The Spare Room

In addition to driving a ton in the last month or so to go visit friends, a couple friends have also come to visit me here in State College. The weekend after I went to Ithaca to see Carl & Seth, Seth swung through State College as the last stop on his east coast road trip before heading back to Waukesha, Wisconsin. He was only here for one night (31 May), but right after he got here we went disc golfing with Walter, Kent & Petters, and then after that some people from PSCG (David D, Lauren, Laurie, and then Ashley G a bit later) came by to hang out and play games. He came along to Sunday school at my church, but needed to get on the road before the worship service, as it’s a bit of a drive back to Wisconsin from here. Even though he was only here for a few hours it was fun to hang out with him again and I was glad he could make it.
And then just over a week ago (just a couple days after I got back from Michigan), my friend Ryan drove up from Louisville for a visit. Sarah had to work, so she didn’t make the trip, but Ryan came up primarily to go to graduation at Bald Eagle Area HS, where he taught physics for three years before moving to Louisville a year ago, so he knew quite a few of the kids that were graduating. Anyway, the Wednesday night that Ryan got into town a few of us (me, Ben, Chris, Julian & Suzanne) went out to Otto’s for dinner. I absolutely love that place, especially on wing night! After dinner I had Ben, Chris, Adam & Ryan over to play Settlers, though Ben sat out and watched the Phillies game. Check out Ben’s blog post about it (the photo is Ben’s too); and apparently my apartment is a “lair,” haha. It was actually one of the most even games of regular Settlers that I’ve played, with everyone about equal all the way through. I hadn’t seen Ryan since he & Sarah moved away, so it was good to hang out with him for a couple nights. I’m glad it worked out for him to stay at my place too!
While I’ll still have plenty of room (and a couple of couches), I won’t have a spare room (complete with a bed) to host friends overnight for much longer, because I’ve found a roommate for next year! David D got me connected with an incoming meteorology grad student named Anders, who just graduated from Vanderbilt University down in Tennessee. He’s going to be working with the ozone group at least for the summer with their field campaign (hence why David knew about him). It works out great that he’s able to come up here for part of the summer too (he’s moving in on 30 June), which means that Tim won’t have to pay rent for July (he’s been paying rent since he moved out). So it’s only one month off the lease that Tim won’t pay, but that’s still good news for him. I’ve definitely gotten used to living by myself here in this apartment, and it’ll be an adjustment to have someone always around again, but I’m looking forward to having a roommate once again. It’s definitely a relief and an answer to prayer that I finally found a roommate after Alex found out he wasn’t getting in to Penn State. And after the really weird housing inquiry that I got from some guy in the UK who worked for a Nigerian air cargo shipping company, I was just really glad to have someone contact me who seems normal and not completely suspicious. 🙂 Anyway, we’ll see how it goes!