So my roommate is gay. Wait! What?!?!?!?!

"So your the roommate you are living with now is gay?" No, not at all, but once upon a time....


I remember four years ago living in East Somerville which I referred to as Slummahville I had a roommate who didn't say much or really make much noise in the house at all. He would usually spend three hours at a time in the restroom. Ironically, I remember the time he took a seven minute shower and he was done. Why? Because the ex-ballbreaker was having a pool party and he was coming. His reasoning for only taking a seven minute shower? He reads for the other two hours and 53 minutes in the bathroom. I thought it was because he used every Burt's bee bottle he had ever had in the shower. There was around 30 bottles in there.

Regardless, his schedule was weird because he got to choose it to be as such. He worked at the state house and would usually go into the office around three each day. This meant he was a night owl. Nothing wrong with that because he never made much noise. He was like the roommate who was not there (in a house of four). So on a Friday night with nothing going on I decided to surprise him and meet him at his favorite restaurant in Cambridge. We ended up talking about life and he started to share a lot of his thoughts about life with me. For some reason I remember that he had mentioned that two of his college guy friends were getting married. For the year I had lived with him there was no such thing as a gaydar going off in the house. It never dawned on me.

So on the drive home things get a little political.

Roommate: "So I believe that gay people should have the same rights as straight people!"

Me: "Yeah, I believe that gay people should have the same rights as we straight people."

Roommate: "What do you mean we?"

SILENCE

I knew at this point he was gay and I was completely OK with it. I mean if I were in an earlier stage in my life I would have said it would have scared me. At this point in my life I knew it was harmless and knew that he was a person trying to survive in this world just like myself.

That is what this blog is though. Stories of people who affect us and even though we may not share a common area every day. Are there more stories about apartments and roommates? Yes, and those people who I would never accept as roommates (sorry). There is also the stories of life. When you share parts of your life with other people in a way you become their roommate. Sometimes its others around you who help you figure out who you are and locate the pieces.