lydiapo's Profile

Very nice.

From the white system will come: "Someday at Christmas" by Stevie Wonder.

(Someday at Christmas
men won't be boys
playing with bombs
like kids play with toys
One warm December
our hearts will see
a world where men are free

Someday at Christmas
there'll be no wars
when we have learned what Christmas is for
when we have found what life's really worth
there'll be peace on earth....)

Thanks to AT for the fun contest and to the other contestants for bringing us into the Christmas spirit by sharing music.

So, to summarize, I think we would all agree that the room is very pretty, perhaps a little girls' dream, but not very practical or child-friendly (and not even necessarily that same girl's mom's dream, macro or not).

I heart my house cleaner but still would never have a white rug, throw, flor, or other. And I would be afraid of my very young child getting tangled in those drapes in some lethal way, but that's my own (non-macro) uptight neurosis.

If I could design any room for my daughter, it wouldn't be that one, but then, it might not be the room she wanted. I bet this was Apple's dream.

I work for a non-profit that helps to house the homeless, and have therefore far too much experience with bed bugs than any human should have. Bed bugs are evil and hard to get rid of. They are also easy to acquire-- even if your neighbors weren't filthy, you could have caught them from bumping shoulders with the wrong person on the subway or buying furniture from a thrift store (sorry thrift stores). I have helped, with exterminators, about 10 clients get rid of bed bugs. We do the following: Wash anything washable in hot water (dry cleaning also works), and bag everything else-- have the exterminator spray in the bags OR keep the bagged items in isolation for 10-12 months. The exterminator should come weekly for 10 weeks to spray. You MUST dispose of your mattress. If you have other upholstered materials (a couch) in your bedroom, you should consider getting rid of it too. If the bed bugs are resilient and recurr after the treatments are complete, which can happen, then you need to consider getting rid of your bed frame (if it is wood), rugs in your room, and any wood or upholstered furntiure in your bedroom. They can even get into books (one client kept her books in boxes in the boiler room for 1 year, since she had so many and could not be sure they were bug free without doing this).

In my experience the landlord ALWAYS pays for the extermination (all of the treatments), the laundry, the dry cleaning, and replacing the mattress and the bed frame (with some reasonable price caps). He should think of it as an investment in his own property, since bed bugs burrough in woods, and can actually live in a property itself. The couches in the lobby of my clients have been infected in the past....

Also, as nice as your esterminator may be, I have learned not to trust them. They don't make a living if there are no bugs. He could spray the other apartment even if no one is there and nothing is bagged, just to get the ball rolling. It will still kill bugs. Your landlord has a right to enter and do what he needs to do in an emergency, and bed bugs are a health hazard that need to be treated aggressively and fast. Anyone with an autoimmune illness (ex., HIV) is at risk of secondary infections caused by (any bug) bites.

I'm really sorry you have had to go through this. It's emotionally exhausting and draining, and it's also embarassing (even though it's not your fault!). Keep focused on what you need to do to address the problem, don't take short cuts, and they will go away. It will all seem like a bad, itchy dream.