Evil Steve and Reggie

So life has been somewhat lively in our apartment the last two weeks.

Story #1
Last week I was up late one night and went into the bathroom only to find a lovely mid-sized cockroach staring back at me from the wall. It had been super cold that day and so he had probably found a way into our cozy, warm apartment in order to escape the chill. You probably are aware of my intense aversion to all things creepy-crawly and my intense phobia of hearing/feeling the crunch of squishing them. Lets just say it took everything I had not to scream in surprise.

I thought about waking Brian up, but he was fast asleep and I didn't want to disturb him. So I retreated to the kitchen, found a plastic cup and headed back to trap my little "friend." With a little, okay maybe a lot, of tapping the cup against the wall, I was able to chase the aforementioned cockroach (hereafter know as Evil Steve) down the wall and onto the floor. However, the little guy must have sensed his impending imprisonment, because he stuck close to the wall where I couldn't get the cup over him. With a little more tapping and some creative maneuvers, I chased Evil Steve away from the wall and slapped the cup upside down on top of him. There may have been a congratulatory "Ah-Ha!", a large grin and some relieved laughter after "Operation: Incarcerate Evil Steve" was accomplished successfully without any casualties (his or mine). I wrote instructions for Evil Steve's demise on a sticky note that went something like, "Dear Brian. There is a bug in the cup by the tub. Please kill. Thank You. Love You."

After the note was successfully stuck to the mirror, I turned the lights off and went to bed feeling safe and secure. The next morning I found a bug-less cup along with a crumpled note next to the sink. My plan worked...or so I had thought. That's right, the tale continues.

Later, when Brian got home from work, I thanked him for taking care of Evil Steve. He looked confused for a moment and then said, "Oh yeah...the cup. There wasn't a bug in there. Are you sure you just didn't imagine it?" I know I did not imagine it. Sorry to disappoint you all, but there is no real end to this tale. Evil Steve thwarted my plan and somehow escaped his plastic prison. We have not seen him since. I would like to think that he crawled out of our apartment through the hole he came in through. However, I can't help but imagine him laying in wait somewhere in our apartment, rubbing his antennas together and planning retaliation.

Story #2
Last night Brian and I were on our futon watching a movie when I happened to look through the door into our hallway at the exact moment that a little mouse decided to run down the hall toward our coat closet. I blinked for a moment and then calmly said "I just saw a mouse." (Brian says I shouted in terror.)

Brian jumped up and ran into the hall. I told him that it ran toward our closet. So he gallantly opened the closet door, crouched down and proceeded to dig through our stuff looking for it. I wonder now if his plan was to try and catch it with his hands, or just look for it. Hahahaha. I was sitting on the futon trembling from surprise when all the sudden Brian let out a rather high-pitched scream and jumped backwards. (Brian insists it was a very manly shriek.) He then said, "It touched me!" Brian's scream made me scream again, and for a moment there was just screaming and freaking out. I looked over in time to see a grey blur run down the hallway back towards the kitchen. After we caught our breath from first screaming and then laughing, Brian headed to the kitchen to find the little guy again. The mouse was out of sight, but was later seen poking his little head out between our fridge and cupboard.

Later that night as we were once again calm and watching our movie, I asked Brian if he thought that mice eat cockroaches. If they do, I think we should keep our mouse, name him Reggie and give him full run of the place until he finds and devours Evil Steve. Then we could get rid of Reggie. Only in a perfect world...except in my perfect world there would be no cockroaches or mice to begin with. So it's off to the store tomorrow to buy a nice sturdy mousetrap.

I'm including the below picture in honor of this post. We found this giant rat balloon being inflated near Madison Square Park a few months ago. It was so random. Luckily, Reggie is neither a rat nor this big.