(no subject)

[rivka]

I put curiousangel on a plane this morning. He's off to Atlanta for an eight-night business trip - I'll pick him up at the airport on my way home from work next Tuesday.

Sometimes I enjoy being alone, and sometimes I don't. This time I seem to be feeling anxious and clingy, and not very happy about being by myself. Doing some introspection about that:

(1) I seem to be associating this trip with two other separations, both of which were very unhappy: my nightmarish return to Iowa to finish collecting my dissertation data in September of 2002, and an eight-day trip curiousangel took in the fall of 1999 which caused us significant relationship angst. This trip has nothing in common with either one of those, but they still seem to be on my mind an awful lot.

(2) Our Spanish exchange student will be arriving while Michael is gone. She comes in Thursday July 1, and Michael doesn't come home until July 6. I'm nervous about being on my own with her for all that time, solely responsible for making sure that she's happy and entertained and everything. I tend to be anxious about new people and new social situations anyway, and being Michael-less makes it worse.

(3) Just in the last few weeks, we've started having a problem with cockroaches. I don't know if they're doing something different next door, or what, but we went from seeing exactly one roach in the first year of living in the house, to seeing one or two a week. The exterminator is coming Wednesday morning. I'm terrified of bugs, especially beetle-y things, and I'm afraid that I'm going to see roaches without having Michael there to kill them and dispose of them for me. Especially I'm afraid that when I go to clear out the cabinets for the exterminator, I'm going to see a roach on my pans or food or something, and I'll be so disgusted that I'll never be able to go into my kitchen again and we'll have to move.

wcg is spending the night tonight, so at least I won't be all by myself right away.

Comments

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

* sends general supportive thoughts and good vibes *

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I can't offer any other than cold comfort on the speration, but for the roaches...

Borax. It won't be immediate, but it will kill them, I've heard that cocoa powder will hasten this, by atttacting them.

The best explantation I've heard for it is that it dries/abrades the chiton and so they dehydrate. Since it isn't a toxin they take it back to the nest and it, albiet not at once, kills a lot of them.

I suppose that sooner or later it would lead to a more borax resistan chiton, but I doubt enough people use it to make it a very strong selective pressure.

TK

[rampling.livejournal.com]

I'm glad wcg will be there with you tonight; it's nice to know you'll have someone helpful there with you to ease you into this difficult time.

[mittelbar.livejournal.com]

Poor, poor, poor! I could certainly do battle with roaches for you. Except they disgust me, too. But not so much on the conscious level.

Eight nights is significant enough that I'd be feeling a little clingy even if none of that other stuff was going on. All will be well.

Are there group outings and such, with the AFS-like group, that your guest can go to on her own? Any cute but mature and reliable boys she can get a convenient crush on (presuming she's straight), who can show her around the town? (I understand that having a crush is very entertaining.)

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Our landlords are willing to pay for professional extermination, so we're going that route. There's a plan in place to get rid of the roaches - my terror has to do with encountering one between now and then. (Or afterward, in their death throes all over the kitchen! How gross would that be?)

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Are there group outings and such, with the AFS-like group, that your guest can go to on her own?

There are Things. Friday all day is a Baltimore city tour (I'm going too). Sunday there are evening activities - a 4th of July cookout and fireworks. They'll have classes during the day, starting Tuesday.

Monday, I think I have the day off to compensate for the 4th being on a Sunday. Don't know what I'll do then, or Saturday.

Michael reminds me that teenage girls often like to spend long periods of time watching TV or online, and maybe I shouldn't worry about it that much.

Any cute but mature and reliable boys she can get a convenient crush on (presuming she's straight), who can show her around the town?

I don't know any. Do you think I should try an LJ search by geographical region?

[kightp.livejournal.com]

*adds more of those and some cockroach-banishment energy as well*

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Michael reminds me that teenage girls often like to spend long periods of time watching TV or online, and maybe I shouldn't worry about it that much.

Oh, yes, lots of people (teenage girls or not) who are thrown into new immersion situations with a lot of group activity really want to have some down-time where they don't have to talk to people, especially in a second language.

[mittelbar.livejournal.com]

Try OKCupid. :-p

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Could wcg or someone else local help you clear the cabinets? I have my own bug-squick/terrors, and sympathize, but I am, alas, nowhere near able to help much in this case.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

The only concern is roaches don't actually live in your house, they nest outside.

So putting some borax along the baseboards is prolly still a decent idea.

TK