Jolted out of sleep with no provocation at 6:15, blanketless on the sofa and wearing last night's skirt and sweater. Popsicle wrappers on the ground next to me. Cats batting them about.
Ah yes. I was reminded then what I had been doing a few hours earlier .... from 12 to 2:30 a.m., just having returned from a drinks outing with C .... standing on a chair with spray bottle and sponge, scrubbing every conceivable surface from stove to counter to refrigerator-door seals to ... since I had just smashed 9 of the most enormous, red-eyed houseflies ever indoors, after having also dispatched 10 of them the night before last .... convinced, as I still am, that a batch of pupa hides somewhere in my kitchen, daily hatching a couple dozen beauties ... because there is nothing more fun than a fly infestation .... and all the websites told me to eliminate all sources for them to spit on and feed off .... so I'd best not waste a moment more leaving grease or crumbs available or, for that matter, 9 smushed fly bodies on the white cupboards.
Gross.
Upon completion of this task, I needed to unwind with a treat and the latest New Yorker before going to sleep. I evidently stayed awake about 8 seconds after the last popsicle.
In any case, all of this fun must have showed on my face after I dragged myself up and off the couch, labored through physical therapy for a couple hours, and was in line at the Starbucks on Longwood Ave, about 9:30, awaiting my large iced black-eye. Which the barista handed over with this explanation:
"You must be really tired!"Thanks for the news flash.
"Excuse me?" I replied.
"Oh, there's like 3 cups of coffee in here," she said, swirling the ice around to cool the espresso shots. "You must really need it."
Can't a girl just perk herself up without having to explain that she was up half the night killing over-sized insects? (Or, did I really look that much like I was dreading the next 14 hours of life?)
But, you know, the day didn't get any worse from there, as I had anticipated. Perhaps the barista's comment shocked me into serenity, because I was suddenly, and quite ridiculously calm. To illustrate:
1) Stuck in back-to-school traffic near Simmons College, I didn't scowl .... in fact, I remember staring at the haunches of a bike messenger waiting at the red light with me, fascinated at how he balanced on his pedals while at a dead stop, a sudden longing to be in his place instead of in my car.
2) At the next stop light I ended up behind a cream-colored Nissan 350Z, driven by a middle-aged man in sunglasses, then watched him pull westbound onto Storrow Drive, ostensibly out into the country, and I was so very glad for him.
3) Cruising Storrow myself, although eastbound towards my office, my thoughts were, in this order: how blue the river; how green the Esplanade; how I wish I were out running on it.
4) Then, walking from my parking spot up Comm Ave to work, I smiled (yes, smiled!) at the man walking 5 different breeds of dogs with one hand and, yes, wanted to be doing the same.
I can't explain why these things all made me happy. Perhaps it was just a crisp morning in September before a 3-day weekend. Or perhaps God is just gracious and gave me the boost I needed to get through this day.
Which I did.
(Although .... if you have any suggestions about how to a) stem a housefly plague or to b) get a date when it is known I have a housefly plague about me .... please share so I can get through tomorrow.)
2 comments:
@Karin. Eggs may hatch into maggots inside dead mice in the crawl spaces of your building, inside old cat food your cats may have dropped around the apartment, inside neighbor's trash, or inside stray coffee grounds. Any stray organic material. Try spiders: love eating flies. Fly strips also work.
Oh, but there is something more fun than a housefly infestation: a bed bug infestation. We had them about 4 years ago and I still have nightmares about the nasty, biting, almost-impossible-to-eradicate vermin.
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