Bitty & Beau's
In the year or so since Paige and I moved in together, I haven’t really mentioned my former roommate Shane. Despite our intense fights during the two years we “lived” together, my intention was to keep our friendship alive after I moved out. The reason I haven’t mentioned him in the last year is because while I have seen him a handful of times, we haven’t hung out in the way that either of us wanted to.
There was a girl in the grade below me at OLP; let’s call her Laura. Laura‘s little brother, let’s call him Andrew, ended up going to New Story during my last two years as a student there. At the beginning of January, Laura and Andrew‘s mom shared a video from a coffee shop called Bitty & Beau’s. Bitty & Beau’s was started in 2016 by a couple with two children named Bitty and Beau, who both have Down syndrome. They almost exclusively employ people with developmental disabilities. The video that Laura’s mom had posted was introducing the employees for the new Columbus location. Andrew and Shane’s fiancé, Jessica, were both introduced.
After Mom told me about it, I looked into it and found out that the Bitty & Beau’s Columbus grand opening was on Saturday, May 3, 2025. I immediately called Shane, and we decided to go. At 9:30 that morning, Paige and I drove up to the Gleason Road apartment. Shane was already outside, and we got to Bitty & Beau’s by 9:45. It was very rainy that day, but luckily, there was an awning, so we had cover.
A handful of things happened while we waited in line for 2 hours. 1. I saw three of my New Story coworkers ahead of us in line and said hi to them. 2. Laura and her friend from OLP, Sylvia, saw me and we talked briefly. 3. Unfortunately, we were too far back in line to see the ribbon-cutting, but we could hear it. 4. At about 10:45, Paige went back to my car because she was cold.* 5. Shane had texted Jessica’s mom and told her that we were there. When she found out, Jessica came through the line and gave Shane a big hug. 6. After Jessica left, a woman named Maddie and her husband started talking to us. They were very friendly, and they brought my books!
Eventually, Paige returned, and within another 30 minutes, we finally got into the shop. Jessica rang up our coffees. She gave me a 7 of hearts playing card, and the person who made our order had to match ours with the 7 of hearts they had to make sure they got the correct order, which was really cool.
I wrote each War Of The Roommates installment (War Of The Roommates, Dancing With Our Stars, and The Truth About War Of The Roommates trilogy) the same way. I reveal that despite what I’ve depicted before, Shane and I are having problems for one reason or another. I then reveal that I’m trying to use this series to make myself feel better about my complicated living situation. Finally, I resolved them with, “he and I fixed it because x, and now it’s all gonna be perfect from here on in!” While the point of The Truth About War Of The Roommates trilogy was Paige and I moving in together, even though I still wanted Shane in my life, the way I wrote it and his lack of appearance after it made it seem like I was running away from Shane. But as we sat and drank our coffee, I looked over at Shane with pride that he and I had finally grown past the War Of The Roommates.
Have a Greattastic Day and Be Safe!
J. Mitchie Ulibarri
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