ICE Agents and Other Vermin

My landlord recently decided that emptying his house would make it easier to sell, so he gave me and my two roommates less than a month to move out, which I don't think is legal, but whatever. I decided to make this unwanted move an upgrade. I moved closer to the heart of Salt Lake City proper, where it turns out I go all the time for protests and other forms of recreation, and I picked a studio apartment so I'd have more space and have it to myself. Alas, I didn't pay enough attention to the location. My window is next to not two, not four, but six lanes of traffic. And the traffic. Never. Stops. Six months of this will either cure my natural sensitivity to noise or drive me to jump off the balcony. Also, I didn't actually have the space to myself.

The first thing I did when I saw this bug scurry up my cupboard was take a picture and ask Google Gemini, "Is this a cockroach?" I'd never actually seen a cockroach in person before. Like bedbugs and tapeworms, cockroaches are a horrifying fact of life that I'd somehow been blessed to avoid until now. Of course it was a cockroach, since it was too small to be an ICE agent. In my search, I found another one inside the (otherwise empty) cupboard, flailing around on its back for some reason.

By the way, I thought these things were supposed to be impossible to kill, but I found it pretty straightforward.

​This one was still twitching fourteen hours later, though. Its antennae would twitch whenever I moved my finger within a few millimeters. That was cool. Anyway, I found a third one behind the fridge, and that one proved more of a challenge. I moved the fridge a bit, climbed on the counter, tried to kill the roach with a yardstick, and then, when it tried to run under the fridge and out into the room, I jumped down and shone my phone flashlight to scare it back. I repeated that process a few times and said some bad words. After fifteen minutes or so, I got it when it did run under the fridge and out into the room, and my feeling of triumph made the whole frustrating experience worth it. Then I found a tiny bug under the sink. The next morning, a guy sprayed the cupboards and behind the fridge, and then the next evening, I killed another big one running across the floor toward my bed, and the next night, I killed two big ones, a medium, and six tiny ones in the bathroom. I've continued to find occasional tiny ones in the sink and the bathroom.

I try to take a spiritual approach to all this. The cockroaches are a problem I have to solve, but I'm not going to despair over them. I'm keeping in mind that unlike ICE agents, they aren't inherently bad creatures, they just evolved to do their own thing, and they have as much right to exist as I do, but I'm bigger than them and don't want them here. That's the circle of life.

Speaking of ICE agents... well, what can I say? What unique, valuable contribution can I make to the discourse about the murderous fascist secret police that hasn't been made yet? I attended a vigil for their latest murder victim last night, and I attended a protest today that, with just twenty-four hours' notice, was massive. I'm sure bootlickers and bots on social media are already lying about how many people were there, demanding to know why we weren't all at work on a Sunday, claiming we were all paid to be there, and the usual stupid shit that conservatives say to keep their delusion going. The fact remains: Salt Lake City is PISSED. Just in time to get our own influx of ICE agents at the end of the month, reportedly. There's a non-zero chance that I will become one of their murder victims. I'm a little scared, but it comforts me to know that my parents will have to live with the fact that they voted for my death.

Oh, but speaking of paid shills, one of the guys that the Republican legislature flew in from out of state to collect signatures to try to overturn the anti-gerrymandering proposition that the people of Utah voted for a few years ago showed up at our protest to collect signatures. That was a strategic error. He couldn't go anywhere without people following him and warning everyone not to sign. His response was to put on sunglasses, flip people off, and say, "You guys are assholes." Haha. Of course I wish these guys no success, but in today's economy, I don't fault them for taking this job. They haven't crossed a moral line that makes me think less of their worth as humans. Unlike ICE agents. I'd let my family starve before I'd accept a $50,000 bonus to murder people in the street. ICE agents are scum, and they will get their justice someday. Not tomorrow, but soon, I hope.