More than a few of my least favorite things

I was finally getting all settled in to my new apartment. Getting everything put away in it's right place. It's weird but being able to see the floor somehow lets me appreciate the simple quietness of the place. I hear birds singing every day here. Unfortunately, something else is happening almost every day: I see roaches. I have seen a roach almost every day this week in here. In the past 24 hrs, I've washed two down the sink, the most recent one less than an hour ago. I hope the hot water came on soon enough to scald it before it drowned. I hope at least it drowned and that I don't need to worry about it crawling back up the drain like vomit up an esophagus. I would rather have mice than roaches. I would even take rats. I think they are easier to get rid of and maybe my cat would keep them away. I would even take the bats that kept getting into my old apartment in Frederick. The rabies post-exposure series is not that bad. I've lived in 3 apartment complexes that had roaches before and I've already seen 2-3 times as many roaches here in less than a month than I saw in those places in the 6 months, 1 year, 2 years I lived there. This place has a major infestation. And I seriously doubt the exterminator coming on Tuesday will be any more effective than the ones in those other places. I know the routine, don't leave any food or water around. Put down boric acid in the cabinets and drawers. Except I have a cat who is free-fed so there is always food and water out. And then, what about the neighbors? What about this old ass building? I was a child who liked to play with bugs. I still pick up caterpillars to this day. But I've always loathed roaches like nothing else. I think it might be related to seeing Creepshow at a young age. Remember the last segment where the old man's apartment was overrun with roaches? I remember them crawling out of the cereal box and being afraid to eat cereals for months. I would embed a Youtube clip of that here but I can't stand to watch it myself. So the seed of revulsion was planted then and it was in full bloom by the time I was 11. That was when my mother and I stayed at some awful roach motel in Georgia. I remember throwing the bed covers back and seeing one in bed with me and screaming bloody murder. It was by my leg, if not on it. I have to think it must have been on me, because why else would I have woken up like that. There was another one in the bathroom when it was time for my shower in the morning. More screaming. Both times my mother came and dispatched them. Looking back, I'm surprised she didn't scold me for screaming like that and being such a big baby, but she is revolted by all bugs so it makes sense. Also, when she was a small child living in the famous shack in Mississippi her family lived in, they had rats. She said she used to wake up with a sore bloody nose a lot and she still believes the rats were chewing her face in her sleep.I still have the same reaction to them today. The first time I saw one here I screamed. Now I only scream when I am really surprised by one. I can muffle it a little but I still can't help making noises that would make the neighbors think something very bad is happening over here. I've happened to have company on a few occasions when a roach has popped its nasty god-awful head out. They were traumatized (and deafened) by the shrieks as much as I was by the pest.One of these occasions occurred when a boyfriend was over. He was a nuisance insect himself. I remember him commenting on how terrified I looked that night and asking was I all right, but he never moved his ass off that couch to check. Typical. At any rate, that clued him into how much I despised them. Not long after I broke up with him, I found a dying hissing cockroach in my bathroom. It was clinging to my flip flop and barely moving. I shook it off into the toilet and flushed it. I'd had the ex over to my apt post-break up a week or two before that so that was his opportunity to plant it. I'm just grateful that it was dying when I found it because if I had seen that thing moving through my apartment at full speed I would probably not be alive right now. It's getting near bed-time and I'm considering making a run to the 24 hr CVS because I am afraid roaches may have had a playground out of my toothbrush. I'll keep the new one in the fridge. Maybe the freezer. I hope I don't wake up screaming tonight when my cat is lying next to me in the bed and the tip of his tail brushes against my skin. And if something does brush against my skin, I hope it's actually my cat's tail and not some 6-legged montrosity. And I am burning EVERYTHING I own when I move out here.