round table discussion

The small round table wasn’t working for my roommate; it’s too cramped and makes his legs hurt when sitting there for prolonged periods. I have the only viable desk in the house. So now we’re sharing it. We moved his computer over yesterday. Working out the setup was tricky. The placement of the router and his computer tower is very precise, since his ethernet cord and the router’s power cord are both short. It was a challenge to hook up the rest of the cords without getting in the way of his mouse and keyboard. Dante suggested drilling a hole in the desk. I devised a solution involving a small shoe rack (elevating the power strip, thus bringing it closer to the monitor and giving the cords a few more inches of slack) and masking tape (to fasten the monitor cords out of the way).

Roommate was initially skeptical about the setup, but he seems to have settled in well. He played games all night long and is still going strong at noon today.

Meanwhile, I’m still sorting through boxes and putting things away. I never realized just how much stuff I have. A lot of it is just storage; it used to sit in the entranceway walk-in closet, and now it’s gonna sit in the spare bedroom. Old childhood video games. Extra pots and pans and Pyrex glassware. Sleeping bags. A space heater in case we get another polar vortex. My roommate's giant box of shoes (winter boots, beach shoes, sandals, a brand-new pair of sneakers) that he never, ever wears.

I also managed to accumulate additional things in the move. For instance, I had a nearly brand-new toaster oven. Then the prior resident gave us her old toaster oven. Then my parents got me an air fryer. So now we’ve got two toaster ovens just sitting around. We also have a spare microwave courtesy of the prior resident. I thought maybe we’d donate it to charity, but my roommate said we should keep it just in case the other one breaks.

Another example: I already had lots of towels. Right after the fire, when I thought I might be able to move back in soon (ha!) but was worried about smoke damage to my possessions (ha!), Mom bought me a whole set of new towels. So now I have an absurd surplus of towels. I’m not even sure where to store all of them.

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Pictured: (1) The round table setup that didn't work and (2) our new joint table setup. My roommate's the one closer to the kitchen. Not pictured: My roommate's disaster wire configuration