because most of us have never shared a room with someone. Ever.

I was really worried about this when I came to school, and though it's been okay thus far, I have my doubts about being given a randomly selected roommate come this fall. What I'd really like to do is get an apartment off campus, but that's about as possible as my roommate having Keanu Reeves' children.

Strangers? Nah.

And yet you shared a room with Allyson?

I had some good roommates and some Kathy-like roommates. Then I lived alone my final semester of school and that worked best. But was damned expensive. Yet still slightly cheaper than the dorm.

And yet you shared a room with Allyson?

Huh.

Huh.

Yes, you are very right. But that's Allyson dude. Strange, mayhap, but not a stranger. Like unto a giver of the good things to the people in need.

I know.

Allyson is excellent and amazing. But I've seen her apartment.

It's amazing what you'll do under the duress of moving from some place you hate.

edited to clarify: cause her apartment is neat and clean and lovely but it's still a studio, yo.

Mostly, I just worried I was in her way.

When I house-sat for Colin, the house was really echoey and empty and quiet. And then the co-housesitter showed up, and I resented him even though I never saw him.

Going back to Allyson was nice.

My freshman year, I lived in a dorm that had 13 x 9 doubles. Supposedly they made the rooms ridiculously small on purpose to encourage students to mingle in the common areas. It kinda worked. Sophomore year, same dorm, but a single. Junior year I shared a room in another dorm almost as large as Buffy and Willow's, with sink, and when my roommate had to drop out mid-year, I got to keep it as a single for the rest of the year. Senior year I had a nice single with a sink.

Penn had three apartment-style towers with rooms broadly similar to the floor plans Plei posted. A little smaller, I think. Most upperclassmen who stayed on campus lived there, but I never did, because I enjoyed the conventional dorm environment and found one of the few that catered to upperclassmen. (I know, I'm a freak.)

Ya'll are making me look meanly at my own dorm system, here.

I had a tiny little single which shared a bathroom with the other tiny little single next door. I had a desk, a dress and a bed. and a little one foot path between each thing. The desk didn't really fit properly, and I had to move it one way or the other to get into either the closet or the bathroom, both doors couldn't be opened at once!

Being a child bride I lived in a house with my DH in college. It had advantages. Brendon roomed with 2 other guys in a fairly large 2 bedroom dorm with nice size LR and Kitchen.

My first freshman year roommate was supposed to share a room with a good HS friend, but the university screwed up her assignment and put them on different floors, so I swaped with her friend after a week. The new roommate was very nice and I liked her a lot, but when I became friends with two girls down the hall, and one of them was having problems with her roomie, we all mutually agreed that I would swap again and move in with my friend at the end of the first semester. Big mistake--the girl ended up being "Kathy", all the way to putting post-it notes on the window so I wouldn't close it (even though she was not in the room and I was freezing) and on her bike so I wouldn't move it (even though it was sitting in the middle of the room and I kept on tripping over it and, again, she was nowhere to be found). She was such a bitch, but I was so sick and tired of moving that I stuck it out for the rest of the second semester.

My sophmore and junior years I had the same roommate, but when she decided to move into an apartment for senior year, I had to scramble again. Ended up with two different roommates that year, but this time I stayed put and they moved in and out. The two summers I stayed on campus, I sublet apartments. First summer, one of the guys I was subletting from stayed in his bedroom for the first two weeks of the session, and then went back home, and a friend of mine sublet that bedroom for the rest of the summer. Second summer, I was pretty much on my own, and it was wonderful!

I've had to share apartments a few times since I graduated, and I am so relieved that I am at a point financially where I don't have to worry about doing that again.