Heart Attack

I had a mini-heart-attack tonight. I was sitting at my coffee table painting with watered-down acrylic paint in a bass-ackwards attempt at watercolor when my roommate came downstairs and beelined for her computer. Her cat was following her, meowing for attention. Usually, my roommate is the most obsessive cat mama I have ever seen. Her attachment to this kitty is RIDICULOUS. However, she wasn't paying the kitty any attention at all. What?

My boyfriend pointed out that the cat was making noise, but my roommate just said, "I'm in the middle of a freakout, okay? Not now." We didn't know what was wrong, but the three of us in the room- Me, Severus, and Sev's roommate -all looked at each other nervously. Not that it's a huge pain in my ass or anything, but my roommate and her life are kinda like a minefield. One wrong comment and she could be screaming her head off for no apparent reason. It makes talking to her a bit complicated. Not wanting to say the wrong thing or get anyone upset, we just stayed quiet.

A minute later, she started muttering under her breath. Numbers. 3? 6? 37? What in the hell was she doing over there?

Next thing we knew, she burst into tears.

Appropriate reaction: "Oh gosh, are you okay? What's wrong? Can we help at all?

The reaction that actually happened: "........."

Yeah that's right. My house is full of jerks who freeze at the first sign of trauma. (Seriously. The only time we've ever been quick to act was when we set the kitchen on fire.)

Turns out, she'd been calculating her credit hours for graduation. She's supposed to graduate in May, but thanks to some idiot advisor who was too lazy to check his advisee's math, she's one hour short. ONE. CREDIT. HOUR. SHORT.

If you're not in college or never went to school, you should know that one hour is insane. You earn somewhere between 12 to 19 hours per semester, and you need 120 to graduate. To be short by a single hour practically takes effort.

After my roomie called her parents and went upstairs to talk to them, I casually FLIPPED MY SHIT. I ran upstairs at top speed to get my laptop and calculate my credit hours. I have two more semesters to fix any problems that might arise, so now's the time to check. Fortunately, I did all of the math and it seems that I am exactly on track to graduate numbers-wise. Getting the right classes in the right order might be interesting, but I have enough hours. That's something.

But yeah, I had a mini-heart-attack tonight.

The credit hours thing was only half of it, sadly. I hate feeling like this, but I almost panicked because I thought I'd be stuck living with my current roommate for another semester. This raised several immediate problems:

1) My roommate is a wonderful person, but we're not the most compatible on some things. It's in everyone's best interest that we separate cleanly, which won't happen if she doesn't graduate on time.

2) I have another roommate lined up to move in when this one leaves. She's in a housing situation that she doesn't much like right now, and I offered her this solution. But what happens if my roommate doesn't leave? We have 3 people in a 2-BR apartment, which won't work well. I can't say to my other friend, "Oh, sorry, just kidding, I need you to stay in your filthy, insane, terrible home just a bit longer".

3) My current roommate is engaged. Her fiance and I are good old friends, but being around their relationship is like living in the eye of a hurricane. Some folks like that, but I'm not one of them. Additionally, he's living 2 states away and she's having separation issues. I can't do a whole nother semester of that, especially when she's so eager to get out and start a life with him. I refuse to live with over-the-phone wedding planning, I simply will not do it.

4) Potential problems with my landlady? She's fantastic, but mid-year lease changes don't generally go well with landlords. I couldn't tell you what MY landlady would do if we had to make that change, but I can tell you I don't want to find out.

Sigh. Problems. I suppose we'll figure something out. Maybe she'll be able to take one class online from home. Or maybe my new roomie can hang out long enough for the current roommate to get through a Maymester class. Who knows.