Bugs

On my field trip on Thursday we were in marsh, which means gnats apparently. I'm learning a lot about my new state ... and I have the bites to prove it. Of course my body is whacked out and reacts in a delayed fashion. Seriously still finding hives or welts now and flipping out about potential bed bugs. Shawn has checked the bed, we've washed all the sheets and thankfully nothing. If they are bed bug bites I probably got them in the hotel. But probably a better bet that it was the gnats, since I checked the hotel bed before I went to sleep!

The field trip was OK. Certainly better than I expected. I worried about sea sickness, but I didn't take bug spray! Like I said, I'm learning... Anyway, the beauty of the water and expansive skies never fails to amaze me. Just like when we were out on our cruise, I was blown away by the beauty of sea and sky. There was a time when it was loud on the boat and no one was near me as we skipped along the water so I sang a little bit of Awesome God.

My photos were pretty lame, but the videographer got some good stuff AND we saw dolphins! Apparently they follow the boats.

I'll add the videographer's photos of me soon. I have so many posts going in my head but will have next to no time this week to write. IF I were smart I would have pre-written some this weekend. Maybe next weekend ... although starting next Monday, Nov. 1 I'll have to make a post a day no matter what!

Living Among the Students

Around midnight early Saturday morning, *ding dong* goes our doorbell. (Why do apartments need doorbells? I digress.) Shawn was asleep and I was trying to sleep so I didn't answer, thinking it was a rowdy kid -- or a mistake. In the morning the rowdy kid theory was confirmed when I was greeted by  an offering of McDonald's French fries thrown against our door -- assault by fast food?

So maybe living among students ISN'T going to be so peachy.

When you see them in the hallways they mostly say hello and nod and act like actual human beings. But apparently on the weekend nights they lose all sense of decorum and scream off the balconies and run the halls ringing random doorbells. (At least I hope we weren't targeted as old fuddy duddies and that it was random!)

This is the first weekend since school started, so maybe part of the issue. But the beauty of the apartment, its location relative to work and the swank amenities still outweigh any unpleasantness brought about by our neighbors. At least so far!

Give me crazy kids over bedbugs any day.

Bugger!

Waiting for Shawn to return before we pop in the DVD tonight. (All About Eve)

I woke up this morning with three suspicious bites on my leg. Yesterday my ankles were itching like mad, which I chalked up to sunburn, but now not so sure. RIGHT, just what I need on top of all the other depressing crap that I allow myself to wallow in deeply.

So I tweet about the itching/bites and a pest control company writes back: @silver_mari If you are having bites it may have been instars new born bedbugs. Go to our site and read about them. www.ibbs.us.com

Their site doesn't tell me much that I didn't know - although I didn't know you could buy a $300 thing to "treat" your possessions - somehow I don't believe it one bit. And they almost make it seem like the eggs can bite you - that doesn't seem right. Also, I had to look up instars - which means newborn bedbugs.

I'm hoping that it's just paranoia, but I'm pretty sure it's not. I'm not reacting violently ... yet. i.e. no swelling or anything - but that's probably not going to happen until I've been chewed on for weeks. (Makes me wonder how long we had bugs before I even realized my skin was severely messed up the first time, not to mention the six weeks it took from that point to figure out it was bedbugs and not just an allergic reaction to something.)

We're going to be in this apartment for another year - this small, bug-infested apartment that makes me want to cry. This place where I spend more than 20 hours each day, since this is where I work, sleep and "relax," if you can call it that. I know ... world's smallest violin ... but I surely am tired of battling these bugs that can bite me - we rewashed our sheets and blankets and pillows. Shawn vacuumed around the mattress and box spring (both still in their encasement, although I don't know how you'd wash the encasements because then that would leave the mattress and box spring exposed to the GD bugs ... although I guess you trap them inside the encasement then). I'm still going to spray myself with bug spray tonight and just pray I can get some rest and not wake up with more chew marks.

I just want a temporary stay - a leave of absence - or something. I don't want to have to deal with this. I want to be able to ... well, I want a lot of things. But as Owen and I would say: Tough Tooties!

Inside the Madness

It's a mad, mad world. Can't deny it. Watching Fringe last night saw the last 5 minute/overrun of American Idol, a show with which I am not acquainted and don't care to be. Anyway, a digression brought about by the word "mad."

So at work we have to fill out a form to request leave (a new development - before this it was always an informal agreement w/ the supervisor). That's good I guess, but yesterday when getting my metal removed I had to make a return appointment. Since the appointment is in one week, it's impractical for me to snail mail a form requesting the 45 minutes off that I'll need to go pick up the new retainer. So I checked and a scanned copy is acceptable. Great.

I haven't used my scanner since the bedbugs, but it's right here by my desk and shouldn't be a problem. WRONG. For some reason it doesn't connect with the already installed software, so I need the disc to reinstall. I search everywhere EASY I think it might be. Then I realize most of the CDs are in the bottom of a trunk at the bottom of my closet.

Yep, I spent a good 30 minutes of work time pulling stuff out (while cursing the bedbugs that caused everything to be so tightly packed away) so I could get the scanner CD and scan this form for 45 minutes off. Real ironic.

But the WORST part is that the CD wasn't there with all the others (HP reinstall CDs for my laptop, CD for Microsoft products I got at OSU, etc.). That's when I remembered - I was so smart that I put the CD itself into the scanner where it would always be easily findable.

I like to think of myself as competent and together. Clearly that is not the case.

*Edit - As a salaried employee, I actually do work longer than the prescribed hours, so my 30 minutes of closet diving won't really affect things. (Wouldn't want people to think I'm a slacker!)

Whirl-WIND

It's been a rough three days to say the least. There's a lot of draggy information I could vent about here, but HELLO inappropriate!

Something that is sharable - TRAGEDY STRUCK ... well, it was at least an inconvenience and will end up costing some DOUGH. My laptop back light died ... the evening before my work's big event ... when I had about an hour of work to get through.

GD it all to H!

So the laptop is toast I think (it's old, has bad associations, etc.) - although I will be able to get off any information that's on it - it would technically work as a computer with a monitor. But I also back up everything onto the portable hard drive (well, for the most part). And I should be OK on that end.

But that wasn't the worst part - the worst was not being able to finish my work and having to go into the office at 7 am on Tuesday to get the press releases issued, bla bla. I didn't get all the changes made that I would have liked, but I got it all done today in my last day in the office. It was a long day. Adding the Metro ride back to the hotel - it was a 16+ hour day (left the hotel before 7 am and got back after 11 pm).

Now I'm battling a mini headache but I'm back on "the Island" (do others call it that? i said that in conversation and the DC-ite looked at me like I was nutso, which maybe I am). I'm looking forward to PJs, TV and an early bed time. Shawn has been gone as well and will be home tomorrow - so I can go to sleep with the TV on! (oh the sacrifices we make to be married to the absolute best husband ever!)

So I made it through another year's event. I survived and there's work yet to be done.

Cheerio, PIP PIP.

PS When I told the laptop story, a coworker said "it's worse than bedbugs!" And I said I would take 100 days like Tuesday over the ordeal of bedbugs. And I absolutely mean it. Bedbugs are the worst!

Metallic

Sitting in the apartment/office/home/whatever - and am suddenly overwhelmed by a metallic smell. I've smelled it at least once before - either this week or last - and thought nothing of it. But now my Scooby senses are tingling (that's a thing, right?).

Yesterday I went to mail my valentine cards and man got on the elevator on the 4th floor - he was a worker I didn't recognize and had on a white Hazmat-type suit, plus booties over his shoes and a mask. I saw another similarly suited dude at the service entrance to our building when I walked past... I didn't have the nerve to ask them or the doorman what was going on. BUT ...

All I can think is bedbugs on the fourth floor. AND now that I can smell this metallicy awful smell - with the knowledge of the suited workers - I am guessing that the apartment directly beneath ours is being sprayed for bugs, which means, of course, that the bugs that were in our apartment have migrated down. Perhaps this could have been prevented if the apartment below ours had been informed of OUR spraying?

Whatever the case, I find myself more and more disgusted with our building management and the utter disregard for tenants' safety and general well-being. I've been feeling massively depressed for a few days and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Maybe the chemicals are leeching into my system and making me even sadder then I might normally be. I should get out more, but I've known that for a while.

My LTE Never Published

Re: Getting the Bedbugs Out

Dear Editors:

Thank you for your continuing coverage of the bedbug epidemic.

I agree with your list of items our city officials must press for to fight bedbugs. I'd like to add one more: owners and superintendents must be open and honest with tenants about bedbug treatments.

After living in our Manhattan studio for a year, I began having a severe allergic skin reaction. Six weeks and many dermatologist visits later, I discovered bedbugs were the culprit, despite my husband not being affected. Mystery solved, the excruciating extermination process began.

We have discovered at least one apartment on our floor and several others in the building received bedbug treatment before us. Tenants are not notified of others' treatment, which drive bugs into other parts of the building. My six-week skin mystery was a direct result of management keeping the bedbug secret.

We shouldn't have to fight bureaucracy in addition to the bedbugs.

~Marilyn Walker

Knee Jerk

I feel like a jerk - a big useless pansy jerk. But let's re-cap yesterday's trip to the ER, which when you think about it, makes ice skating the most expensive NYC-activity in which I have partaken (and I've got tickets to West Side Story in March!)...

I woke up and the knee was swollen and I couldn't walk at all. I was crying and the whole thing was just embarrassing. Shawn had to help me put on my socks! After some bickering and online searching we decided to go to an "in network" ER. there aren't any walk-in clinics in our insurance network, and the NYU university health center is for students only if you can believe that crap.

So it was snowing and colder than a witches you-know-what, and I'm hobbling/hopping on one foot in the icy streets while he gets a cab. The end result was a day (a good 5 hours anyway) in the ER/fast track section (where I continued to take work calls, as I had three conference calls scheduled AND was really sitting and waiting for most of the time anyway). They took X-rays (nothing broken), gave me a scrip for Vicodin, wrapped up the knee and gave me crutches. At least now I can get around (and I have more in common with Dr. House* than just my dry wit!)

I am taking a lot of ibuprofen/Motrin - which seems to help. And I took Vicodin last night, but when I woke up this morning I thought I was going to throw up** - I got super pale and had to lie down and sleep for another 45 minutes. Once I ate lunch I felt better, but by now the Vicodin should definitely be out of my system. SO I don't know if I'll chance that again tonight or just stick with the Motrin.

All of this proves that NYC hates me and wants me to leave. I would oblige, but still waiting to hear on job opportunities for my husband. Praying we go somewhere near one set of parents.

~mari (adding sig to this entry to give clear definition for the asterisk/footnotes)

*The actor who plays House, the GENIUS Hugh Laurie, will appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno tonight - as part of "The Band from TV" - a band created by Greg Grunberg, actor on Heroes and Felicity.

**I promise this is NOT morning sickness. I can't handle another rumor flying about me like that - although I'm sure those will be relentless until there's actually some TRUTH to that!

Bad Idea

Skating was the worst idea ever. It was almost fun until I fell. Now it's going to turn into a medical nightmare, as I can't even walk or hop around the apartment (am moving about in my rolly chair as much as I can and holding onto other things to get to the bathroom). The pain is excruciating, the knee is swollen somewhat, although no bruising that i can see, unless it's on the back of the knee. i probably should have gone to the doctor last night when i could still walk a little. instead i took the bus and walked back here.

i can't even get to the kitchen if i want breakfast. i doubt i could make it over to the window to open the shades - apparently it's snowing outside.

it's really cold here too. i don't know how i'm going to get down to the lobby to even get a taxi to go where we need to go. Apparently we need to go to the ER at St. Vincent's. I'm sure that will be a hell of a time.

this is the most humiliating and painful thing that's happened to me. it's less of a pain in the ass than bedbugs i guess, but a solid second place. (and i had a spot on my jaw yesterday that looked suspiciously like a bedbug bite. so i'm not convinced that saga is over yet)

i don't even know how i'm going to get dressed. there's no comfortable position - right now i'm in the rolly chair with my legs propped up on a dining chair - so at least my knee is higher than my waist (is it supposed to be higher than my heart? if so, i'm screwed b/c i have no way to do that unless i lie flat on my back).

i have a busy afternoon full of meetings. i just can't believe my luck. NYC really hates me, and as we all know, I hate it right back.

Christmas Gift Joy

Christmas 2008 was good to me!

Pictured at left, I'm enjoying my new TV headphones in the NYC. OH YEAH, thanks to Shawn's mom, Dale, I can now watch TV without disturbing Shawn. A gift that keeps on giving ... to both of us!

At right, a picture of me in the Walkers' basement in Danville as we opened our gifts. I'm holding up another favorite gift from Dale - my projection alarm clock! I got my cousin Matt one last year, and was a little jealous when he was trying it out. But I never got around to buying one for myself. Shawn thinks it's ridiculous BUT I had to throw away my alarm clock because it was right in the bedbug infestation (that's right - they can live inside electronics ... one more TMI thing you didn't want to know about the little critters). And I love being able to push a button and see the time. PLUS it has an inside thermometer, so I can always tell what the temp is in our apartment, something I haven't had the luxury of knowing since I moved here - since my inside thermometer was misplaced in the move. Am I easy to please or what?

Not to be outdone, my mommy got me some great gifts too - including a stocking stuffed "plum full" of goodies. One of my favorite things, which I use every time I go outside, are my mittens. They're mittens that flip back to let your fingers work when you're inside, but flip down over your fingers to keep those digits toasty warm. And they're PURPLE. Does my mama know me? I also got a digital photo/media player that will be excellent once I really get into it. Mama filled it with pictures from Holly's wedding, so I'm thinking I will unload those to my computer and send them to the blushing bride...

I haven't taken pics of the gifts from my mom, mostly because my camera was pointed at the O-man while we were in Oklahoma.

Can you see why? He's just the MOST precious little thing. This is actually his fifth Christmas (and my 29th!). Here he's seen posing with his gift from Uncle Shawn - an educational toy that teaches shapes. It was the first present Owen opened during this round of present opening and he was SO excited about it - saying "Exactly what I wanted!"

Shawn doesn't believe that, but it's TRUE.

PS I'm setting this post to publish automatically in the morning. What, did you think I was an early bird or something? Bish pls.

New York Times: Bedbugs

Right - there's an editorial in today's New York Times about bedbugs (thanks to my boss' boss for pointing it out to me - gotta love it when someone sees bedbugs they think of me!).

I submitted a 150 word letter to the editor. I should hear within seven days whether they're going to publish it. And if not, I'll be free to post it here. Writing so briefly was a CHALLENGE to say the least - so I wrote first and then chopped and edited to get it down. Kind of fun. I forgot how much I missed ... oh wait, I do that kind of thing every month with our newsletter. Nevermind. :)

Anyway, the article is about the lack of help people can get for bedbugs - i.e. no one agency has all the information you need... I can attest to that. PLUS looking online can just make your heart sink, because you end up with horror stories and such. An excerpt from the editorial (which you should really read!!!)

Complaints about bed bugs in New York City are rising steadily. As any health official can attest, the only good thing about these nighttime pests is that they don’t seem to cause disease. That doesn’t count panic attacks and the outsize frustration for residents who try to get help from a maze of local and state bureaucracies.

Unrelated update: I'm expecting to go ice skating tonight for the first time. Here's hoping I don't fall and re-injure my back (it's been feeling a little twingy this week - maybe has to do with the cold weather?)...

Via Gawker: Bedbugs at Marie Claire?!

It has NOTHING to do with a "filthy intern" as one of the first commenters says. UGH.

Bedbugs aren't just for dirty hovels like Fox News and hipster Bushwick. The filthy bloodsuckers have allegedly infested the very flower of our national womanhood—the offices of Marie Claire:

A tipster tells us this dirty rumor:

"Marie Claire magazine in the brand new hearst tower was infested by bed bugs on Friday, courtesy of a fashion intern. employees in the affected area were sent home on Friday.
Over the weekend, total fumigation of the floor. Will it appear in the reality show they've been filming up there?!
The girls were acting like they'd contracted HIV."

Read the whole Gawker tip here - and hopefully they'll update the post or do something new when they get more info. How insane am I to follow things like this?! (and i didn't search for this - came thru my twitter ... i follow Gawker)

Bedbugs on the Today Show

Zing

Today's the day I'll be squeezing my sweetest nephew!

My eyes popped open at about 7:15 a.m. There was drilling or something going on outside on the street below ... but I was so excited I couldn't go back to sleep. I'm like a kid on Christmas (and it's driving Shawn nuts!) ...

I'm working away - my newsletter is being finished, which will be a huge relief. I'm putting together my report for next week's staff meeting ... and a few other minor things as I wait for time to leave this bedbug infested place.

OH they're going to spray on Tuesday. Dear lord, let that spray work... It will have plenty of time to settle. Blurgh. We need a bedbug sniffing dog!

~Marilyn Jean, the beauty queen.

Empower - HOPE

First, I found my crochet hooks - they were in the trunk at the bottom of my closet, which meant pulling out the tubs and the other heavy trunk ... but I got them. And saw no signs of bedbugs, but you never know. *shudder*

I can't wait to write something AFTER this whole ordeal - write the thing that I went searching for online when I first discovered this infestation ... that it CAN be OK and people can make it through this. Because from where I'm sitting, that's not seeming realistic or plausible.

After a late lunch today - I started to feel better (today's previous entry was depressed, to be kind about it). I don't feel great, but I'm also OK with that. It sucks that this has happened to us, but this is certainly not the worst thing that could happen (although I hope it's the worst thing that Shawn and I ever face together! Wouldn't we have a happy, carefree life then?).

We have each other - and our stuff isn't destroyed. We WILL eventually leave this behind us, even if we can't get them knocked out of this apartment. And we've found coping mechanisms and a way to live with the bugs (buy stock in Comet, right?!) if we absolutely have to. And I'm no longer shelling out co-pay after co-pay for a skin allergy that wasn't.

It's going to take a while until I'm comfortable in this apartment (which is a struggle, since I spend up to 24 out of 24 hours in a day in this room) ... but I have to remember all the blessings I have and the ways in which life is GOOD, despite this bad THING that's happening in it. If only that nugget of positive emotion and empowerment and HOPE could stick with me and dry the tears that I inevitably shed when looking around and thinking about it all... Baby steps, though. Baby steps.

Also - now it's OK to listen to Christmas music - giving myself just over a full month to enjoy my collection - including Mariah, Trisha and a great Merry Mixmas CD that has classics re-mixed. Minimal decorating will commence when we return from our Thanksgiving trip, as will Christmas card writing and baking - cookies and candy and good stuff! I'm ordering custom Christmas cards (the first try wasn't what I wanted, but I've found a company that can do what I want), and I'm going to put up a ceramic tree with light bulbs and a mosaic picture holder thing that my mom gave me - instead of photos I'm going to hang/attach ornaments that I've got - it will be fun times.

fraidy cat

our bed arrived and i accepted it. we've got it encased and had an ok night sleeping in the middle of the room.

i've got no new bites. but Shawn has found a couple more bugs (taped to white paper, the best photo I could get was with the macro setting and no flash, since the flash blew out the image too much) - and we're going to try to get the exterminator to come next week while we're gone. That means we have to bag up our stuff in one day, since we're leaving for the airport tomorrow around noon. But the plan is to have them not treat our closets again - or any of the stuff in there ... I'm not sure how that will work out, but whatever. We've got to try something.

The emotional aspect of this is really wearing us out. We're both one mood-swing away from snapping. It's just back and forth - as soon as we're feeling good and positive like "we can survive this" ... something happens - he finds a fat bug, I get more bites or something and we come crashing back to the reality of this unfair, awful and overwhelming situation.

Why can't the university find us a new place to live? As obviously we're unable to clean this one out of the bugs ... The comet SHOULD keep them at bay, and another spraying would help I'm sure, but there's no way to fully rid ourselves of the bugs. Not to mention any way to get ourselves over the trauma.

I think I need a therapist. I've gone to therapy before. But in this big, horrible city that I loathe, there's just no way to find a place. It's disjointed and awful.

And yes, I am feeling incredibly negative today. My T-shirt smells musty - even though it was washed recently (everything I own was washed recently!) ... I misplaced my lavender drawer sachets somewhere ...

and I've lost my crochet hooks. I have one of them - the one I'm working with on the bedspread, but I wanted to do a few snowflakes with some different thread and hook ... and the hooks are no where to be found. they could be in the closet, but i don't remember. and i am frightened that i tossed them accidentally ... all the hooks i've used to make my many projects. those hooks have memories. ack, i've got to get over myself.

i can't wait to go home tomorrow, although i won't technically be HOME until Sunday afternoon...

good night - good therapy

blogging daily (and in today's case, thrice daily!) is very therapeutic for me - especially in this situation with the bugs.

we've got the air mattress back up and dressed - with fresh sheets and cleanly dried pillows. i'm so tired, so looking forward to a sleep. we've got the comet ring around the mattress, i'm sprayed with DEET again (freshly showered in clean PJs). so i should be OK for the night. dear lord, keep us safe.

i still feel a little creepy crawly, but there you go.

these are the images taken today - the bite/bruise/mark on my inner right arm - it's even more purple tonight. and then the marks on my neck - i just took this shot... i still hope these were from sunday night and not last night (when we were sleeping at Frank's). shawn washed Frank's sheets and checked his bed - didn't see any spots BUT Frank has brown sheets ... and I'm just overly paranoid, but I obviously got bitten in the last couple days.

Oh man alive. This has got to end someday, right? Ready to run.

~Mari.

Edit - it kind of looks like a Christmas tree shape, right?

NYTimes - ‘Lipstick Jungle’ Lives!

‘Lipstick Jungle’ Lives! - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com:

"Reports of the demise of “Lipstick Jungle” look like they were premature. The NBC drama about well-heeled women in New York, starring Brooke Shields, was shuffled off to Friday nights two weeks ago amid reports that the show was canceled and the remaining finished episodes would not get on air. But as of this week, “Lipstick Jungle” is breathing again."

Hoo-ah! Silly. Wonder if they count my web viewing? I have watched the last 3 weeks online during Saturday afternoon slumps... Don't know when I'll watch this week's, since I'll be jet-setting on Friday and then Still-watering on Saturday.

As expected, exterminator came and said without proof they can't spray again. It's definitely a survivor from our stuff - he chastised me for not inspecting everything thoroughly enough when we "re-introduced" to the room. TECHNICALLY our stuff was never un-duced (?) from the room and has always been in here. But I get the point. I looked as closely as I could, but the fact is, we missed something... And maybe it's just a straggler who got lucky and chomped on me, but we'll see. He left a lot of "traps" - just sticky roach things (which don't catch bedbugs really). He said if we find one, put it in the trap and then call them. Nice. He had a lot of other choice things to say (several 4-letter words and such, weird for someone to speak to me that way).

Be ... all that you can be. Make a difference, give your dreams to me. No time for wasting, there's so much to do. Don't you forget that ... something, something me and you. Let's get something, let's do the bada-bada. Woo! Woo! Read ... my ... lips!

(My version of the Lipstick Jungle lyrics)

~M.

i should be sleeping

our friend Frank let us sleep at his apartment again last night. i feel so guilty about it - i don't like being so pitiful. really, i don't. i also don't like risking infesting his apartment.

anyway, this morning Shawn has class, so he had to get up early, and i just got up too. now i'm waiting for him to finish showering and go to class, then I'll get dressed and start my day/work for real. i am so tired.

the bed delivery is rescheduled for today - we rejected the mattress they brought yesterday because there was a hole in the plastic covering it. they use the same truck to transport old mattresses (read: potentially infested mattresses), and they couldn't guarantee that the hole was made when they moved it off the truck vs. loading it on the truck. (the delivery guys were Jerks with a capital J.) Shawn will be in class when the second delivery attempt happens. so that will be something for me to deal with.

once they arrive and i sign off, i'll have to wait for Shawn to have time to come home and help me slip cover them with the bedbug-proof allergen covers. THEN we can set up the bed, put on some sheets, etc. we should be able to keep the bugs away from the bed itself - even if there are some surviving. we've got comet around the bed frame's feet, plus double sided tape wrapped around each. the bed will be away from the wall, and we'll use short/smaller bedding so it won't fall off (because once it does, it has to go into the washer/dryer before gaining re-entry to the bed). this is all too much.

i definitely got a bite on Sunday night (no bites sleeping at Frank's that I can see). the reaction to Sunday's bite(s) is massive though - a giant welt on my inner right arm that's actually bruising. also there are a few spots on the right side of my neck that are probably bites. they're not itching but they're there - and i'm not sure if they were there in a milder form yesterday - oh, the horror if i got them at Frank's. i can't take being bedbug food for much longer.

also the exterminator is coming again today for a "consultation." i don't know what to tell him - because there's no evidence of them (no sheets/mattress to look at for smears) except for the marks/welts on my body. they will probably spray again next week - but we're not planning to re-wash and re-bag all our stuff. i'm not sure what to do since it didn't work last time.

i guess i'll make some coffee, eat a bagel and maybe watch some morning TV. going to smear some anti-itch calamine lotion cream stuff on my neck and arm. i AM pitiful, and i'm so tired of being this way. what can i do to make this go away?

character building

This morning Shawn found another bedbug ... a fat one who had just fed on us. He squished it before I could see it, but I guess that's good, as I'm less freaked out than I would expect. Denial was a nice place to live for a while though ... now it's back to reality, and a horrifying reality at that.

Our new mattress and box spring are supposed to arrive today. 9am-1pm delivery slot... It's creeping toward the end of the slot, which is crazy. I think we should have been first, as we made our appointment an entire week ago. I hate Sleepy's ... for the rest of my life.

We've got the bed frame set up and waiting - with extra comet around it. Shawn's hypothesis is that the bugs survived in some of our belongings that we had stacked in the middle of the room - and then as we've been unpacking they made it out. We had removed the ring of comet directly around our air mattress ... leaving a clear path for the "little bastards."

I've purchased high dollar covers for the mattress and box spring. We'll leave the box spring in its plastic as well. These are guaranteed to keep the bedbugs out of the mattress/box spring ... scientifically proven and all that. We know how I feel about RESEARCH. Right.

Anyway, even if there are survivors still lurking (which it's likely that there are, given Shawn's discovery this morning), the bed will not be infested and we can still move it to another place without carrying the bugs with us ... hopefully sooner rather than later. But that's another story.

I've been on Prednisone for one last round for the last couple weeks. Of course, now that I have new bites (and I only have a few, but definitely bitten at least last night, and perhaps even longer) ... the steroid treatment is again rendered moot. I'm done with that. I guess I should go back to spraying myself with DEET - but even that loses its potency and effectiveness I think. I'm still popping Benadryl like a mad woman every night. And I am not going to change that. I am beyond caring about addiction to a sleep-aid (that's really what it is for me). Give me that problem over bedbugs any day. PLEASE?!

I'm getting the feeling that New York really wants me gone. I hate feeling a prisoner in my own home and workspace. I mean, obviously I'm free to leave, but ... well you know. On the positive side, before this week is out I will be squeezing Mr. Owen Max! And having THAT to look forward to is better than anything I can imagine.

More later. ~M.