Flying Frying Pans

So being sick has its pros and cons. One of the pros, is that you are supposed to lie down and get better. A con (depending on how you look at it. :D) is that sometimes being sick means you are susceptible to be sensitive to noise, and thus become a hermit of sorts. This solitude can be a con...or (you guessed it!) a pro. Even though I haven't been feeling well, in between rest I have been blogging like crazy, getting things published I've been meaning to get to for months. Journal writing, scripture reading, and letter writing are also on my list. During the day I watched Tangled, one of the best movies to grace this existence so I could spend some time with my siblings without them blasting my eardrums out. And I did so, I couldn't help but think...I did it first!!!

Let me explain. Rewind to the time where I'm living in Hawaii before school started. (I left early so that I could train with the team and work full time.) I was living in the basement of an LDS family that had a secret I discovered. They had a rat problem!!! My roommates and I were impeccably clean tenants (The family said that we were the cleanest they ever had) but it was a chronic problem their house had every once in a while. How did I find this out you may ask? By walking in one night and seeing one of the despicable creatures on top of the fridge!!! I froze, and we stared at each other in great surprise. Then the rat jumped for freedom...a hole in my ceiling over the top of the fridge. Since that time, this rat ATE MY BANANA (I had bought and put INSIDE my backpack for my race.That peeved me.) and had overcome his stage fright and went back and forth from the cupboard we stored our food in (he never went in there thank goodness), he escaped from the various traps we had set out, and given my roommate kisses. That's right, you heard me. One night my roommate woke me up in the middle of the night saying that she felt something on her hand. My sweet roommate Dawn, is terrified of rats. She would sleep with the lights on because she heard that kept them away until I turned them off when I went to bed. That was why on any previous instance it was my job to be the fearless woman (this is where the "I did it first comes in") and chase the rat around the apartment with my deadly weapon, a frying pan, until he went somewhere I couldn't reach him, and went to bed, work, or practice, because I couldn't sit there and stand guard anymore. Including this one particular night. After Dawn turned on the lights, we looked around our room and from my top bunk view I saw that rascal in the corner. I pulled Dawn away and she started screaming while I went after him...but it was too late. We called it a night because she had early classes and I had my work, so I consoled her by jamming my towel under the door and shutting all the doors in between where we were and where I chased the rat to. He must have really liked that kiss...because he did it again! Same situation, except Dawn got wise before he got any action, she heard his scuffling and freaked while I went into Amazon woman mode. Eventually one night ONE of our many traps/poisons, finally worked! And we heard him squealing. He was caught partially in one of our sticky traps and was scuttling across the floor. I went after him with the broom/frying pan and that feisty guy started fighting for all he was worth, trying to attack my weapons and retreat to the bottom of the fridge at the same time. I told my roommates to grab a laundry basket and I trapped him under it. At that point my landlord (who was wonderful about the whole ordeal, no matter what hour of the night when he heard Dawn screaming he came running)
And of course, he started attacking the laundry basket. You had to admire his persistence in not giving up.
Here I am "coaxing" him from under the fridge I believe.
Putting him into his bag of death. Brother Randall took him outside and bashed him to death. (Hope that wasn't too graphic) I asked beforehand if we took relocate him in my naive mind that would be the end of it...right? Dawn wanted him gone though, and Brother Randall said that he would come back.
Here is when I was checking for his friend. That's right. This little rat had a MUCH bigger friend, even though he was a good sized boy himself. The only evidence we had though was when he heard him scuffling in the roof, his poop, and the one time we caught him, BUT he pulled himself FREE!! That itself manifested his size, because according to Brother Randall the grade of the sticky trap we had should catch anything that was short of a monster. We never caught that one, and both Dawn and I had already sought other housing before this incident and the third roommate was never there and got married during the term anyway. So someone else inherited the monster.

At the next house I knew things were off to a great start once I saw this welcome party in my bathroom sink. This was the biggest cockroach I saw in Hawaii, and one of the worst encounters because although you can't really tell, he was emancipated because he had been dead for a while and there were other bugs all over my sink that had come to dine. The other encounter was when my roommate Samantha Peavler (who is now on a mission in Lubbock Texas!!) had a good morning kiss from Freddie the Cockroach. She managed not to scream and wake me up, (wee hours of morning) but had a great story to start off the day with me when I did. (There was not one abode that I moved to where I was not greeted by the body of a dead cockroach. yummy. That in and of itself was one reason why I would always catch geckos and toads and relocated them to my room, (not the toads except the time I brought one to my roommate Sam asking "Can we keep it?" I SO WISH I caught her reaction on camera!) and the courtyard of my dorm, and in some cases, may or may not have gone into unsuspecting showerers in my dorm.)
One of the offenders. Good thing I have friends that are good sports. And others that aren't but love me enough to forgive me. I don't think I've ever heard girls scream like I have with that prank. :D
Two of my captured princes. I was surprised I never got any warts on my lips. ;)

At the next place I lived at the Faith House, I inherited a different problem. Insomniac roosters. There was a flock of chickens that would roost directly outside in my window in a tree that presented posh arrangements...expect for the crazy lady that would come out chasing the offenders with the broom. I usually left them alone if it was just one or two announcments, but if they had more to say, I would chase them off with my broom/frying pan down the street. I looked for ways to get rid of them but my family's guns and my bow were in Washington, and the one gun I found didn't work. I also tried soaking bread in benedryl to drug them so I could relocated them. Either they found that stuff as nasty as I did, or they just never worked up the appetite. My roommates also left me to the jobs of:

1. When it came to killing any bugs in our abode
2. Getting rid of maggots that grew in our unwashed kitchen sink, (Sometimes it was preferable to let the dishes pile up, I know I was an offender once or twice and when all five roommates did it, it was kitchen disaster on a massive scale that invited the maggots to a wonderful home.)And someone else cleaned it one of the times.
3. Killing the one mouse we had, (I borrowed the keys to my roommates car and backed up over it. There was no way to save it and I felt it was far more humane than the methods they offered to kill it.)
4. I'll stop at that. All I have it say is, "gotta love Hawaii!" That is one of the few things I don't miss: the wildlife.

And in return for being volunteered for this services I was given the title/nickname "Amazon Woman" by my roommates. And that is why I say "I did it first" In Tangled they fight the villian figures in the movie with a frying pan!! Should have known I should have patented that idea before the discovery got out. :D For now, my flying frying pans days are over, so I'll let them have the glory while I hang up my oh-so-deadly weapon because there is peace and goodwill in my house in Washington. Perhaps someday, if the forces of evil seep across the land, the "Amazon Woman" will pick up her fighting days once more with her trusty ol' frying pan and broom.