Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

Well, shit. Here I thought the last treatment of the place had managed to kill off the last of the bed bugs, but it seems there were either more eggs waiting to hatch or more new ones have crawled over from next door, because I woke up to more bites this morning.

Frak.
Me.

The bed sheets are dry now, having been washed in hot water and dried on high once again. Thankfully the laundry room was pretty much empty, so I was able to get those and all my other laundry done at one time. I still have to pull the mattress off and treat the frame with more boric acid, but I’ve not done that yet; honestly it’s been difficult enough to muster the energy to deal with the laundry itself, much less hauling the mattress around.

That has to be the worst part of this whole thing – that not even my “safest” space is safe. My bedroom, which is where I sleep, where I play on the computer, where I read, has been compromised, and there’s not a whole heck of a lot I can do about it. I keep the place clean, but they crawl into clean spaces as easily and as casually as dirty ones. I continue to clean the sheets, dust the (new this spring) bed frame, keep the bed away from the wall, coat the legs with Vaseline to keep them from crawling up, tuck the comforter in to keep it off the floor, but still I’m getting bitten. So still my “safe space” is unsafe, which means I can’t have people over, I can’t have anyone sleep in the room with me, and the feelings of isolation and despair just continue to climb.

They keep treating this unit, and supposedly treating next door, the original source of the infestation, but the bugs continue to bite. They’re also supposedly looking into evicting, or not renewing the lease of, the men next door to shut the place down as a crash spot for every Tom, Dick & Harry that needs a cheap place to sleep (there are four beds set up in the studio apartment there, all of which showed signs of bed bug infestation the first time it was treated).

I’d be tempted to move, but by this point I’d have to isolate and treat everything I own to ensure that I didn’t carry any eggs with me to a new place. Every stitch of fabric would have to be cleaned, then moved elsewhere, and every piece of wood would have to be treated with steam and boric acid to ensure they weren’t harboring any eggs, the mere contemplation of which leaves me more than a little bit exhausted.

I don’t know what else to do except try to soldier through, keep calling management to get the apartment treated, yet again, and keep pressure up to get rid of the ultimate source of the little fuckers, the men next door, but damn I’m tired of fighting this. Next week will be two months since I first noted bites, and about a month since I started getting almost weekly visits from Orkin for the infestation. I like the Orkin manager, don’t get me wrong, but I’m getting tired of having her come in to treat the place. I want my safe space to be safe again.

This was so not how I saw myself spending my 33rd birthday.

Better run this morning than Monday. Heart rate stayed more in line with the norm (though that’s too high, thank you sudafed, by which I mean thank you cats for causing such allergies that I need to take sudafed all the time now), and it felt better than Monday’s inaugural run.

Crazy days at work, with crazy questions left and right. Mostly staying above water now, but will be very happy to see the fiscal year close and the new one begin, even if Congress hasn’t gotten off their collective asses and given us a real budget yet. Off tomorrow for a dental appointment, one that was originally scheduled for last week but which had to be put off because I had to be at a meeting Thursday morning that was absolute BS and at which I really was not needed.

Saw K tonight, watched the OC and he was a good sport about me making fun of the characters (“C’mon, Marissa, eat a fucking sandwich!”). Gave him a massage afterward, which was fun for both of us. Was relaxing all around.

Richard arrived home from NYC this evening as well and he liked the new living room arrangement that Mike and I foisted off on the room over the weekend. We moved a couch around to the outside wall to open up the inner space, and cocked everything at a slight angle. It helps. And I also let Richard know this evening that despite my earlier considerations I did not want to get a new couch – I see little point in spending almost $900 on a new couch when we can spend much, much less to simply replace the mattress on the one futon frame that’s still in excellent shape (it just has a mattress that sucks gorilla butt).

Which I think was inspired by my current choice of reading, Affluenza (2nd edition). Definitely making me reconsider some of my choices, and some of my habits. Hopefully for the better.

Sitting around the apartment in a kilt with the AC going, even though it’s in the 60s outside, makes for one cold Moose.

Tonight was a chill-out night. Richard’s in NYC, Mike’s at work, K’s at a concert, the Imp’s at home, so was just me and the TiVo. Cleared out several shows, and just generally decided to do nothing. Was going to play with a template tonight, but wasn’t in the mood to have to hunt down the alterations I needed to make to make it look right. So just some chill-out time with the Teen Titans and the Justice League.

Chatted with a woman I work with who’s signed up for February’s AIDS Marathon training program. She did 5 miles this past weekend and was incredibly excited for having done it. It was really neat to see someone so excited about beginning an exercise program, especially at a time when I’m restarting mine, ever so slowly. I’m trying not to dive in too quickly, which is my usual wont, so I’m just running a couple times this week, with stretching on the “off” days. I know my system’s deconditioned a lot since the start of the bed bug mess back in August, so I’m just trying to get out and do some gentle runs to get back into the swing of things, and gradually add in the other two sports and weights as I feel ready to. No set plan yet, just trying to get back up to a comfortable level, then go from there, hence starting with my favorite event.

Work is in the usual end-of-the-fiscal-year madness season, but I’m doing better with it this year than I have previously. I’ve gotten a better handle on the legal issues involved, which makes these things much more fun to deal with, as well as making it easier to be a relatively calm voice in the middle of the storm. Which is a role that I much prefer to play over the scrambling attorney, trying to play catch-up and/or stay one ahead of the game. Is good to get some experience under ye olde belt.

Anyway, past time to crash here. Gotta try and get up to run tomorrow.

I am a creature of habit. By nature I have a system that lends itself better to a set routine than one that varies. Once I pin down a routine that works, I stick with it. So it’s always difficult when I change the routine, either by choice or not.

I traveled down to see Richard’s family this weekend, celebrating his father’s marriage to his new wife. Going out of town always entails a change to my routine. I usually don’t sleep as well, nor do I exercise most times (on short trips), and eating, the lynchpin of my system, is a nightmare. Either I don’t eat enough, or too much, or the wrong things, or not enough fiber, but regardless, my system gets thrown off quickly once the routine goes.

Likewise, I don’t do change well in other things. I’ve been wanting to change the design of this part of my site around, and get an easier interface than having to sit at the computer, edit the files, upload the same, check the links, etc. Too troublesome.

Today was spent reinstituting my routines. Caught up on the missed sleep, got my diet back in order, fixed my stomach, fixed my web site. Ran this evening, shopped during the day, took the lessons I learned with fixing my Count Four main site and applied the same to the diary/journal site.

I’m pleased with the implementation of Word Press on the site. Hopefully this change in habit will be a productive one. The run today was a mess, but it’ll get better as I get back to a normal exercise routine. It’s easy to slip out of habits, and sometimes hard to slip into new ones, but the better old ones fit like a glove, and I’m so much better when they do.

As threatened, I’ve upgraded the web hosting software here to Word Press. I’m still fixing some links, so if you find any broken ones do let me know. The old archives are still up and running, and will remain so for the indefinite future. I liked the old design and like to see it captured there still in those older archives. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t time to upgrade to a newer system for updates. Until then, enjoy.