Just making lemonade... and I itch

I got home last night to learn my entire condo building is infested with bed bugs. Boo. Luckily we got off work early for Rosh Hashana. Have I mentioned that I love the high holidays? Seriously, best time of year, and I'm not even Jewish.

Last night when I got home I called the property manager who didn't have the list in front of him but thought they found bed bugs in my place. The source of the infestation was the unit directly above me so I'd honestly be shocked if they weren't in my place. Then I called the exterminator who did the search. He couldn't remember either but he told me to vacuum everything in my room including the mattress, box spring, under the bed, and all the base boards. I did the bed, floor and all the baseboards before I went to hang out with my mentee.

As part of my time hanging out with my mentee we went to Home Depot. For some reason we always wind up doing my errands together. It's ok, we did math homework first. I was happy to find a real life application for perimeter and area for her. I needed to get window film for my patio door and bedroom windows. (See, I had to know the perimter and area so I knew how much to buy.)

I came home and finished up my bedroom and took the curtains down. I never realized how many fleece blankets I owned until they are all covering my windows. I got the window film for my bedroom up last night. I haven't tackled the patio door yet. Remember that big entertainment center beast? It's in my way and oesn't yet look like an obstacle I can overcome.

Last night I also vacuumed all the cushions of my couch and moved my couch out from the wall and vacuumed back there. I didn't find any bed bugs but I did find a small pile of dead ants. I was actually expecting it to be gross behind my couch and aside from the ant pile (about the size of a quarter) I didn't see anything. I also vacuumed the whole hallway, linen closet and coat closet as well as my bedroom closet.

I haven't yet found a bed bug, which makes it not quite as gross to be in my house right now. I still have to vacuum in the living room. This morning I took my curtains to go get dry cleaned. $50.00 and I'll have them back on Friday. I've lived here over three years and hadn't had the curtains cleaned yet so it's really time. (Why can I never remember what year I bought this place the first time?)

I continually feel itchy and like stuff is crawling on me. Thank you to the power of suggestion.

Here's a list of "lemonade" batches I've made out of this so far:

• My curtains are getting dry cleaned. Obviously, this needed to happen given the above statement. Also, my curtains hadn't been cleaned since the remodel and they were even more dusty than usual.


• My base boards are surper clean. And under my bed is clean. My mattress is clean.


• I washed the quilt that lives on my bed. Iam super happy because it did really well in both the washer and the dryer. That sucker hadn't been cleaned in even longer than the curtains. Now that I know I can clean it without hurting it, I will clean it regulalry.


• I finally had an excuse to throw away two old and gross pillows. Seriously, I'd had them almost my entire life. If there's ever a place a bedbug would hide, it'd be in those pillows with all the dust mites. Ewww.


• I needed a good excuse to wash all my fleece blankets. Once the curtains are back up, I'll wash the blakets.


• I now know how to get curtains dry cleaned and that I can have something else to cover my windows while the curtains are away.


• At least I have two days off in a row to stay home and deal with this. Thank goodness I didn't have to go to work today.


• At some point, I'll be spending even more time at Amanda's house. Roommates: The Sequel.