Mai Pet

Oh my saucy little pet.  I realize that I need to clarify whom I am referring to with such a title. Mai pet is not my dog, hell, my dog isn't even a dog, to me.  Pet, aka, Alli-pet, aka Allison, was my roommate in the dorms my freshmen year of college.  I found the piece of paper the other day that I was sent the summer before I went to school telling me her name, where she was from, etc and I remember looking at that over and over again and wondering what she would be like.

She was from Newbury Park, a suburb of LA, I could do LA, I thought, I love California! Maybe she'll be nice and normal!  I was so hoping that I wouldn't get one of them, as a roommate, you know who I'm talking about, the super straight laced chick from Orem that wouldn't have been able to handle my trucker's mouth or my um, my irreverent sense of humor.  Turns out I definitely didn't get the molly, though, I got mai pet.

There are only a few things I remember about pet the first time I met her. I remember she was small, as and I remember black.  Pet was covered in black. Her hair had been dyed jet black, she had on all black, black eyeliner, and she had lots of straps and collars wrapped all around her.  Now being the doe-eyed Miss Texas that I was, I was taken back a bit.  With my big hair and my huge assortment of texas flags and nonsense that I had brought to decorate our dorm with, I'm sure I was even more of a shock to her.  As those first few days passed and we began to learn more about each other, the differences only became more apparent.  She was a vegetarian and wore no leather, I only ate meat and potatoes and had a wardrobe that consisted entirely of leather.  She was left, I was right.  She was quiet, I was so very very loud.

Our first semester together was spent quietly tip toeing around each other, trying to be as respectful and polite as possible. She was an amazing student, never missed a class, read every line of every textbook and worked so hard, while I well, didn't exactly make it out the door most mornings.  I slept like a baby that year.  Getting through election night together was a milestone, and I became used to her boyfriend calling and automatically hearing, 'Have you eaten meat today???'  'Hi Ryan,' I would reply, 'here she is.' leach.  Things went by fine but we weren't exactly connecting.

Then the breadsticks happened.  And oh, how they happened.  Our dorm had a cafeteria and next door was a little pizza place that you could use your meal card to order pizza and breadsticks with.  Those blasted fat pills, coming in your choice of garlic of cinnamon-sugar, were our bonding mechanism.  Being one of the only things we both could eat together, we did just that and then some.  Then people started to knock on our door asking if they could wear our clothes as costumes.  Funny, we thought, those are just our everyday clothes.  She introduced me to Modest Mouse and took me to their concert in Salt Lake. I liked them! We had modest mouse!  She was oh so tolerant of me that year, and by the end of finals that spring I remember walking her to a bench where the airport shuttle was supposed to pick her up and crying at the thought of a summer without my little friend.

That was 12 years ago, folks.  We have been great friends throughout it all and whenever I look back at those early days, I thank God for her having an open mind with me. As the years have passed we have both taken on different paths in life, she met the MOST PERFECT MAN FOR HER and was married, while I went off on my weird hippie travels.  I remember walking in the woods one gorgeous autumn day in rural Conneticut, nervous to tell her that I was going to go on a mission - so not something that anyone thought I was the type to do, and getting nothing but support and encouragement at a decision that I knew was right but just didn't understand.  She wrote me every week of my mission, encouraging me, uplifting me, cheering me on and I felt it was definitely something that we went through together.

It's funny to look at us now, she's a hard-working mommy of two kiddos and me practically living in a teepee, and to see how much we have become like each other and switched roles a little, even.  I wish so badly I could switch spots with her for a day and give her some much needed rest, while I know she would fix me one of her fine herbivore feasts every night, if she could.  She has been a huge source of support and a sound mind through all of this and I know the good Lord knew what he was doing when he assigned roommates in 2104 Taylor Hall.  The day I got my first (and only) Pet.

she and I last year in Pasadena with our babies

*the mai thing. When I lived in Thailand for a summer (hitchhiking and wearing very little clothes), I learned three Thai words. Three.  'Hello' and 'not too spicy'.  Sawadeekah and MAI PET.