personal growth

This entry is for you, Mom...

I don't like being dirty, I don't like manual labor, I don't like sweating unless it's while exercising, I don't like dealing with animals other than pets. I like when the light or the fan turns on because I flip the switch, I like taking warm showers because it's cool enough in the room to even think about hot water, I like eating fresh produce without having to wash it in bleach, I like cable tv. It's been a little challenging for me these past few weeks in the no-tv-sometimes-electricity-usually-running-water heat. Judge all you want, especially you Peace Corps people, but I think I am handling it quite well, all things (spoiled suburbanite princess tendencies) considered.

So I was very proud of myself when on Wednesday night I walked into the hot, grimy kitchen and heard some high pitched squealing coming from a few inches away - and instead of screeching myself and exiting as fast as my bum leg would allow, I just looked down to see what the noise was. Staring back at me from the vermin trap (you know, one of those very sticky pieces of paper) was a mouse and what remained of a lizard - something had been gnawing at its head. Oh so calmly, I called over my roommate, Laura, and we put the entire thing in a plastic bag which Laura carried out to the trash pile on the curb (she insisted because I'm all gimpy). We decided against beating the mouse to death with the Swiffer like Laura did with the last mouse she caught, because it's clearly more humane to let it suffocate or die when discovered by the cats, dogs, or crazies living in the street - well, it's less messy for us anyway. After all this excitement, I shooed away the little roaches and went back to making my dinner.

Laura says "they say if you have one, you have thirty" so oh hooray, I can't wait to repeat this mouse trap experience. I had no idea we had lizards too - I only ever see the roaches and the ants and only saw the mouse once before it was caught. So who knows what else is living in our walls. Just so long as the various creatures don't try and sit their own hot sweaty grimy selves in front of the fan (when the power's on anyway) with me, I'll survive. And maybe my family can stop mocking me for my past behavior when I found myself in the same room as a mouse/rat/spider/roach/bat/whatever.

After this summer, I don't think I'll be going camping for a while.