The Rules of Roommateship

I hope you all know that I'm not perfect. It's true, I'm not. Sometimes I get angry at other people sometimes. I got angry a week ago, but I decided to handle it in a unique and non-threatening way. Instead of a heated argument or yell-fest, I decided to poke some fun at the reason behind my anger and get everyone involved in making a list of "rules". I got input from everyone, wrote them down, and then had a discussion the next day so that everyone could ratify them. Here are the rules:

Rules of Roommateship

1. If your roommate asks you a question, you should give them an honest answer.

2. No sharing underwear or toothbrushes- everything else can be used with permission.

3. Don’t talk on the phone more than you talk with your roommate.

4. No music until ½ hour before work.

5. I won’t look in if you don’t look out.

6. Jessica can only consume Dr Pepper if it was provided by an enabler.  

7. No playing Third Day ever.

8. Kristjun must spend less than 1 hour in the bathroom.

9. Erin’s seafood can only be made outside.

10.                  Jordan will have a rule made for him in the future. Until then, he has to be a very good person.

11.                  “Jes” must be spelled correctly.

Some rules have been added since then. Rule 12 is "Adam is the official overseer of all rules", which hasn't been ratified, but I'll let it slide since the overseer doesn't actually have outlined rules. Chris tried to change some rules and add "No having noodles as friends", but since he doesn't actually live here, and the rule was not ratified, it doesn't count. He helped in making rule #2, but we had to add "Chris cannot make any more rules" as rule #13. This evening, Kristjun said he was adding the "golden rule", and I said he wasn't allowed to write it since it wasn't ratified, but he reassured me that I would ratify this rule. And, of course, it was ratified when I saw what the "golden rule" was: BABIES. (It's a joke based on something I said last week.)

The cool thing about the rules is since everyone created and ratified them, it's actually kind of fun to follow them. If someone decides not to follow a rule, we're just like, "Hey, Rule Number 3" and leave it at that.

Another thing that started this weekend is bets. I was trying to convince Kristjun that I was not addicted to Dr Pepper, so he told me to give it up for a month. I said I would if he agreed to stop playing video games for the last week of that month. Completely unrelated, just two days later, Adam agreed to give up soda for a month if Shawna would agree to not talk for an entire day. Around the same time, Christina realized she had lost a bet against Erin that they made when I arrived (regarding my dating life), and so now Erin gets to slap Christina. Today Eli said that he kind of felt left out of all these bets and decided to give something up just for the fun of it. So anyway, no Dr Pepper for me for awhile.