Thanksgiving Spare Time

You may be wondering why there's been such an explosion on my blog recently. I've been maintaining a steady diet of one post a month until this week. There is one inexplicable reason: I remembered my password. Just kidding, my girlfriend is out of town for Thanksgiving. With Caity cruising through Europe for 9 days I've had to come up with my own ideas to avoiding extreme boredom. Normally this would be easy, but normally I live with 6 other guys who keep me company. This week we six were narrowed down to two. It felt like Survivor. Who could drive the other one out first in order to truly rule the house? Some of the tactics employed were:

• Him turning the heat down to near freezing temperatures. Ha! Can't get me! I just stole his covers and put them on my bed. He stole them off another of our roommate's bed though, so pretty much we just evened out on that one.
• I took control of the remote! I enjoy watching hockey, but I'm the only person in my house who does so. But these were dire times. He came in and sat down to watch the Bruins game with me. To further deter him I put on an episode of Battlestar Gallactica. Still he stayed. Finally I pulled out the big guns: America's Funniest Home Videos. I get more enjoyment out of that show than anyone I know. Six hours later, we were both still on the couch watching. Turns out we were pretty bored, and neither of us was willing to give in and move out for the week.
• He hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house with his whole family. Ah! This was his most effective strategy. How could I just hang out and be myself while his whole family was spread out across the house? My one counterattack was blasting 80's music at full volume from my room. Many of his family members commented on it, but still they stayed. And stayed. Eventually I gave in and left. He only won that battle because he brought in reinforcements.  Roommate: 1 Me: 0
• To counteract his dirty move I decided to play hardball too. I stole all the shower curtains in the house and took off all the bathroom door handles. Ha! I kept them in my room under close supervision; when it was time for my shower I put the door handle back on and hung the shower curtain again. The whole process ended up taking about four times as long as my actual shower. I felt like I'd won at first, but after three days of my shower taking 1.5 hours each time I began do doubt my victory a little bit. Plus, he just stopped showering which- if I'm being honest- ended up annoying me more than it did him. Dangit. Roommate: 2 Me: 0
• Our last effort to kick the other person out of the house in order to maintain sole possession was... a vote. We decided all these games were silly, and as responsible adults we ought to try something less barbaric than forcing each other to watch America's Funniest Home Videos for six straight hours. A vote seemed like the most civil thing to do. We agreed that whoever lost had to pack up and leave until the Saturday after Thanksgiving, thus relinquishing all power of the house to the remaining roommate.

The results of the vote were shocking. We ended up tying, 1 to 1. Neither of us saw that coming. This was a huge wrench in the plan, and neither of us really knew what to do. We hadn't thought that far ahead, but we knew the games had to end. Finally my roommate got an idea: Bring in a third person to break the tie. He suggested his fiance. She likes me good enough, so I agreed. Well, that ended up being my downfall because she voted for my roommate. I can admit defeat, so I conceded the house to him with a firm handshake. Luckily the vote happened on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so I just had to leave for one hour. I had to go to the grocery store anyway so things worked out in the end.