Sometimes you luck out with your college roommate.
I did.
Joyce and I seemingly had little in common, but we became great friends. During college, we had crappy jobs together - working in the student snack bar at MIT, taking customer complaints at Sears regional headquarters, waitressing one summer at the Union Oyster House. We protested the Vietnam War together, which included taking a long bus ride in an uncomfortable school bus to Washington DC for the October 1969 Moratorium. Senior year, we got an apartment together - and a dog. Over our January break that senior year, Joyce was with me in Worcester when my mother called from Boston to tell me that my father had died. (The night before, Joyce and I had taken my kid sister Trish to see Love Story, of all things. We got to know each other's families very well.)
After college, we had crappy jobs together - waitressing at Durgin Park, working retail at Filene's and Jordan Marsh. Those crappy jobs funded a couple of months driving and camping cross country, and five months hitchhiking, camping, and hosteling throughout Europe.
We went our separate ways in our mid-twenties, and hadn't seen each other in many years, but we reunited 20+ years ago.
Here's how we got back together. I was working from home when the phone rang, and a long-lost but still-familar voice said "Do you know who this is?" My response was instantaneous: "It's Joyce, you married Tommy, and you live in Dallas." I know this because, seconds before my phone rang, I had been taking a work-from-home break-let and had been sitting at my computer, searching with early Google, to see if I could find Joyce. And I had just found her, married to her college boyfriend, and living in Texas.
Once this telepathic weirdness occurred, we quickly decided to meet up in NYC, and then traded a couple of visits. My husband was still alive, and we all hit it off. After Jim died, Joyce and her husband Tom came to Boston to spend some time with me, and it was just what I needed.
When we got back together, we picked up where we left off and once again became great friends. We have a standing conversation every Sunday morning, text (and occasionally have a convo) throughout the week, and try to get in person visits in there as well. I was in Dallas in late May.
Long way of saying that sometimes you luck out with your college roommate.
I sure did.
NYU's Aurora Agapov, not so much. Her father, Andre Agapov, is a gold-mining magnate. A Russian-American, he's supposedly a pal of Putin, and oligarch-ish/oligarch-adjacent at least.)
As befits the daughter of a gold-mining magnate, Aurora kept a ton of pricey bling and other swank items in her dorm room. These included a ring worth $24K. Chanel and Celine handbags. A Chanel bracelet. A Bulgari necklace. A pair of Christian Louboutin red-soled shoes.
I have to laugh when I think about the modest possessions that Joyce and I had when we were in college. My most epensive piece of jewelry was a leather, stone and wood necklace I got at Lord & Taylor for $25. Despite the fact that I bought it at L&T, the necklace - which I still have and occasionally wear - had a cool, artisanal vibe.
But Aurora's roomie may have been a bit jelly of her, a bit covetous of her bounty of goodies.
So Aurora, who's 19 has:
...filed a suit against her roommate Kaitlyn Fung and Fung's mother, accusing the 18-year-old of concocting a scheme to steal Agapov's pricey belongings and sell some of the items on an online luxury resale marketplace.
The suit alleges that Aurora Agapov discovered in May that some of her things had gone missing from their room in Founders' Hall. She also found a receipt written to Fung from the online consignment shop The RealReal that listed the missing items, according to the lawsuit. (Source: NBC News)
Interestingly, my friend Joyce - who has quite a collection of high-end clothing, bags, and footwear acquired during her fashion career (I told you we were seemingly had little in common) when she was the lead designer ready-to-wear buyer at Neiman Marcus - sells some of the items she no long has any use for on the RealReal.
Back to the Agapov v. Fung episode, Fung has been charged with grand larceny. Her parents are implicated as well.
Fung is supposedly majoring in political science and criminology.
Is she going to mount "I was just doing fieldwork for criminology" defense? Will she claim that the items had been gifted to her, or she thought they had been? It's possible they had been...Agapov does say that she and Fung were pretty good friends...
Or did it just become too much for Fung to be living with a material girl, and wanting some of the MG lifestyle for herself? Lots of rich kids at NYU, which is not something that didn't exist at my shool, that's for sure. (Joyce and I did have a well-off friend who had gorgeous clothing and a navy blue Jaguar, at a time and place where no one who lived on campus had a car.)
Anyway, Fung is in a heap of trouble. A good student - good enough to get into NYU, which is highly competitive - she could end up expelled. If she ends up doing time - which, if she has no prior criminal behavior, may not be that likely - she won't be needing that dorm room.
Whatever happens, Kaitlyn Fung has her work cut out for her as she tries to repair her life.
I've heard of the Freshman 15. Guess now we have the Freshman $51K.
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