A Penthouse Girl

(I just knew the title would get you read this entry!)



As you may know, dear readers, I spent my freshman year of college at Brigham Young University. After that year, I decided to continue my education at a different institution of higher learning. While there are many memorable things that happened in that one year, perhaps the most important is how I was adopted in the Penthouse Girls club.

You know those girls who always seem to have fun? The kind of fun that's just on the brink of troublemaking? Those were the girls on the 7th floor of T Hall (a BYU dorm building) that year. I lived on the 6th floor for the first semester, where I met those girls and noticed that they were not just the life of the party, they were the party. I was moved up to the 7th floor my second semester and couldn't help avoiding those girls, not that I wanted to. They called themselves the Penthouse Girls because the building only had 7 floors, and just being around them made life exciting and fun.

Freshman year is perhaps the best time of your life for reinventing yourself. No one knows you, and they are all so busy reinventing themselves that you have some time and some leeway in trying to determine who you are going to become. I took full advantage of this; I was a very quiet and nerdy high school student, pretty sure that no one who was cool would want to even look my way. But in college, the Penthouse Girls didn't know that. So I spent more and more time with them.

I loved listening to Kristen's "song of the week," as I called it. (She would become obsessed with a song and listen to it nonstop for about a week before she moved on to the next one.) She also got me excited about ballroom dancing (as a spectator, not a participant). Lindsey (AKA Line-sey) was so funny I still smile thinking about her. Carrie was smarter than just about anyone I've ever known but still totally cool and fun. Erin was my SoCal homey and was happy to help me assimilate myself into the group. Johanna and JJ were BFFs from before college and were always ready to encourage craziness to ensue. Jaime had that knowing twinkle in her eyes and was quick to jump in with a funny retort. Mia was goofy and big hearted with a bright smile to match. I could go on and on, but unless you're one of them, descriptions of old friends can get tedious.

We had some good times; I have fond memories of Gloria Gayner dance parties at 2:30 AM, dropping water balloons (and rubber gloves when we didn't have balloons) on expelled lobby lovers (a term that merits its own post though I make no promises), 3-D puzzles instead of studying for finals, and a particularly awesome road trip to Vegas. (If any of you girls are reading this, I still have and sometimes wear my blue fisherman hat.)

Although I moved away from BYU after that year, I got to visit a few times and was always welcomed back. I don't think I'll ever consider myself a full-fledged Penthouse Girl because of my early departure, but I learned a lot from them. If you have ever appreciated my speedy acquiescence to any mischief; spontaneity; readiness to start a party any time and for any reason; willingness to forgo bedtime no matter how late it is in favor of girltalk; appreciation for blue darts; and/or insistence that nothing is worth doing unless you're enjoying it; in large part, you have the Penthouse Girls to thank for it.

Although I haven't been the best at keeping in touch, I've been blogstalking some of them. It's so fun to see them "all grown up" and find out what they've been doing with their lives. I would welcome any opportunity to see any of them in the future, so consider this an open invitation to our home, Penthouse Girls! I hear South Florida's nice this time of year...OK, you may want to wait until winter.