Kill it! Kill it kill it kill it!

Yep. Welcome to Aaron's life!

The Flight

The war against the arachnids has taken a turn.

At the beginning of the week, there appeared to be a temporary respite from the onslaught of spiders in the apartment. 3 days went by and I didn't spot any spiders. Monday, I found one in my room, but it was a small-medium spider and was quickly killed by my handy-dandy Raid. However, while Aaron was over on Wednesday, I found 3 —count 'em --> —3 largish spiders. One in the hallway, another in the kitchen, and a very tricky spider who almost blended into the carpet of the entry stairs. Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, my eye has become trained to recognize the slight twitch of a spider and I spotted him immediately. 

Then we hit Wednesday. Everything was fine all day long; in fact, I didn't see any spiders the entire time Aaron was there. It was like the calm of the storm. It was just too quiet. However, when I took Aaron home around 11 PM and returned to work some more on the couch in the living room, the cease-fire was over. I've developed an unnatural sense that alerts me to the presence of a spider. As I sat on the couch, reading a manuscript I was editing, the hair stood up on the back of my head. You might say my spidey sense went off. I looked up; I saw, with horror, one of the biggest spiders I had ever seen outside of the Harry Potter movie gliding across the main tile area. I hesitated for a moment, stunned by the horror of it all. It was the hesitation that cost me. I scrambled to my feet, grabbed the Raid bottle that is always within arm's reach, and stumbled to the hallway. It was almost to the spare bedroom, hurtling into the room. I gave a weak attempt at spraying the beast but my Raid malfunctioned and only let out a weak spray that barely touched it. It requires more than a spritz to knock out one of these big boys. It escaped into the room, immediately concealing itself amongst the many boxes of mine and Aaron's belongings. Even the idea of beginning a search for the creature made me sick to my stomach. Talk about the worst form of hide 'n go seek in the history of the universe.

I returned to the living room, stunned and overall overwhelmed. I had tried to be brave and put up a strong front the past week but we finally found the straw that broke the camel's back. I began to cry, terrified at the thought of staying in the apartment a second longer while my apartment was being overtaken by wild creatures. I hurriedly packed a change of clothes, a few basic hygiene products, shoved my laptop in my backpack, and left the apartment in the dead of night. I've been feeding my brother and sister-in-law's fish while they are at Lake Powell, and so I gratefully escaped to their empty apartment, spider-free and working air conditioning. It took me about 2 hours to finally wind down enough to fall asleep and even then, my dreams were filled with large spiders and ironically enough, telling my family about the horrific experience I just had.

The spiders have won this battle for now. I am going to stay at Jared and Bri's apartment for a few days while they're gone so I can study in peace without worrying about any sudden attacks. We're in the midst of discussions with my landlord and needless to say, professional aid will be forthcoming. I don't want to be the one running anymore; for once, I want them to be scared of me.

Spiders, if you're reading this right now, know that it may appear that you have gained the victory, but do not be deceived. I'll be coming back, and when I do, I'll be bringing backup. Be scared, my unwanted roommates. Be very afraid.

I have good news for you. The war has begun.

Sooooo we have a bit of a spider problem in my apartment right now. Aaron's trying to convince me that this is only temporary as no one has lived in the apartment in about 3 months and spiders had moved in during that period. That's possible, but in my mind, it's much more than that. It's an invasion.

I was getting ready to go to school, right about to walk out the door when I saw another medium spider (I now label the spiders as Goldilocks does) in my entryway. I really hate killing spiders so I thought that maybe I'd trap it! I hurried over to the kitchen, grabbed a tupperware and gingerly placed it over the spider. As I watched cowardly from the couch in the other room, I began to watch it pace the counter in panic until it had found its way out of the container. Impossible! I knew one thing for sure. I could not let that spider leave alive. I stalked the spider as it mischievously skirted the room right next to the wall, waiting until it was out in the open. That's when I pounced, a shoe in my hand, letting out a pitiful shriek as I hit it. Dead. I carefully placed the tupperware back over the carcass and rushed to school. I was weak at this time, scared, but I was growing stronger.

I sent a pitiful text message to Aaron, asking him to help me stop the invasion. When I was away last night, Aaron sprayed the apartment with Raid and thankfully killed all of the spiders that made their way out of the holes in the walls as a result. When he left last night, I didn't feel as scared as I did before! I had a weapon in my hand: Raid. As I was getting up off the couch at 12:30 to go to bed, I spotted a big spider jogging across the tile. I grabbed my spray bottle of pain and sprayed the living daylights out of the thing watching it curl up in the puddle of poison. It was strangely empowering.

I carry Raid with me in every room in the house now. When I go to the kitchen to make a piece of toast, go to bathroom to brush my teeth and when I go to my closet to pick out a new outfit. Like a cowboy carrying his pistol everywhere he goes in case he gets into a shootout, I likewise carry my Raid, ready at every turn to kill another beast. I don't think the war is over. No, it may not be even close to really beginning. But I'm no longer weak and unwilling to protect myself. Spiders beware, there's a new sheriff in this apartment. Now if only I can find a holster to hold my Raid bottle.

Spiders and Tests

It's 4 AM last Wednesday. I hadn't been awake that early on a weekday since my ridiculously early seminary class my senior year of high school (whoever thought that 5:15 AM seminary was a plausible idea should really rethink that concept). I stumbled out of bed, popped a blueberry bagel in the toaster, found my way to the couch and resumed studying the piles of notes laying over the ottoman and surrounding couch cushions. I was scheduled to take my second midterm, which is also the most important in terms of grading, for my English Usage class that day after class. After about a week and a half of diligent studying, at least 2 meltdowns to Aaron, and an upset stomach that was responding to my stress levels, this was my last 3 hour window to study.

I felt like a zombie, trying to keep each eyelid open through sheer force of will, realizing that I needed this last study session to be productive. I stumbled my way to the bathroom and that's when I saw it. It was the biggest spider I had ever seen indoors, standing right by my shower door. I froze, panic stricken. It's 4 AM in my new apartment, no one is around and I am positive that my neighbors upstairs would not appreciate a vacuum going off at 4 AM. As we stood there, staring at each other, it was as if we created an unspoken agreement. I didn't have the courage to kill it and he would know better than to be in plain sight in the near future. I backed out of the room, allowing him free reign of that side of the apartment for the time being. This isn't just a story of my first creepy critter encounter in my own apartment; no, this spider is actually the only reason I stayed awake that morning.

After I returned to the living room, I was mildly petrified and jumpy, waiting for the spider to round the corner with a machine gun or something. As nerve wracking as that was, you better believe I was awake after that! I made it through my 4 hours of studying without falling asleep once and I felt better than ever about the test.

I took the test. I felt like the champion of the world when I turned it in. I aced it. As much as I know I can attribute my grade to my diligence in studying, I must give due credit to the spider who scared the pants off of me that morning. Without that underlying terror, I'm not sure I would have been able to review as effectively. However, that truce ended tonight when I returned home from a visit to Albuquerque and found him in my bathroom once more. Thankfully, Aaron was there to do the dirty job, sparing me the task of breaking our truce of cooperation. Let there be a moment of silence for my spider. Your sacrifice will not be soon forgotten.

A Stroke of Luck

I went to a family reunion in Twin Falls, Idaho this weekend (I'll tell more about that later). Twin Falls is the town where my Dad grew up and my grandma, Aunt Linda, and some of my cousins still live there. It's a very small town with something like 32,000 residents; you can drive around the city in about 20 minutes and end up where you started. The only movie theater in town doesn't accept debit cards. Driving around town, my dad picks out all the major sites of his childhood: the sub station where he'd have fights after elementary school, my great-grandma's old house, and the intersection where three of his friends were killed in a tragic car accident. He still remembers where certain friends lived, the first and last name of his girlfriend in 6th grade, and where his family used to buy groceries every week. It holds a lot of memories for my Dad and it means a lot to my family.

We drove the sickening 15 hours on Thursday and when I awoke Friday morning, my parents were already gone to go visit my grandma in her care facility. My mom called me asked if I would check the news reports to see why there was about 100 police officers holding machine guns standing outside our hotel when they left that morning. My dad had gone into our hallway that morning to find a 7 foot tall, beast of a man in a SWAT uniform carrying a gun bigger than me.

Hold up.

I hopped online and found a Twin Falls news website and, lo and behold, the top headline was about a gunman in the Hampton Inn who was holding the 3rd floor hostage. An officer had been shot and a body was visible on the lobby floor from outside. The worst part was, I couldn't remember the name of the hotel I was staying in. Was I in the Hampton or the Holiday Inn next door? After a panicked phone call to my mom, I was reassured to find out that I was NOT in the hotel under siege, but I was still a few hundred feet away.

The gunman was being pulled over by a cop on the interstate when he pulled away suddenly and led the cop on a high speed chase into Twin Falls. He crashed into an RV on the street and made a break for it, running into the Hampton Inn where he shot a police officer and shot and killed an innocent civilian staying at the hotel. After holding a female hostage in the third floor stairwell for 1 hour 30 minutes, negotiators finally apprehended the gunman and he's been taken into custody.

I was staying in the hotel right next door on the third floor. The man shot in the Hampton was coming down the elevator probably about the same time as my Dad came down the elevator to get breakfast that morning. The gunman could have crashed somewhere closer to my hotel, ran into the Holiday Inn instead, and my entire morning could've gone differently.

I think we sometimes take for granted that each day is given to us as a gift and we have no idea when our last day will be. This family reunion took on a different tone for me because I began to understand how quickly things can change and how one innocent man from Utah staying in a hotel in tiny, potato farming town lost his life to a maniac.

Do you know what the gunman wanted? Alcohol and cigarettes.

Burn.

You cannot put a Fire out --

A Thing that can ignite

Can go, itself, without a Fan --

Upon the slowest Night --

Rain is something that we naturally take for granted. Many of us have even found ourselves ungrateful for the rain. It looks dreary outside, it's leaving streaks all over my newly cleaned car, etc. The Southwest is well-known for our high temperatures and record number of sunny days, but these descriptions are beginning to feel more like a curse than a gift. Albuquerque has received less than 3 inches of rain since January and with our temperatures reaching the 90's and 100's daily, whatever moisture we might have retained is absolutely gone. Drought. 

I know it's a small picture, but Albuquerque is somewhere in that orange and red section, the sections depicting Severe and Extreme Drought. The maroon section that covers most of the state is entitled Exceptional Drought. It's like they couldn't find a word that seemed harsh enough to describe its conditions, so they chose 'exceptional'. It's interesting, the first two definitions for exceptional in the dictionary are these:

1. Forming an exception or rare instance; unusual; extraordinary.
2. Unusually excellent; superior.

Perhaps I should see it as we have a superior level of drought! That's much more positive, right? In reality, exceptional means this: wildfire.

Driving home from Colorado Sunday night, my mom noticed a red glow visible in the pitch black darkness. It was eerie, unearthly, and almost calm. I couldn't believe it. Another wildfire. Not to mention the major wildfire that has been raging in Arizona for a month, New Mexico and now Colorado is dotted with wildfires, a new one every couple days.  Even before the wildfires, I washed my car with one of my close friends, Jordan, and as we washed off our cars, we noticed that we would have to spray the hose and immediately wipe off our cars or else the water would evaporate. Smoke clouds the atmosphere; officials are encouraging people to spend as little time outdoors as they can. A couple weeks ago, my family looked outside to see the full moon was a blood red. It looked truly apocalyptic. 

It's heartbreaking to read the reports about the evacuations families are forced to make. For some in New Mexico, this isn't the first time they've left their homes not knowing if they will ever see them again. 

"Last time, I just walked out of my house and said goodbye, and that it was going to be OK," she said before breaking down in tears. "I'm doing the same thing this time. It's going to be OK. I'm prepared to say goodbye."

I am so blessed to be living the life I lead. I have a home. I have parents and a big family who looks after me and takes care of me. I have a sweet dog who I love with all of my heart. I have food and water and I know that I have a place to lay my head down tomorrow. It's times like this that make you stop and remember how blessed you truly are.


Please keep the families affected by wildfires in your prayers. They're going to need them.


Some say the world will end in fire;
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.