Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Managing Two Apartments

is not as glamorous as it sounds. ;) I don't know where anything is anymore! Anyways, last night, I did the only part of my move that required a big truck. My father borrowed a box truck like the one above from our friends, the Custances. They have a custom woodworking company in NH & a general construction company in MA - you should check them out! (Nice plug, huh?) It took my father & I around 3 hours to load & unload almost all of my furniture. My biceps are a little sore today, but things went pretty well overall.

The old apartment has been stripped down to the bare essentials at this point. I'm working with a mattress on the floor, a skinny plastic dresser, a night table, and a trunk. Since I refused to put my mattress on the floor without thoroughly cleaning it, I went to bed last night actually feeling like my apartment was clean & tidy.

Cut to 3:39 a.m. I swam awake & realized that I'd committed my usual sleepytime faux pas. That is, left my contacts in & the TV & light on. I blinked my eyes groggily - and they came to rest on a silverfish crawling on the ceiling!!! Gross!

Now, bugs & I are generally on decent terms. I trap moths in my hands & release them outdoors, I'm not sure I've ever killed a fly, and
I have no problem with letting spiders cruise around my walls (a throwback to Charlotte's Web, perhaps?). Mosquitos & bees aren't high on my list, because they like to bite/sting, but I don't hate them passionately. Silverfish, however . . . blech. I get the shivers just talking about them.

So I lay there for a few minutes, processing the fact that this nasty insect was crawling around on my ceiling like he owned it. I realized that I no longer had any chairs in my apartment, therefore there was nothing to stand on to get close enough to kill him.

Undaunted (but still a little confused), I grabbed a handful of kleenex from the bathroom & one of my flip-flops from the floor. I grabbed a broom & began to formulate a plan. Flip-flop in one hand, broom in the other, I swept him off the ceiling onto the floor. He scurried underneath the French door. Flip-flop at the ready, I opened the door & nailed him as he tried to run away. Success! I may or may not have danced a little around the apartment & exclaimed, "Haha! Stacey - 1, silverfish - 0!" I may have done that. But I'm not telling. ;)

P.S. It turns out that in addition to being nasty-looking & shiver-inducing, the little buggers eat book bindings. Now it's personal! I'm really glad I killed the little intruder last night.

P.P.S. To read about another Boston blogger who is sharing her moving stories, check out Sarah. She's much funnier than I am. ;)

1 comment:

K said...

Yeah, bugs suck! I moved into my new apartment in Norwood from downtown Boston and subbed loud traffic and sirens for "nature". I'm not sure which I'd prefer, but I sure hate ants and spiders and anything that looks hairy. Yuck.