By Diego Ruiz

If you’ve ever overheard them on the second floor of the campus center — and if you’ve ever been up there, you probably have — you might think that Natalie Pavlatos ’12 and Matt Butler ’12 are a divorced couple. In reality, they’re best friends. They just spend a little too much time together. How did you guys meet? Matt Butler: Our freshman year in the spring. We had International Codes of Conduct together. We wrote the papers together. In the campus center. Big surprise. You guys spend a lot of time in the campus center. Natalie Pavlatos: Matt called me one day in a panic thinking that there was something seriously wrong with me because it was 5 p.m. and I was not in the campus center. He was concerned for my safety. Matt: But weren’t you home? Natalie: I was at home, in Superior, Wisconsin. Matt: That’s why she wasn’t in the campus center though! Because she wasn’t in the Twin Cities. Natalie: That’s the only logical reason. What interests do you guys have in common? Matt: We’re the same person, so everything. I even got Natalie to start watching golf. Natalie: It went really well with living with Matt, who watches golf a lot, and I was coming back from Northern Ireland which is the “Golf Capital of the World,” if you would believe the sign that was outside my apartment. I love golf now. I can’t play though, my arms are too short. Matt: I don’t know if she can anatomically get the club to the top. Natalie: We’ve tried so many times, it just doesn’t work. Matt: There’s also politics. Natalie: It’s funny, because we applied separately for separate internships at the Minnesota State Capitol, and ended up getting the same supervisor and working the same hours. So even though we’re technically different people…. Matt: We’re not. What’s your typical day at the capitol like? Natalie: I like walking down hallways in high heels because it makes me feel like I am in “The West Wing,” and I feel really important when I’m walking and talking, even though it’s just Matt. Matt: We always get there early because Natalie can never be anywhere on time, she has to be at least 15 minutes early. If she’s only five minutes early, she’s late, and she’s complaining and rushing. Natalie: Sometimes I get to class 30 minutes early. Natalie’s routines are pretty important to her then? Natalie: Not really! Matt: We’ve done a lot. Natalie used to be very regimented, like her mono-food meals. What’s a mono-food meal? Matt: Most people have meals of multiple types of food, like a meat and a carb, or two different things, like spinach and peppers. No, Natalie does one thing. So she’ll just do rice. Or she’ll just do pasta. Or she’ll just do chicken. Nothing else is really added to that, it’s just a one food meal. Natalie: I’m not so great at the whole cooking thing. Matt: So we made her expand her horizons to the dual food meal. Natalie: Yeah, now I have two foods. I make spinach with my chicken. Matt: Now honestly, if we could get her to three she’d be caught up with the rest of the world. Natalie: I don’t even know what to say to you right now. This is like an intervention! Matt: Yes, it is! You need three different food groups to survive! You need protein, you need carbs, and you need vegetables and fruits! Natalie: I have a vitamin. I take a vitamin to make sure that I live. Matt: Yeah, cause you had scurvy there for a while. Natalie: Wow. Matt: Well you didn’t have any vegetables. Natalie: No, I didn’t. I was out of food for a long time… I need groceries. I am currently out of food. Matt: I’m not the only one who feels this way. Your grandmother and your mother agree. Natalie: Oh my God. Matt has a lovely relationship with my grandmother and my mother. That could be taken out of context. Matt: The summer after freshman year, I went up to Superior to visit Natalie. We stayed at Natalie’s grandmother’s house, and we’ve been close ever since. At every family get-together they’ve asked about my well being. Natalie: “How’ve you been? How’s school? How’s Matt? Matt is just such a nice boy!” Matt: What can I say? Natalie: “Thanks, Grandma, he’s doing well…” Tell me about your junior year. Natalie was abroad in Northern Ireland, Matt was here. How was being separated? Matt: Well, I emailed Natalie basically every day, and she ignored me. It was very inconsiderate… Natalie: I missed Matt, I guess. Not so much when I was going hiking in Scotland and coming back to an inbox of 100 messages, 20 of which were from Matt. Or when I was in Dublin for a week, and he was like “COME BACK TO ME, I MISS YOU. LIFE ISN’T THE SAME.” Matt: Because you wouldn’t respond to my shit! I would send you things, and you’d be like “Pft, too busy to respond.” Natalie: I was hiking mountains. I had a wonderful time. Now I just bother him all the time because I slip into an accent. Can you guys tell me a little bit about each of your roommates at 258 Macalester – Joel Soma ’12, Jesse Fox ’12 and Paolo Venneri ’12? Natalie: Joel’s wonderful. He’s the traditional Minnesotan. He made squirrel for us one night. Matt: Which they had never had before! It just blows my mind that they had never had squirrel before. Natalie: And he’s my Vikings buddy. We watch the Vikings – Matt: Lose. Natalie: – and cry. Matt: Jesse’s from Canada. I think that’s really all we need to say about that. And we live with Paolo. He’s special. Natalie: My mother was afraid when she found out I was living with Paolo because she only knew him as the Italian man that jumped on my back once when I was on the phone with her and made me fall over. So she was worried that I would die. But Paolo’s great. He’s one of my favorite people on this campus. Matt: Paolo and I, we argue a lot. But it’s in a loving, loving way. Natalie: If you don’t have to sleep through it like I do. You guys G-chat a lot. Sometimes in the same room. Why? Matt: Most of our conversations are over G-chat. It’s very simple. Natalie can’t focus on conversations for long periods of time, so if you type it out and send it to her, that way if she gets lost, she can just go back and read it and you don’t have to repeat yourself. Natalie: Wow, I just thought it was because it was fun. Matt: Well, that’s awkward. [Both laugh] Natalie: It’s also really nice if we’re studying in a big group and we don’t want to have to… Matt: We can insult someone without their knowing. Natalie: That’s not what I was going to say. We usually just make fun of each other. Matt: Natalie just doesn’t like to be outwardly mean. Natalie: I’m not outwardly mean…much. What’s the future hold for you after graduation? Matt: Our future… hopefully we’ll continue living. That’s really all I’ve got. Natalie: I have an internship lined up for the summer. Naturally, that’s unpaid. Matt: We surprisingly have not applied for the same job yet. Natalie: That’s because you always tell me about the ones that sound cool and then I decide not to apply for them. They actually could be perfect, but then he’s like, “Hey, should I apply for this?” And I’m Minnesota nice so I say, “Yeah, you should.” Matt: You know you’re from Wisconsin right? Natalie: Yeah… Any last words? Matt: Should we talk about all of your doppelgangers? Natalie: No, we don’t want to drag them into this. refresh –>