Bedbugs, Living life between paranoia of annihilation and probably not a problem

From: Sara
To: Mom
Subject: Re: Article for review
Sent: Tue Jun 5 14:46
Priority: Normal


Hey Parents,

I'm home right now. I still don't have my cell phone (or anyone's). The fumigators are coming today, so I'm home right now just trying to clean my room out. I can't decide if I should do the full clean out or not. I haven't seen any bedbugs in my room to this point - I don't think. I haven't seen any strange or telltale bites on me. If I were to go ahead and clean as required under bedbug protocol, I'd have to wash everything EVERYTHING.

That means washing all my clothes, drycleaning the rugs the comforters, in theory the Peruvian tapestry on my wall, everything. I could, instead, kind of half-it. Wash all my clothes that have been in the laundry basket / on my floor; dryclean my comforters and curtains; get plastic covers for my mattress, box spring and pillows (which in theory I should then keep on them for 18 months; and maybe throw out the rug and some of my big decorative pillows. To make things worse, our dryer doesn't work, so all the washing would have to be done at the laundromat. Since I feel like it'd be impossible / I'm not going to do the full-out clean, it almost seems pointless to spend all the effort, time and money to clean all my stuff;
but then I keep imagining some sneaky bedbug lying in wait in some fabric in my closet or in my wall or my bed justscheming and eventually it will spawn a colony and I will have to trash all my stuff. I don't know. What would you do?

I think I'm going to stop on my way to work at a Cingular store and see if they can get me all set up. Then I have to decide if, after all that, I can still dare to go to the gym for "lunch." Maybe I should just wait until tomorrow on that one. Oy. Who'da thunk (especially all this at once)?

Anyways, let me know your thoughts. Talk to you soon (hopefully).

xo,
sara.


She never responded.