Mother knows best

I am not a neurotic person. At least not compared to my mom. Convinced we would be robbed of our identities, she would refuse to put mail in our mailbox and would instead physically deliver it to the post office herself.

So when we arrived in Denver for our weekend visit, I simply brushed aside her fears of bed bugs in the hotel and said she was paranoid. I told her to stop watching Dateline specials and I happily climbed into bed, snuggled up to my pillow, and fell asleep.

I'm not afraid of hotel germs. I'm not the type to rip off the comforter because they are only washed once a month. Sure, that's gross, but it never really bothered me. Germs are everywhere and there's really nothing we can do, so why worry?

This morning, however, my officemate arrived at work with bites all over her back and arms. Literally - all over. She is normally a hypochondriac so I dismissively told her to get off of WedMD and stop worrying about it. But after she showed me her back, I paid a little more attention. After some frantic websurfing and google imaging - we are almost positive she has bed bugs. gross! ick! ew! I itch!

She just got back from work travel. At a hotel. The same well-reviewed hotels that we'll be staying in as we traverse the country in just one short week. Now granted, she has sensitive skin and it could be a myriad of other ailments, but I really don't want to greet my new city by saying "Hello Denver! I brought you invasive, blood-sucking creatures!!" And I certainly don't want to deal with fumigating a brandy new apartment.

I first had to confess that, gasp, my mother may have been right. Bed bugs are something that are best to be neurotic about and save yourself the pain of dealing with an infestation (as they are ridiculously hard to fully get rid of, without just throwing out all of your items and getting new ones - and if I'm hauling those 8 foot couches across the country, you better believe I'm keeping them!). Instead of saying "neener, neener, neerer" with a nice "I told you so" dance, a la Will and Grace, she simply emailed back, saying she already had a plan in place to combat them. And that's why I have the best mommy in the whole wide world.