Last year for my birthday, I asked my friends to send me stories related to our friendship. I spent my birthday taking a trip down memory lane, reading through all of them. This year, I asked some of my friends if I could share their memories with you.
Today’s memories are from Cody Daggett, one of my residents when I was a Resident Assistant at Oregon State University. He was a sophomore when I was a senior. That was probably my easiest year of being an RA – McNary Hall was the official dorm of the University Honors College and my floor had a lot of engineers. They were a fun but responsible bunch.
Here’s what Cody had to share:
It was a dark and stormy night in McNary Hall when the evil RA roamed the halls looks for scared underclasspeople to write up for doing misdeeds. (Don’t believe him. I wrote 1 conduct report that entire year.) She was a sassy one and her name was Ruth Bare Ass Carter. I’m not sure how she got that middle name. (My middle name is Barras – my great-grandmother’s maiden name.)
Everyone was a little afraid of her at first (See – I can be scary) but then Wyatt started with one of his women jokes and got her to crack a smile. Hannah joined in with her lovely British accent and funny American impersonation and the just forced Ruth to like the group more and get rid of her evilness.
Even still, she would roam the halls every night looking for open doors and people to entertain or chat with. I also found myself doing the same many nights. Sometimes she would show off with a gymnastics trick or two or tell the story of how she once escaped from Alcatraz. At least that is how I interpreted it the when she told me she was from San Francisco.
There are three things I remember most about Ruth:
#1 The amazing OSU black and orange blanket that she made for me over winter break. I still have it. (Yay!)
#2 Although never being a Trekkie myself finding myself, getting into Star Trek more and more during nightly readings. (I get horrible insomnia. When I couldn’t sleep, Cody would read to me from whatever Star Trek paperback I was reading at the time until I fell asleep.)
#3 The fun and friendship she brought to some of the best times and friends in my life.
That was such a fun year. The sixth floor of McNary Hall was an awesome group of residents, many of which I’m still friends with today.