Ode to the roomies...

So I am moving this Saturday. I moved into the house I live now in February of 2009. I moved into a house of 5 girls, none of which I knew, one of which I'd be sharing a room with. That is an intimidating thing. Girls can be drama. Girls can be difficult to get along with. But these girls are different.
After living there only a week I was going to be having surgery and I was having a really bad day. My new roommates, seeing this, decided to gather me up and we all went to Belgian Waffle. I wasn't allowed to eat past midnight so we went at about 10 PM. That was the first night I bonded with those girls and it was that night that I knew I made the right decision moving into that house. Since then we have become so close and each year in March we'll go back to Belgian Waffle late at night. We call it Roommate Belgian Waffle night and we make goals for the next year. Something I look forward to each year.
Then that May our landlord threatened to not open our pool (not very seriously methinks) so we decided to throw a "Save the Pool" party. We invited a bunch of people over saying, "If you want to use our pool this summer you better donate to the fund to open it." That night we all wore these hot pink mardigras beeds so everyone would know who "the roommates" were. We all wore them differently, bracelet style, necklace style what have you and we all were stained where we wore the necklaces. I still have mine hanging in my rearview mirror in my car. One particular roommate, who I refer to as Roommate and have since that day, and I use the term "roommate beads" as a term of comradery. Those roommate beads are significant and not everyone has them... Pretty sure we raised about $60 that night and pretty sure none of us really have any idea what happened to that money, it just vanished little by little until it was gone.
That fall we were all hanging out in the house on 09-09-09 and decided at about 9:00 that we needed to have a one minute long party. So at 9:09 we all celebrated New Year's Eve style, we had margaritas and hit pots and pans and cheered for one minute and then it was back to normal life. We decided to continue that tradition on 10-10-10 at 10:10 only last year we invited friends, had fireworks and all that jazz. Another tradition I look forward to continuing... at least for the next two years.
After living in a house with 5 other girls for a while, people starting referring to us simply as "The Roommates", for example, "What are you doing tonight?" "Oh I heard there was a 10-10-10 party at the roommates house"
I have loved living in this house. Roommates have come and gone, but one thing I have noticed is that the people who have moved in after me have had the same feeling of, "I needed to move here" Moving into the house was one of the best decisions I've made, and moving out will be one of the hardest.
Things I'm going to miss.
Melissa talking in her sleep- some of my funniest and most terrifying moments in the house are a result of that.
Dani- Just Dani, her stories, her falling, her laugh resonating through the house, the sound of crashing that follows her wherever she goes. The precautions we need to take to protect her... i.e. putting an "X" of masking tape on the screen door so she won't walk into it... again.
The carpet in the living room that sounds like a diaper when you walk on it because someone didn't take the plastic off before they laid it.
Being able to have pinatas in the house.
The couches of all varieties.
The skouch
All gathering in the upstairs bathroom just talking as we all get ready to go out to our different activities.
Scaring ourselves so bad we all have to sleep together in the living room.
Doing handstands with Melissa and Kristen (Roommate) in the living room.
The balcony off my bedroom where the wood is so rotten it's terrifying to walk on, I will miss sleeping on it.
The pool.
How many friends we get because of the pool ;)
Scaring Amy every time I come down the stairs because for some reason she can't hear me coming.
Falling asleep to Melissa watching whatever CW show she is addicted to at the moment.
Sitting on the floor in Kristen's room as she crafts a new decoration for her bedroom while discussing our dating stories.
Our stinky fridge that no matter how many times it's cleaned always smells like death, I really will miss that.
All gathering in the kitchen and just gabbing and inevitably getting scared when someone walks up to the sliding glass door.
I am going to miss this house and my roomies. If I didn't know for certain I was doing the right thing, I don't think I could leave it.