Roommates - Joe

It is the beginning of another semester. All of my roommates are back in town now and over the break I realized that I had missed living with them. I know a lot of people are crazy about their roommates and while it is true that my roommates are great we are not all "best friends" like some apartments. We all knew each other coming into this year and we generally liked everybody else, but we were not an inseperable clique. I have heard that it is a really bad idea to roommate with a best friend, and I have heard stories to back it up.

However, the situation with my roommates and I is ideal. We knew each other well enough to be comfortable living with each other right off the back, but we were not so close that we got sick of each other either. That is the biggest danger of having roommates. There is nothing worse than living with someone for a year and finding out 2 months in that you absolutely hate their guts (at least living with them).

So I guess this post is an Ode to My Roomies. It will be in four installments, describing each of my roommates and why they are awesome to live with. Some of you think is trite and juvenille but the truth of the matter is that good roommates, really good roommates are hard to come by.

I will start with Joe. Every apartment needs a guy like Joe. Joe is the most honest, forthright person I have ever met. He is direct and to the point. There has not been a situation in the apartment that Joe has had a problem addressing. If we have a problem with rent or we need something fixed, Joe is the guy to go over and talk to somebody. He does not worry about stepping on people's toes because he knows that if needs to get done, it is someone's job to get it done. He is the same with in the apartment. If someone doesn't clean up their crap or doesn't pay their rent on time. He has no problem saying "Hey clean up your crap". And the thing of it is, I don't of one time that anyone has gotten mad at him for doing so. It needs to get done and the guy responsible knows it. It isn't offensive because Joe is sweet like that.

We do not spend all our time together. We don't share secrets. And we don't borrow each others' clothes. But there has never been any question about our friendship. We hang out whenever, and when we are in the living room or cooking we all always have extremely pleasant conversation. Joe is a no-nonsense kind of guy. He doesn't let stupid things get in the way of him living his life. That's the best thing about him. He is realistic, down to earth, and therefore just a great guy to hang out with. Every apartment should have a Joe. If you need the landlord to stop stalling and fix something, if you need to yell at a roommate for never throwing out his sour milk, or if you just need to shoot the shit on a Friday after class - everybody needs a Joe.