To My Future Roommate,

Living with you this coming year is not going to be terribly difficult for me. Three younger siblings have built up my tolerance to unbelievable levels, and I actually still share a room with my younger brother. I would be more embarrassed if I had a choice otherwise, but c’est la vie. Before living with me, however, here are a couple of considerations I ask you keep in mind.

Future roommate, please understand my seemingly irrational intake of coffee. I don’t think of it as an addiction, but really as more of a necessity. Doctors generally conclude that seven to eight hours of sleep a night is best for a healthy lifestyle. Eight hours a night? Ridiculous! Twenty-four hours in a day, yet we’re supposed to sleep away a third of it? Unbelievable, really. Between the activities and academics of high school, I needed to squeeze as many hours out of the day as possible. Well, up until my junior year, I really didn’t like coffee much, but I also understood that I needed something to facilitate this hour-squeezing process. Soda wreaks havoc on teeth, and energy shots are terrible for liver, so steeped beverages were really the only direction I could turn. In spite of myself, I actually grew to enjoy coffee and tea quite a lot. Not only did they satisfy my need for energy, but hot beverages are also great for the voice—tea especially. Also, seasonal coffee creamer subconsciously makes holidays awesome. Pumpkin spice, peppermint mocha, Irish crème…they really build appreciation for the seasons. Lastly, Caribou Coffee has a much better medium roast than Starbucks. 

Future roommate, please understand that my sense of style isn’t totally refined, and that’s doubtful to change. I don’t want to keep any secrets, so here it is: my favorite color is orange. I can’t bring myself to wear it much, but be aware that my bedspread, and most of the stuff hanging on my walls are all orange. To compliment this, my other two aesthetic pleasures are owl and piano themed anything. My favorite Christmas presents this year were a reversible piano scarf, a jade plant in a hand-painted owl pot. One other comment about my style: I take perverse pleasure in wearing stripes on plaid and shades of blue which almost match each other, but not quite. My fashion-related eccentricities do not, however, heavily influence my formal dress. The classiest outfit of all time is easily the traditional look of a suit and tie; currently I favor my new silver-grey herringbone suit with peak lapels. To summarize my various stylistic quirks, they are all causal mockeries of real fashion and at the very least provide something to look at. 

Future roommate, please have an open mind and a lot of tolerance where music is concerned. I listen to just about every genre of music in existence, and often launch into long explanations of obscure bands’ origin stories. Also, much to the dismay of my family, I have the bad habit of singing along with the music I listen to. In all honesty, my voice isn’t awful, but I can see how it may get mildly bothersome. In all seriousness though, I listen to everything: pop, rap, R&B, punk rock, old country, a cappella, instrumental, techno, electric, acoustic, live, pre-recorded, alternate, classic, romantic, baroque, contemporary. Nothing is out of the question. Seriously, you name it and either I have heard it, or I throw it on my “listen to this” list. The main cause behind my varied interest is that as a player and singer of music, I believe part of my job is to consume a lot of music. Sometimes I listen to music that sounds awful because the lyrics are thoughtful, and other times I listen to music that sounds awesome but the songs don’t say anything at all. Also, I will purchase a CD before a digital copy of an album ten times out of ten. Part of the reason is that I’m a sucker for physical media, but more importantly, my car was manufactured during that weird time between cassette tapes and auxiliary cords, so until I buy a new sound system, I’m mostly stuck with CDs.

Future roommate, I promise I’m really not tough to live with—I can even cook a little! A couple of my personal tastes are quite deep-seated though, so expect what may usually be unexpected.