Infestation

This week, I discovered something in my apartment that makes the cockroach, the mouse, and even the legendary cockamouse look like a welcome guest instead of a terrifying pest.

I should first explain that the bathroom of Casa Rolex is very... European. I don't know if I have mentioned it before, but whenever someone uses the shower, the entire bathroom gets wet. There are some who think this is akin to cleaning the bathroom, but I think it just makes everything damp and moldy. Apparently, however, this kind of environment attracts certain kinds of visitors.

I killed an enormous bug in there a few weeks ago, so when Melissa (who just got here today and is visiting for the week) announced after her shower that she had killed something in the bathroom, I assumed it was another one of the large, ugly, roly-poly bugs. Not so; it was something much more sinister: a scorpion.

No one believed her at first, but after being assured it was dead (very dead), everyone went in to have a look for themselves. Thankfully, it was more of a baby scorpion than anything else, but it was about 3 inches long, and I could not be more thrilled that a tough and seasoned New Yorker like Melissa was the one to see and destroy the monstrous beast, as I can't guarantee that I would have stayed to fight it.

I am more perplexed by the sudden appearance of a scorpion in Italy than I am surprised by its choice of my bathroom as a residence. I mean, this IS a really nice area, good restaurants, convenient transportation, new appliances in the apartment... But last time I checked, Italy was not on the list of scorpion habitats. I sincerely hope that this one wandered out of a pet shop or was someone's rogue pet, but just in case, I am bleaching the entire apartment tomorrow morning.