holy crap it never ends

Well, I'm back home. For those of you who haven't been reading, there was a bed bug infestation in my condo building. Four or five units were impacted including mine which was below the source unit. I left Wednesday in a panic and stayed with Amanda 'till yesterday. Please note, it's been over a week since I've slept in a bed.

I came home yesterday after work. The exterminator told me to stay out of the unit for 4 hours after they sprayed. I think it's possible they meant 4 days because everything was still wet when I got back. Ewwww. The bed was wet, the couch was wet and the air mattress was wet. F%ck, where will I sleep? Turns out I had an old school camping mattress that was not sprayed. And the batteries in the pump still worked. Sweet. So I slept on a camping mattress last night.

Tonight, well the mattress is fairly dry now. It's in a waterproof, dust mite proof, bed bug proof mattress case (seriously, it zips) and there's another waterproof cover over the top of the mattress too. Hopefully I won't get cancer. Again, Ewwwww.

The couch is still kind of drying. It turns out they didn't spray my camp chair either so that's what I've been sitting in. Everything else I touch I try to wash the pesticides off, towel bars, chairs, counter tops, tables, stools. I have re-unpacked everything that goes onto my entertainment center. My clothes are on my table. (Good thing I didn't get rid of that when I finished my kitchen.) They can't go into the dresser because it's still wet from pesticides.

The rest of my clothes get delivered tomorrow and there are no words for my joy. Here's the thing, I'm trying to clean up my place and everything is covered in pesticides so I want to wear old clothes. Do I have old clothes right now? Not really. Another happy moment tonight was when I realized my old painting clothes are in my storage closet which to my knowledge was not affected by the bed bugs so I can wear those tomorrow. Another beautiful thing about working for a Jewish agency is I have tomorrow off. (For anyone observing Yom Kippur, have an easy fast.) I'll be putting the place back together and washing pesticides off things all day. I'm also thinking about buying an iPod Touch. We'll see, I freak out every time I see my bank account. That's what happens spending several hundred dollars replacing things I already owned in my apartment.