U is for Usher

OK, I’m going to cheat a little on this one because none of the bands that start with U really are in my favorites. In fact, the only ones that I could talk about really only have one song I like. Now I know what you’re thinking: why not U2? Yes, I enjoyed Joshua Tree back in that day; who didn’t? But I came to really dislike U2 past the mid nineties. Plus, Bono always seemed like such a smarmy self-serving asshole, I just had no use for them.

So I’m going with Usher because after my T post, I was thinking about college and this ONE Usher song embodies the spring semester of my freshman year.

I lived in the all girls dorm, Dorman hall; the same one my mom lived in, in fact! In the fall, I got paired up with a senior med student from Haiti who I did NOT get along with. Rather, she did not care for me. In fact, on day one when she arrived, she literally took one look at me and said that if I was a freshman, I shouldn’t even bother to talk to her. Gee, great start to college! I’d hoped that because I was kind of a non-traditional girl, the roommate I got might be some midwesterner named Jenny or something who, by the fact that we had to room together, might become my friend. I was so not that lucky. We fought constantly; she accused me of stealing her stuff and I frequently found the TV remote – to MY TV – in her bed, buried under blankets. She would crank the air up so I’d get back from trekking across campus and our room still felt like the Sahara. Her family in Haiti sent care packages that included this gross dried and salted fish that she’d eat half of then leave in the microwave to stink up the place.

Luckily, I managed to rid myself of her by Christmas but only because she had a psychotic break. I woke up one night to find her rocking herself in the corner, muttering incoherently. School officials of some sort came to gather her then asked if I needed any counseling. Ha! Good riddance. But then, a girl I sort of knew from high school moved in because she had been living across campus in another dorm and not getting along with her friend and roommate Jen, who we both knew in high school. So Tina became my roommate and it was MUCH better! We cooked together, respected each other’s space and need for quiet study time, and most of all, we had dance parties with our gay friend, Bill. And this Usher song was one we blasted!