Roommate

A very good friend of mine is also a divorced dad with 2 kids. We met several years ago during a media project we were running for BCBST and we've been friends ever since. D is a good guy, which is why he's probably never really been single either. He wants to get remarried and is with a girl he thinks is 'the one.' I hope it works out for them.

D is a sales rep for a building products company in the midst of one of the worst economies in history, but he makes it work. He stays at my place when he is in town, and those nights usually end up with D throwing up in the driveway and the declaration that we will never drink that much again...which lasts until the next time he has a meeting in Nashville. Business is improving, he's getting engaged, and has decided to move to Nashville permanently. He asked me yesterday what I thought about having a roommate for a while. I said sure because...well this is after all the Summer of Yes.

I have only had non-nuptually obligated roommates one other time in my life. I was 19 and it was for the six months before I got married. It did not go well. One guy had chronic nosebleeds and the other guy couldn't keep a job...both relatively normal occurrences for guys in Alaska actually. Both guys would spend their days carving random designs on the wagon wheel coffee table we had in the apartment. They would carve for hours. We found out later that the girl who gave us the coffee table had actually only 'loaned' it to us....she was not happy and said we could keep it. She also recommended a place we could put it. This time there are no nosebleeds or wagon wheel coffee tables and we are both employed...so I'm hopeful things will be different.

So the Summer of Yes begins with a roommate. I have plenty of room and I think his kids will like the neighborhood when they come to visit. We have a neighborhood pool and I have a little theater room in the house which my kids love. Its Mayberry actually...with a commute. I don't know what to expect with this. As 30 something guys, will there be issues surrounding laundry detergent, food, cleaning? Let's hope not.

That being said, I think a few ground rules may be in order:

1: If you drink my beer, be sure to replenish the stock above the level you found it
2: The dryer is to be used for drying clothes and the iron is to be used for ironing clothes
3: The two functions in rule #2 are not interchangeable
4: If you throw up in the driveway, don't wait for a steady rain to wash it away
5: If you drunk smoke, do it outside and don't burn anything down
6: Don't touch my 1952 Gibson J25 under any circumstances
7: The kegerator is a dangerous machine...use it wisely
8: Under no circumstances should you ever wake me up unless you somehow violated rule #4
9: Dont refer to our roomate situation as the 'wolfpack'
10: (I'm leaving one space blank because I'm sure I'll need to fill it in later)

Any good plan needs a few rails to run on - including the Summer of Yes