Yesterday morning a maid come to vacuum and wash the floors and our desks and whatnot. Our house is very clean/tidy... all of the above. Just when I was settling down in bed on my computer last night, though, I got a facebook chat message from one of my roommates, Molly, to "come to our room! COME COME COME COME COME!!!" I simply thought that she and Maeve were just hyper and wanted to hang out... I said I'd come, but first wanted to finish talking to my friends on facebook and skype. Immediately after I said I'd be there soon, she said "Nooooooooo NOW NOW NOW!", so I went in.
When I got there, Maeve was standing on her bed, and seemingly frightened. Molly was in her bed on the computer and when I asked her "what's up", Maeve blurted out "THERE'S A COCKROACH!" I was very grossed out and confused, but she said that she had gone into the bathroom and saw a large dark spot on the tile and was curious about it. When she turned the light on (before going in), it ran from the light. Maeve slowly approached the bathroom with me to see if it was still there... I opened the door slowly, but it wasn't hiding behind; I checked behind the shower, it wasn't there either. Then, I finally stepped out into the hallway. It was a little down the hallway where the light didn't shine through. Though I was apparently the bravest of both of them, I was still a little scared of the size of it... it was HUGE!
After we found where it was, Maeve freaked out and took her place back on her bed, while I ran to the kitchen to try to find something to trap it with. The best option was unfortunately a glass cup. I ran back and started trying to trap it underneath. It was SO FAST that I almost didn't catch it... It was an inch away from Maeve and Molly's doorway (Imagine what Maeve would have done if it got in haha). Now, my original plan of action was to try and trip it and throw it off the balcony or something. I don't really like the idea of killing things, and also was grossed out to think of the sound it would make if I crushed it (ew!). But, this plan failed because when I finally captured it, it was still moving very fast, of course, and I cut off it's head.
It was so gross to watch the rest of its body still squirm! When I decided the best thing to slide underneath was one of Molly's notecards (because it was the thickest paper), I carefully slid it underneath, while trying to keep the cup as close to the ground as possible. I was so nervous that it would somehow escape while I was doing this. I finally had it between the glass and paper, but the body was still moving. It was gross and I also felt bad if it were in pain. I tried to squish the glass some more to see if it would stop moving, but sure enough, it still did.
The final action was to flush it down the toilet, which took some very careful moves in order to pick it up without letting it escape. When I finally made my way to the toilet, I asked Molly and Maeve if they could atleast flush the toilet for me while I threw it in (since I couldn't flush the notecard of course). They were too scared to even do this! So, I frantically scraped/dropped it in the toilet and immediately flushed it, and finally watched to make sure it went down.
This all happened just before midnight. At this point, Maeve was still hovering on her bed, just as terrified as before. None of us could think about going to sleep just yet, and I scared them both by asking "Oh my gosh! What if there are eggs!? Do you think there are more?!" I still just couldn't understand how cockroaches could be in our apartment when it is so clean. Molly reasoned that it is typical to keep doors and windows open during the day for fresh air, etc. The rest of the night, Maeve wouldn't do anything alone. She was sitting in Molly's bed with her and joked (but I almost think she was serious) that they were gonna have to cuddle tonight (we all have twin beds). Later when she had to go to the bathroom, she tried to get me to go wtih her. Then, when she wanted to make tea, she begged me to go to the kitchen with her. Both times I reassured her it would be fine, but I ended up needing to go with her. She was ridiculous!
The funniest thing is that she is from North Carolina, where cockroaches are common. Interested by that comment, I remembered when we were on vacation near Charleston 5-10 years ago and we had an exterminator come to our rental house. The exterminator had reassured us to "not worry, they are Palmetto Bugs". When I mentioned this fact, she laughed and said, "they're the same thing!"
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Today, after I finished my lunch, I mentioned to Carmen that we found a cockroach and I was the one that had to kill it. She was shocked and said that she didn't hear any of this going on last night (which is good, because even though we were freaked out a little, we tried to keep it down). Carmen also said that this would be the 2nd one that's been in the apartment; I joked that they aren't common, but I had the "honor" of killing it. I explained to her that it was an accident; that I meant to just trap it, but it's head got cut off. She seemed to like that I said that; we both agreed that we do not like killing things; she said that even though she doesn't like cockroaches either, she would have let it outside also (remember, she's also Buddhist!).
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