Last night, I picked up Daniel from the airport. We got back to his place and hung out with Tara and Saphap and made it over to Olive Garden for some dinner. Getting into the car, Tara noticed a spider and was squealing and making the usual “Ahhhh get it away from me” noises. When we got to the parking lot of the Olive Garden, we saw the same spider on the roof of the car which Daniel pretended to have in his hands and chased Tara and Saphap around the parking lot.
After dinner, we hung out some more and late into the evening it was time for me to leave. All of a sudden, I heard this scream from the front room and Tara was pointing to one of the biggest roaches I have ever seen in my life. I have seen my share of roaches looking into the sewer manholes at UCD as well as around the backstage areas of Disneyland, but this was the biggest ever seen in a residence. Once Daniel saw it, he was right there with
Tara recoiling in horror and squealing. It was up to me, despite my own disliking of roaches, to take care of it. What ensued was a series of mad dashes and Raid sprays chasing this speed demon around the apartment. I had it cornered in the bathroom and then it made an end run around me and into Daniel’s bedroom – much to his dismay. We then lost track of it.
We pulled all the drawers out of his dresser and lo and behold it was there catching its breath. I swear it was panting. So after some strategy, I sprayed the little bugger and off it went. The goal was to trap it in a box and scoot it out of the apartment, bit when I put the box over it, I had the flat side facing the roach instead of the open part. The roach then proceeded to move the box! I then had no choice but to apply pressure to the box and spray more.
Finally, it stopped moving, but my skin was crawling and the peanut gallery was still recoiling on the couch. After about 10 minutes, I slowly removed the box and Tara confirmed that it was dead. I scooped it up in the box and hurled the carcass over the balcony. Unfortunately, it didn’t make it over the patio of the downstairs neighbors so they will get a present the next time they sit on their chairs.
It just goes to show that if you are going to tease your friend about a spider, be sure that your house is roach free or you will get the karmatic payback you deserve. (Meanwhile I am off to get new roach traps for my apartment because mine are almost 2 years old and you can never be too safe!)