As some of you know, my brother is my current roommate. I have owned my house for a year and a half and have spent most of that time alone. There was the intern from work who roomed with me last tax season, but nothing that occurs during tax season is real, it is all a blur of caffeine, no sleep and daylight deprivation.
Anyway, I have come to realize that I have developed my own peculiar way of doing things. A cram as much in a load of laundry as possible, I only turn on lights if absolutely necessary to perform a task. I eat my largest meal of the day at lunch and have a very light supper at home (nearly a snack to be honest). Even on weekends, I eat my big meal no later than 4pm and I always make lots to have leftovers for weekday lunches. I am very still when I get home. Read outside for a couple hours. Have supper. Watch a few hours of primetime tv and go to bed.
My brother, also having lived on his own for quite sometime, operates differently. Ted is always doing laundry. Between work clothes, going out clothes and laying about clothes, this boy generates tons of laundry. Lights are used for everything, without question. The kid eats…constantly. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Supper/Evening Snack. I don’t know where he puts it. He comes home and is either all fired-up talking and moving around the house a mile-a-minute or he is in his room playing videogames/watching movies. Time for food…just pause the game or movie upstairs, go down to the kitchen and start a meal, while waiting go to the living room and turn on the lights and tv. Food ready…grab it from the kitchen and go back upstairs to your game. Fall asleep late night to an infomercial.
Slowly, but surely, our lifestyles are coming into balance. We take turns making dinner for each other, but not every night. He has started consolidating laundry loads. I am trying to be more social in the evening, chatting and watching programs we can agree on (there aren’t many). He is trying very hard not to leave lights and tvs on all over the house. I think we are both the better for it…time will tell.