5 Shcrute Bucks, Please

When there is good, entertaining (and a lot of the time reality) TV on, I tend to plan my days around making sure I don't miss Bethany and Kelly's latest fight, whether Philipe or Sione are going lose enough weight to stay above the yellow line, or Jim's latest office prank on the one-and-only Dwight. Right now, however, is a time when not much is on television - I mean, it's been over three weeks since Ed proposed to Jillian and I still have yet to find anything entertaining on TV.

So, what have I done? I've given my couch a break and started enjoying the company of my roommates and those around me (ingenious, right? I mean, who would've thought). Since our TV favs have ended, we've had more roommie dinners (like Gouda Mac Monday and Taco Tuesday - mmmmm) and I realized that I had honestly forgotten how much fun it can be to just sit around and talk. Even two nights ago at our bi-monthly book club meeting, we ended up hanging out and just talking until 10:30pm - much later than our usual 9pm finish time (old balls). My 3 roommates and I all studied abroad together in Rome, Italy where we didn't have cable or TV and barely had internet. We would spend night after night crammed into one person's tiny bedroom sipping moonshine and peroni and casually slipping outside (as unnoticed as possible) to purchase yet another cup or cone of gelatto. I think it was because of these nights that I felt so confident in my time in Italy - I was constantly connecting with the people around me. Now, I don't want to totally mislead you - we did have laptops and DVDs and we were known to occasionally spend an evening watching a season (or 3) of The Office. But a little reminder of home was sometimes necessary to keep us from screaming at the Italian-stalions who were never shy of showing their true (physical) feelings toward American girls! But when I look back on my time there, it's not The Office that I remember. It's the talking, the cooking, the eating and the drinking that come to mind. There were 10 of us sharing 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, two (tiny) stoves, 1 sink and 1 fridge. You can't get much closer than that.

And this all makes me think of Friends (another shout-out to the TV show that's constantly paralleling my life). All 6 of those characters can sit around one couch at a coffee shop and just talk. For my last few months in Chicago with my Navona roomies, I need to remember to talk to them, drink with them, eat with them and probably (since the new Projcet Runway starts tonight and Biggest Loser starts in September) share some much-loved couch time with them.