Painting and a trip into Boston by Jessie L. '07
Yesterday evening I came back from work to discover my friend Kim, a 5th East alum, primering the room into which I’m supposed to be moving (which was her room when I was a frosh). The room should have not only been primered, but painted, a while ago, but I am a horrible and inexperienced painter and it wasn’t going well – and the more I realized that it was going badly, the more I found excuses not to paint, because I just didn’t want to work on it. So Kim, who is a good painter, asked me if I wanted help, in exchange for helping take down what’s left of the wallpaper in her new apartment and painting there. I, of course, agreed that this was a fantastic idea. And here’s hoping that soon my room will be finished, and better quality than it would have been if I’d done it without her help.
My only previous experience with painting rooms was when I was a frosh, and my then-roommate Crystle and I painted our room together. It was right before term started. We painted all day, slept in the lounge so that we wouldn’t be poisoned by paint fumes, and put all our furniture and stuff back in place the next day. We didn’t know that if primer dries on the rollers, the covers will become hard as concrete and unremovable, so we ended up doing all the actual painting with only paintbrushes. I don’t know how we pulled it off.
This is what Crystle’s and my room looked like in January ’04:
If you are an incoming frosh or prospective student interested in painting your room, I know of four dorms that allow you to do so – East Campus, Senior Haus, Random Hall and Bexley. Although my belief is that one should pick a living group based on whether one enjoys the culture, and not superficial factors, something like whether you can paint your room is one of those little quirks to look at.
I had planned to go to the dinner mob of Nick “Nim” Martin ’03, another 5th East alum who just moved to California and was back in town for the first time, but I was too late. So instead, I went with Kim to the Coolidge Corner Theater to watch a showing of episodes of the 1999 TV show Freaks and Geeks, and listen to a really funny speech by its creator, complete with readings from his new memoir about romance and dating, and an excerpt from what may turn into a new book. After Kim and I got back to campus, we went to Chicago Pizza, just a few blocks away, for dinner.
That’s pretty cool that you’re taking 9.22 with Professor Byrne! A good # of people paint their rooms in Burton Conner, but I don’t think it’s officially allowed.
That’s a really awesome color!
Painting rooms in Burton Conner is allowed… and probably in most dorms, you just have to clear it with the house manager first and paint it back at the end of the year. I get the impression that requirement might be waived in some of the East Campus dorms, though? Anyway, Dongs is not that much of a rebel.
The Coolidge Corner Theater is an awesome place, as well as their sometimes partner Brookline Booksmith. I highly encourage folks to check out the Coolidge Corner area — MIT’s Saferide shuttle (Boston West) stops somewhat nearby at the FSILGs Zeta Beta Tau and Epsilon Theta.
That’s really cool that you get he chance to paint your dorms, I think looking at plain white walls for a year would drive me insane.
Do most of the dorms have bunk beds or two sperate beds?
I’m really bummed out that I missed that I missed Paul Feig. Freaks and Geeks should’ve never been cancelled. I heard about this event last week when I was actually at Brookline Booksmith (used bookstores rock, btw), but I got tied up at work so I missed it, but I will not miss when they show the Big Lebowski on the 19th.