Empty nest
It used to be that this big, old house had 12 merry girls living under its roof. Weekday nights were filled with conversation and laughter while we sit around the television and eat dinner in front of it. Oftentimes, in the middle of the night, someone would say she’s hungry, and we’d be happy to have an excuse to order burgers and fries and Coke and boxes of pizza.
Sometimes we would all just go out in our pambahay clothes to eat at the fastfood outlets that abound in this area of the city. Every time there is a birthday, or a promotion, or a regularization, or just about anything worth celebrating, we would hold a party, and because there were 12 of us, we would have at least one party a month. That excludes the big party at Christmas, the weekly official gatherings on Monday nights, and the random getaways.
Things have changed, though, in only a span of few months. There are only six of us now. The others have gotten married, eloped with the boyfriend, left to live with a sick father, or moved back to watch over the empty family home. Of the six of us still here, one is rarely here because her family lives just a town away, and two are always out with their boyfriends. (Should I just get a boyfriend, too? LOL). My roommate is also leaving in a week to prepare for the coming of her baby. It’s sad, but I’m also glad that she is keeping the baby.
That leaves just three of us around the TV and the dining table every night. They say three is a crowd, but it’s still not like what it used to be. Did I say this is a big, old, wooden house?
I would rather live in a noisy, messy house than in a house as quiet as this. I can afford to get my own room or my own apartment, but I love it here. I like noise. I just hope the landlady finds us more housemates soon. I am looking for a roommate, too, because I cannot sleep alone in my room. The one time that I was alone in this house, I turned all the lights on, and I turned on the TV downstairs even though I was upstairs. I never volunteer to be the one to turn off all the lights when everyone is going up to their rooms at night.
I’ve yet to meet someone who prefers having a roommate. Maybe it is because I was used to living in dormitories my whole college life that I find it lonely to have a room all to myself. I tried two years ago, and it was that, lonely. I never had problems with lost money or lost belongings. Lost food, yes, but it is okay. Friends are licensed to steal food. I never had freaky roommates either, ergo, the ones who steal your identity. LOL. Maybe I am just lucky.
Comments
as poignant as fiction can be, real life can be so much better. i love this little glimpse of your world. it makes you much more real to me.
thank you, illyria. i’d probably write more personal stories here.
“Should I just get a boyfriend, too?”
- i concur. humook-up ka na kasi dyan sa Cebu! haha.
ay ayoko. nasa malayong lugar ang gusto ko. haha.
You’re the first person I’ve heard say to prefer a roommate; most of us (definitely me as well) do prefer to have a place to count on to be alone.
Even for me it can get boring, if not particularly lonely, living in a place alone, but at least a *room* is next to necessary. (^_^)
I don’t know about living with 11 other people, I’ve never been in a house with more than 6 people in it. And I’m pretty sure I can sleep alone, but with my brother (and roommate for the last 26 years) getting married in a month, I think I’m starting to understand how you feel. It’s going to be lonely on my own.
@nakajoe
i guess it depends on whether you like your roommate. i wouldn’t want to have a roommate too if i don’t like the person.
@philos
tell your brother good luck, btw.
well, i’ve lived with, uh, 500 other girls in a dorm! it’s fun, i tell you. 26 years is a long time. aren’t you having separation anxiety?
@stox
Definitely so; I had a roommate for a year, and we got along fine, but still personally like space to myself. Not that I mind a lot of people in the area, one of my best living arrangements was when we had 8 people in a 4 bedroom apt. Of course I had my own room then too (paying more rent), and 3 of the 8 just lived in the main room.
It was overall a lot of fun, and I even picked up a (very) little Cantonese being that everybody but me and one other person was from Hong Kong. Too bad I’ve mostly forgotten it now…
i used to want to have my own private space, too, but i lived in a campus dorm for a long time, and i didn’t have much choice. then i got so used to having a lot of people around.
so how was it living with the chinese? did they know how to speak english? or was sign language your lifeline?
never tried living with a roommate (not unless you consider my sharing a room with my two sisters until i got married, of which i guess my husband became my roommate.. hehe)… can’t imagine living with 11 other people not related to you… sounds both fun and chaotic to me…
chaotic is the word.
but it’s fun, especially if they’re your age. i’ve lived with someone in her forties, and i didn’t like the experience very much. she was ugly.
@stox:
They were all university students here (US), so their English was just fine. But that didn’t stop me from listening when they talked amongst themselves.
maybe they were talking about you. you just didn’t know.