Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Nightmares falling on my head...

{Warning- If you're squirmish, you might want to skip to the pictures at the bottom.}
I wouldn't say that I'm necessarily a fearful person, however, there are a couple of things that make my skin crawl...one of them being roaches. Living in the south, roaches, or if you prefer the nicer term "palmetto bugs" are everywhere and regardless of how clean you keep your house, the little shits always find a way in.
B and I recently moved into the top floor of an old house. As the weather got warmer during the spring, I noticed a couple roaches every now and again. My reaction was always the same, scream followed by frantic search for object to kill, or shout for B to come (and he knows to come quickly lest I have a panic attack.)
During my stint as a state social worker, I thought my aversion to "la cucaracha" would dissipate a bit, but no friends, my distaste of them became worse. I used to deal with very difficult situations (i.e. child molesters) with a straight face and professional demeanor, but if there was a roach infestation (slum loards like to keep their tenants in filth) I would squirm, and squeal, and just about pee my pants.
On top of my general aversion and loathing of this hideous creature, I have a fear of roaches falling on me when I'm asleep. A fear, that until now, seen senseless and silly. Last night, a really loud thunderstorm made it's way through Athens. B and I both woke up to listen. The room was dark and I was laying on my back looking out the window. All of sudden, PLOP, right on my head and I KNEW IMMEDIATELY WHAT IT WAS. I like to pride myself on my cat-like reflexes and in one swift movement I raked my hand through my hair, jumped out of bed and screamed. B jumped up too, put the light and immediately said that "whatever" had fallen was no longer there. BAH! I told him I knew the roach was in the bed and about a second later, the BIGGEST FRIGGIN ROACH you've ever seen started making circles on the bed.
Needless to say, I was immediately sick in my stomach and had to skip work this morning because I couldn't sleep. It's like Nightmare on Elm Street at my house, I don't want to fall asleep!!!
Somehow I feel better sharing this with you because I'm seriously traumatized. B plans on having a long talk with our landlord today and I told him to tell the company that if they don't do something I will sue for emotional damage! Ok, I won't really sue, but seriously I'm going to need therapy if this happens again.

If you made it this far in reading, I'd like to reward you with some low-heeled summer shoes for under $100!
These seafoam colored peep-toes are quickly moving to the top of my wishlist.
Seychelles Teardrop Slingback $88
I really like the shape of these wedges and the gold straps are unexpected and kind of disco fabulous.
Cocoa Beach Wedges $99.99
This shoe screams summer soirees and strolls on the boardwalk.
Pink Studio Bradshaw $80.95
I love that this style is coming back "in" because they remind me of my grandmother, which is a good thing.
Knotted Espadrille Wedge $19.50
So, I have to know, am I alone in my irrational (or rational at this point) fears or is there something that makes you jump out of your skin?
{Oh and in case you're wondering how I'm going to treat myself for surviving this event, I've already taken the day off Saturday and I have a massage and mini facial scheduled, as of this morning. HA! Take that stupid roach!}

41 comments:

Mariss said...

Ugh!!! That is the scariest thing imaginable, unless it was anyting with hundreds of legs -- they're my arch nemesis. Being a native South Floridian, I feel your pain with the roaches. No matter what, they're just a fact. I found a dead one in my sheets one morning and still cringe at the thought. Sorry that happened to you! :(

Johanna said...

i grew up in central florida and never had this happen to me until i moved to new york, where they have an even more special name for giant roaches: waterbugs. this exact situation happened to me about a year ago and i spent the next two days on my stomach caulking the cracks in the floorboards. i slept on the couch for a MONTH just because it wasnt the site of the carnage.

Annie said...

ahhh, so scary you poor thing! I would freak out as well! We, thankfully, have no roaches in our homes here in Minnesota! Just little spiders and those freak me out! ew!

inkWELL Press said...

I'm pretty much with you on the roach thing. I once woke up with one on my leg (years ago) and I never have really recovered. So gross.

Iva Messy said...

O.M.G. omg! I am so totally sorry! That is traumatizing. No, I would so be with you on this and not be able to sleep either. totally creepy. UGH. I hope the talk by B will put the landlord in check :) Do you need me to help talk to him? I will. lol. oh horrible. But on a slightly bright note, no work today AND facials as a treat AND you found some great shoes! TAKE THAT LA CUCARACHA!

erin said...

oh. my. no. this is my nightly fear. there was a GIANT roach in our spotlessly clean kitchen last night, and let's just say, sleep well, i did not. gross. thinking of you!

Felicia|DaLipstickBandit said...

wedges are soo comfy! i love the yellow ones...

Anonymous said...

Wow! I think we live in twin homes! I have a similar fear, first of all...and then there's the stories to back it up.

(My boyfriend says I need to 'man up' and just kill 'em--not when my heart stops when I see them...and when I finally get my weapon of choice to give the smack down, the roaches so conveniently disappear into a sweet little dark niche that is invisible to our naked eye..)

As a native, you would think..."She should be used to it..." Oh contraire!

Try some bug bombs for roaches or the $7 bait homes for the small little corners in the home. They work about 50%! I HATE roaches..more than spiders. :)

Wish you luck...and don't let anyone cal you a wuss for being disgusted by those horrid little insects! :)

Elizabeth Marie said...

That is pretty much my worst fear ever. Once I was moving and in the garage, roaches everywhere, I dont know why...anyway, I freaked out to the point of having to sleep in a hotel. (NOT proud of this. AT ALL.)So I am irrational to the tenth power! But I can handle anything else, just not...them. Ok, you prob think I'm a total high maintenance loser now! :(

Can I just say...without sounding too gushy, that I have adored your blog for a long time-and I'm super happy we're bloggy friends now. You really inspire me. :)

Anonymous said...

But...awesome shoes! ;) LOVE ur taste.

Rachel said...

My skin is crawling. CRAWLING! ahhh. I had a friend with a similar story, which I won't share b/c I don't think you could handle it right now, or ever. Good for you for taking today and Sat off!

I too hate roaches, as I am from the south as well... ugh, what is it about those creatures?!
Wonderful shoes though. I need to add to my collection, maybe after we get a house?

Diana said...

ew! ok, at least you calmed us all down with some wishful thinking on shoes! :)

Magchunk said...

Ew! I've never actually seen a roach (Western Washington is generally roach-free, I think). But I'm totally that way about spiders. My last place (a turn of the century house just off-campus when I was in college) had the gnarliest spiders ever. Found one in my room once and while I swore I hit it with whatever (living alone at the time and had no choice), I couldn't find it. THE WORST. I slept on a couch in the middle of the dining room for three weeks after. Haha. My current place is new enough that the only spiders are under 1/2 inch, but the little fuckers totally blend in with the wall color. I've only had to kill maybe 3 or 4 in my two years there.

Monika said...

I am sorry! It must have been a shock! I hate frogs! I live near a lake and when it is raining they like to wander on the pavement in front of our house. I am afraid of stepping over them because I fear that once they are behind me they will jump onto my leg and attack me from my back. Which they obviously will not...

Waxy said...

Yuck - roaches are evil! My biggest fear is snakes - even stupid little ones - luckily I live in the city now and haven't seen any in a long long time...of course, now that I typed that...

Christina said...

just so i don't seem like a total wimp, i took a half day off!

BonBon Rose Girls Kristin said...

Unfortunately, I've been there. I was ready to pop preggers and already hyper emotional and my darling little kitty decided it would be a good idea to hop on my bed in the middle of the night and drop a palmetto bug on me. So gross. You could always bomb the place yourself too for peace of mind.

Unknown said...

How horrible! That's gross! My husband grew up in palm desert, he has horrible stories too. I used to work at disneyland, in CA and they have huge flying ones. Lucky for us, we don't have too many bugs here, just an occasional spider or two or three.

Wally said...

Urrh!!! It crawls all over my skin now... do you know you can kill them with a good strong hairspray, so that you doesn´t have to crunch them? I found that out living in London for a couple of days. In Denmark they can´t live that well - yet... but they say that with the clima changes...

Kellie said...

OMG. I would have flipped! I despise bugs. On top of my hate bugs list are spiders, roaches, bees, junebugs and wasps. I am terrified of spiders. It's a bit irrational but they seem to be EVERYWHERE...

Aline said...

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwww yucky!

at our old apt, we once had a giant roach in the shower....I totally freaked out...I can't imagine the trauma you went through!!!

and I'll take two of each (the shoes!!)

Hilary said...

The guy that rented out our house before we moved in was NASTY and when we started moving in, I realized that we had to do something about the bugs. One night, I woke up to something plop on my arm and it was a cockroach. I can stand Palmetto Bugs to an extent, but the little dirty kind of roaches freak me out. I screamed, woke up my husband & called the pest control people the next day. We now had a quarterly contract with them.

drollgirl said...

OH YOU POOR THING!!!! awful!!! i had something similar happen, but the roach landed on my bare belling while i was reading in bed on a hot summer day. i went ballistic. roaches are disgusting vermin! b ah! i don't even want to think about them! HORRORS!!!

Sam said...

Oh deary me! I can totally relate to you there! In Sydney we have cockroaches as big as ponies - TRUE!! But my most hated creature is THE LEOPARD SLUG! I can't tell you how huge they are and how utterly revolting.....on a more upbeat note - those shoes are darling!!

Maureen Stevens said...

the yellow & gold wedges are fabulous. the look is so summer chic & I love it that the wedge is not too tall, should be comfortable for shopping!

Julia said...

Oh my god! You poor thing! I can't even imagine the fear and loathing... well, yes, yes I could, but I get all shivery and spastic thinking about it! You had better treat yourself :)

TheBeautyFile said...

Oh my g-d! That is the most horrifying tale I have heard in a long while...so glad you survived and did NOT post pics of la cucaracha...that was my fear while reading this!!!

TheBeautyFile said...

p.s. would you like to trade links? i don't know proper link etiquette...but i love your blog & am putting it on my blogroll!

Swetha said...

OMG !!!even i get such kinda dreams..... so i always hug my teddies and sleep!

kadler said...

Haha... what can your landlord do?

But I feel your pain. The other day I found a cockroach in the bathroom in the middle of the night and screamed to wake my boyfriend up. After dragging him out of bed, I made him kill it and put it in the toilet so I could flush him down (I was worried he was only playing dead and might crawl out of the trash can if he ended up there). So, yeah. Bad. But if I told my landlord, he'd probably just laugh. Cockroaches are everywhere.

Christina said...

blog goggles- lucky for me, our landlord probably knows i'm a big baby and they're sending an exterminator to the house asap!

Meghan said...

aaaahhhh!! oh sweetie!! That is a horrifying episode for sure. I cannot even imagine. Coming from Ohio, cockroaches are not exactly very common so I tend to really freak when I see one. While I was a Student Assistant/ Resident Adviser for the premier graduate apartment building on campus, one scurried across my floor. I jumped up on to my futon, screamed bloody murder and started throwing anything I could at my boyfriend who was asleep on my bed. He sleepily got up, smashed it, and went back to bed without saying a word.lol.

Marsi @ The Cottage Cheese said...

Eek, sorry to hear about your palmetto bug problem (to use the lees gross time, haha). I love these shoes - all of them! I've been wanting espadrilles for a while now, but I can't ever find any comfy ones. Have a great weekend chick!

The Professional Bridesmaid said...

love the cocoa bench wedges.

Wendy said...

Ew, my skin is crawling! Partially at the though of a roach falling on you but partially because it reminds me that the other day I was about to get into bed and this ginormous spider ran across my pillow. I completely lost it. Bleh.

Samantha said...

I feel for you. I once lived in a basement apartment with waterbugs the size of mammals. Also, silverfish in the shower. Ewwwwwwwww.(p.s. No wonder you like the grey/gray canopy in the earlier post - roach protection.

Kathleen W. said...

Oh my god, I would have died!!! I've always been concerned about a spider crawling into my ear at night, so much that I have to sleep with a pillow over my head (it's a habit now, not like I fall asleep thinking of this every night). You poor girl.

naphtali said...

I felt for you when reading this...and found myself equally squirmish. ick! Lovely shoe finds though...I'd suggest hitting the little creatures with them, but I don't think they deserved to be squished by something so lovely. {I'm digging the first pair in sea-foam green!}

stacy di said...

horrifying!!! I'm such a scaredy cat...totally gives me the heeby jeebys...

GFS said...

Those green shoes are sick! In a good way!

Hardwood floors installation said...

Those shoes are to die for. The yellow one is my favorite.

Blog Widget by LinkWithin
 
Pin It button on image hover