jack be nimble

I will now be discussing the mouse hunt I had this afternoon.

I've been at home this afternoon, eating cereal and watching the quarterlife pilot on NBC. My boss told me not to come in today seeing as I didn't leave the office last night until the sky was already starting to get light again over Jersey City. There was a big pitch today blah blah blah. Once when I was working late I was super stressing, because we had a big thing due the next morning, and I was worried I wouldn't get it done in time. I had to go eat a brown sugar & cinnamon pop tart while sitting on the counter in the women's bathroom to combat my brief hyperventilation. This time I was actually not stressed or upset upon having to work into the wee hours. It was kind of fun. I think that after hours is really when people get to know each other better at work. The real people come out more.

Anyways. Not the story I wanted to tell. The story I wanted to tell is this: When I'm awake or at home when it is not expected of me to be awake or at home I get the chance to meet my neighbors. Like this neighbor, for example:

I've seen him once before, one night in December when I was up really, really late. I was out on the couch and looked up to see something shuffling along the kitchen tiles. He noticed me, froze, and then ran back to where he came from. He looked so innocent.

And today, at home when I'm usually at work, again sitting on my couch, I noticed movement and glanced up. Underneath the kitchen table was the big-eared rodent, kind of cute, until you remember the grossness. He saw me and ran for his life underneath the couch. "This is going to be fun," I thought, as I quickly decided I wasn't going to let him be. I moved the couch until he made a beeline for the kitchen. Too short to hop the ledge, he attempted a few times (kind of like me trying to jump a tall fence, only to miss my grab at the top and falling on my back) but no luck, he scurried back under the couch for safety. I strategically set up some blockades in front of the stove so he couldn't get under there, and then I moved the couch again. Again, he ran for his life. I could seriously see the little guy's adrenaline pumping. This time he made it on top of the ledge, zigzagged a little bit and then darted underneath the pantry shelf (which is situated in the corner next to the radiator pipe, behind which I think is the obscure mouse hole, although a person's head cannot ever get at the right angle to be able to tell for sure).

Was I going to try to kill this little guy? Catch him and let him go? I didn't know. But I armed myself with a colander for a trap. A colander?! I moved the pantry shelf but no mouse, only mouse traps which are obviously not making themselves useful. I put another one down for good measure and tried to blockade future mouse rampages with cardboard. For a minute there I actually thought I was going to get him.

What. Did I just write such a long post about trying to catch a mouse? Don't read this.