Whack-A-Mouse

If I wrote a book about my life some might try to argue that it’s all fiction, but I’m telling you – I couldn’t make all this up if I tried.

As you know, I live in Chinatown in a 5 bedroom apartment, but I am convinced that one room holds potentially 2-3 different people so I don’t know how many roommates I actually have. I’m not told the names of anyone, and when I try to ask they don’t respond… although to be fair I’ve realized that the only one who speaks English is the girl I pay rent to.

I also learned tonight that one of the women now living here is the mother of the girl I send my rent to.

I found this out because after a conversation about how I am not mentally stable enough to share a room with mice and something needing to be done asap, my ‘landlord’ said, “my mom will buy you mousetraps tomorrow” while nodding at the woman sitting at the kitchen table.

So now prepare yourself for my little mouscapade.

The first sighting was roughly a month or so ago.

I had an inkling that there might have been a mouse sneaking around my room at night.

But I was like “No way, totes just the wind. Calm yourself.”

THEN.

One morning I was on the phone with my bff Kristen catching up when I hear the rustling.

I knew it wasn’t the wind.

It was coming from the foot of my bed.

In my nearly empty trashcan.

I stand on my bed, peer over looking into the trashcan but not really looking because heaven knows my heart will not be able to take what I see.

But I see nothing.

So I get different angles, get off the phone with Kristen and begin taking pictures to get a better look without actually looking.

Still nothing.

So I sigh a breath of relief and realize I’m being absurd.

I then take my first full view look of inside the trashcan and SEE A FREAKING BROWN MOUSE STARING UP AT ME.

All of the air leaves my body, taking my soul with it.

Then my mind leaves my body as well and I literally have no idea what to do.

My mouth was working though, I just kept repeating “Oh. My. God.”

Then I realize the creepy little thing is TRAPPED.

Score 1 for Emily.

I quickly text my landlord and say, “Hey Sophia how’s it going? Where are you at right now?”

She replies, “On my way to work, whats up?”

To which I say, “There’s a mouse in my trashcan and I cannot handle this do you know any of our neighbors that I can reach out to for this?”

Luckily one of the other girls who I share the apartment with ended up coming home and helping me with the mouse.

She peered in the trashcan and was like, “Yo there’s nothing in here”

Hysterical laughter begins bubbling out of me and all I can say is, “Oh yes there is, help me get this trashcan/mouse out of here”

We begin slowly scooting the trashcan out both fearing for our lives.

THEN.

I hit a bump and the mouse starts JUMPING SO HIGH I thought it was going to start FLYING.

Queue the screaming.

All of the screaming.

We eventually found a box to cover the trashcan, and my roommate ran the trashcan out to the side of the road and said, “I just left it there, if you want your trashcan you can dump the mouse and go get it.”

LOLOL NAH MAN I’M GOOD THE MOUSE CAN HAVE THE TRASHCAN.

And since then, my room had been quiet.

No rustling.

No mouse.

Nothing.

Until two nights ago.

There was a Kroger sack which had mainly water bottles and makeup wipes in there.

No biggie.

I kept hearing this rustling though and was like “weird my fan isn’t pointed that way” and when I glance over I see movement.

I let out a low whisper, “No….” 

BUT.

I didn’t have my glasses on so I still had that inkling of hope, for those of you who don’t know, I’m practically blind without my glasses. Like book to nose in order to read kind of blind.

So when I’m saying I saw movement that’s literally all I saw.

An additional blur where there should not have been an additional blur.

I put my glasses on and I pick up the Kroger sack when A MOUSE DARTS OUT AND RUNS UNDER MY DOOR TO THE KITCHEN.

So at this point I lowkey feel panicked and defeated, but still hopeful.

The mouse ran out of my room. So all I have to do is run this bag right outside the apartment door (which is 5 steps) then run back to my room.

I do this, shut my bedroom door, and then stuff a towel in the cracks to keep the mouse from coming back in.

I settle into bed and that’s when I look over to see A SECOND MOUSE RUNNING BY MY SHOES TOWARDS MY DESK.

This mouse evoked not only fear in me, but also bravery, power, and strength.

This is my room.

These are my things.

I don’t pay $750 a month to have a freeloading mouse be the master of my house.

Hell. No.

This mouse was going to die.

I begin grabbing anything I can and chucking it in the area where I saw the mouse last.

Then I had a broom in the other hand ready to HULK SMASH this mouse.

I don’t care if this is inhumane.

I don’t care if this is a ‘cute wittle mousey with a family and feelings.’

Nope.

I was done.

And the mice were going to be done as well.

I stayed up until 3am watching for the mouse to come so I could strike and then sleep soundlessly.

The time never came.

When I awoke to my alarm the next morning, I found myself cuddled with a broom, lights left on, and Friends blaring on my laptop.

I tiptoe getting ready, any bravery I had about facing this mouse was out the door and replaced with sleep deprivation.

Then last night, no mouse sighting but I knew it was in here somewhere and that petrified me the most.

This morning I awoke the same way as the morning before, broom in arms, fetal position in the far corner of my bed with Friends blaring on the laptop.

I would like to point out, Friends is actually a key player in all of this.

I purposely chose Friends to watch the past two nights because with all of the clapping and on queue laughing, the show is easily one of the loudest and most startling on Netflix.

I was using it as mouse repellent.

Now, today I decided to add a new mouse repellent.

Peppermint essential oil.

I read up that this stuff is so potent that mice cannot handle being around the smell for too long, it kills their nose.

So obvi I spent some good money on a diffuser and loaded it with peppermint oil.

I come home and begin thoroughly cleaning my room.

Decluttering, and sweeping, and poor-man mopping (aka Clorox wipe to the floor, my rooms not that big anyway).

As I get to a more cluttered area of my room, I move a bag and then A FREAKING MOUSE RUNS OUT FROM UNDER IT, KILL ME PLS.

That’s when I run out of my room and tell my landlord, “yo I need mousetraps. I can’t handle this anymore.”

She mentioned her mom would by them tomorrow.

Her mom then asked, “You scared?”

UH YES.

I then went back to my room to make my room wreak of peppermint.

I connected my new diffuser, then covered cotton balls in the peppermint oil and placed them all around my room.

So tonight I will still be cuddled with a broom, lights on, Friends blaring, but peppermint oil will also be on my side.

One thing I’ve realized through all of this is that people in New York are so indifferent about mice.

Whereas I’m in full ‘kill or be killed’ mode over here, and I feel anyone back home with mice would behave similarly to me.

Well, maybe.

Here when someone says they have mice it’s like saying the subway has delays.

It’s just a part of life.

The common response to mice is, “At least you don’t have roaches.”

And if you do have roaches the response is, “At least you don’t have bed bugs.”

It appears bed bugs are probs the worst visitor one can have in their apartment.

So fingers crossed that doesn’t happen to me!!

Also pls pray that peppermint oil keeps the mice away…my heart can’t take much more of this…

 

P.S. – I had my first OSKNY event and I LOVED it, I’m ready for the next one 🙂

 

**Pic is of Bryant Park 🙂

 

Like reading my experiences? Check out my Travel Blog from when I studied abroad in France and ran around Europe for 5 months.

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