Roommates from Hell

[Sister Havana]

My freshman roommate was awful. I had requested a non-smoking roommate (this was back in the early '90s, when smoking was allowed in the dorms) and she put down on her application that she was a non-smoker because she didn't want her parents to know she smoked. She was actually a chain-smoker, and a very rude one too. One time I was sick in bed with strep throat, and she came into the room and immediately lit up a cigarette. I asked her very politely if she wouldn't mind smoking somewhere else or at least blowing the smoke out the window since I was sick, and she just laughed and blew smoke in my face.

She was also engaged to 3 different guys in 3 different states (rings and all) and dating at least 10 guys on campus - that's just the ones I saw her with. We only had one phone line with no call waiting, so when she knew I was expecting a call from someone, she'd get on the phone 5 minutes before I was supposed to get my call and tie up the line for hours. She had one of her guys stay over almost every weekend and threw a fit when she found out my sister was going to stay there for Siblings Weekend, since she had plans to have him stay over. (My sister and I ended up dragging my mattress into my friend Allyson's room next door and staying there that weekend - she was totally cool, had a double-single and hated my roommate as much as I did.)

About halfway through the semester, she decided that since she'd brought the answering machine, only her name should be on the outgoing message and she wiped out any messages left for me, whether I'd heard them or not. She also would tell people I wasn't there when I was sitting right in the room! I ended up telling people that if they called and I wasn't there, to call Allyson's number so they would know I'd get the message.

I could go on and on...luckily she moved out after first semester (I think we'd have killed each other otherwise) and in with one of her pledge sisters down the hall. Shortly after she moved in there, she started pulling the same stuff on her new roommate that she'd done to me. (I was a little relieved to know that it wasn't just me - she was just a total jerk)