Today, I am not wigging out. Not. I am determined to be a calm person.

By and large, I had a calm weekend. As if to prove that I actually had been under stress, I slept in until 10:00 Saturday morning. Later, I went to Target (laundry soap, Kleenex, etc.) and Michaels ($5 on sewing stuff) and that's pretty much it. I did some laundry and a little cleaning. I barely worked at all--a couple of hours.

You'd think I'd be better rested today but we're at the time of year when it doesn't really start cooling off outside until 1:00 a.m. or 2:00 a.m. and since I can't fall asleep until it cools off, I'm starting this week already down 2-3 hours on sleep.

Still. Not wigging out, which is good.

We believed we were now living in an infestation-free zone. As I believe I've already whined about at length, we have scrubbed, sprayed, vacuumed, brushed, and laundered--over and over and over. We have not seen any vermin since that first twelve-hour period, and certainly not since sprayer man sprayed us last Wednesday.

I am bug, bite, and freak out-free, but the R.C. has been bitten twice, so I called the apartment people today and asked for a follow-up this Wednesday.

Which does mean, yes, that tomorrow evening I have to unload all of the bottom shelves on all the bookcases again so the sprayer man can get behind them, empty the floor of the hall closet and the floor of my closet for the same reason, pile it all on the one available surface (this is not an apartment that abounds in empty table-tops--or even an abundance of table-tops) and then on Wednesday morning the beds have to be stripped so we can heave the mattresses up to lean against the walls and I have to pull the living room furniture out to the middle of the floor.*

On the plus side, no one can claim the blasted apartment is not clean.

I don't know what kind of vermin we're talking about. It can't be the B-bug because the R.C. got bit once while stretched out in the middle of the brightly lit living room floor, reading a book.

It can't be the Carpet Ones I had them spray for last week because the R.C. says she didn't feel the bite happen. One of those Carpet Ones bit me that first night--trust me, you couldn't miss that, especially if you were awake. (Think of being stuck carelessly with a large, dull needle.)

Also, Bernie refuses to be fired, even though I sent him an email last week saying to find someone else. Instead, he called today to offer me three more crazies clients and also to offer to come down to Denver so I can lecture him on setting client expectations. (He remains very eager to have me freelancing full-time. How do you tell someone who prides themselves on being a "marketer" that their skill-set and knowledge are inadequate to provide the necessary support to enable you to work for them?)

Tonight, I have (rescheduled) plans to get together with friends. I need a night out so badly.

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* I am not going to start on the project this evening. We did all of this three days in advance the last time and I'm still tired just thinking about what a PitA it was trying to live around the furniture instead of with it.