CAL POLY SAN LUIS OBISPO
I remember college like it was yesterday... probably because it was. I graduated from Cal Poly a year ago with a degree, a husband and a child. This was not the way my parents had dropped me off at college three years prior, but that story is a long one that will surely span all of my posts. I want this post, however, to be a memorial to my first year of college.
This is a picture of me and my lovely roommates: Mollie and Caitlin on our first day of class. I can remember loving them almost instantly. We spent most of the summer before college trying to investigate each other. We wanted to be sure we would not be getting the roommates from h***. I had sent each of them a giant questionnaire (100sh questions in all) about who they were, what they liked, what their sleeping patterns were... all sorts of odds and ends about them and yet in the midst of all the emailing we somehow forgot to include any pictures of ourselves. This made arriving at college the first day all the more elusive.
Caitlin admitted that she thought I was the RA because when she arrived I was already busy getting people to help me move the room around. Caitlin was pretty much a sporty blond bombshell exuding California surfer girl to the world. When Mollie arrived she was more exotic and I didn't know what to expect from the girl who listed belly dancer as one of her activities on her questionnaire. For the first couple of hours none of us really spoke other than to pull names to see who would be sleeping where. Once our respected areas were assigned we (and by we I mean each of us with our families in tow) took off on this mad dash to get the room done. We finally settled down and got to spend some time together as we wandered the campus to various events for freshmen. Our parents sadly had to leave and when the dorm room dust settled all that was left was the fertile ground where our roommate bonded friendship would begin.
No one is really sure how it happened, but somehow our dorm room suite became the hub of activity for the Palomar/North Mountain dorms. I would like to think it was because me and the girls were ever so cool (and in part that was true) but it was probably because of the crazy shenanigans we would host at our place. At first we loved that everyone would keep coming over and stopping by just to hang out. Our room was never closed (literally because we wouldn't ever lock it) but anyone was free to stop by and we loved playing host.
It occurred to us after first quarter that we would have crack down on the madness that ensued in our dorm room into the wee hours of the night. There were weeks we would go daily with only three or four hours of sleep because people just wouldn't leave and we wouldn't make them. We finally got smart and by second quarter we were kicking people out. We set a curfew for the room (which I believe was either 10pm or maybe midnight) and we got really strict about it for a while. It was alright though because we were already friends with everyone so no ones feelings were hurt when we would close the door behind them. 
There are some really good memories from my first year of college. Both Mollie and I switched out of Biology... which was such a process and I remember our hating to have to go see . I also remember our crush on Professor Black from Bio 151. I eventually ended up at Business after considering Theater and she moved onto Journalism. I actually don't remember when Jenny came onto the scene but I remember how she would try to scare people at night with this mask and her and Mollie just thought it was hilarious to jump out people from the bushes. I remember Caitlin and I screaming out loud at the alien in our bathroom that movie night and later finding out it was one of the guys from the other side of the building wearing a Golem mask and robe who escaped through Zita's room which is why we couldn't find him. 
I remember Christmas and trying to plan the Palomar Hall Secret Santa exchange and holding the party in the laundry room. I remember all the illegal animals we had... turtles, tad poles, chinchillas and birds (did Marlene have a dog once?). I remember our crush (maybe just mine) on our RA Mike but then seeing him with that boogie out his nose once did him in for me. I remember late nights just the three of us girls talking and once we sang all the songs from the Sound of Music and played I spy with people approaching the room. Plus, speaking of singing... all of our jam sessions to Alanis as we would clean the room and then actually singing You Oughta Know at the Lighthouse. Our room was always either a disaster or spotless because we would go through fazes of dirty and clean... actually the truth was that our room was never too bad because since we were always hosting people we had it pretty well kept and our room layout was by far the coolest and most creative Palomar had ever seen. I remember sleeping out on the hill outside our dorm room. I remember how I basically didn't have a computer all of first year of college because I didn't have a certain cord to get onto the Internet and so I would always use one of the girls computers. 
I remember Robin. She was the only one with a car (the car she attempted to teach me how to drive stick shift with out by the agricultural sheep unit) so we either bummed rides off her or rode the bus. She was one of the coolest people I met in college... that crazy bird from Washington whose mom had my birthday. She was our extended roommate and we loved her so. I remember her and all the talks about Casey. I remember her love of music and pictures and the conversations she would carry on with James and Danny about music that were far too cool for me. I remember her colorful wardrobe and wanting to own it.
I remember hiking Bishops peak a number of times. Each time with a different group of friends and different memories. That probably describes my first year college experience. I had lots of different groups of friends to climb all kinds of college peaks with. So much fun is all I remember. Of course I met Brian my first year of college but I will leave a post all to him otherwise we'd be here forever. Lol.