OK, it is almost 2AM and I am wide awake, my heart is racing and I’m sweating profusely. I am gagging from the fumes of the two bottles of bug spray I just emptied throughout my living room to kill a giant bug. I had woken up very thirsty and was making my way to the kitchen (the house is not dark, as I have many new foster pups) to refill my water bottle when I spotted it. IT, being a HUGE freaking wood cockroach, also apparently mistakenly called a water bug, American Cockroach, Palmetto Bug – whatever it goes by down here – I don’t have a preference, I’d rather it didn’t exist. These are not the little gross German Cockroaches that infest apartment buildings and grocery stores. No, these would be the HUGE gross things that USUALLY live outside.

Anyway, I’ve been taunted by these creatures since I’ve moved into my house in the woods. Apparently, they communicate well, and team up to ensure I get a good scare in real life every now and then as they stalk my entrance or exit route or wander around inside my house and defy a barrage of insecticides. They have even left their presence in my HEAD, because I wake up regularly CONVINCED I’m seeing one crawl on my bedroom wall. It doesn’t help that the clips I use to hold the black-out shades closed during non-school days are black and roughly the same size and appear to be these terrors to a half-asleep, sleep-deprived, over-stressed female with Entomophobia (also known as insectophobia).

Ok, so back to the REAL one tonight – he had either walked in through the huge crack surrounding my front door, or had been chillin’ in some of the empty boxes I had stored in my second bedroom, which I had earlier moved to near the front door so I could take them to school with me to pack up my classroom. Either way, despite being armed with bug spray in each hand, he managed to taint almost every piece of furniture and item in my living room, leaving an insecticide trail that I’m sure is doing wonders on my asthmatic airways, and perhaps even worse to that of the MUCH smaller dogs, who are closer to where the spray residue lies, despite my wiping down what I could. This thing was doing the backstroke in liquid bug spray for several FEET! Granted, it was BIG – like TWO freaking inches (that may not SOUND big, but look at how big it is in reality for a BUG), but no bug should be able to live through that so vigorously!

SO, I’m proud of myself – not only was I able to kill the bug, but smush it to pieces ensure its death AND dispose of the carcass. And being my eyes were tearing and my lungs were burning, I had to do some major human and canine damage control – open windows, soak up puddles and streams of bug spray, spray down every porous surface and wipe it several times, move, plug in and turn on fans – quite busy for the middle of the night.

The sucky thing is, I doubt I’ll get to sleep tonight – and this week at school has been torture, though you’d think the last full week of school would be a breeze, especially since one of my two toughest kids behaviorally is not in school because of a behavior issue.

PLUS, I ran out of my meds a few days ago and am sooo manic it is not even funny (so I’m less inclined to sleep anyway). My lovely Dr. won’t refill until I come in, and of course, they couldn’t see me until 9:45 tomorrow (oh, later today, actually) – sure that’s convenient. There are a whole bunch of issues there – I will be looking to change doctors after the appointment.

I guess onto playing some games on FB (all while keeping an eye out for more of these creepy-crawlies who also fly)!