"Effing. Bichos!" is my constant refrain.

My computer has a bug.  Actually, it has several.  And they're all ants.  I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but sometime between yesterday morning and this afternoon, a bunch of ants decided to build a colony in my laptop.  All the keys came off in order to give it a good cleaning.  I debated whether or not to open it up underneath to see if there were ants inside, too, but decided not to do it.  There have to be ants inside, though.  It's like I'm making them angry when I type and they come marching up onto the keyboard.  So like right now, I have to pause and flick them off the keys.

Pause.  Flick.  Shudder.

I don't know if it's because I just didn't want to look before, but I have been noticing more and more insects in my house.  Usually it's about 8:30 or 9:00 at night, just when I'm getting ready to go to bed that I let my gaze wander upwards, towards those dark and dusty corners where I dared not look before.  And sure enough, there's a spider the size of my palm.  Trying not to think about it but gagging nonetheless, I grab my toothbrush and toothpaste and enter the bathroom.  The lights pop on and the cockroaches go berserk trying to hide themselves, which I believe is kind of considerate.  Returning to my room, I turn the lights off and feel relieved that the light bulb is no longer attracting mosquitoes and moths from outside – in fact, I can't hear any bugs hitting the bulb anymore.  Delicious silence.  Oops, wait.  I do hear the buzzing of the termite colony in my desk.  I'll have to remember to get out any important papers tomorrow, something I've said to my sleepy self every night for the past month.

Those are only the ones that I typically encounter between 7:00 and 9:00 pm.

Part of me is proud that in the last month I've gotten over some of my bug fears.  But another part of me is like, “Waaaaait a second, hold on – you have NO IDEA about the insects that await you in your site.”  Which is absolutely true.  Central Valley, the area around San José where I'm living, has got a lot of bichos but definitely not as many types of little bugs as the rest of the country.  Sigh.  We'll see.

In more positive news – I live in Costa Rica.  Which is the perfect thing to tell myself every time I start freaking out about something.