can i just say? eeek!

i could not sleep at all last night. 

i was tossing and turning well past three a.m. first of all, around 10 o'clock i'd seen a mouse in my kitchen and it greatly disturbed me. i was on my couch, watching the crossover episode of Private Practice because i wanted to see why that pregnant woman couldn't breathe and i saw something moving out of the corner of my eye. i turned my head, saw the furry beast, gasped and sat up—before i had even finished gasping and sitting up, the thing darted under the bookcase i have in the kitchen and disappeared. 

i sat frozen for a minute and then i grabbed my cell and called Michael. in tears. 

i always said i'd prefer to have mice in my apartment than roaches, but you know what? this is what i decided as i was tossing and turning (and feeling itchy and paranoid) at three a.m.: i'd prefer to be the only mobile creature in my apartment, thank you very much.

Michael went to the corner market and got me some glue traps. i slid one under the bookcase and ran like hell in the opposite direction just in case. somewhere in my brain i did know that that poor mouse had so many more reasons to be terrified of me than i did to be terrified of it. but somewhere else in my brain i imagined it running around in my cabinets or taking a snooze in my bathtub or curling up on my pillow as i sleep. and that part of my brain was in control last night. 

so the mouse freaked me out. and it was also very windy last night and my building was rattling more than usual. and i kept hearing people yelling in the street. and i started Water for Elephants this week and read a somewhat disturbing chapter before i turned the lights out last night and just had a general feeling of un-ease. i wondered if it was a full moon or something, if that's why everything felt so crazy.

somehow i finally slept, but my alarm clock went off before i could really make a dent in my exhaustion. when it went off, i rolled over and somehow pulled a muscle in my neck (still suffering as i write this). i had the radio tuned to 880 AM and the first thing i heard was about the plane crash in Buffalo. and then they said the date: Friday, February 13. 

ahh. doesn't explain the tragic, unfortunate plane crash, of course, but perhaps everything else. this date is giving me a serious case of bad juju. 

and it makes sense. i have a bad association with the Friday the 13th movies. i believe it was a February, actually, many many many years ago. i must have been ten or eleven years old. a friend of mine had a sleepover birthday party and late at night we watched one of the gory Jason movies, no idea which one. it didn't matter. i had never seen one before and it petrified me. horrified me. i remember the next day when i made it safely back to my parents' house, just the sight of my dad's flannel shirts hanging in his closet freaked me out (which, back in the day, is what Jason wore in those movies).

anyway, my point is—i'll be glad when this day is over. not that Valentine's Day is any less scary...

mb