My partner had the misfortune of waking op on Monday morning to the most unwelcome discovery that we have bedbugs (oh the joys of NYC being infested with them).  Of course it was a holiday, and of course our management company is useless.  After spending two days on the phone fighting with our management company, learning that our entire building is infested, that some of our neighbors REFUSE to allow it to be treated, and the treatment that the management provides is ineffective according to industry standards we resigned ourselves to paying large amounts of money out of pocket to take care of the situation with a private exterminator.  Oh, this might be a good time to add that our apartment is meticulously clean hence a lot of our confusion as to how these little monsters got here in the first place.  We have now learned that they are capable of getting into a space via electrical outlets!!!!!!!!

Now, for those of you who have never had the pleasure of having to have your life uprooted by blood sucking parasites, let me tell you the treatment, is a femme’s nightmare.  Every fabric item in the entire house had to be taken to the laundromat and washed on HOT! Yes, this included all of my clothes many of which never even get washed let alone dried in a machine! Upon their exit of the incredibly hot dryer the clothing items had to be placed directly into plastic garbage bag and tied up tightly. Because we live in New York, our apartment is only 625 square feet, which means that the only place for said bags to live is down our hallway.  At this point I have one XXL Ziploc bag (I know that they were invited for soccer moms to store shit in, but they are a miracle right now) that is all the clothes that I can wear until this nightmare is over.  Each day I have to decide what I want to wear before I get into the bag, take out the clothing item and seal it up again! Did I mention that my  * normal * style of getting dressed in the morning involves a full-fledged femme explosion/fashion show?

For all of my complaining the situation is getting significantly better though.  We spent all day yesterday with a wonderful (although painful for the pocketbook) exterminator who will be returning every month to do preventative spraying so we will hopefully never go through this again. Our mattress and box spring are wrapped forever in latex bags (soooo not as sexy as it sounds) but last night for the first time since Monday we slept without being feasted on!  We’re not out of the woods yet, but we’re on the right path, and now I’m just left fantasizing about the day I get my entire wardrobe back.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 8th, 2008 at 8:07 am and is filed under musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.