Entropy

 

     Jared, my to-be roommate, being a Midwesterner, simply drove up to Nauvoo with his parents.  He arrived in Nauvoo several hours before the St Louis bus, so by the time we showed up, he had already been lost in the cavernous interior of the Joseph Smith Academy a number of times and was by now ready to show us around.  I was his first tour and he took me to our room first, a spacious corner lot, to park my stuff.  We would be thrown out of that palace shortly.

      The rooms next to the bathroom were to undergo remodeling, and so we had to move into a less commodious¹ room down the hall.  The most striking thing about this new room was its blue curtains.  When the sun was in the west and hit the curtains straight on, our room took on a blue glow that crept around the edges of our closed door and gave the impression to passers-by of either a heavenly manifestation or a close encounter of the third kind.

      All the JSA’s rooms were accommodating, however.  Each had a sink, towel rods, two wardrobes, a long desk along one wall (was plenty large enough for two studious students), individual lights over each half of said desk as well as over each bed (not to mention the overhead light) just in case we heard a really scary noise.  [ill]We used the Academy’s towels and the Academy’s washing machines which, as a special deal for us inaugurals,² could be used quarter-free for One Semester Only.  The Academy appeared plenty spacious.

      But it would end less spacious than it began.

      I suppose because both Jared and I wear glasses, we each immediately stereotyped the other as an uptight, geeky cleanfreak.  [ill]And so we both were extra careful the first little while to be extra neat ourselves.  But eventually nature took over and entropy reigned supreme.  Luckily, my bed was so situated that my piles of clothes were hidden from outsiders, but Jared was not so lucky.  Were our door ever open even a crack, anyone walking by would have a clear view of whatever he had worn since the last laundry day.  “Slob,” they would think, scarcely realizing the term adequately described us both.  Later, when the Thank You Box would be established, one of the first notes I would receive read,

      “Theric— You are a great roomie.  Thanks for being a messy person.  I don’t feel bad now.”

      Jared, there is nothing to feel bad about.  Entropy is a stinkin’ law of nature.

 

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Thanks for revisiting Nauvoo with me. I would love to hear your thoughts.