Coffee Table Declarations
Friday, September 24, 2004
This morning I was on my way out the door when my roommate told me she had something to talk to me about later which was probably no big deal, but might be. I don't know anyone who could shrug that kind of statement off and have a normal day so I insisted that I could spare a few minutes. She then told me that she had been getting bites in her sleep and that last night at 3:30 am, she woke up and ripped the sheets apart, convinced she was not imagining things, only to find some kind of bed bug casually lurking there. At that point she threw out her bed. When I say she threw out her bed, I mean that somehow, without making any noise, she managed to drag a full size mattress and boxspring down three flights of stairs and onto the street in the dead of night.
It turns out her bed belonged to one of her roommates from her most recent apartment who somehow failed to notice the infestation. She discovered that the people now living in the apartment have also been experiencing nocturnal bites. I am slightly horrified.
She told me that an exterminator is coming on Monday to treat our entire apartment and I think that will be for the best, even if it was one bug confined to one mattress and no real cause for alarm. After all, there may be other unsightly creatures we don't even know about. She is paying for the exterminator and she is terribly embarrassed and apologetic. Somewhat more stressful than a lone bug in the night however, is the fact that we have to undergo massive extermination preparations. We have to take the sheets off our beds (or bed as the case may be since she no longer has one), move furniture away from the walls, and clean all of our clothes out of our rooms. This may not be a big deal for her, but if you happen to walk into my bedroom you're basically knee deep in clothes so I have no idea how this whole thing is going to go down.
However, I assured her it was o.k., it would all be o.k., and I hurried out the door to head to work. Sure enough, there was her bed on the sidewalk, pillows and all. I am still in complete awe of how she managed to pull off that bizarre feat of strength. Perhaps that's the most disturbing part of this whole story.
It turns out her bed belonged to one of her roommates from her most recent apartment who somehow failed to notice the infestation. She discovered that the people now living in the apartment have also been experiencing nocturnal bites. I am slightly horrified.
She told me that an exterminator is coming on Monday to treat our entire apartment and I think that will be for the best, even if it was one bug confined to one mattress and no real cause for alarm. After all, there may be other unsightly creatures we don't even know about. She is paying for the exterminator and she is terribly embarrassed and apologetic. Somewhat more stressful than a lone bug in the night however, is the fact that we have to undergo massive extermination preparations. We have to take the sheets off our beds (or bed as the case may be since she no longer has one), move furniture away from the walls, and clean all of our clothes out of our rooms. This may not be a big deal for her, but if you happen to walk into my bedroom you're basically knee deep in clothes so I have no idea how this whole thing is going to go down.
However, I assured her it was o.k., it would all be o.k., and I hurried out the door to head to work. Sure enough, there was her bed on the sidewalk, pillows and all. I am still in complete awe of how she managed to pull off that bizarre feat of strength. Perhaps that's the most disturbing part of this whole story.
