I would be much more inclined to participate in this worldwide Earth Hour were it not been scheduled during the NCAA tournament. The event calls for "nonessential lights" to be dimmed. The lights that are bringing Nova-Pitt into my living room are most certainly essential.

But since I won't be turning off the television during this hour, I might as well be on the computer as well and post for the first time in more than a week.

In my third year at OSU (notice the lack of "junior year" used there - that's what happens when it takes five years to complete a four-year degree), I had a wacky housing situation. It actually started the prior spring, when I made arrangements to live with a sorority sister. However, weeks before the quarter ended, said sister announced she was getting married and not returning to school. So I was left high and dry without anywhere to live, as everyone else had made their arrangements. But with a mere three weeks to go before I was due to return to NJ for the summer, I ran into another sister on the sidewalk near campus. She offhandedly asked where I was living the next year and I said I had no idea (if memory serves, I recall being rather nonchalant about this, although I was truly close to having nowhere to live and thus not returning to school). As luck would have it, she and three friends from her hometown had rented a house and needed a fifth roommate. So I gave her a check, got the address and headed home.

And that was the last time I ever spoke to her.

Throughout the summer, I tried to call her. I sent my then-boyfriend, who lived in suburban Columbus, over to campus in the hope of tracking her down. I asked other friends if they had heard from her. All in vain.

So in mid-September, my parents and I loaded up the mini-van and my jeep and headed 500 miles west. Upon arriving in Columbus, we headed to 258 E. 13th Avenue, where I rang the doorbell and announced to the girl who answered the door, "Um, hi. I'm Beth. I'm supposed to live here this year?"

Apparently, sometime during the summer my friend had a falling out with the three other girls and was thus no longer living in the house. But they were still counting on me to live there, so in I moved. The friend non-grata had been replaced by a guy from their hometown named Doug. I had met Doug once the previous year, at a dorm party at about 4 in the morning. In a strange twist, his cousin was marrying the girl who was supposed to live with me that year but bailed to get married.

As you'd expect, Doug and I became great friends. We shared a love of the nightlife and were inseparable. The other three roommates weren't so amused by our antics but that was of little concern to us. Two of them, sisters, were a little nutty and the third was nice enough but never home as her boyfriend lived next door. Eventually, one of them moved out and another girl, Robin, moved in for a few months. She and I also got along famously well.

But things eventually fell apart. Doug, who never actually attended OSU, decided to move home, as did Robin. While I was in NJ for spring break, the sisters moved out, which meant I returned to an empty apartment. Well, empty except for the eviction notice from our landlord, who had visited while we were away and was apparently (and most likely justifiably) less-than-pleased with the conditions he found at 258. I called him and explained that the other roommates, on whom I blamed the mess, had departed and he agreed to let me stay until he found other renters.

Two days later, the apartment was broken into in the middle of the night while I was home alone. Less than 24 hours later, I vacated the premises and moved in with Becky and Sandy. Less than two days after that, my jeep was broken into while parked in their lot overnight. Not my finest week in Columbus.

Anyway, it seems hard to understand how we all lost touch, but this was before the days of cell phones and text messages and e-mail, which made keeping in touch with people more difficult than it is now. I lost track of Robin almost immediately. Doug and I stayed in touch until I left Columbus about two years later, but that was about it.

But this past week, the three of us reconnected thanks to Facebook. And just like that, almost 18 years evaporated. I'm going to Columbus next week and hope to catch up with Doug. It seems he lives around the corner from Becky, with whom I'm staying. Funny how things like that work out...