April Showers

It has been raining a lot here lately and the other night a storm rolled through that made the city look really creepy. This is usually our view of the city at night:

While this storm was rolling through, this was our view. Mind you, it wasn’t raining when I took this, it’s not obstructed due to precipitation. The clouds just literally enveloped the city and settled thickly.

So creepy, right?

A couple days later another storm was rolling in while I was on my way home from work. Walking into my building, the Empire State Building looked so cool. There were somewhat opaque clouds drifting in front of it and it was back lit by the sun before it set. I went home, dropped off my purse and grabbed my camera. It didn’t look as cool by the time I got out to take pics, but these are a few of the neat ones I snapped.

See the spire? Just barely.

Bed Bugs – Working from Home

I was going to post a picture with this until I google’d Bed Bugs, hit images and was thoroughly grossed out!

Regardless, that is not my point. My point it that tomorrow while you’re all at work, I will be in pj pants, on my couch, watching tv with my lap top on my lap. Our building has bed bugs and my floor and one other floor were asked to work from home tomorrow and Friday before the floors are sprayed on Saturday. Sweet! I’ll take it!

Booger Wiper

Someone has recently taken to wiping their boogers on the back of one of the bathroom stall doors at work. I mean, seriously, the toilet paper is right there! It’s really gross. I’m considering putting a note on the back of the stall door similar to these.

Or maybe I should just join in? Maybe said person would enjoy the help?

Scariest Work Commute Ever

So last night I get home and my roommate proceeds to tell me about her commute home from work. She was standing on the subway platform and noticed a commotion behind her so she looked to see what it was and noticed a dark complected man standing on the tracks with his arms out like a T. Someone went to the station agent and told him he had to stop the train that was coming and my roommate, as I also would have, started freaking out. She heard the train coming and looked away…when she looked back, he was gone. She asked a guy by her if the train got him, but apparently it was the express train and he was on the local track. When she wasn’t looking, people had pulled him out. Not sure what happened to him after that.

But seriously, if that had happened to me, I would have thought I was going to die right there because of all the terrorism stuff that has been going on here. I wouldn’t have been able to think anything but suicide bomber. So. Scary!

Female Reproductive System FAIL

Random creepy places in Queens

I realized as I was uploading this one that there was a sign below it that says, “Open 24 hours.” The pic would have been way cooler if I’d gotten the whole sign.

First it was a centipede

Now it’s termites.

For the last few weeks I’ve been finding these little beetles all over my room, but they’re not all over in the apartment.  On my walls, on my bed, on my night stand, near the window, near the closet – oh, one was in the closet.  I’ve been squishing them as I see them thinking they were like little june bugs or something and that they were a phase that came with the seasons that would pass.

Tonight I opened up the drawer on my night stand to get a marker and I noticed that on top of my passport was this fine brown dust.  Then I noticed almost everything in the drawer was covered in a dusty looking film that was sort of crunchy.  Then I started noticing these beetles.  Then I noticed larvae pouches on/in everything paper or fabric.  So I did what I had to do and started cleaning out the drawer and throwing things away – all the while feeling dirty and so grossed out.  So I found larvae, I found these beetle looking things and I found these bugs that look like little black ants with wings on their butts.  Funny thing is, that’s what termites look like.

So I started wondering where they were coming from and I remembered that I’ve been noticing a growing amount of paint chips on the floor near my window.  I have been sleeping with the window open lately, however, so I thought it was from the plastic things on the end of the rope you pull to raise the blinds hitting the wall when the wind blows it.  I got down on my hands and knees and looked closer and they “paint chips” are actually from a small hole in the wall near the baseboard.

I cleaned out my drawer and put all the dead bugs and larvae in a bag that I put down the trash shoot.  Then I went to the front desk and put in a maintenance request to have them spray and fill the hole.  They will probably do it tomorrow, but I still plan to get a bug bomb of my own since I have a feeling they won’t be as thorough as I’d like.  I will then get a couple more and do them once a week for the next few weeks just to be safe and make sure I kill anything that might hatch.  So gross.

House Centipede

Last week I was on the phone with tbf, mid sentence when this bug came crawling…more like sprinting…down my wall.  I freaked out and had nothing to kill it with.  I got up and grabbed my sandal and squished it.  When I looked at it on the bottom of my shoe it looked like it had multiple legs coming out of one joint.  Just looking at the picture makes my gag reflex work over time.  Apparently they eat roaches and are human friendly…so why didn’t God make them more human friend LOOKING?

Cohabitants

I feel like I need to douse myself in some cleansing chemical, among other things.  So I live in New York and things like rats and roaches are just part of life here.  I expect to see them, but most in the subway or on the sidewalk.  I know that if you live in a groundfloor apt you will get them more frequently, but I have see 3 very large (like an inch and a half long) roaches in the last 2 weeks.  Saturday I was sitting at my computer and felt like my hair was tickling my leg, so I brushed it away, but it wasn’t my hair, it was a roach!  Eeew.  I’m usually ok with roaches and other bugs.  Killing them doesn’t bother me.  I don’t dance all over and scream, I find a shoe and smush whatever it is that it’s trying to cohabitate with me.  My long-term ex was afraid of crawly things, so it was up to me not to be.  They’re not that bad…until they’re crawling on me!  Gross!!  Then, shortly after that I was sitting on my bed reading when a spider crawled across my dress.  I need an exterminator!

 Oh, oh, and this person (cat lady I assume) in my building likes to put out birdfood and walnuts for the pidgeons (read: flying rats) and squirrels (read: rats with big tails).  Because of this they’re always around and out on my fire escape.  Because I don’t have AC, I leave my windows open.  Yesterday when I was sitting on my bed reading, one of the squirrels that frequently runs across my window sill stopped, put his front legs in my window and looked around.  These furry little bastards also ate a peach I put in the window to ripen in the sun.  I’m so over bugs and animals…and I want to go chew out the cat lady for attracting more than need be nearby!