Who's Checking Who?

Today I’m going to keep it short- no pun intended (well maybe a little pun intended).

At this moment in time, we all know what is happening in the world. I continue to pray for everyone’s safety and for those suffering from/or know someone who is suffering from COVID-19 disease. With that said I want to ask who have you checked on today? Who are you reaching out to? With a lot of states (if not all at the time of publishing) practicing the “Stay At Home” policy, what are you waiting for? There’s not enough outside stimulation in the universe for any of us not to acknowledge our loved ones in this moment. So stop whatever you are doing right now and call/text/FaceTime/Zoom/WhatsApp or whatever way of communication you choose and check on your family and close friends.

Although a lot of us are working from home I hope each of you are doing something you want to do with your downtime. Whether it’s exercising, reading (non work-related), cooking, making music (rap, sing, write, compose, etc.), dance or being creative in whatever way you want, make sure you do something just for you every single day. This especially goes for all of you strong parents out there who are teaching your kids right now. There’s so many companies that are offering free online workout, yoga, dance and meditation classes; certified teachers are donating their time to give tutoring help; accountants offering money assistance, and colleges offering free courses. God-willing this pandemic will simmer (if everyone does as they should) soon and you don’t want to come out on the other side of it not having accomplished something that will benefit you later. Cabin fever isn’t realistic with all of these and many more options to occupy your time. So what are you going to do?

See links below for some free activities and information to find out more. I would love to know what you find too!

College courses:

https://www.businessinsider.com/free-online-courses-from-best-colleges

https://www.edx.org

https://www.coursera.org

Workouts:

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/fitness/a31792038/coronavirus-live-stream-workout-classes/

https://www.sbnation.com/2020/3/19/21185741/free-online-workout-classes-to-stream-youtube-app-yoga-total-body-exercise-hiit

Please stay abreast of what is happening with COVID-19:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

A Cheesy Fate

I was told a story a few weeks back about the lengths a girl went to catch a mouse in her apartment. Her roommate had called to let her know that she saw one in their kitchen. After she got off the phone she completely panicked. Immediately, she went online to search for an exterminator and found one that would come the next day. When the exterminator arrived they asked if it was a definite that the mouse would be caught, of course, he could not be certain, but he assured them that he put down the best mouse traps he had. Now I don’t know if the mouse was ever caught, but I do know they paid way too much for someone to come and put down the generic sticky mouse traps you can find in the dollar store. For all that they went through I hope it was caught. 

After hearing her story, I laughed to myself and said I know of a good method they could try themselves if this happens again. I told her mice don’t only like pieces of cheese, peanut butter or whatever else exterminators or stores put on the the traps- they also like Doritos. Not all Doritos, but the nacho cheese ones. How do I know this? Well one day Orande had a $.25 bag on the table, walked away for a few leaving the bag in plain sight and when he came back into the room it was ripped open. The little shit ate his Doritos! So he came up with an idea of how to catch him, he put what was left of that tiny bag of chips onto little traps in certain corners of our apartment to catch him. I thought this was hilarious, but also genius. That little mouse is clever and it taunted me often by only appearing when I was in the house by myself- he had an agenda. But we don’t keep snacks in the house (outside of almonds and fruit) or leave food out, so the one time that bag of Doritos was there, he jumped at the prime snacking opportunity. Little did he know that his greed was going to be his demise. Not long after those chips were laid on the traps, I had went to get something out of a room and heard a squeaking noise but didn’t know what it was. I lifted up a bag full of hats and behind it in the crevice was that tiny mouse stuck on the trap and the Dorito chip was gone- meaning his ass thought he was getting a mid-day snack when he was actually meeting his doom. I screamed and ran into another room, told Orande who went and scooped up the mouse in a bag and got rid of it. 

Moral of the story is, if you ever have a mouse in your house, don’t spend a lot of money on an exterminator or fancy traps- go to the store, get a bag of nacho Doritos (they might be uppity, so stick to the name brand), place it on a cheap sticky trap, and be patient until it decides to go for a cheesy snack. Now what you choose to do with it after, whether let it go outside or the other unfortunate fate is your choice, no judgement here. We also live in NYC, and with old buildings built on older foundations or even new buildings built on old foundations, it happens sporadically. But remember: they are smart, but you hold all the chips (pun intended).

This didn’t even work on Jerry in the cartoons, you really think this is going to work on a city mouse? Get clever.