Intruder alert

The other night, I was awaken to the sound of crunching at 4 a.m.

Like something walking on plastic bags that crunch under its feet.

In my bedroom.

My eyes shot opened.

I knew it could only be one thing. A rodent of some sort. Ugh, writing about it now still makes me uneasy. At the time, I thought I probably was hearing things, so I laid in bed, hoping to drift back into sleep. But the crunching sound happened before any form of sweet dreams did.

I didn't know what type of bug I was dealing with, but I knew it wasn't the small hear-no-evil-see-no-evil kind. No, friends, this had to be a mac daddy roach. I jumped up, turned on the bedroom light and went into the kitchen. That's when I noticed the microwave clock displaying 4 a.m. I had been up late and needing every little bit of sleep I could get. This definitely wasn't helping matters. I grabbed a broom and a nearly empty can of bug spray, wondering why didn't get a new can while I was at the grocery store last week.

I spent the next 15 minutes standing at the threshold of my room with broom and bug spray in hand, hoping for the best, fearing for the worst and wishing there was a man around. Afterwards, I decided to spray the corner where I heard the noise. Three seconds later, I heard something thrashing around, like it was in a box or caught up in some paper. I hadn't finished unpacking all of things from the move to Atlanta, I thought perhaps it was in one of the boxes. After another 15 minutes, I decided to hop on my bed and investigate the scene from a far. It was a roach all right. It sat still in a corner, next to a box containing my 4 foot Christmas tree. It must have gotten in there somehow and then had to fight its way out.

Reaching over, still on my bed, I sprayed a little more. The bug ran around and disappeared behind my skinny Christmas tree box to die. I felt satisfied enough to go back to sleep - on the couch, waiting until sunlight to scoop up the mischief maker and flush him down the toilet. Every night since, though, I've contemplated sleeping with the lights on.