So this is the first time I’ve lived alone since I was … 21 or 22. I’ve always had roommates, and preferred it that way. But, this time around, I decided to try it out and be just me & the dog (actually, this was my intention just shy of three years ago as well, but due to the difficulty of finding suitable rentals that accept dogs in an area I actually want to live in… I ended up moving in with Nick. Heh.)
For the most part, it’s pretty good. I occasionally miss human contact, especially on days like today when my plans get cancelled and my only excursion into the outside world is a 3 hour walk with the dog. I like actual face to face contact. I’ve always been totally fine with getting “me time” with other people in the room, although I’m perfectly comfortable with being by myself as well. Still, without Justice, I don’t think I would like living alone much. Social media helps a lot, too — I’m in fairly constant contact with other people, via MSN, twitter, Warcraft, text messaging, whatever. So, I don’t feel super disconnected from the real world unless I want to be. Which is good.
However, there are some problems that living alone makes it difficult to conquer. For one, I am a terrible arachnophobic. This was a huge problem the last time I lived alone, as it was in a basement suite, and basement suites occasionally get spiders. And for whatever reason, mine would always pop up when I wasn’t wearing my glasses. I had standard shitty rental suite berber carpet that was a sort of mottled beige colour, with darker specks all throughout… and without glasses, my vision is pretty crap. So, I’d spot something on the carpet and not be able to tell if it was a spider or just the ugly carpet. Effing spiders.
Still, once I was able to positively identify the eight legged monster, I could take care of it. Mostly by vacuuming it up and then getting rid of the bag as fast as humanly possible without thinking about it too much, even if the bag was totally empty because WHAT IF IT CAME BACK OUT AND WANTED REVENGE? Aaah.
What, me, ridiculous? Never!
So, I’m super proud of myself, because I have managed to handle the spider issue with remarkable ease. I am no longer in a basement suite, so there are less spiders, but I do have a worm compost which does have a variety of non-worm critters involved in the composting. I’m totally okay with most of those. Most bugs don’t bother me much. It was, before I got it, stored outside for a while, and so does have a variety of Critters. (Yes, they are very good at staying contained to the bin — it’s got ample food, dirt, moisture, and company, there’s no reason for them to leave the bin.)
Including some spiders.
I do not like spiders.
I DO NOT LIKE SPIDERS.
And I REALLY do not like to share my home with them. Seriously, it’s a bachelor suite, there ain’t room for me AND spiders. Worse, I don’t currently have a standard vacuum cleaner — I have a roomba. No hose, no aiming. This will not work. So the fact that I have actually been managing to kill them by hand with a bit of paper towel is a freaking miracle. We won’t talk about how wasteful I feel in the sheer volume of paper towel I need to make sure there are sufficient layers between me and the spider before I can kill it, but I’m sorry environment: My phobia comes first. My paper towels are, at least, made from recycled paper.
However, I have come across one simple problem that I don’t yet have a solution for: I am 5’3″ on a good hair day. I have some shelves that are rather high up. The only chairs I have are either on wheels are unsuitable for dragging around the place. I find myself rather stymied that I have some soap molds at the back of the top shelf in my closet… and for the life of me, I can’t get to them. Damn.
I suppose the solution is some sort of a foot stool, but I wanted to make soap NOW. How the heck am I supposed to get at the molds without killing myself?
