things that go "bump" in the night

its ironic, really, that the same night i post about my summer encounters with spiders, a whole new episode develops. only, it was a different species of creepy crawlies. 6 legged freaks, if you will.

its late. just past midnight, and i'm really tired. actually, i'm an emotional basket case. i won't get into all that, but just take me for my word. anyway, my phone is out of batteries, so i have it charging...on an extension cord because i want to talk on my bed (amazingly, it has transformed into a corded phone. haha). i called becca for sympathy/venting and was talking to her while amy was showering...washing a days worth of sweat and dirt away from her trip to stone mountain.

suddenly, i hear a faint cry of help from the bathroom.

"jeannine? theres a cockroach in here..."

rewind to thursday. amy and boyfriend grant are studying smart people stuff on the floor while i do what i do. grant gets up to look for his phone and i glance over to see an inch and a half cockroach hanging out my these big empty bags in my closet. neither of them have noticed our fourth companion...intruder...whatever. but amy sees this horrified look on my face and looks to where my eyes were fixed. suddenly, we're yelling for grant to kill it...grab a shoe...any shoe...by the closet!...it went under the bag!...oh no!...its gone!

grant, who was on the hunt, ignored our pessimistic words. he continued to throw my shoes out of the closet...i just couldn't wait for him to throw one out, slinging the cockroach at me. but after removing the last shoe from the corner, there he was. grant chased him around with the shoe. this cockroach may not have been as big as those spiders, but it was much faster. he made it to the carpet, back to the closet floor tile, round and round in circles. finally, grant got him. but the battle had just begun...

"not another one!" i say, trying to be indifferent because this just adds to the night's awfulness.

amy wasn't doing so well either, at the moment. she had just finished showering by flashlight (because the light in the bathroom has been flickering like a strobe light and puts you on the edge of having an epileptic seizure) when she saw the black shadow on the floor. she tried to be brave, jumping out to flick on the lights with it scurrying about her feet. she even contemplated getting dressed before going out to find a shoe. all this was unknown to me at the time. but then, reasoning out the situation, (and given my history for being a bug buster) she decided the only thing left to do was call for the aid of her roommate...which happens to be me.

amy: "jeannine! come kill it!"
me: "do you have a shoe?"
amy: "no, i'm naked. i got nothin'!"

darn it. i'll have to get her a shoe then. i got up off my bed, still chatting with becca on my corded cell phone, to get my weapon of choice: the same grassy shoe i used for the spider.

at the bathroom door i say, "heres a shoe."
amy: "come in and kill it!"
me: "but you're naked!"
amy: "i don't care...i've got a towel on!"

okay then...i guess shes desperate.

me: "hold on, becca. i gotta get this thing."

i enter the bathroom, shoe in right hand, poised for attack. there it is, by the hamper. i take a few steps forward, but the cord to the phone just isn't long enough.

me: "becca, i gotta put you down for a sec."

placing the phone at the doorway, i approach. he scampers beneath the hamper (haha). move the hamper...

its 12:30 something at night and screams fill the bathroom and echo down the hallway. its pretty much a replay of my first spider attack...except this guy is much more agile. with each slap of the tennis shoe, a grassy pile of clippings is left behind...but no cockroach. after numerous swings, i finally get him. we both squeal and scream and i run out of sight of the cockroach carcass...leaving my tennis shoe, four or more grassy shoes prints, and the white guts behind.

i can't imagine how funny that must have sounded from becca's side of the phone. amy and i laughed about it as we tried to fall asleep...still creeped out about it, of course. thats two sightings in three days. we're up for another one tonight. i'll keep you posted.