Getting ready for impending snow kept me busy a few times in winter 2022. I wasn’t so hyper that I needed MILKBREADMEATEGGS (like everyone else does when they panic before storms, as though they’re going to be snowed in for weeks in Alaska), but I usually needed to make sure I had enough half’n’half, cereal, stuff for dinners, and chocolate. You know, the essentials! One snowy weekend that January was just worse…

It was a Friday morning in mid-January and I had been having some laughs with one of my employees in our work meeting. I was working at home, due to snow and ice the past few days. I was talking on my cellphone and walking around my living room, since I often walked around during non-video work meetings.

Suddenly, I saw a tiny fuzzy brown mouse run out from under the basement door, then run across my living room and disappear under my tv. I remember screaming, and feeling so creeped out! Where there was one, there could be more! It was time to burn my house down for the insurance! (Yes, that was turning into my first reaction to anything stressful or negative in my house!)

My employee talked me down from the ledge, and gave me advice to get some traps—I realized I needed to figure it out, as there was a snowstorm due to start that evening. I was definitely upset over the idea that a mouse had invaded MY house, and in a work meeting an hour later, I whined excessively about it and received a lot more advice (“get some traps”, “put peanut butter in the trap, it WILL work”, etc.).

I was dreading that I had to be the one in charge of this new house crisis, because I had never previously needed to deal with mice on my own. When I had been married, mice and bug removal wasn’t my jurisdiction. And, when I was in college, my brother and I once had to deal with a mouse at our family home—he and I trapped the mouse in a paper grocery bag, then walked a block away and released it in a nearby parking lot!

The problem really was, it was Friday afternoon and there was going to be snow all weekend, so I needed to go to the store the minute work ended. I needed weapons if I was going to fight this mouse invasion alone! At 5:31pm, I was ready so I turned off the computer and drove over to the local hardware store, ready to buy whatever would make it go away. I did have peanut butter at home, so I didn’t need to get that. I bought some glue traps, melty salt for the front steps, and some cleaning supplies that I needed (because if I was going to be at home during the snowstorm, cleaning was never a bad thing).

Back at home, I set up the traps with peanut butter and immediately felt better, because whether a mouse was still lingering, surely the peanut butter would lure it? I was on board with sharing my peanut butter—I was lured to chocolate often enough, and adding peanut butter to that was always a yummy combo (so I could understand the appeal)!

I checked the traps every few hours, and they were still empty during the day. However, just after dinnertime on Saturday, I was doing laundry in the basement for a while, and when I got back upstairs, I heard squeaking and found a mouse struggling in the trap in the kitchen. I stared at it, realizing I had to deal with it, before the mouse suffered even worse. (Note, dear reader: there are NO pictures of this. That would be awful!!!)

I started to cry as I pushed the trap into a paper grocery bag, and put that one inside a plastic trash bag, which I sealed tightly. I already had boots on, and I put on my winter coat and unlocked the door, then took the trash bag outside into the heavy snowy evening and put it in the garbage can. I sobbed the entire time I did that, telling myself that it might be humane because it was 10F outside and that would end the mouse’s life quickly, I hoped?

Back inside, I locked the door, took off my coat and boots, and stood in my kitchen, feeling like the worst human ever. After a few more minutes of crying, I got out my stick mop and cleaned the floor off to get rid of any mouse DNA. I poured a small amount of Bailey’s liqueur, then sat down at my dining room table and opened up my iPad to do some online shopping therapy, at Ikea and then Crate and Barrel.

Probably should have revived my Talkspace account instead—it would have been cheaper than the $2,749.61 I spent that night. But my house wouldn’t have been fully furnished with some very cool pieces I had been eyeing up for the past month. From Ikea, I got some chairs, stools (that I would use as endtables), and a guest bedframe and mattresses.

From Crate and Barrel, I got wine glasses, 2 small metal china cabinets, 1 chair-stool that I could use in the kitchen or to hold stuff, and 1 beautiful white custom solid wood bookcase (because although my ancient Ikea bookcase had survived the move, it was starting to lean so it would soon fall apart).

That Monday, I didn’t hesitate to call an exterminator, who set some traps. And, when my handyman was back at my house a week or 2 later, he found some possible mouse holes/entry points in my basement that he sealed up. I haven’t seen a mouse since, so (knock on wood, my wood bookcase) that the mice are permanently not able to get in!

Next week, I’ll recap my Paris shopping for the house!