(ThatKidInTheCorner :: There's A Hole In My Heart Where My Couch Used To Be)

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May 29, 2007

There's A Hole In My Heart Where My Couch Used To Be

Emergence Day 2 claims my couch, and convinces me that I need to move as soon as possible

So I had really really hoped I wouldn't be filing any more bedbug entries here on the bloggy-blog. After the debacle(s) of last fall, which claimed my bed, my bedding, my carpet, and a bunch of my clothes, and landed me on an air mattress for the better part of five months, I had hoped that the bedbugs thing was behind me. From November until May, it was.

And then we saw a solitary bedbug meandering across the back cushion of my couch on Friday.

(F***********************************ck.)

The malignant little jerks were back, and they'd colonized the one piece of furniture I had refused to throw away the first time around. Within half an hour, we'd located a small group of bedbugs (about 4-5 in total) in a pocket of one of the cushions. Forty minutes after that (following some complicated pushing, tugging, and minor damage to the paint on one of the doorways in my apartment), the couch was curbside, my latest offering to the Gods of Pacific Northwest Karma.

I'll be honest. This was a bit of a gutshot. Not just because it had been so long since I'd had a rumble with the bedbugs. It was more the immediate and drastic implications of the sighting:

(1) The couch had to go. I really resisted throwing it away the first time around, and had received assurances from multiple Terminix staffers that the couch was clean and I was safe keeping it. I didn't question their judgment because, well, I really didn't want to get rid of my couch. I liked this couch. It was the first piece of grown-up furniture I had bought when I moved out to C@L (I even picked up the matching chair, in which I'm now sitting). I spent a lot of time on that couch. So you can imagine I was more than a little crestfallen to have to let it go. (I know, I know: be more Zen. Possessions are fleeting; embrace the void; let go of these things. Yeah yeah yeah, but like I said, I really liked this couch).

(2) I was done with this apartment. Despite what my landlord has promised about Terminix and getting this fixed, and blah blah blah, I'm out of here. Have to. I should have left the first time around. I have some pretty good options at this point -- the only realy question is how soon I leave. Maybe by next weekend? That'd be nice.

So yeah, the bedbugs are back. This time they took my couch, and I can only hope that I can save my new bed (I like the bed more than the couch). I have all the protection I could find on the mattress -- I just hope it's enough. I've been doing my best OCD act on the bed since Friday; I'd be completely crushed if I lost it (and not just because it's a grand and change out the door).

In other news, I did Sasquatch again this past weekend out at the Gorge. Great times to be had there, and a nice (needed) change of pace after the bedbug thing. Really liked the Arcade Fire, but the coup of the whole weekend was the Beastie Boys "instrumental" show that essentially turned into them playing most of my favorite songs from Check Your Head and Ill Communication -- all in front of a smallish crowd on one of the satellite stages. Some great stuff there (video of Sabotage below):