The Centipede Saga and Other Tales
Guys let me tell you about the centipedes!
There are two types of bugs that I can't deal with under any circumstances: centipedes and earwigs. I'm totally fine with spiders, moths... anything that typically freaks other people out I am usually fully equipped to deal with. Centipedes and earwigs are the exceptions. I had some... experiences with both of them as a child. Long story short, when I see one, my brain becomes mush with croutons in. Anyway. The story.
When I moved into my beautiful single this year, I did notice a centipede. It was out of the corner of my eye, and it was quickly hidden from view. Of course I was freaked out, but when I searched around my room and found not a trace, I assumed it to be an isolated incident.
In the coming days, I began to see multiple centipedes a day. They would usually disappear as soon as they arrived, but it was unsettling to say the least. Finally I alerted my roommate to the presence of the centipedes. My words were, to the best of my knowledge, along the lines of "nevermore83 , there appears to be a centipede in my room; if you could kindly grace me with your presence and give me your opinion on the matter I would be extremely grateful." I was a bit overwhelmed at the time, so I can't be sure if that quote is one hundred percent accurate. So she came into my room, and she too was overwhelmed by the creepiness, and overall we did not handle the situation in the best way possible. That was more than a little bit my fault, as I am an insufferable pacifist, and refused to let the centipedes get squished, no matter how loathsome and horrifying I found them. Neither of us had the chance to do much about it anyway, though, because moments later the centipede disappeared.
It was nevermore83 who discovered the Centipede Portal.
There was a hole. Through which centipedes were entering my room.
Keeping her head in a crisis, she blocked the hole with some sticky tack.
We neglected to account for the possibility that there were still some centipedes outside the hole, however. My brave and bold roommate did less of a commendable job keeping her head when she discovered multiple centipedes in her room as well. We ran down the hall and accosted our friend A, who is truly the bravest of us. Her attempts to trap the centipedes with teacup and saucer were unsuccessful, but when we saw nothing of them for several days afterward, and when facilities arrived to block up the hole, we finally breathed a sigh of relief.
I had just gotten out of bed and was getting dressed, some two weeks later. I had rid myself of my oversized pajama shirt, and was in the process of removing my pajama bottoms when the biggest, longest, most horrifying centipede I have ever seen came hurtling under the door, straight at me.
There I was. In my own room. Half asleep. Pantsless. I have never been so vulnerable.
My response was to simultaneously yank my pants back on and scream an expletive at the top of my lungs. nevermore83 , whose mental list of possible things that were happening to me ranged from me sleeping through class to being on fire, came running in. My response was as follows:
Me: THERE IS A GIANT CENTIPEDE IN HERE AND I AM NOT EVEN DRESSED HELP GET IT OUT IT'S HUGE IT'S HORRIBLE GET IT OUT GET IT OUT GET IT OUT please don't kill it
She trapped it under a mug.
Later, A and another friend arrived to remove the centipede. When they got outside, the mug was empty.
It could still be out there.
(Epilogue: I discovered later that instead of actually patching up the Centipede Portal, they just replaced the rubber baseboard and covered the dread portal with that. But there's still a centipede-sized crack between new baseboard and old baseboard. All they have to do is crawl a little further. Once again, sticky tack is invaluable.)
Other Tales:
There is a used bookstore in town, which I have been exploiting to the best of my ability. Very good quality, incredibly cheap books. Last time I was there I got my hands on Yeats' Irish fairy and folk tales, as well as a hardcover copy of the Book Thief by Marcus Zusak (highly, HIGHLY recommended for those who are not opposed to exceptionally dark stories, heavy metaphors, some foul language (used artistically) and unhappy endings). I also discovered a trove of Tolkien books I did not possess (I do now) and some odds and ends like Twain and Doyle's The White Company (VERY GOOD).
There is also a cupcake shop in town. Where is it, you ask? Right next to the chocolate shop. I am not making this up.
I am writing this entry because I have a paper due tomorrow, but for the life of me I can't focus on writing it, so I decided that focusing on writing something would probably help get me into a better place to start writing. However, all it has done is renewed my fear that any moment now the centipedes will strike.
A member of my family has successfully called me during every single one of my classes this year. Three times it was my mom wanting help with a crossword puzzle. Once it was my sister because she was bored.
My Chaucer class is still absolutely wonderful, but it is dawning on me that my professor is infamous at my school for being amongst the most difficult graders. In the world.
A year from now, I hope to be in London. But I don't want to get my hopes up, so I will write more about that some other day perhaps.
I... need a vacation. Which is sad because I've only been in school for what, a month and a half? But there's been a lot of stuff crammed into this month and a half. Chaucer, Tolkien, writing, exploding computers, rooms which apparently have not been cleaned since the dawn of time. Centipedes. Music libraries to organize, which I wasn't actually told I would have to do until much too late. Made some new friends. Things are finally settling down, now, but... I could do with a break. Hooray for the weekend! But the weekend can't come until I've written this paper. That being said... Farewell, livejournal, until my paper is complete.
There are two types of bugs that I can't deal with under any circumstances: centipedes and earwigs. I'm totally fine with spiders, moths... anything that typically freaks other people out I am usually fully equipped to deal with. Centipedes and earwigs are the exceptions. I had some... experiences with both of them as a child. Long story short, when I see one, my brain becomes mush with croutons in. Anyway. The story.
When I moved into my beautiful single this year, I did notice a centipede. It was out of the corner of my eye, and it was quickly hidden from view. Of course I was freaked out, but when I searched around my room and found not a trace, I assumed it to be an isolated incident.
In the coming days, I began to see multiple centipedes a day. They would usually disappear as soon as they arrived, but it was unsettling to say the least. Finally I alerted my roommate to the presence of the centipedes. My words were, to the best of my knowledge, along the lines of "nevermore83 , there appears to be a centipede in my room; if you could kindly grace me with your presence and give me your opinion on the matter I would be extremely grateful." I was a bit overwhelmed at the time, so I can't be sure if that quote is one hundred percent accurate. So she came into my room, and she too was overwhelmed by the creepiness, and overall we did not handle the situation in the best way possible. That was more than a little bit my fault, as I am an insufferable pacifist, and refused to let the centipedes get squished, no matter how loathsome and horrifying I found them. Neither of us had the chance to do much about it anyway, though, because moments later the centipede disappeared.
It was nevermore83 who discovered the Centipede Portal.
There was a hole. Through which centipedes were entering my room.
Keeping her head in a crisis, she blocked the hole with some sticky tack.
We neglected to account for the possibility that there were still some centipedes outside the hole, however. My brave and bold roommate did less of a commendable job keeping her head when she discovered multiple centipedes in her room as well. We ran down the hall and accosted our friend A, who is truly the bravest of us. Her attempts to trap the centipedes with teacup and saucer were unsuccessful, but when we saw nothing of them for several days afterward, and when facilities arrived to block up the hole, we finally breathed a sigh of relief.
I had just gotten out of bed and was getting dressed, some two weeks later. I had rid myself of my oversized pajama shirt, and was in the process of removing my pajama bottoms when the biggest, longest, most horrifying centipede I have ever seen came hurtling under the door, straight at me.
There I was. In my own room. Half asleep. Pantsless. I have never been so vulnerable.
My response was to simultaneously yank my pants back on and scream an expletive at the top of my lungs. nevermore83 , whose mental list of possible things that were happening to me ranged from me sleeping through class to being on fire, came running in. My response was as follows:
Me: THERE IS A GIANT CENTIPEDE IN HERE AND I AM NOT EVEN DRESSED HELP GET IT OUT IT'S HUGE IT'S HORRIBLE GET IT OUT GET IT OUT GET IT OUT please don't kill it
She trapped it under a mug.
Later, A and another friend arrived to remove the centipede. When they got outside, the mug was empty.
It could still be out there.
(Epilogue: I discovered later that instead of actually patching up the Centipede Portal, they just replaced the rubber baseboard and covered the dread portal with that. But there's still a centipede-sized crack between new baseboard and old baseboard. All they have to do is crawl a little further. Once again, sticky tack is invaluable.)
Other Tales:
There is a used bookstore in town, which I have been exploiting to the best of my ability. Very good quality, incredibly cheap books. Last time I was there I got my hands on Yeats' Irish fairy and folk tales, as well as a hardcover copy of the Book Thief by Marcus Zusak (highly, HIGHLY recommended for those who are not opposed to exceptionally dark stories, heavy metaphors, some foul language (used artistically) and unhappy endings). I also discovered a trove of Tolkien books I did not possess (I do now) and some odds and ends like Twain and Doyle's The White Company (VERY GOOD).
There is also a cupcake shop in town. Where is it, you ask? Right next to the chocolate shop. I am not making this up.
I am writing this entry because I have a paper due tomorrow, but for the life of me I can't focus on writing it, so I decided that focusing on writing something would probably help get me into a better place to start writing. However, all it has done is renewed my fear that any moment now the centipedes will strike.
A member of my family has successfully called me during every single one of my classes this year. Three times it was my mom wanting help with a crossword puzzle. Once it was my sister because she was bored.
My Chaucer class is still absolutely wonderful, but it is dawning on me that my professor is infamous at my school for being amongst the most difficult graders. In the world.
A year from now, I hope to be in London. But I don't want to get my hopes up, so I will write more about that some other day perhaps.
I... need a vacation. Which is sad because I've only been in school for what, a month and a half? But there's been a lot of stuff crammed into this month and a half. Chaucer, Tolkien, writing, exploding computers, rooms which apparently have not been cleaned since the dawn of time. Centipedes. Music libraries to organize, which I wasn't actually told I would have to do until much too late. Made some new friends. Things are finally settling down, now, but... I could do with a break. Hooray for the weekend! But the weekend can't come until I've written this paper. That being said... Farewell, livejournal, until my paper is complete.