College Roommate #2: Jad

I first met Jad right before the start of the Spring 1983 semester at Eastern New Mexico University. One of the RAs brought him and his father in and introduced him as my new roommate. My first impression was that he was very much like me. He was geeky and wore glasses, but had short hair.

As I mentioned in my post about Retz, he had gone to Cibola High School in Albuquerque. After he graduated, he started attending college at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. I don't remember why he decided to transfer to ENMU instead. I know he told me, but I just don't remember. He actually had a couple of friends from his high school at Eastern. One of them came over to the room that day and they discussed what was going on with their old classmates.

Our first night as roommates, we were sleeping in our beds. All of a sudden, I felt something hit me, like a basketball. I thought Jad was joshing around and threw something at me. When I got up, it was the cover for the light fixture above my bed. It's about the size and shape of a basketball. The previous semester, the light bulb had burned out. I had to get help to replace it because the cover would not come off. It involved having to take a screw out. I guess when the RA put it together, he didn't put the screw back in and also didn't tighten it all the way. That's why it fell off. I made sure it was on as tight as possible. I did not have anymore trouble out of that fixture for the next two years.

Jad enrolled in Dr. R's Beginning Acting class. His acting partner turned out to be Chud's roommate. Jad also became friends with Bard and hung out with him most of the time.

One interesting thing is that we had both developed a crush on the same girl. Her name was Diz. However, during our freshman year, she was dating this other guy that Jad and Bard hung out with. Jad was hoping that they would break up so he would have a shot at her. I know they broke up before the next school year, because that guy was dating one of the freshman students. Diz wound up dating Bard. Then she wound up marrying him before they graduated from college. I have no idea how Jad felt about that.

I didn't see much of Jad after freshman year, only around campus from time to time. When I worked for a radio station in Clovis, he wound up in one of our TV commercials walking with a bumper sticker held to his chest and his index finger making a "#1" sign.

Jad did not graduate with me, Bard and Diz in 1986. I don't know what he did after leaving ENMU because his name is so common I cannot locate him.

However, I did locate Diz on Facebook! Her hair got darker. And I saw some recent photos of Bard on there, although he does not seem to have a Facebook account. His hair is also darker. He went into the Air Force sometime after college. It also looks like they had five boys.

It's too bad I couldn't locate Jad that easily.