I Laugh a Little, Inside My Head

Based on this story, from Yahoo News:
Experts Say British Ladybugs in Danger

Okay, you know how, in the movie Big, Tom Hanks has an idea to make bugs that morph into robots? Like an Insect Transformer? And someone else in the conference room says they can market to girls by making Ladybug Transformers?

I used to think that was sort of cute.

When I was a kid, Joon and I would get all excited when we saw a ladybug, and we'd even say the little rhyme: "Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home ..." I forget the rest of it, but I seem to remember something about her house being on fire ...?

So I was never really scared of ladybugs, like I was of other insects, and I certainly never tried to squash one, and I sometimes even let them crawl on my arm.

Well.

When I was a sophomore in college, I had a room to myself because of some Crazy Roommate Drama. And one day I opened the door to my room, and the ceiling was covered in ladybugs. Yes, COVERED. Like, all the ladybugs in the world had decided to hold a meeting on my ceiling.

I wasn't really into that, but it didn't bother me--that much--at first. But then, when I went to bed, the ladybugs started crowding each other out, and they began to fall on me. I REALLY wasn't into that.

I'm not much of a bug-killer, so I got a friend to come in and do the extermination. It involved me covering everything that I didn't want to get bug guts on, and him squashing each ladybug individually by hand. And then I swept up the carcasses and threw them in the trash and went back to bed.

When I got back from classes the next day, there was another Ladybug Convention on my ceiling. They'd brought in the ringers.

I had another extermination and hoped it would take, but it didn't.

Day after day the ladybugs kept returning to my room, and day after day I would host a Kill 'Em All Party. Eventually I got to the point where I was killing them myself. I was really starting to hate ladybugs. They are not so cute when they are a plague.

After a couple weeks, I guess the ladybug season ended, or they found a better ceiling, and I didn't have anymore infestations. However, I did not lose the gigantic ladybug-sized chip on my shoulder, and to this day, I hate the darn things.

Which is why I sort of think England is lucky, what with the gradual extinction of ladybugs over there. Of course, I know why the numbers are getting lower: they're all coming over here, trying to locate my new ceiling.

That's why I keep moving ... to stay ahead of the ladybugs.