Today was Bryan’s first day at UBS. He paced around nervously this morning and was dressed very early; today marks his official transition into the adult world — it’s admittedly scary. I was a little weirded out myself. I know a lot of people working now and the fact that I’m not makes me realize what it is I ought to be doing — writing. I have been putting it off because of this and that (I’ll get to a “that” example in a minute) but it’ll be underway soon.This morning I ran errands (went to the bank and was called “Mrs. Alexander” by the teller — ha), and dealt with some issues with Staples mistakenly charging my card and such. Bah. I’m an expert at calling 1-800 numbers now. An expert.
After that I did some serious organizing and packing of things away and was continuing my packing of things away in the bathroom, where I’d stacked a bunch of things in a basket on the toilet tank, and as I was going through a make up bag, a huge cockroach — 1.5 inches long — fell out of somewhere (was it the make up bag?! was it the toilet?! was it the sink?!) and dashed around. It was so huge I knew I would feel its exoskeleton snap under my thin sandal so I picked up the bathroom scale and slid it across the floor directly at it. It gave a sickening slurpy snap and fell to the tiles, squirming weakly. I ran — RAN — to the kitchen and grabbed our Pittsburgh can of Roach & Ant killer and sprayed the hell out of the thing, then sprayed a line all around the tile and under the toilet. Shaking, I backed away, grabbed my cell phone, and called the Super. Naturally, I got his voicemail. I left two calm messages.
It’s not that I’m scared of roaches. It’s only that I have an over-active imagination. Now, every ticklish feeling is one crawling on my leg; every itch is an antenna, investigating me. I hate, hate, hate bugs. There was only one — but it was huge. Where was it from? Some part of me is paranoid it came from that make up bag — I’d taken that to Europe and haven’t really investigated it since — but that’s kind of crazy; I’d never been in contact with anything like that. But I’m too scared to unzip it and check right now.
(That’s the “that” that is keeping me from concentrating on much at the moment. Ha, ADD. Doesn’t take much, does it?)
Meanwhile Bryan’s been having a great day. He was placed in the Media group — his top choice; we knew it all along (well, we didn’t want to say it aloud, but we knew) — and he’s out to dinner at the moment. It seems like he’s going to have a good time the next two years. I’m so excited for him.
Also, on another note, Pier 1 down the street (3rd & 87th) is hiring. Eenteresting. That sounds even more interesting than B&N, because then the B&N could become a haven rather than a workplace. (All of my jobs have done that to me — the job’s location, when I’m not working, is a place I want to avoid rather than go to, and part of me wants the ability to hang out anonymously at Barnes and Noble and work somewhere else.) I might have to investigate tomorrow.
