Roommate Recflections

With the end of How I Met Your Father, I was forced to come up with something new for my Saturday Story.

As memories from college bring me so much enjoyment, I thought I would write stories about some of the antics performed by The Roommates and others.

So without further ado, I give you the first installment of Roommate Reflections.


Getting Ticketed by Hottie Cop

Once upon a time, on a Saturday morning during my freshman year of college, I woke up with the urge to get another hole pierced in one or more of my ears. One minor problem, though, was that I was still seventeen, and my parents were in another state so they couldn't really give me permission.

I put the idea out of my mind until later that morning when I talked to my friend and fellow dormmate, Sunflower.

"I really want to go get my ears pierced again," she said.

What a coincedence! So did two or three other girls from the dorm! So we all went down to the mall together.

The lady at the piercing pavilion handed us all the release forms, but didn't bother to check our IDs.

Excellent. She assumed that I was eighteen like the rest of them, and I could pierce my ear.

I was a freshman in college, gimme a break!

Anyway, my friend Liv and I decided to split the cost of a pair of earrings and each get one hole in the cartilage of one ear. I left the mall with my friends, one hole in my head richer.

Since Sunflower and I both had the same idea at the same time for getting our ears pierced, it only seemed natural that the next time an idea struck us both at the same time, we should follow through with it.

"What are you doing this weekend?" I asked her one day.

"Nothing. I'm bored. We should do something."

"Yeah, like road trip to California or something!"

"I was thinking the exact same thing! That would be so much fun!"

We batted the idea about, only half-serious, until we went to a particular class that morning. I honestly can't remember what the topic was or how it came up, but at one point the professor said, "or take a random road trip to California."

That sealed it. Sunflower and I gaped at each other. It was like a sign from on high. We were meant to take a road trip to California!

As it happened, Sunflower's car was broken, so she was driving her mom's car. A red convertible. We obtained permission to take the car to California, and then went about seeing who else we could convince to come along.

In the end, it was Sunflower, Nessie, Crystal, and myself who decided to go. We had to be back in time for church commitments on Sunday morning, so the plan was to drive out Friday, spend the night in a hotel Friday night, spend all day Saturday on the beach, and drive back Saturday night.

So the four of us piled into the red convertible, top down, and set off down the road.

Now, this may seem strange to some, but apparently four college girls in a red convertible with the top down cruising down the freeway attracts a lot of attention. After about the third or fourth catcall from other commuters, we decided to keep track.

We pulled out a one-dollar-bill, and every time we got waved or hollered at, we drew a little heart on it.

All was going well, and we were enjoying ourselves thoroughly, until somewhere in California, on a long stretch of highway, when Sunflower's lead foot got the better of her.

We hit about 108 mph. Fortunately, when we saw the lights flashing behind us, we were going a little bit slower than that.

Sunflower slowed to a stop along the side of the highway and rolled down the window (we'd put the top up by then, unable to withstand the 108mph winds thrashing about us). A few moments later, an officer of the law came to the window.

Despite the churning in our stomachs, we were all coherent enough to gape at the devastatingly handsome face of our nemesis. "Can I see your license and registration, please?" he asked.

Sunflower handed him the documents.

"Do you know why I pulled you over?"

Of course she did.

"Do you realize I was going the other direction and I jumped the median just to get you?"

That information was new. And altogether disconcerting. We'd been going 108mph in a 65mph zone.

That was a felony.

Any moment, Sunflower could be dragged away in handcuffs.

Hottie Cop meandered back to his vehicle to write the ticket. When he returned, he handed the ticket to Sunflower with a stern warning. "I wrote the ticket for 80mph. Slow down."

"I will," Sunflower promised. "Um... can we get a picture of you to remember my very first ticket by?"

A slight smile tugged at Hottie Cop's lips. "For safety reasons, I can't allow that. You just be careful now."

We inched along the rest of the way to Escondido, at which point Sunflower had to inform her parents of our excursion. "The good news is, we're here. The bad news is, I got a speeding ticket."

But the really good news was that the speeding ticket didn't make Sunflower a felon. The rest of our trip went as planned, and we returned to school in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

As we pulled back into the parking lot, we presented Sunflower with a trinket to put in her memory box along with her very first speeding ticket--a one-dollar-bill decorated with nineteen little hearts.