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The Scarlet & Black

The Scarlet & Black

The Mothership lands on High Street

Emma+Macdonald%2C+Sadhana+Athreya+and+Emily+Groth+%28all+%E2%80%9914%29+flash+their+flannel+fashion.+Photo+by+Ying+Long.
Emma Macdonald, Sadhana Athreya and Emily Groth (all ’14) flash their flannel fashion. Photo by Ying Long.
Emma Macdonald, Sadhana Athreya and Emily Groth (all ’14) flash their flannel fashion. Photo by Ying Long.
Emma Macdonald, Sadhana Athreya and Emily Groth (all ’14) flash their flannel fashion. Photo by Ying Long.

Students who have wandered onto High Street any given weekend night may have passed by 931 High Street. Affectionately known as “The Mothership,” the house is home to residents Emma Macdonald, Emily Groth and Sadhana Athreya (all ’14).

The Mothership was not named by its residents, but by a mutual friend of the three who insisted on the name after listening to Parliament’s album “Mothership Connection.”

However, the name is very fitting for the events that the three fourth-years like to host. Both Macdonald and Arthreya are captains of the women’s tennis team and enjoy hosting team hangouts in their home. In fact, all three women are members of the tennis team, where they originally met and became friends.

Now the self-proclaimed “serious athletes” spend most of their days together in their home drinking boxed wine and listening to female rappers.

“We like to lay on the ground and drink boxed wine and listen to Nicki Minaj,” Macdonald said. “I don’t know if that’s more funny or sad.”

In order to honor their favorite artist, the group has hung a large, framed poster of Minaj on their living room wall.

Since The Mothership’s previous owners were a family from Grinnell rather than students, the housemates had the big job of furnishing the home themselves.

“We inherited it from a family, so we had to furnish it ourselves,” Groth explained. “Nothing came with it besides some weird carpet stains.”

Even so, the group has had no trouble acquiring unique decorations for their abode.

“We have a wood-burned unicorn on our wall that we found at Goodwill,” Macdonald said. “His name is Travis because he looks like a douchebag, and Travis is the ultimate douchebag name.”

The house also has two televisions that don’t work and a plethora of broken chairs.

To spice up the décor of their kitchen, the group turned to homemade decorations produced by another of their favorite activities: eating Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

“Every single pint of Ben & Jerry’s that we’ve [eaten] we’ve washed out and they are on display in our kitchen,” Macdonald said.

Currently, the housemates have 12 different Ben & Jerry’s pints on display, in a myriad of flavors.

The three have made a concerted effort to make their kitchen visually appealing; aside from serving as a canvas for their artistic vision, the kitchen doesn’t get much use. Besides the empty ice cream cartons, the kitchen holds approximately 10 cookbooks that have never been opened.

“We always have great plans of cooking these fancy meals and then we never do,” Athreya said.

Regardless, the group isn’t too upset by their inability to follow through with their meal plans.

“I had this dream of living this domestic life this year, and then I realized I wanted none of that,” Macdonald said.

Instead of cooking, the group enjoys eating copious amounts of banana bread and Pop-Tarts together, while spending time on their Tinder accounts.

Since tennis keeps the group traveling over the course of the year, they have taken the opportunity to expand their Tinder radius.

“Tinder is really big at our house. For tennis we are constantly traveling and for Tinder there’s a radius, so it’s nice because our radius is constantly moving and expanding. We’ve really expanded our horizons this year with dating,” Macdonald said. “We’re just looking for love.”

The extensive number of Tinder matches that the group has found has allowed them to create the Tinder poster that hangs on their wall. The housemates refer to it as the “Tinder bachelorette,” drawing inspiration from the ABC show “The Bachelorette.”

“We’re just three very single people,” Groth said.

The roommates don’t seem too bothered by the single lifestyle, though. It has allowed them to maximize the amount of boxed wine they can consume together. Unfortunately, a tragedy recently struck The Mothership that may mean a decrease in their boxed wine consumption.

The Mothership had their recycling bin stolen recently and with nowhere to go, the wine boxes have started to accumulate.

“All the wine is starting to pile up in our back room,” Macdonald said.

“It’s actually repulsive,” Groth added.

Even without the companionship of wine, the group remains happy that they have each other during the nights when Tinder doesn’t do the trick.

“It’s just nice to come home and have people to grovel with,” said Macdonald.

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