We knew at the time, each other would be that roommate stories from University were built around. It's an interesting mix, us two. As Calexico is playing on my itunes right now (not planned) and I'm eating yogurt (Momo, you know my battle with Yogurt), I can't help but want to share some highlights from Moni and my 4 years at university.
It wasn't planned we would both live on Northside. In fact, I don't know how Monica ended up there. The result of our Northside adventures was the freshman 15. If you are looking for an excuse, I blame Katy. She spent so much time eating her chocolate chip cookie (breaking it piece by piece), Moni and I had no choice but to endure the pain by shoving more food down our throats.
There were many adventures at the library. It all started one night at Evans first semester. We were studying with Greg and Steve. We were all insanely tired, study time turning into comic hour. At some point, Moni decided to take some pills to help her stay awake. This resulted in me holding her hair back over the toilet as she tried to throw them up.
I believe it was second semester our freshman year that we made the big switch from Evans to the Annex. I can't tell you how many times we met on the fourth floor. It was such an upgrade..there was a skywalk where we would go and talk on our cell phones. After all, I'm sure no one studying could hear us 3 feet away. I'll never forget the time Moni was to meet me there and I watched her try to 'scare me'. She comes up behind and makes this horrid sound in 'my' ear. Little did she realise that it wasn't actually me. She made some random girl scream in the middle of the library as I sat waving from across the room. I can't comment about Evans w/o mentioning Matt. Yes, he was there too.
Then there was the time spent at the rec center. I believe we spent half the time there discussing how we would never have calve muscles. Moni spent the other half of her time laughing at my facial expression when I worked out my legs. We were committed though-we even had a locker. We were also commited to eating at the 'time out deli'.
There was lots of time spent at 1904 where we shared suite A and my drama. We shared everything in that house. We shared the cupboard above the dryer? We shared trips to HEB to get ingredients for our 'planned' dinners, where we would have three separate transactions: my personal things, her personal things, and then the common items (which we would ask to be split over two separate cards). There was the time we weren't going to purchase any more food before finals. We convinced Shahin to give us a box of Cheez Its because he truly believed we were starving. I bought milk with a lottery ticket that semester from a c-store by Sevilla (no windows apartment complex).
Countless nights were spent at the 'duck pad' watching movies and more eating. Pretty much, whenever we were hungry we would just walk into the boys house and treat ourselves. It was criminal, they weren't even there half the time. We retuned a couple of years ago, just walked right in like old times.
Hours 'working' at the box office were always fun. That was the best job in the world. I would calculate our GPA's and what the lowest possible grade we could make on the next test and still get an A in the class. We got to work with some great people-Oh, Chuck how I miss thee.
Then there was the incident. Are we allowed to laugh about it yet? I'll never forget walking in the room that day. Moni with her head in her hands as she sat at her little brown desk. She got in trouble the night before. Let's just say, it was a long semester. That's when I began quoting Bob Marley to her 'don't worry about a thing, every little thing is going to be alright'. Rumour has it, that actually had an impact on her. And still does.
I could go on and on, about life with Moni...ACL and there is the day Tripper died. Yep, nothing like piling four people in the BMW of canoes to go sailing down the river during a drought.
Happy Birthday, Moni! Thanks for making my time at A&M memorable.
