I'm living with cockroaches.

I thought that moving into the city and up to the 21st floor of a building would get me away from the bugs. I was wrong.

It was the end of July when I saw the first one. I was getting ready to leave for work, making breakfast in my kitchen when I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye. I look over and see this HUGE thing twitching on my floor. It took about .5 seconds to register it was a cockroach. The most important thing in this situation was to remain calm. I needed to get out the door as to not be late, the cockroach could not be left alive, and there was no one else around to save me.

Lucky for me, the cockroach was upside down so it couldn't run away. I grabbed my can of Raid (for spiders and scorpions, but it worked just fine) and sprayed it. It twitched and tried to run away, but since it was upside down, it just ended up sliding around the floor. I captured it under a bowl and left.

I told the desk attendant at my complex that there was a cockroach in my apartment, and asked if they could get rid of it. I think he felt really bad for me, and asked some guy who looked like a custodian if he could take care of it. He said yes, and later that day when I got home from work there was no cockroach and my bowl was back on my counter.

Five days later, I almost got into my bathtub with another one. A not-so-gentle reminder to always, always, always check the tub for monsters before stepping in. This one wasn't quite as big as the first one, but still pretty big and disgusting. I washed it down the drain.

I googled it later, which was a huge mistake, because I ran into a bunch of pest control websites that said if you see one cockroach in your home there's probably a million more living in your walls and that one just got pushed out because there were too many. Cue the panic. I also found out that cockroaches have trouble balancing on slick surfaces, like kitchen tile, and can flip over easily on them. I'm assuming that was how the first one ended up on its back.

Then I did what any person living in fear would do. I armed myself with a dangerous weapon.

I also told my apartment complex and they called the bug people to come spray. The bug people came just a few days later and I went for about two weeks without seeing another one.

Then, just as I thought I was safe, they struck again. I was scanning the shower for monsters before stepping in one morning when I noticed a tiny little black thing. Upon closer inspection, I saw it had little legs and giant antennas. It was a little baby cockroach.

That means there was a cockroach nest somewhere in my walls.

They were having babies.

They are creating an army.

The cockroaches are after me.

I quickly washed it down the drain, but when I came home from work that afternoon there were MORE and one of them was in my LOOFA. A cockroach! In my loofa! So I drenched my shower in Raid and now I throughly spray my entire apartment every morning. I also replaced my loofa.

It's currently been about a week and a half since the last cockroach sighting. But they are probably hiding out in my walls, just waiting for me to let my guard down before attacking. If I mysteriously go missing one day, it was probably the roaches.

Alumni refers to a group of graduates.

I subscribe to this fun, daily newsletter called theSkimm (endorsement: it's awesome, you should sign up for it at theSkimm.com). In addition to sending you the top headlines and a brief paragraph outlining the important details, they started adding in a section at the bottom called 'Thing to Know.'

About two weeks after I graduated, theSkimm provided the answer to the question that had been gnawing at my brain for weeks:

I am an alumna, my brother is an alumnus, all of my girlfriends are alumnae, and my graduating class are alumni. I changed my Twitter bio (which previously stated I was an alum... still accurate!) right after I read this.

Too bad I never learned this in college!

I DID learn things in college.

Usually after I take a test in a class, or the semester ends and the class is over, I immediately forget everything that I have learned. That way, my brain can make space for the new things I need to learn for the next test or class. It makes me feel like I haven't really learned anything at all (but I least I walked away with a good grade!).

As my college career starts to wind down, I have started to realize I have learned some things during my four years here at Mizzou. (Please note: this is not an all-inclusive list)

• Reading your emails (and learning which ones you need to read, which to skim) keeps you in the loop. People who don't read their emails suck and waste everyone's time because then you just have to repeat or explain to them what you emailed them.
• Textbooks are SUCH a waste of money. More often than not, at the end of the semester I ended up with a $100 textbook I never even touched. So, wait until class starts and see if you really need it, and then even wait until the first exam to see if you really, really need it.
• Studying abroad was the best experience ever and everyone should do it.
• All difficult classes should be out of the way before your senior year. Senioritis is very real and you don’t want to make things any more difficult for yourself.
• I should have taken my capstone in my second to last semester, instead of my very last semester. I learned a lot of things and worked on a pretty cool project, and it would have been nice to be able to put that on my resume (plus take advantage of some of the professional connections I made). But when I started my job search, the project was only just beginning so I didn't have a lot of things to say about it yet.
• Job searching is the worst thing ever.
• College was way too short and hands down the best four years of my life.

Senioritis is real.

I thought being a senior in high school was tough, but being a senior in college is SO much worse. When high school was over I still had college, but now that college is over there's only real life, and real life doesn't have classes and tests and homework. Plus, I have an internship for after graduation so unless I screw something up terribly I'm okay for the next three months.

As I enter my last full week of school ever (EVER) my level of caring and ability to continue doing any school work is declining drastically. I'm pretty proud of myself because I kept up my work ethic for almost the entire semester. It wasn't until my calendar switched into May and I realized how close I actually am to being done with school forever that senioritis really started kicking in.

My senioritis is so bad right now that I'm blogging about it and I'm just going to hope this post is good enough for a passing grade for my blog post this week.

I can buy whatever I want in the grocery store.

Long ago, when I was young (so maybe not that long ago), I used to go to the grocery store with my mom every week. I'd always ask if we could get some sort of candy, chocolate, or anything else unhealthy and the answer was always no. It was so disappointing and my mom was so mean and obviously not looking out for my best interest.

But what I learned as a kid has now followed me into adulthood. When I go grocery shopping I'll walk past chocolate, candy, cookies and all sorts of delicious things and think to myself, "No, I can't buy that."

Well, now that it's Easter time the Cadbury eggs are out. Cadbury eggs are the best and they put them in a special display in the front of the store so you walk past it every time you are going to check out. Plus they are always on 'sale' so it looks like a great deal every time.

The first day the Cadbury eggs were out, I walked past and thought, "Cadbury eggs!!! I want them! No, I can't..." but then it occurred to me that I'm an adult and I can buy whatever I want and no one can stop me or tell me no.

So I bought a whole bunch and continued to buy them every time I went to the store. They were great and worth every penny!

The stomach flu is not the regular flu.

I got the stomach flu awhile ago. It was a great diet but I do not recommend it. In fact, remnants of it came back to haunt me a couple weeks after I 'recovered,' while I was trying to enjoy my vacation to Las Vegas (where I almost got trapped forever and ever). I seem to manage to catch awful diseases a little bit more frequently that I would like.

When I was in the middle of the worst of the illness (stuck in the bathroom), I was glued to my phone, searching WebMD and Google to make sure I wasn't actually dying, because I sure felt like it. I'm actually surprised I lived through it. In my search, I found out that stomach flu isn't actually the flu, it's gastroenteritis. WebMD said:

"No doubt you've heard people complain they have "stomach flu." You may have complained about it yourself after a bout of nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea that seems to come from nowhere. In fact, though, stomach flu is a misnomer. There’s no such thing. The flu, influenza, is a respiratory infection that affects the lungs."

The flu is a virus that mimics a cold, except way worse.

A few of my friends tried to tell me I should have gotten a flu shot, but the flu shot wouldn't have helped. The flu shot protects against the real flu, the respiratory infection, not stomach irritation. Flu shot or not, I would still have been susceptible to the stomach flu (gastroenteritis). The more you know!

If your flight gets canceled, just stay in the airport.

I recently took a trip to Las Vegas, and I almost didn't make it back.

The flight was originally supposed to leave around 6:00 in the evening, but some time in the afternoon we checked the status and found it had been delayed about one hour. More fun time in Vegas, yay!

When we did get to the airport, rumors of cancelled flights started flying around while we were waiting in the bag check line. This was at the same time there was some crazy winter storm in the Northeast, so there were a lot of cancelled and delayed flights. I figured we were probably safe because we were Southwest going Midwest, nowhere near the Northeast. Surely our flight wouldn't be cancelled.

We made it through security and to the gate only to find our flight had been delayed a few more hours. Not a good sign, but we sat patiently awaiting the plane's arrival. Several hours passed and a flight attendant made an announcement that our flight was missing a pilot and we might not take off until midnight. For a minute I honestly thought they were joking. How could a flight be 'missing a pilot??' But they looked pretty distressed and never came back to say, 'Just kidding!'

Well, midnight rolls around and we're all very antsy from sitting around for six hours. The flight attendant moves to make an announcement, and moment of truth: our flight was cancelled. Panic ensued.

After waiting in line forever to talk to the attendants at the gate, we found two flights for the next day and the remaining three for the day after that. Our group would have to split up AND we had to go stay in a hotel we couldn't afford for two more nights.

Another girl and I were supposed to have work the next day so we got the first flights out. We went to the airport the next morning and split up to our respective gates. My flight had a connection and, a few minutes before boarding, I double checked the status. GOOD THING I did, because the connection I needed had been canceled. I waited forever (again) to talk to the gate attendant and she tells me flights are booked until three days from now. I'm in tears now because I'm certain I'm going to be stuck in Vegas forever.

The attendant suggests I get on a wait-list for a flight, so I went all the way across the airport to another gate. The lady working at this one was very nice and she wait-listed me for a flight to Kansas City (where I was trying to get to) and booked me on an evening flight to St. Louis (in the same state, so close enough). I started to feel more optimistic as things were beginning to go my way, and I sat down to wait. And wait and wait and wait.

Finally, the flight arrived and started boarding. Could the stressful journey be coming to an end?! I was on the edge of my seat with all my fingers and toes crossed, hoping that I'd be able to get on the flight and go home. The universe was finally on my side and I got a seat on the flight.

When it took off, there were still about 10 open seats on the flight. Three of my friends were still stuck in Vegas trying to find a flight, and we could have all gotten on this one. What we should have done was just spend the night in the airport the day before and started trying to book a new flight or get on wait-lists first thing in the morning. I bet tons of flights took off with empty seats to where we wanted to go.

It ended up okay in the end, though, as the rest of the group ended up getting a late flight back and we all made it to the correct airport only one day later than expected.