Back to life, back to reality

It was morning when it happened. The sun was just waking up from its long nap, and the light could be seen through the crack of the blinds. The sound of the air conditioner was the only welcoming sound. Half asleep, I rolled to my side. "Not ready to get up," I told myself. What should I do today? In my mind, I thought about getting up, showering and getting ready to go out. But where would I go today? 

This having the summer off has totally messed with my sleeping pattern. I told myself I would go to sleep and wake up at the same time everyday, but that, has unfortunately not been the case this summer.

I decided to skip RLWT today and be a bum, go to Starbucks, read a little bit and watch videos on my iPad. No Futbol today, none of my teams are playing. Tomorrow, however, is a different story.

As I moved, I felt my earbuds still in my ears and in a low, faint volume, I could hear Katy Perry singing, "Teenage Dream." (Hey, don't judge.) I love that song.

Ok, I need to stop procrastinating, I need to get up and talk to my leasing office about my lease. It is going to expire at the beginning of August. The question of whether I should move or not has been lingering these last couple of months. This old apartment complex, the one and only building I saw when moving to Midland, has been my home for almost a year. My boss had told me to come quick and get an apartment, as it was difficult to get one at a good price. But alas, this has been an overly expensive place to live. Wow, just a year ago, I was living at home, hoping to become a teacher. Hoping to land a job anywhere. So glad I made it up west, this has been an experience.

Just as I begin to drift into sleep again and Katy Perry was now serenading me with her song, "Unconditionally," I felt it. It was a soft, almost tingly sensation going up my arm. My glasses still hanging from my nose. Yes, I read at night and sometimes forget to take them off. I reached with my arm to scratch. But as I open my eyes and focused, I saw a cockroach crawling up my arm. 

What the hell??!! I sprinted as fast as I could. My instincts were to kill the sucker and so in the middle of it all, I was slapping my arm continuously.  "Die cockroach! Die!" I thought to myself. 

I had turned into a ninja killer and my target was a cockroach. But in the crazy, dramatic moment, it disappeared. I was up, now wide awake. My earphones lost the battle somewhere between the slapping of my arms and my getting up. My phone was on the floor. I cringed. I screamed. I rubbed my body, hoping that it was not hanging from me, or worse, in my hair! Oh. Dear. Lord, no!

But then these questions ran through my mind: How? What? Where? Why? Seriously? Cockroaches???

I ran to the bathroom. Still grossed out and freaked out, I tried to compose myself. This was not the "oh-my-gosh-sweet-baby-Jesus-this-is-a-big-cockroach-I-grew-up-seeing-as-a-kid." This was a tiny one. And truth be told, I hate creepy crawlers. I hate snakes. I hate mice. I hate spiders. I hate them all. So the thought of this bug crawling on me, was like the zombie apocalypse knocking on my door.

If you remember, my one blog reader, a similar incident happened to me in Bay City a few years ago, but with a mouse. I thought it was the end of my life.

I wrote a column about the Incident when I was the editor of the Matagorda Advocate. Read here:

http://m.victoriaadvocate.com/weblogs/to-venus-and-back/2011/jun/22/life-lessons-from-the-furry-mouse-in-my-apartment/

Back to this morning, I grabbed my pillows and sheets and hoped that it was nowhere in sight. But instead, found two of them crawling up the wall.

Son of a beech! I grabbed the first thing I could get a hold off to kill them, but then let it go because, well, It was my iPhone. I grabbed my shoe and attacked. It was so gross.

I had showered, woken up earlier than expected and freaked out about the whole ordeal. Why do I have cockroaches? So it wasn't even 8 am and I didn't want to be inside my apartment, so I did what I usually do, I went to get some coffee. Four hours later, after ignoring my apartment for long enough, I went to talk to the leasing office to tell her about the cockroach attack. She than proceeded to tell me that last week (when I was gone) they had pest control spray all the apartments and soon after a lot of people were complaining that cockroaches appeared out of nowhere, perhaps, that's what was happening to me. "Really? You don't say??" I tried to be nice and she agreed to have pest control show up again. She said they are also coming out because of the heat. In the meant time, I vacuumed, washed and picked up everything in my apartment.

Tonight, I will sleep with one eye open.