Sunday snapshot: Home sweet {disgusting} home

I returned in the wee hours of the morning yesterday to my {mostly} vacant apartment.  My apartment presented as blank a slate as the coming year.

With just the bare bones furniture the school provides.

What makes the place home was all tucked away in the {slightly scary} office.

By the end of the rainy, dreary day the apartment once again looked like home.

The floors were mopped.  Every inch of the bathroom was scrubbed.  Furniture was moved back to its normal residing place.

The bed was made.  Pictures were put up.

The office was returned to its state as a safe haven and retreat.

My bag was unpacked and tucked out of sight, and for the first time in months I knew I wouldn’t have to touch it for a good long time.  I was home.  The place was neat and clean.  And it felt good.  Really good.

Until I went into the kitchen.  And opened a drawer.  And a cockroach scurried out of sight.  I managed to hold in the girlish squeal rising in my chest, and tried to convince myself, despite my knowledge of the pesky creatures, that it was just one cockroach.

But then almost every time I went into my kitchen and opened a drawer or cabinet, I was seeing one of the little buggers.  A few times the squeal escaped.  And there began to be no denial of the problem.  Other people in the building had had issues with the little scampering fiends in the previous years, and it now appeared as if some of the colony had made a decisive move to set up camp in my house.

The whole situation made me want to cry, so when my good friend Stella showed up at my door today, I immediately told her we were on a mission.  We headed to the store to buy roach killer, and then back to my place to clear out the kitchen cabinets. We gingerly lifted out boxes and dishes, expecting at any moment for the pests to come scurrying out at us.  I should clarify that statement; Stella did most of the ginger lifting while I stood back cringing.  Turns out she’s a lot braver than me.  Turns out I love her a bit more after today.

My bedroom now contains the contents  of my kitchen.

It’s far from neat and organized.  In fact, it’s downright chaotic.  Which, if you can guess from pre-roach discovery pictures of my home, is not my style.

I’m giving the roach houses a couple days (they’re in every single cabinet and drawer right now).  Then I’ll move the ones from where food is kept and bleach the heck out of every single cabinet before putting anything away (a lot of it in newly procured plastic bins).

My biggest mistake of the day?  Looking up roach killing techniques online.  Where they tell you to seal up all cracks and crevices along walls, and especially spaces around pipes.  Let’s just say Chinese construction and plumbing is probably the cockroach’s favorite invention.  But I’m not going to think about that, lest I just curl up in a ball and cry.

Regardless?  Being home and spending the afternoon and evening with Stella?  Pretty awesome.  Even if I sleep with the lights on.

{P.S. I could have shared a picture or two of some of the scurrying pests I’ve managed to squash today, but I thought I’d save you the shudder.  You can thank me later.}