Loving Every Minute

Favorite conversation from Rec tonight actually happened outside about a half hour before we started – while I was unloading all the equipment from my car. A bunch of the guys were riding their bikes in the parking lot waiting for us to open the doors.  There was one student there I didn’t recognize.

Me: Have we met?
Student: Nope.
Me: Nice to meet you. I’m Sara.
Student: I’m Lionel
Me: Are you sticking around for Rec Night?
Lionel: Yup!
Me: Awesome!!
Lionel: Hey, I hear you do devotions.
Me: It’s true.
Lionel: Good because I go to church.

And then he rode away. But he did come back at 7:00 when we opened the doors and later in the evening we realized we actually HAD met before at a county-wide outreach event.  We’re buds now.

It’s always so amazing to see God smiling at me through the kids he sends my way.  There is no cooler job [at least for me] than mine.

Ok, anyone who follows me on Twitter knows that I’ve been battling an infestation of fruit flies for about two weeks. I don’t use the word “infestation” lightly. I can’t drink a glass of juice without several fruit flies drowning themselves in it (I obviously dump it out and start over – I’m going through ALOT of juice). My neighbor from across the hall stopped by the other night and I had my door open talking to him in the hallway and they were flying out into the hallway like a fog. I’m telling you – it’s like a plague. I didn’t know how much longer I could take it …  and then tonight happened.

Let me recap…

Unable to stand how gross it was getting, I frantically tried all the natural solutions I found online including bowls of apple cider vingear (made my apartment smell like easter eggs but it was a small price to pay), rotting fruit in a jar, etc.  Plenty of flies were being captured — but there didn’t seem to be any less of them flying around. Finally after days of trying different organic remedies I lost it. I went out and bought the spray. Of course I had to remove all the food products from my kitchen before I could spray in there which was a pain but again – small price to pay. I went room by room spraying. Spray, close the room for 15 minutes, open the windows to air it out before going back in.  Go back in, all is well. Dead fruit flies all over the floor. Go back a half hour later – fruit flies everywhere AGAIN. I did this 3 times in one day. If I had fish or birds they’d definitely be dead now from all the spray.

Finally, yesterday it seemed to get better. I sprayed but it was pretty chilly out so I didn’t open the windows. I just turned on the overhead fans and the vent in the bathroom and left for a while. Seemed to work. I finally had some peace. I went to sleep last night without the thought of them flying all over my bedroom. So unbelievably nasty, I’m telling you.

Today I woke up and was elated to find that the fruitflies were still gone. I had won the war!! It’s my day off so I went to Starbucks, did some reading, got groceries, did some baking, stayed in my pajamas until 3:00pm. Great day. No fruit flies.

AND THEN (I’m typing faster and faster because I’m LOSING MY MIND while I write this)
I popped open the kitchen window after baking to let the heat out and get some fresh air. I happened to look over in the middle of glazing my cinnamon swirl bread to see that the screen in my window was literally COVERED in fruit flies. So many that they were crawling on top of each other. AND THEY’RE SO FREAKING SMALL [AND EVIL] THAT THEY WERE CRAWLING RIGHT THROUGH THE SCREEN.

Seriously?

It’s 10:00 at night. I’ve sprayed twice more (I’m going to end up with brain damage from the pesticides) and set up the organic traps as well – just for good measure.  They are everywhere. They’re attracted to the light of my laptop so they’re literally bouncing off the screen while I type.

So now, I’m trapped in my apartment with a bazillion fruit flies, can’t open my windows, have ingested an unhealthy amount of bug spray and I’m SO IRRITATED that I’m not sure I’ll be able to sleep.

I need therapy … or I need to move.  Something.