Zimpel Manor

Before the eight of us were all in New Orleans together, Alex, Kalyn, Jess, Alyssa, Hannah, Anna Leigh, Sydney and I got all sorts of ridiculous comments about being prime fodder for reality TV. Scratch that, we've lived together for two and a half months and we still get snarky questions and comments constantly-- "Are you all on the same cycle yet?" "Where are the video cameras?" "That must be awful!" etc. etc.

It hasn't been without challenges. Dirty dishes (and clean dishes that need putting away), laundry room traffic, trying to balance work with ridiculous You Tube videos when hanging out in the living room, miscellaneous tiffs over miscellaneous things... we are eight human beings with infinite quirks living in one house, after all.

It hasn't been awful though, honestly. We're slowly moving from strangers somewhat peacefully coexisting into an actual community. We'll still have our disagreements and frustrations as that develops, but overall, I think we're defying everyone's expectations of being an over-dramatic nuthouse.

Last night was a rare weekend evening that we were all home. Actually, it was my first Saturday night home after a month of weekend travels for conferences and retreats. Earlier in the evening, a few of us were sitting around as I begrudgingly scheduled an appointment to go wedding dress shopping with my mom while she visits later this week (the shopping is begrudging, visiting with my mom will be great!). Alyssa and Kalyn kindly offered to help me find the perfect dress, which really turned into a hunt for the worst dress ever:


We liked the see-through bodice and choker. (source)



More see-through corset action, with side train! (source)


The veil appears to have more fabric than the entire dress. This one was appropriately found on a website called UglyDress.com! (source)

The silliness continued to later in the evening. Because I had to wake up early to get to Bayou Blue, I attempted to say goodnight early. The whole house was hanging out in the living room, laughing about... everything.



I had actually gone out to say goodnight in effort to get them to quiet down a little, but I joined in the fun instead. Cuddle attacks and continued joking about awful wedding gowns and bachelorette party plans (at which point I threatened to secretly move out and hide down the bayou for the rest of the year) kept the laughter going.




I ended up forcing myself to go to bed, because despite the extra hour of sleep from the end of daylight saving, I knew I'd be exhausted today if I didn't. But I didn't mind the continued laughter. It was just fun in a quiet sort of way (as in calm and unassuming, most definitely not as in volume) to all be together and laugh about nothing in particular. No matter what reality show drama type expectations people have when they hear about our household, I drifted off to sleep with my ear plugs in, smiling about the strange but happy little community we're creating here in New Orleans.