A Mouse in the House

Or should I say, the apartment. Or our building.

A few weeks ago, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something small and dark scurry past. It freaked me out. I thought it might be a mouse. I started poking around where I saw it run into, but it didn't appear again, and after not hearing any rustling noises I attributed what I saw to have been part of my imagination. Over the next couple of days, I didn't see anymore scurrying, so I concluded that it really was my imagination.

Until a couple of days ago.

Again, I saw a mouse scurry past. This time, for sure. I even saw the tail. "Ewwwwwwwwwww," was my reaction. I told my roommate, and we went to inspect a little. I saw it run into a pile of newspapers and a bag of juice containers that we would eventually take into Safeway to get our deposit refund. As I stood with a large plastic container in my hand, JL got the broom. I told her to poke the pile and if the mouse came scurrying out, I'd try to trap it in the container. We stood there for a couple minutes, apprehensive. She finally poked around with the broom, and nothing came scurrying out. So it wasn't in the pile. Where did it go? Where did it come from? Under the stove? Is there a hole somewhere? There were no rustling noises, or other signs of a mouse co-habiting with us. We concluded that it must have came in and out of our apartment through a little gap underneath our door. I started to think again that maybe it was my imagination. In any case, JL immediately went out and got two mousetraps. We set them up along the walls, as mice tend to run along walls. Apparently these mousetraps will chop its head off when it goes for the bait. A part of me wants the mouse to be caught. Another part of me doesn't want to clean up the mess. Or even see the results of the decapitation, for that matter.

Later on, JL also saw the mouse scurry past. So it definitely wasn't my imagination.

The mouse has yet to make another appearance. We've blocked the gap under the front door with various items to keep the mouse out. Let's hope the mouse isn't blocked in... If it is, it is very quiet, very good at hiding. And very brave.

Update

So I guess I haven't updated my blog for a while...

Today is the last day of school. The sun is shining, people are happy, laughing and smiling. Unfortunately, I'm not getting the 'last day of school' vibe. For the past few days I've been feeling sick. I've been coughing, and have had boughts of feeling hot... then chilly... then hot and chilly at the same time. Oh, and I've had a couple funny sneezing occassions, where I would go through a large sneezing motion of "Ahhhhhhhh" and then a really small "choo," which sometimes is nothing really at all. It feels quite weird, I must say. Like I need to get out the "choo," but my nose isn't congested. Thankfully, my roomies have given me some of their medication, and today I am a bit better, and hopefully I will fully recover soon. I am also thankful that I didn't have anything due these past few days...

My final composition was performed last Tuesday. It went pretty well. I ended up writing for solo SATB. My text was from Psalm 13. Like many Psalms, it starts out with the author crying out to the Lord in despair, and ends with a quiet joy as he trusts and rejoices in God's salvation. I thought it would provide a good tension, build, shape and form to my piece. I was able to find performers, however it was difficult to all meet together to practice. I met up with the girls, then I met up with the guys. Then when we were going to all meet up together the day before the performance, both girls got sick and weren't at school. In the end it was alright. We practiced for a few minutes before the performance, and I played the piano a bit while they sang (I wanted it to be sung acapella). But since the piece was fairly difficult, it was understandable that I had to play along and try to keep them in tune.

I've also read a few more books: Life of Pi, Tuesdays with Morrie, and The Five People You Meet in Heaven. All very good books. I was quite surprised I got through them so fast, as I usually am not the avid reader and often take a long time to finish one book. Over the past few summers, I have accumulated a book list of books I want to read. There are a lot of books on that list.. maybe this summer I will be able to get through it.