn't accomplished, we've all failed at something. I like both of my roommates, but when it was just the three of us trying to entertain ourselves, it didn't happen.

This is going to be an interesting year.