The Fab Four; The Elements; The Aviary

I've never liked or really even appreciated those people who fawned over their roommates. It annoyed me. I didn't always love mine, so how could they be so happy with theirs? I did always love some of mine, but it wasn't ever a connection that would make me write Facebook statuses or even in fact entire blog posts about them.

But now I'm one of them. I've found people I just absolutely love. I feel more at home there, with them, then I do while I'm currently sitting in my home in California (probably because my sister is in my old room, and I'm in the exercise room). Home is where the heart is, after all. My heart happens to be in Provo.

I know I'm writing this for all to see, but...don't ever remind me that I said/wrote that. It goes against all I believe.

I'm pretty sure this all started with Anna. My first memory of her was during freshman orientation, August of 2009. She sat across from me in our Y group circle on the grass by the Clyde, and told the group of how much she loved Harry Potter. This wasn't a regular love, you see. This was a full on, intimate love of Harry Potter. Perhaps intimate isn't the correct word, but full blown nerdiness ensued. I'd never heard of anyone loving anything (ex. a show/movie) so much. It was weird. But what I most admired is that she didn't give a rats behind if people thought so. She was my neighbor that year. We didn't exactly hang out, either, or really become friends--we just talked on Sunday nights at hall meetings and then bonded over Chinese food, Heath Ledger & naked buttocks. I think that's the true beginning of our story. We just got each other. Simple as that.

Now it's been a full semester of living together. Let's just say, we're perfect for each other. I think we just sort of grew together. Wind. Anna's ability to communicate baffles me--I never have the words, yet she always does. Even now, I'm at a loss to describe her. Anna listens. I can tell her anything and she won't think it's dumb. She'd tell me if it was, anyway. Brute honesty is our best combined feature. She tells me things even when I don't want to hear them. Her fearlessness is definitely what I admire most about her. She'll do whatever she pleases, wear whatever she pleases, and go wherever she pleases, armed with knife and pepper spray--and not afraid to use it. I'm mostly glad she laughs with me, at all the dumb things I say. Or at me, it's hard to tell sometimes. Crunk.

Then there's Lorraine. Fire. Lorraine I've known of for the same amount of time as I've known Anna, but never got to know better than a hello at the door. Now we're roommates. And I love it. We've found our niche together through baking. Decorating cakes is our MO. We're opening a bakery. It's called The Osh Kosh Ganache Cakery --oh my gosh!. You're welcome, world. Lorraine's passion is something to behold. Her love of math has always confused me, but her wealth of knowledge about so many more things is astounding. She loves to run, too--there's just something about serious runners that inspires a sense of awe anyway, but add the flaming red hair and you've got a wowzer there. She's heading off to Paris, France come April. She'll be Soeur Hilton to them, as she's serving a mission for the Lord out there. Basically, the best missionary the French field has ever seen.

And Stacy. Water. Dear Stacy. I knew of her, but not much more when she lived with Anna & Lorraine previously. She baked wonderful banana bread, that's for sure. But now it's more than that. Stacy will blow things off with me just so we can dance the night away to terrible, yet lovely songs. She thinks she's boring, but I think she's hilarious. We never fail to have a good time, even when we're practically doing nothing. We love the strangest, oddest things. Dinosaurs, Slavic techno bands, and crappy Christmas movies to name a few. Stacy's kindness and thoughtfulness blows me away. That's probably what led her to be the new Relief Society President, which we tease her about nonstop of course.

We all just work. As a family. We're a family. Anna, of course, said it best on her blog. She wrote, in regards to the night of Lorraine's mission call opening, "As the four of us shared a group hug just moments after she opened her call, the joy and love I felt regarding all of them was simply awesome...Becca talked about that moment later. As we were all getting ready to finally go to bed, she said that tonight was the time we went from being friends to being family. There is something to be said for a group of people who just get each other. "

 And there you have it, folks. I'm a member of a family in Provo, Utah. I miss them very much, but I love being home with my other family as well. It's different types of love, yet the same love. Really, if you want a better description than that confusing one I just gave, ask Anna. She's the one who makes sense.