of mice and men

I watched the new Quentin Tarantino movie yesterday. Me mentioning it on the blog doesn't necessarily mean I'm endorsing it, although I did enjoy it (I'm afraid if I mention something on here, you might go rent it and be incredibly surprised :)) Anyway, the only reason I'm mentioning it now is because it relates to what I really want to blog about. The movie is about a group of people trying to kill Nazis during the war. The beginning scene has this whole speech about how people are scared of rats when they don't really have a reason to be. Squirrels could probably spread any of the diseases rats do, and they even kind of look like rats but for some reason we have conditioned ourselves since the Bubonic plague to be disgusted by rats and to not be disgusted by squirrels......

....... about 6 hours later. I realize that this entire speech could have me as the subject. I was lying in bed trying to get to sleep when I heard some moving around in some bags on my floor. Next to my bed, I have some stacked baskets, a suitcase in the corner and my laundry bag. I tried to listen to where the noise was coming from slash trying to convince myself that there wasn't any sound. ha. There was definitely a sound. I sat up in my bed and shone my super weak cell phone light in the corner to see if there was any movement. There wasn't. I stayed sitting up for a few minutes, didn't hear anything and laid back down again. Two minutes later.... more rustling. I do keep some snacky food in my baskets but it's stuff like crackers in individual wrappers and Jello in individual containers. Nothing that anyone should be able to smell and want to eat! I sat back up and shone my light again. Nothing moved, I was tired so I eventually laid back down. Once again, the movement continued. It was just about the most frustrating thing ever! I did this several more times- the up down up down deal, and finally decided to lie against my wall so if I got tired I wouldn't have to lie down all the way. About 7 minutes of waiting, and I saw it. Something long and skinny and mouselike dropped from the top basket to the floor. Awesome. So, I had a dilemma. (PS. I think I've been spelling dilemma wrong for my whole life. Spell check just informed me that it is not, in fact, dilemna. cool.) My dilemma was that there was definitely a mouse in my room, and I was definitely not going to be able to sleep imagining it crawling up my feet into my bed. But, it was also a really long way from my bed to the door on a floor that there could be a mouse scurrying around. I finally made the decision to dash across the floor and hope it didn't follow me! (Apparently all the noise and movement and lights did not bother my roommate, she slept right through everything and I decided it would not be the best choice to wake her up just to freak her out about a mouse :)) I successfully made it to the door, out and into the bed in our living room, which is where I stayed for the remainder of the night. It took me a little while to realize that my dog's tail thumping was not a mouse coming after me, but finally I was able to sleep! I have not found the mouse yet so.... we'll see. I don't know why I can manage knowing that there are spiders and scorpions; centipedes and cockroaches; and every type of ant imaginable in my room and that doesn't bother me quite so much as knowing that there is a mouse in the corner that is probably afraid of me and isn't going to touch me but..... it does. I was bothered. But I think I'll live :)