Arts Fest 1994... and more roommates
This is a rare and valuable photograph of my roommate, Jason Zanitsch (he hates having his picture taken) back in 1994 when he and Kristy were still a couple. Pictured from left to right are Jason, Jon Dunski, Kristy Boyer, and Phil "feely bug eyes" Bugaiski. Jon is a huge Dolly parton fan, and he also sort of looks like Judd from the second season of MTV’s The Real World (isn’t that title an inherent contradiction?). Kristy, my apologies... I know that this is not a flattering photo of you (she was in the sun too long and her lips swelled up).
Jason and I were roommates twice: once back in the fall of 1991, when I drove everybody crazy at the little house called the Vatican that we rented, and then again from August of 1997 through July of 1998. I have to say that he was the best roommate I ever had. I really could have lived with him forever. Between the two of us, I think we knew just about everybody in town. There were always dinner guests and fabulous meals (we both cook), game nights, movie nights, parties, recording sessions, intellectual exchanges... it was just perfect, and leaving State College and such a great roommate behind broke my heart like you could never believe. I still have not recovered, over two years later. He is living in Lemont, outside of State College, right now with his wonderful girlfriend, Anna. Whenever I visit them we got out for either sushi or Indian food.
After seeing this photo on this site, incidentally, Jon wrote me a short but sweet email reminiscing of the time that we were roommates. It was a temporary situation, but then again what isn’t? The first few weeks of summer after my freshman year at Penn State, I needed a place to stay until I went to California to visit my mother. Jon was subletting a room with a Penn State Thespian named Robin Monks who, for lack of any other way to describe her, was larger than life. In every way. Jon and I had a wonderful time together, but the living situation in general could be quite harrowing. Once Jon was so frightened for his life that he locked Robin out of the house after dousing her in ice water. I hadn’t even remembered those few weeks for a good year or two until he reminded me... how funny. We were in a rowhouse on the 700 block of South Pugh Street (yes, Jon, it was Pugh) for three weeks in May, and like so many memories distilled by time it was, for me, a magical time.
