Monster X

Autumn. Cooler weather sets in. I usually have no problem with that, I cheerfully layer up and face the brisk autumn breeze with a smile. But a new problem has suddenly bore its ugly face: mice. It seems that a family of homeless mice have found a way to sneak into our kitchen and scurry through our cabinets. It started with some innocent droppings (read: not so innocent when they carry disease) and chewing through all of the red silicone utensils in the top drawer. Last night around 11:30, I remembered that I had left my notebook downstairs. I descended from my bedroom into the kitchen, snapped on the light, and cast a weary glance towards the drawers. To my horror, Mickey was scurrying across the counter top in desperation to reach safehaven. I let out a scream, immediately breaking into a nervous fit, and sprinted back upstairs to shake and shiver.   Terrified, I climbed into bed and called my kitty Peter to come see me. He immediately calmed me down with his sweet purring and rubbing against my side. But then, in an instant, he snapped out of this and frantically began eyeing the wall, the ceiling, and the corner of my bed. "Peter, stop it, you're scaring me!" I said repeatedly, trying to rub his head and get his playful attention back (story of my life with boys, I swear). Suddenly, I heard it to. In the wall behind my bed, a loud scurrying and scuffling. Clutching my textbook and my cellphone, I sprang out of my bed and ran into the hallway whispering, "Peter, stop it, Peter come here, you're scaring me..." (can you tell how single and spinster-y I am?) I ended up resorting to the cold, shadowy guest room but had the creepy-crawly feeling that mice were climbing all over me, biting my skin. I rubbed myself raw in a few places and tossed and turned, clutching onto Peter, until I fell asleep.   When I woke up, one of the members of our mouse family was squashed in a trap. This breaks me. I hate having vermin in the house, but I don't want to kill them. I just want them to leave. After searching several ways of humanely catching mice, I'm going to try to implement this contraption for tonight.   I don't know what the above story exemplifies more: my abhorrence to killing creatures (seriously, I captured and set loose a fly from my bedroom yesterday) or how much of a wuss I am about critters. It's not even so much that they carry disease. Mice are just scary the way they dart around and compress their bodies to freak show proportions. I wouldn't be nearly as terrified if they entered the scene cautiously, preferrably flashing red lights of warning.   My reluctance to kill mice is almost equal to my reluctance to wear anything gorey or with gross imagery. This sweater is an exception. I found it at Target a year or two ago in the little boy's section and something about it just yelled, "Buy me!" I wear it whenever I'm having lazy days.   This outfit is actually from Sunday. I woke up with a grumble and a groan, not wanting to get on with my day knowing that it would mean nothing but homework. I'm really strict about going to church. I probably only miss 3 or 4 services a year and it's almost always in the case of illness (though when I wasn't so studious, sometimes it was in the case of hungover-ness). I didn't feel like getting all prim and proper for church yesterday, so I sat in front of my closet and thought, "What would Angela Chase wear?" I came out with this season-appropriate, semi-grunge, lazy '90s look.   The dress is something I found at a garage sale this summer for a couple of bucks. The lady selling it was amazingly eccentric and I was tempted to buy almost everything there. She had briefly implied that most of the stuff was hanging around in her closet for years and she finally decided to rid of it after realising she wasn't going to lose any weight. Good thing I was there to gleefully snatch it all up. Since the dress is short sleeved and has a plunging neckline, I layered it with my favourite flannel and aforementioned sweatshirt. My mum also just bought me a new cargo jacket from Macy's by the brand J.J. Basics. I fell in love with it immediately and knew I had to have it for fall.   I'm trying to decide whether or not I should waste my time on the Presidential debate tonight. It's starting now but I'm so burnt out on politics. I know who I'm voting for, it's all starting to just get ugly. Plus, I have loads of existentialist French reading to do, oy vey!