Roaches, Rodeo Drive, and Rest

I’ve discovered another con of living in Texas. Roaches. Big f-ing roaches. The mosquitoes are annoying as well, but the roaches are scary and can carry small children on their backs. Let me back up a little and explain. I moved into my new apartment on Thursday evening and it’s now Monday, so I’ve been busy settling in, getting everything put away, cooking my own meals again (YAY!), resting (the new memory foam mattress is a slice of heaven!), and generally trying to make my new place like home. After unpacking, I had a few boxes to break down. Unfortunately, my new apartment complex doesn’t offer recycling. Like I’ve said before, Texas is pretty awesome, but it isn’t perfect. So, feeling guilty, I’ve been throwing everything away, even boxes. I promise, I’ll try to find a recycling center. I don’t know if they exist around these parts, but I’m guessing there is one somewhere. Anywho, I was in my living room this morning breaking down the last few boxes and suddenly I saw a very large roach crawling up my wall. Gooseflesh broke out all over my arms. Heck, all over my body. I froze. I thought, in Jurassic Park, if you freeze, the T-Rex won’t see you. That was the only plan I could come up with on a moment’s notice. If I don’t move, the large roach will move along (but where to?) and he won’t come and eat my head off. Then the fight or flight response kicked in. I knew I couldn’t flee because, well, this is my apartment, not his. Fight it is! But how do you do battle with a large roach climbing up the wall? I have previous roach experience from living in Florida as a kid. And from living in Phoenix in the late 1990s. So it’s been quite a while since I’ve had to kill a roach. I didn’t have any insect spray. Would that even kill a roach? They’re probably immune. I couldn’t smash it with a shoe because it was nearly at the top of the wall. Thank goodness I bought a broom on Saturday. After a few moments of feeling icky and wanting to run away, I grabbed my broom and swatted the vile thing from the wall to the floor, praying silently and quickly that he didn’t take flight and try to eat my face off. Yes, Virginia, roaches can and do fly. I then proceeded to beat him with the broom while he scrambled for cover. He wasn’t going to get away. I had grabbed a hiking boot (glad I brought that from Seattle) and crushed him to death. Victory was mine! It occurred to me while I was cleaning up the mess that I will no longer be able to leave food (tomatoes, bananas, fruit of any kind) on my kitchen counter like I did in Seattle. The worst things I had to deal with pest-wise in Seattle were those annoying little fruit flies (which are actually tiny gnat-like things). And what could be going on in my apartment while I sleep, gulp, I don’t want to think about it. On to more fun subjects. Shopping! I live in a city called Stafford. Stafford is about 20-25 miles south of Houston. Stafford has some shopping. There’s a Wal-Mart (I’ve been buying a lot of my apartment essentials there), there’s a Walgreens, there’s a Fry’s Electronics (already bought some software for a Microsoft side-project and a shelf stereo from there), a movie theater (I am within walking distance of it!), and lots of other typical stuff you find in a typical city. But yesterday, wow, I discovered a Rodeo Drive-like shopping area in a city called Sugar Land. I’d heard that Sugar Land was a very rich area. It’s true. My apartment complex is right on the border of Stafford and Sugar Land. I went to Sugar Land because there is a Pier 1 Imports (my favorite store) there. It was only about 3 miles south of here, so piece of cake right? Um. Nope. The store was in a freaking shopper’s Mecca. There’s a giant shopping mall (what else would you expect in Texas?) that has free Valet parking for the entire complex. I drove around and around trying to find the Pier 1 Imports store. I finally stopped and asked a woman coming out of a store. She had no idea where it was. Then I stopped and asked the Valet parking guy. He had no idea either. Apparently, the rich folks shopping at the mall across the street with the free Valet parking wouldn’t dream of shopping at Pier 1. And the lady that’s usually barking out driving directions from my Garmin was unusually quiet. Apparently, she didn’t know exactly where the Pier 1 was either. I finally found the store and found exactly what I was looking for there. I needed a TV stand for my bedroom and found a nightstand but it easily doubles for a TV stand. I’ve also ordered a dining room table and one chair from Pier 1, and they’re supposed to be in by the end of next week. And my last subject: rest. I’d been sleeping on a futon, and then the floor for over a month. My step-brother and step-dad were nice enough to let me stay in their spare bedroom until I found a job and my own apartment so I don’t want to complain too loudly, but my poor back was ready to get back into a bed again. The memory foam mattress was worth the wait. I’ve been sleeping like a baby the last two nights. And speaking of mattresses, there are mattress stores in every strip mall, enclosed mall, ever corner, you can’t sling a dead cat without hitting a mattress store. I was curious about that so I asked my brother why all the mattress stores around here? About 50 miles from Houston, there is a city called Sealy. Yep, that’s where Sealy mattresses began. If you’re as curious about the world as I am, and you’re interested in reading the history of Sealy, you can go to this link http://www.sealy.com/About-Sealy/History-and-Heritage.aspx, or simply Google it. Have a great Memorial Day, everyone!