update: the great spider conflict

i said in a couple posts back that i would rather wake up to a spider crawling across my pillow than come face to face with a leafbug.  well, this has recently been put to the test.  apparently in the summer my apartment becomes some sort of spider theme park-- the destination for the eight-legged elite.  i've seen the little buggers crawling across the floor and promptly sucked them up with my vacuum cleaner.  my first close encounter came when i found one crawling across my chest.

i really did shriek "was it in my hair?!" over and over again. was i expecting the spider
to answer my question?  i don't know.

then i found one crawling across my leg.  spider traps caught some of them, but apparently others were too clever.  people kept telling me to call my landlord to take care of it, but i kept putting it off.  why, you ask?  bug shame.  i realize, logically, that spiders aren't like cockroaches or ants.  you don't necessarily have to invite them in with crumbs and uncleanliness.  but still!  bug shame!  i keep my apartment extremely tidy, including mopping the floors by hand every week.  i'm a little neurotic about it, and i was not a fan of the idea of being That Neighbor with the bug problem.

when i woke up one morning with three spider bites and the very real fear that i'd swallowed a spider in the night, that was the last straw.  i called my landlord and on wednesday, mr. exterminator came to give the kiss of death to all those bitey eight-legged buggers.

i spent the night at my parents' house so i wouldn't die the spider death in my sleep, then went directly from their house to work.  i didn't see my apartment until yesterday evening after work.  i was a little nervous going home, because i didn't know what to expect.  possibly something like i imagine a civil war battle field would be like.  or maybe the french revolution, with barricades and tattered flags. (and the battle may or may not have involved singing something along the lines of "doooo you hear the spiders creep?  creeping to biiiiiite you in your sleep..."*)

but no.  there's not a spider corpse in sight.  which is a good thing, don't get me wrong.  i'd rather not deal with little spider patriots crunching under my feet.  but still.  it's a little anticlimactic, i think.  after months of living in fear, it's all over after one phone call.

... or is it?

(please, yes.  i hope it is.  i don't want to be carried away in the night as a prisoner of war, please.)


*this is funnier if you know what song i'm referencing.  at least i think it's funny.