This is NOT Hamtaro!

The reason why I put it off was NOT because I didn't want to take care of it.

Arg, no, I had a slightly better excuse than that.

Let me start at the beginning.

About a month or so ago, I began finding little black things on the ground in my room. My first thought was that there was a mouse somewhere.

I asked Bethany over Instant Message if she thinks I have a mouse on my hands. She told me that they scurry about and they're not quiet about it. I heard no scurrying.

Knowing I had guests coming, I decided to keep my place clean as I could and try to put off this issue. Fortunately, I didn't notice any sign of rodents at all during both of the visits except for once just day or so before my father left.

I asked him whether he thought there was a mouse.

He point around the apartment saying basically "If there were a mouse you see (blah blah blah) here and (blah blah blah) here." My apartment showed none of the signs that he spoke of.

I was hesitant to get people involved because, well, I don't like the idea of being the crazy delusional girl who starts a big ruckus for no reason whatsoever. I wanted to be absolutely certain that there is, indeed, a mouse or mice in my apartment.

A few nights after my mom's visit ended was the absolute WORST.

My entire apartment REEKED of rodent. I wanted to at least open the window, but Sakurajima erupted earlier and the air in Ijuin was polluted with ash.

I stood next to my window pondering "rodent smell or ash? rodent smell or ash?" before picking ash. I left the window open until it simply got too cold and I ended up shutting it.

The next day, I told my office. My supervisor and I went and bought a mousetrap.

Mousetraps in Japan are, strangely, not the kind that snap shut and kill the mice very very quickly, instead the Japanese rely on trapping the mouse with stickiness. I bought these little boxes that can be assembled with sticky goo on the inside. I set them up in my apartment and I went out today hoping that they would see it as a chance to come out of hiding.

I came home and no mice in the two traps I set.

I sniffed and smelled no rat smell. I checked the floors in my room and there were no new unpleasant signs of rodents. I wondered at that moment if I were delusional.

I DID leave my window open for my apartment to air out while I was shopping, so now with the window shut, the smell is kind of returning. It's not as overpowering of a smell as it was the other night, but at least it means that there really is a mouse here and I am not insane.

I just want the stupid mouse/mice to get caught already so that I can move on.

I've been playing with the idea of hiring some kind of cleaning service after I get rid of the mice so that I can feel more confident about the sanitation of my apartment again.

Come to think of it, I've never been 100% sure about it, so professional cleaners would probably help that a lot too.

Oh, a random side note (if you've bothered to read all of this).

Adding to my list of electronics that I thought were going to blow up:

My microwave. (a few days ago)

Thanks for working through that one with me on AIM, Danny, if you read this. (haha)

Oh, and tonight I thought my water heater was going to blow up (I know, we've been through this one before!) It was making creepy beeping sounds. I turned off my hot water and then turned it on again and the beeping didn't happen again. Weird.