Pedicure: 23 dollars. Cockaroach: Free.

Okay! So, I was pretty stressed out yesterday. I am normally very content with staying at home. Since it is a choice I made that I am very grateful to have been able to make, I try not to whine. Life would be a lot harder if I had the kids in full-time daycare and I were working full-time. I try not to take for granted that my life is really not that difficult, and that I am really blessed. But yesterday was one of those days that made me lose all that perspective. I decided that maybe I have just been doing too much lately, and maybe I needed to give myself permission to just relax this morning and not spend my free time while the kids were both at preschool running from place to place trying to get stuff done. After my WW meeting, I went to Starbucks (JOY!) and then I decided to get a pedicure. I love to have my toes looking pretty, but I think that I normally can do a better job with them myself. Lately, my pain issues have kept me from being able to do them myself, and so I thought, why not? I used the money from my own account that I've earned from tutoring or selling AVON, so I really felt like I could go and not feel too guilty on my splurge. I went to Elegant Nails in north Melbourne. I have been to the one up at the Avenue in Viera, and this location is in a nice little shopping center (where my dentist and my gym are) so I figured it would be okay. Let me just say, first of all, that I have had pelvic exams/PAP smears that were less uncomfortable. Seriously. I was jumping all over the place. I could barely STAND it. I am guessing that I am more sensitive than the average person because of my fibromyalgia? I don't know. But I endured it, was almost done, just waiting for my toes to dry, when I saw it.
A ginormous, four-inch MINIMUM NOT INCLUDING the attenae, roach. Just sauntering out from under my station and crossing the tile in front of me. By sheer force of will, I made myself sit there calmly, but then I motioned to my pedicure girl that I needed to go. She took my toe separators out, and was trying to fix some smudges, and started making small talk with me. I was abrupt, and told her, I really need to leave. I got up and jumped away from the chair, my eyes darting this way and that, and I inspected my latte (which went in the trash; just being in the vicinity of this roach was enough to make it undrinkable!) and my bag to make sure he had not jumped on, hoping to hitchhike a ride out of there. She says to me, Is there a problem? And I was like, no, no, and rushed to get my credit card out of my purse. I just wanted to get the hey out of there! She says, what are you looking for? kind of defensively. I was worried she would think that I thought she had stolen something from me, so I leaned in and whispered, I saw a bug. She says, A BUG? And then the owner came rushing over. What kind bug? Did it fly? he asks me. I am embarassed at this point, because everyone in the place is focused on me. Um, not, it crawled on the ground. How big? he wants to know. After he gets a physical description, he started crawling around the floor, peering under the pedicure stations, on a hunt for this monster roach, and loudly exclaiming to his partner, Call the bug man! I was TRYING to be discreet, because I did not want them to lose more business (because Lord knows I will NEVER set foot in there again). The whole scene made me think that they are well aware of the roaches, that they may even charge them rent. The way they were acting made me really suspicious.
I was so horrified! I still keep getting chills. Dave and I are supposed to have a romantic evening because the kids are sleeping over at Grandma's. I am concerned that I will not be able to, um, be romantic. That roach was haunting. My Mom told me that she would pay me twenty-three dollars to stop talking about it. I am really bitter that I wasted money on a painful pedicure that does not even look that good (in my haste to get out of there I smudged two toes) and was totally non-hygenic.