Bugged

I have a story similar to theCallowQueen's story from a couple weeks ago.

Though I don't like spiders or roaches or other creepy, crawly creatures that have exoskeletons or feelers, I can generally handle their presence calmly and dispose of them without screaming and crawling up the walls. Still, I don't like it when I find a water bug or roach or spider in my bedroom or bathroom. It really gives me the jibblies. This is where I sleep and take showers and walk around barefoot and exposed; I don't want to have to tip toe around and examine every surface before I step into the shower. I have a vivid imagination and when I see one bug I instantly think there must be many more lurking in every shadowy corner of the room--and did I just feel something crawling on the back of the neck? You get the idea.

So, yesterday morning I woke up bleary eyed and stumbled into the bathroom without my glasses on. I paused when I saw what appeared to be a black fuzzball in the corner. It looked like fuzz from my rug or perhaps from the throw blanket in the other room. I didn't think much of it though and focused first on emptying my bladder. But then, as I sat there looking at that half-dollar-sized black spot on the carpeting I realized it had a very regular shape for a fuzzball. It was starting to look less like an inocuous soot ball from Spirited Away and more and more like a huge, creepy, crawly spider.

I finally decided to investigate further, though I don't know why I didn't go back into my bedroom to get my glasses--maybe because I was afraid it would crawl away and I would be left wondering where it went and when it would come out to play. So, I got down on my hands and knees and got closer. It was such a dark brown that it was hard to see any details, but I finally saw a leg twitch and promptly freaked out. It was big--the biggest spider I'd ever seen inside the house--and it was ugly, with thick, monstrous legs. It was kind of bunched up, so who knows how long its legs would have been when they were extended... Ewww...

So, I looked for something to attack it with. I remembered that I had put a spider trap behind the toilet a few months ago because I had found a large water bug in the bathroom and it freaked me out (but not as much as this spider did). It's extremely sticky, so I started to tear part of it off to use against the vicious spider and discovered that a large bug had met its end in the trap already. I did not need to know that. But still, I vanquished the spider but kept its slightly squished form to demonstrate my bravery to my mom.

Normally, mom is unsympathetic about bugs in my bathroom. She's very logical about the fact that my bathroom is in the basement and that there are often bugs in bathrooms, etc, etc, etc. But when I showed her this monster spider she flipped. "That's the grossest spider I've ever seen! It's huge! That's it! I'm spraying the basement. I'm pulling everything out, emptying the closets and everything and spraying. That's disgusting!" I was relieved that she was so eager to do something because I didn't know if I could sleep with the thought of bugs lurking in my room.

So, true to her word, she emptied everything out and sprayed until the carpeting and walls were damp. I felt slightly safer and less creeped, but boy was there a mess for me when I got home. It took me all night to clean it up, but it was worth it. I can rest easy again. I didn't ask mom how many bugs she found in her extermination because I really DON'T want to know, but hopefully there won't be anymore for a long time to come.