family

Moving

As some of you already know, I am moving out of the house. It wasn't a decision to take lightly. In fact although the house may feel dorm-like I love it. As I grow up and enter the real world I have come to determine there are things I need to live like I want too. I need a kitchen to cook meals. I need a bathroom that is private to do all the girlie things that keep me beautiful. :)

Although I always knew I wouldn't live at the Hyer House forever it is sad to realize my time here is coming to an end. I have come to care about the people here more than I ever expected. It is strange to even think that I was nervous at one time. These men have been better friends to me than people I have known for years. They have been honest with me about silly things in life, like online speech classes. We have bonded over windows that need to be nailed shut. We have had the pleasure to talk about real things too. I am honored to know them and I hope whoever takes my spot here knows how blessed they are to be under this roof, even if it doesn't look sturdy. 

I love this house. 

minus the fridge. 

but i do love it. 

Yard Sale

Saturday morning I had to go to work before the fellas in the house were awake. As I walked out the front door quietly, so as to not wake them, I was struck with a surprise. There was crap covering my lawn. An old dresser, lamps, assorted boxes of things, a mattress, tables and picture frames. So either the boys had rented out the lawn as another bedroom or... a Yard Sale. Charlie the landlord was there selling the things that had been stored in the garage out back. 

Strangely, I saw all the fellas later that night at a party and asked if anyone had known about this yard sale. Josh thinks Charlie mentioned it the day before. Otherwise everyone had experienced a similar morning as me, just later. Josh walked outside in his pajamas to be greeted by faces he didn't know :)

After the morning sale Charlie dumped the leftovers in a pile by the curb, trash. An old mattress with an interesting looking stain. The dresser. Brian lifted the dresser that is now by the drum set. So, if anyone needs a mattress :)

Hugs

How do you all feel about hugging? 

Do you hug everyone you meet? only your family? everyone but your family? Lovers only? Friends only? Do you hate hugs from anyone? 

One day in my life, quite a while ago now, I went to the starbucks drive through and the barista in the speaker box took my order for a triple grande soy latte and then suggested I try their new muffin or danish of sorts. I dismissed his suggestion instantly. He must have been having some promotion or competition at work because he came back, "if you buy one i'll give you a hug". I stared for a moment at the speaker and briefly considered the logistics of such an offer in the drive through. "I'll take it" I responded with a laugh. That morning as I received an awkward hug through the window of my car and nibbled on my pastry I realized that had been the first hug I had received in weeks. 

Tonight when I came home my roommate hugged me. This isn't a normal ritual for us in this house. Although I hug my boyfriend regularly this hug struck me in a similar way as my barista hug. Pete got off the couch to give me a hug and then Josh also got off of his chair and gave me a hug. Pete decided we should have a group hug also. For 30 interesting seconds I hugged my roommates in a sandwich. I am not a hugging person. I love hugging the people I love but I would say outside of that group I rarely hug anyone. Although this was slightly uncomfortable it was innocent and mildly ridiculous. 

Is hugging altogether a silly activity? I don't think so because I felt like I was a part of something tonight (something strange; sure). My house makes me feel like I am apart of something in the way Starbucks marketing and products make me feel like I am apart of something when I am in their store or when I drink their coffee. 

Updates...

Things at the house have been quiet for me lately. There is a new hammock on our porch thanks to Josh and Brian even swept off all the trash and leaves. The place looks much more presentable. Summer is coming and I hope we get to be outside. Pete is looking very tan for this summer season. Josh washed his car. Well, I think thats pretty much the update for now. :)

Security

Josh, Pete, and Javan went to the beach on friday night. I was home alone, chillin, eating a pretzel. Brian would be coming home but the guys said he would be late. I noticed the front porch lights were on and I thought I would turn them off so everyone couldn't see me in the living room alone, eating my pretzel. As I approached the light switch by the door I looked up. There was a face in my door! I shrieked. I stumbled backward. I covered my mouth so my burglar wouldn't see my food mid-chew. To my surprise my burglar looked sad. It was brian. He came inside apologizing for scaring me. When I swallowed my pretzel I laughed, poor brian was simply coming home and was apologizing for it.

I went out of town the next day and when I got back tonight there was something odd happening at the house. It was navy blue and filling the windows. Of course my first thought was that the boys turned the house into a swimming pool. Next I thought they were watching a movie and colored the windows in with marker. It turns out, Brian being so distraught from our interaction decided to hang curtains for security. He said he saw my fright coming since he could see me though the windows and figured I didn't see him. How exciting! If you come over soon, we haven't turned the house into a swimming pool. 

Lent

No one that lives in the house is Catholic but we all believe that sin rips us apart from God and rips us apart from community. In response we are mourning our sin for this season. Mourning sin involves different things for everyone and who am I to tell anyone what it should look like. Everyone in the house is giving up things that hold us back and trying to add things into our lives that will hopefully heal some of the pain; we are giving up things like excessive spending of money, oversleeping, romantic pursuits, etc. We're also adding things like prayer and study time. I don't know how this will go for us over the next 40 days but I hope everyone has a good 40 days and that they come closer to understanding how much sin damages us and how much grace God has to give us in return. I hope that we find how much grace can heal and overcome.

John 1:15-17 (esv)

John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'" And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Ladies!!

Rose & Courtney are moving in across the street in the other half of the Duplex that Becca lives in. I am sooo excited ladies are taking the street back! A bunch of folks are here watching the oscars and I realized Rose was the first lady I had visited with since I moved in. I love my boys but now I can talk about the outfits people are wearing instead of how pushed up the ladies boobs are. 

Displays of Love

When you live with other people you actually allow others the opportunity to love you. Maybe with my past roommates I never noticed but it's so obvious to me now. 

Javan lives upstairs with me, and right now him and his dad are removing the old and installing a new doorknob into my door. They are saying things like, "it normally works like this" and "hrm, this doorknob was installed improperly by the last guy". Its the most undeserved display of love I have ever received from men I have barely known. Although they have unknowingly trapped me in my room since they are blocking the door, there is no where I'd rather be. It's masculine and my internal feminist is saying, "I could do that" but I couldn't; it looks hard. Thanks guys. 

Tanning

I climbed out of my window in order to tan on the roof. It really seemed like a good idea. It wasn't. I dropped my nail polish off the side of the roof, got some pollen fungus stuck to the back of my shorts and the roof is not in fact as private as I thought it was. 

I jumped back inside my window. 

Visitors

The hyer house has frequent visitors. Some sporadic like Tony who is sitting in front of me right now talking about bikes with Chris. Some more like Jon who I don't think ever really moved out. Others like Michael, Brian's twin brother, who is visiting and sleeping in the living room. Becka says she comes over but she must be invisible. This is part of the charm of this house. The porch is spacious with wide wooden railings that can serve as seats. When I decide to go downstairs in my pajama pants it can be embarrassing but most times its comforting to hear random voices floating up the stairs. 

At my old apartment I came home after a long day to darkness, quiet, and too much space to think about all the shit that went wrong during my day. At the hyer house I come home to greetings, scrubs on tv, people playing games, facebook stalking and I get to hear about other people's days and I forget the parts of my day I didn't like. 

Tonight they went to Jelly Rolls, which sounds like a strip club featuring large women, but it isn't. It is a piano bar at Disney. The other day Josh and Pete walked to Burtons. Pete and I went to get drinks at the end of the day at the mall bar. These little invites and visitors make me smile. There may be a time that its annoying, but now its wonderful. 

the actual house

The house itself is it's own character and deserves its own post. The house is old, anyone who has been there knows this. It is green-ish with a large porch that has white railings and a red floor. The windows are old wooden pulley windows, they sometimes lock sometimes don't. The door locks, with a key no matter whether you are on the inside or outside.

So the window that looks out onto the porch has an extension cord feeding though the bottom. The bright orange cord connects to the Christmas icicle lights that hang from the awning. This is one of the windows that doesn't lock and rarely even gets shut. If you're locked out, as Pete often misplaces his keys, you can climb through the window. Pete tried this and I think a passerby though he was breaking in. Either way, he got into the house and the person must have assumed he was a nice burglar.

I sat on the roof for the first time on Saturday, Josh told me mid brushing his teeth once that the guys liked to hang out on the roof, I understood most of what he was saying through the foamy bubbles. It was nice, relaxing. From the top side the roof appears to be in good condition, mildly new. From the underside, it does not appear this way. My ceiling has a large spot where it leaked some time ago and the stucco was never repaired. I am glad the leak was repaired. I have hung a little sash over that spot so it is barely apparent. While I was sitting on the roof I watched the man next door scrape the blue paint off of his old wooden house. he was invading my private roof space so I left.

As far as electricity the house is... interesting. I have one outlet in my bedroom and extension cords running along the walls. All of my electronics favor the side of the room with the outlet, if the house tips over it is because the weight in my room is not evenly distributed. Javan only has one outlet in his room too. The bathroom has one outlet. I wonder if the downstairs is any better.
There is a basement too, abnormal for a house in Florida. I asked the boys if they owned a broom once, Pete pointed to a half mangled broom looking thing on the front porch. I later found a real broom and dust pan in the broom closet; maybe the boys don't know about the closet.

Moving In

Melissa moved in upstairs filling the Hyer House. 

We have Brian, Josh, Pete, Javan and Melissa.

So far I have gotten to know a little about everyone. Here is what I have gathered. 

Brian: Has a twin! how cool is that?! Brian works making animation graphic arts and he likes his job although it is not his entire world. He doesn't currently have a special lady. He doesn't like the opening graphics for Sex and the City. He doesn't smoke and he likes my glasses. He is also in the running for something called "Bro-mate" which I am trying to learn more about. 

Josh: Works somewhere very professional sounding but I always forget the name. His job makes him think a lot and it hurts his head. He plays guitar with the band in the house. or bass, who can tell? He is proud of his alma matter and has small group on monday nights. He may be getting a special lady, slowly. He also likes to eat chili.

Pete: Runs the music program for a school nearby and they only make him be there 3 days a week, but he works the other two from home planning lessons. He likes music a lot. His other favorite hobbys include watching scrubs and facebook. He wears very snazzy sweaters. He has a blog too, i might post a link if I can figure out how to do that. Pete's special lady is a fancy guitar. He likes sitting on the porch on the couch and gives homeless men rides if they need them. 

Javan: I don't know what Javan does, I should ask him. He plays the drums in the band. He loves fish and build a coy pond! He likes dancing too. He is taking an online class at valencia and he gets cold easily. He is busy a lot. He is a good roomie, he always asks if he is being too loud which i think is very nice. He also asked me if i liked the candle sent in the bathroom, I did. 

and me... Melissa: I work for an accountant. I graduate from UCF in the spring. I have a special fella. No one in the house though. I do not sing or play any musical instrument of any kind. I like chipotle burrito bowls and salty food. I like writing too. I was nervous about moving from my 1 bedroom into the house but so far, i really like it.