An Epic Battle

Tyler versus Sugar Ants from hell!!!

I have never been what one would call a "neat freak".  But I usually try to keep at least my living room and kitchen presentable at all times.  However sometimes when I'm really busy or distracted mess takes over.

During 9 to 5 rehearsals I may have let me kitchen get a little bit out of control.  There may have been like 2ish weeks where I didn't really go into my kitchen cause I was afraid.  Afraid of what had taken over the sink and afraid of the leftovers that had turned into science experiments in my fridge.  But then my mom and sister were coming into town and I knew I needed to enter the forbidden zone.  So I cleaned it all, top to bottom with bleach and lysol.  I love lysol I'd spray the world down with it if I could.  I go through like a bottle of it every two months- because when I'm sick I feel like the world needs a little more of it.  So I cleaned and swiffered and threw crap away and ran the dishwasher- TWICE!

The next morning I awoke- to ANTS.  Tiny black sugar ants EVERYWHERE.  WTF? I just cleaned you why are you attracting ants kitchen? They appeared to be coming in my front door crawling over my DVDs and slinking up the wall to get behind my microwave.  Well I know what'll work- Lysol! I sprayed those little devils with so much lysol I had to lock the cats in the bedroom and leave the apartment.  I came back to no more ants...well no more alive ants.  And all was good.

Until 2 days later they were back! And they were eating my sponges! Uhg! How dare they! I lysoled them.  And again they disappeared for two more days. Then they came back in both places!!!  Well lysol wasn't working maybe Off would do the trick.  Off in my kitchen where once I cooked.  I locked the kitties in my bedroom and fled the apartment again.  This time they stayed away pretty well.  Pretty much for my mom and sister's full visit.  Then they were back again after the first weekend of 9 to 5.

Dammit ants! So I went to our trusty friend Google and learned you can get rid of ants with Tea Tree Oil! I have a ton of that cause I use it for EVERYTHING.  (like coconut oil but foul smelling) So I put tea tree oil on cotton balls and strategically placed them near the front door and all the spots in the kitchen I'd seen Ants.  Vamoose!  Ants were gone!  Never to return!

For 5 days.  Well that worked better than lysol and I didn't have to flea my house.  So maybe I need to use more.  I put some tea tree oil in a spray bottle and sprayed the world! They didn't like it at all.  So what did those devilish little monsters do?  They found a new entrance.

That's it! I'm done being humane lets go get some REAL ant killer.  So I bought some Ant trap bait things.  I bought two packs! Spread them throughout the kitchen and nothing.  The ants laughed at my traps and brought their friends along to see me suffer.

I almost gave up and called the apartment people to get an exterminator out here, but then I was at HEB  yesterday and I saw Raid Ant Bait Gel.  Ooooh.  I'd read online that gel is a good way to kill ants.  It was on sale AND I had a coupon.  I bought the gel.  The instructions said to put pea size dots on the ant trails and that they'd carry it back to their nests.  The box also said it starts working within an hour!

So I put maybe dime size drops out for those ants and left the apartment to go to the liquor store cause what else can you do.  I came back and to my horror there were more ants than ever! They had swarmed the gel like they were at a picnic! WHAT???? Google help me wtf is going on?  Apparently the bait attacks all the ants and over 4 hours they'll disperse taking their sweet death back to their colonies.  Okay. Okay Google.  I'll give them another 3 hours to see what's up.  So I waited.  And watched.  And waited and got a little trigger finger itch on my lysol can.

I was having people over later in the day, I really didn't want my kitchen to be full of ants, especially since everyone was bringing stuff that would be sweet and sticky and only attract more.  Well almost 24 hours later there is nary an ant in my kitchen.  Fruit juice was spilt yesterday, a jar of salsa broke, all sorts of things spilt in that kitchen and the ants have disappeared.  It's still way to early to know if this is a true success.  But 24 hours later I'm super excited that they may have disappeared.  Go Raid Ant Gel!

They're Only Days Update- 286 days in the BCS

So I kinda forgot to write about my 9th month.  Partially because I was busy, partially because I was in a show but mostly because I was having entirely too much fun to give a damn that I've now been away from home for 9 months!  9 months! I could have had a baby in that time, but thank god I didn't.  So now we're at pretty much exactly the 9 1/2 month phase and I'm just so pleasantly surprised at how much I'm loving living here.

Don't get me wrong I still hate severely dislike that BCS is not San Antonio and that I don't get to see my family, friends and nephew all the time, but it's okay I've dealt with it and am moving on.  Not really, but trying to.  I no longer have debilitating homesickness.  I have people outside of work that are super friendly, supportive and fun/ridiculous.

So happy/crappy time or whoops & poops as my boss prefers.  Always start with crappy or poops because then you end on the high notes-

Crappy/Poops
I still always feel like my health isn't good here.  I wake up with a bloody nose at least twice a week and am unable to breathe through my nose a lot.  The air here sucks! I always have the strange remnants of a tickle in my throat and I've had a bad cough since I had walking pneumonia back in March- it will not go away.

This town feels empty in the summer and it freaks me out.  Where is everyone?

Sometimes I still don't sleep. And the cats don't like it when I talk to them at 3AM.

$4 Zombie movie viewing....bad idea.

A little bit of both
Drinks are cheap here y'all.
Snap Chat.
Drinks are cheap here y'all.
My cats are crazy.
Snap Chat.
Spamalot Auditions on Sunday.

Happy/Whoops
I never have to buy gas.  Seriously y'all I went all of May on one tank till I went home to watch the nephew for Memorial Day. Amazing!

I love the theatre company and the people within it.  Don't know what I'd do here without them.

I am no longer a flight risk, we can take the bed alarm off the hospital bed cause I'm not going anywhere!

I cut my hair. Well actually Amanda at Flux did.

Downtown Bryan. The Corner. Karaoke.
---------

I think those are the highlights- So it's almost July and I can't freakin' believe it!!!  How did that happen?  In just a few more months I'll have been here a year.  Super excited cause this year has been amazing.  Terrible, awful, no good but also wonderful, fun, scary and great.

Wishes for month 10!
Don't get sick.
Spamalot.
Don't get sick.
Snap Chat.
Don't get sick.
Work on my tan.
Read 3ish books.
Don't get sick.

So a much more positive "days" update than the previous ones that can be seen here, here and here. Yes?

Review: The Bling Ring: How a Gang of Fame-Obsessed Teens Ripped Off Hollywood and Shocked the World

The Bling Ring: How a Gang of Fame-Obsessed Teens Ripped Off Hollywood and Shocked the World by Nancy Jo Sales

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Really more like 3 1/2 stars. I totally enjoyed this book because it reminded me of that time in my life where I too was a little obsessed with celebrity culture/lifestyle and spent my lunch hour reading Perez Hilton (no shame) and following Star and all those things. It was right around the time these burglaries were happening. I really read this book because I love Sophia Coppola and Bling Ring doesn't start showing in BCS till next week I think. So I needed something to hold me over.

I have a tendency to become very obsessive about some things. Books, movie franchises, music- whateves and that usually then is transfered to the artist doing these things and I go through a phase where I have to know EVERYTHING about that movie, author, musician. So I may have become a bit obsessed with knowing everything about this case and thank god Nancy Jo Sales does a great job going into ridiculous detail. But I also learned there was a reality TV show staring one of the burglars! OMG is it on Netflix? Yes, yes it is and I may or may not have watched the whole thing last Sunday afternoon.

So my experience cyber-stalking all the burglars is somewhat crazy for me to think about. I mean that's what they did to the celebrities they robbed right? They did their research online and found out everything they could about them. Scary. 15 years ago that would have not been possible. The book talks about teenage culture throughout our American history. Looking at the American revolution, Boton tea party and such and what the teenager's role was in those. She doesn't go into horrible detail, we're here for the gritty details of these crimes, but it's so interesting to think about when the obsession with celebrities and crime arose. She mentioned Bonnie and Clyde, those two brothers who committed murder because they wanted to be famous and the introduction of TMZ into our lives. People are obsessed with celebrities, people want to be famous. Reality TV, being spotted at the hot club, these are all things teenagers know about and think will get their foot in the door to becoming famous. Hell I've known people who want to be famous! If I could only get on this TV show, this is gonna be my big break.

I don't know, maybe this book does deserve the full four because it made me think so much. I found it really fascinating. And at the same time just totally fun to hear about these spoiled kids obsessed with celebrities and breaking into their houses.



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