I had a male roommate once named Kiley during my early college years. I figured since I didn't know how to get alone with girls very well it might be best to have at least one male room mate. The other was female and we each had out own bedrooms and unique schedules that our paths would not often mix.
Kiley had good taste in music and sometimes we would all go to concerts with some of his friends and ours. He was friendly and seemed to know people everywhere we went. He always had an interesting girlfriend coming around that he was head over heels with. He had a good sense of humor and made us laugh a lot. He was just plan and simple a fun guy to be around. In general, he was a pretty cool room mate.
Unless he drank. Or came home after drinking. Then he pretty much sucked as a room mate.
He would eat all the food in the fridge, none of which was his. Leave the dishes, forks, and his clothing all over the living room. Sometimes leave the front door wide open from his 2am arrival after a friend's party. And sometimes have the girlfriend over and allow her to smoke her cigarettes in his room, despite our agreement for no smoking inside the condo.
While he did pay the bills on time, he just simply had a much different lifestyle than us and we felt we might be better neighbors, not room mates.
Although we eventually did ask him to move out due to these concerns, there were so many great things about Kiley and I am glad I got the chance to know him. One of the things I admired about him was his loyalty to his friends. If he said he would be somewhere, he would be there. He might be late, but he would be there.
One night I joined him on an adventure- there was always an uncommon plan of adventure with Kiley. It just came with the territory of having his wide variety of friends all over the place. He promised a friend he would meet up at a rave in Phoenix. He didn't know exactly where it was, but had a general idea. I had nothing else to do at midnight, so I agreed to go along.
I think I remember his truck having a broken headlight and trouble starting once in a while, so I hoped we would not be stuck in Phoenix. I remember driving on the freeway and coming to realize he had no idea exactly where he was going or how much this rave was going to cost to get in. I had zero money and knew his budget was slim that week. He was notorious for not being fully prepared and I recall pointing this out to him often. Things always seemed to work out for him, much of the time, despite his free spirit. He rarely worried about things typical people stress about. on that drive I thought about how I was being a total buzz kill and insisted inside my head that I lighten up already! As I backed off from my friendly lecture on responsibility, I caught his coy grin troubled by some shifty looks at the dash. Suddenly, he pulled over. We ran out of gas. Which I knew would not normally trouble him, but because freak-out-Liz was the passenger, I could tell he was feeling pretty concerned more than I had ever seen him look.
I followed him to a hill of dusty gravel off the freeway and we climbed over a chain link fence. I wasn't mad or scared or smug. It was actually an adventure and I knew enough about Kiley that we would make our way home eventually and it would all be fine. Especially because he was sober! I think this attitude of mine on shocked him about me. I think the anticipation of trouble stresses me out more than an actual situation of being in the middle of a difficult situation. We found a gas station without much walking on the same street we saw hookers strolling along on. I imagine it was not the better part of Phoenix we were visiting.
Back over the fence with whatever gas his pocket change could muster into a gas can and off we went. But not back home. It was well past 2am and we had no idea where we were going, just that he made a promise to a friend and he was going to deliver on that promise and put forth all his efforts to make it happen. After stopping off at a couple of gas stations and asking for directions we finally found the old abandoned warehouse where the remains of a busted party were smoldering. He never found his friend, the party was long over, and even the music was mute. But we found it with a bit of adventure along the way and I didn't regret going. I wonder if I can find Kiley on facebook?
