You probably had to be there

When it comes to handiwork, I’m essentially inept. After moving into our new dorm, Carter, one of my roommates and I were attempting to hang posters and put together wooden shoe racks, etc. I must point out that we would never have accomplished these tasks had our friend Jett not contacted us earlier. Kelsey and I did not have any tools whatsoever. Jett brought over his toolbox and set it on the table in the same manner as he seated himself on the couch. I discovered the power of persuasion about 10 minutes later. After much coaxing on my part, and stubbornness on Jett’s, he reluctantly gave in and agreed to help us put everything together on the terms that I help him. So naturally I sat down on the speckled carpet next to Jett and watched him as he assembled Kelsey’s shoe rack alone. I explained to him that without the help of IKEA’s step-by-step illustrated instructions, I wasn’t able to operate tools.

A shoe rack, two hanging, framed posters and a shower curtain later, Jett was finished helping us assemble our room. Throughout his work, I talked at him, played (and sang along) to some Florence and the Machines, critiqued his placement of my posters and basically did absolutely nothing, while drifting from room to room. At about the time Jett finished, I was getting restless from doing nothing and wanted to talk to Jett. Except I couldn’t find him anywhere. Our dorm room is not that big. It consists of four bedrooms the size of a full-XL bed, two bathrooms and a living room with the minimum amount of space required to accommodate four people. I searched high and low for Jett. I checked my bedroom and Kelsey’s bedrooms to no avail. The other bedrooms were locked, which left the bathroom. Earlier Jett was hanging our shower curtain, and I just knew he was still inside the shower. My plan was to creep into the bathroom and scare him. However, I wasn’t able to execute because when I crept into the bathroom and threw open the shower curtain, the only thing I surprised was a couple bottles of shampoo.

Behind me I heard a giggle and a snort and turned just in time to see Kelsey spit up the contents of her water. She had just taken a huge gulp from her water bottle to swallow a pill and now the water was spilling from her mouth to the carpet – as was the pill. She was doubled over in laughter on the now wet carpet, searching for her medicine that had escaped. Of course, her frantic searching for a pill on the ground had me giggling, especially since she put it back in her mouth and swallowed after she found it. I think that made me laugh harder since it disgusted me so much. I still didn’t understand why she was laughing so hard until I looked past her to see Jett sitting in a chair in the living room. Suddenly, I found myself beside Kelsey unable to breath past my laughter. I’m not sure if we were laughing at my ignorance because I was unable to see what was right in front of me or if we were laughing at my stupidity because I just yelled ‘boo!’ at a couple of shampoo bottles, but it had us laughing for a good five minutes.