sleep is not an option.

So tonight, like nearly every other night, I apply anti-itch cream to my bites and prepare to hop into bed. "Prepare" means to lift the mattress and look for bugs, inspect my pillows, look at my sheets. And tonight...oh, tonight.

During this "routine" inspection I notice something new. There's a wrinkled crease in my anti-bedbug boxspring cover, and inside the crease are...bugs, shells, and excrement. I feel simultaneously horrified and victorious to have finally identified (one of) their hiding places.

I go get my camera, delete the photos from mere hours ago cataloguing my bites, and start snapping new photos of this new, disturbing proof. But then I don't know what to do...

If the city housing authority needs to see evidence of infestation, this is it. But if I clean up the mess, it won't be here during their inspection (still not scheduled). But if I don't clean it up...how the hell can I sleep in my bed?? Knowing I will be chowed again tonight??

I considered the sofa, but it's hot tonight, and my only a/c is in the bedroom. I know the sofa would be hot and uncomfortable, and possibly equally infested. So...why not attempt the relative comfort of bedbugs WITH air conditioning, instead of bedbugs without.

Now I am lying here, wide awake, itchy, with all the lights on and the a/c blasting, wondering not IF I will be bitten tonight, but when, where, and how many times.

What's so insomnia-inducing about that??