I had an unfortunate incident a few weeks ago walking up the stairwell at my work. I had almost made it to the fifth floor when I heard the little pitter patter of some sort of insect. As I got up toward the landing, I saw a cockroach and it was running right at me. It jumped down on to the step where I was standing (in flip flops!) and it almost landed on my foot. It immediately turned to face me almost like it was preparing for a stand off. Not going to happen, cockroach. You win! Before the cockroach could blink it's eye I was gone. The incident left me shaken up for quite a while. I'm not sure what was most troubling for me: the fact that there are cockroaches in my place of employment or the fact that unlike other bugs that run away from humans, this one charged right at me. I called the owner of the building to complain about my fateful morning. She was less than surprised about the incident. She said they've been spraying in the stair well every Thursday because there are so many of them. She assured me however, that they would start spraying twice a week for good measure. She then told me that they aren't really cockroaches, they're water bugs. I think she was hoping that this would soothe me (if only she knew that I pretty much hate all bugs anyway - especially ones that exceed the size of my thumb!). I asked her what the difference between a waterbug and a cockroach is. She had no real explanation except something along the lines of the term waterbug being a little more politically correct than cockroach. "It makes people feel better when you call them that." Hmm...what people? Not me. She went on to warn me about our office leaving crumbs on the floor or food in the garbage as this will only attract the cockroaches in to our office. I've spotted a lot of dead cockroaches in the hallways and stairwell over the last year of my employment, but this was the first live encounter I've had. And it was all that I need. What reminded me of the incident is that this morning I spotted another dead cockroach in the stairwell. It really creeps me out. I honestly get nervous walking up the steps now because I never know what I'm going to find (another employee recently said there was a mouse in the stairwell). I don't remember my job description saying anything about "must be willing to tolerate very large insects." Doesn't your work have an elevator, you might be wondering. Oh yes, it does. It's a freight elevator. Not familiar with freight elevators. Think of the demon drop at Cedar Point. It's like that except there are no seats and you're not only the passenger, but also the conductor. I'm not sure which is the better choice at this point since I can't even count on my hands anymore the number of times people have gotten stuck in the freight elevator. So unless Rapunzel suddenly appears at my office offering to let me use her hair as a rope up to the office (and since I'm afraid of hair, this doesn't seem like a great option either) it looks like it's a catch 22 for me. Looking at this from the "glass is half full" perspective, which I've never been good at, at least I can say that there's always something exciting happening at work? That's the best I can do.
I had an unfortunate incident a few weeks ago walking up the stairwell at my work. I had almost made it to the fifth floor when I heard the little pitter patter of some sort of insect. As I got up toward the landing, I saw a cockroach and it was running right at me. It jumped down on to the step where I was standing (in flip flops!) and it almost landed on my foot. It immediately turned to face me almost like it was preparing for a stand off. Not going to happen, cockroach. You win! Before the cockroach could blink it's eye I was gone. The incident left me shaken up for quite a while. I'm not sure what was most troubling for me: the fact that there are cockroaches in my place of employment or the fact that unlike other bugs that run away from humans, this one charged right at me. I called the owner of the building to complain about my fateful morning. She was less than surprised about the incident. She said they've been spraying in the stair well every Thursday because there are so many of them. She assured me however, that they would start spraying twice a week for good measure. She then told me that they aren't really cockroaches, they're water bugs. I think she was hoping that this would soothe me (if only she knew that I pretty much hate all bugs anyway - especially ones that exceed the size of my thumb!). I asked her what the difference between a waterbug and a cockroach is. She had no real explanation except something along the lines of the term waterbug being a little more politically correct than cockroach. "It makes people feel better when you call them that." Hmm...what people? Not me. She went on to warn me about our office leaving crumbs on the floor or food in the garbage as this will only attract the cockroaches in to our office. I've spotted a lot of dead cockroaches in the hallways and stairwell over the last year of my employment, but this was the first live encounter I've had. And it was all that I need. What reminded me of the incident is that this morning I spotted another dead cockroach in the stairwell. It really creeps me out. I honestly get nervous walking up the steps now because I never know what I'm going to find (another employee recently said there was a mouse in the stairwell). I don't remember my job description saying anything about "must be willing to tolerate very large insects." Doesn't your work have an elevator, you might be wondering. Oh yes, it does. It's a freight elevator. Not familiar with freight elevators. Think of the demon drop at Cedar Point. It's like that except there are no seats and you're not only the passenger, but also the conductor. I'm not sure which is the better choice at this point since I can't even count on my hands anymore the number of times people have gotten stuck in the freight elevator. So unless Rapunzel suddenly appears at my office offering to let me use her hair as a rope up to the office (and since I'm afraid of hair, this doesn't seem like a great option either) it looks like it's a catch 22 for me. Looking at this from the "glass is half full" perspective, which I've never been good at, at least I can say that there's always something exciting happening at work? That's the best I can do.
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