SLC Punk

I've been told by those I describe them to that I have interesting roommates. Briefly, my roommates since I've lived in SLC have been the following:

• A Physics PhD student Jewish-Atheist from Boston who bikes, skis, jogs, and had a heart-attack and pace-maker surgery at age 27 due to undiagnosed Lyme disease. He currently owns a house he rents out, and has a live-in girlfriend who is the daughter of the former mission-president of Puerto Rico (the one before my mission pres). He sagely sold his stocks before the crash of '08, prompting me to 1) question his socialist bona fides, and 2) jokingly ask if there really is some secret Jewish Cabal running the world's banks, and if so, could he give me stock tips.
• A Computer Science PhD student Atheist from Baltimore, and an accent to match. In spite his Atheism, he has a strong Protestant work-ethic. He enjoys the hookah. While Prop 8 seemed the main sticking point about the LDS Church for the former roommate, coffee by contrast appeared to be his. From both these first two roommates I heard many a diatribe against Utah's liquor laws, and consequently they loved John Hunstman, despite their liberalism.
• Another Jewish roommate, just graduated from Utah, originally from the south-side of Chicago. He dressed all G'd-out and thugged-out, but it never felt like posturing from him; rather, it seems that's just how a normal human being dresses where he's from. He's proudly Chicagoan, but has no plans to move back, the main adjective he uses to describe Utah being "calm," implying that that's the opposite of Chicago. His life's goal is to retire either to the Avenues or Florida.
• A true freshman hispter-ish trendy kid who had to learn the hard way that selling steak-knives is a crock. A fastidiously clean roommate who twice gave the whole apt. a deep-clean, majored in Drama even though he's pre-Med, and would occasionally have girls sleep over in his bed but not have sex (one girl even claimed to be LDS and would probably die a virgin). Draw your own conclusions.
• An inactive Mormon who gets hammered drunk on weekends; great sociable, likeable guy; served mission in Texas; dealing with the aftermath of an unfaithful wife so don't judge; once, this girl passed out after only 4 shots while pre-gaming (I've learned more about drinking here than from even my roommates in Denver), and she puked all over his mattress. He just threw out the bedding. When one Atheist roommate heard his sad story, even he said, "Dang dude, you need to go to Church!"
  
• Another Atheist, former-tight-end for BYU football, completing his degree at the U, married but amicably separated (the first time she visited, I asked if she was his girlfriend, and she responded "I'm his wife" and I just nodded), his wife's an ex-mormon and he's read the Book of Mormon and taken all the missionary discussions--twice. Keeps the Word of Wisdom more faithfully than his wife, but for purely health reasons. Would go to divinity school if he wasn't an atheist. Trained with Navy Airborne, but now is entering the Peace Corp.

End of this month, I will be moving in with LDS roommates once more, first time since BYUI. 3 years ago, I happily moved in with non-Mormons when I first attended Utah, because it was nice to be around guys who weren't in a constant, quiet panic to get married. My new roommates are guys I know and like, and while I'm sure we'll get along, the marriage-panic is not something I look forward to. And while moving in with these guys will be a return to normalcy of sorts, I also fear my string of interesting roommates is coming to a close (though at least a couple of my new roommies may take that as a personal challenge. I hope they do).