La cucaracha

So the song goes like this: La cucaracha, La cucaracha.  Ya no puede caminar.  (The cockroach, the cockroach, can't walk anymore.)  If only I'd known how true this song was!

So we had gotten back from our delicious dinner and sweets spending spree and I decided it was time to update Mom on the happenings of the trip so far...  My wireless wouldn't connect in the house.  Maybe too much concrete or something?  So I took my computer, and a glass of wine out to the pool.  I guess because it's the open air, there was a better signal.  Ashley and I sat on the steps by the pool while a little boy swam and a maintenance man (who knew the little boy) cleaned the area.  There were no outside lights besides those reflecting from inside the pool and from the surrounding apartments and bungalows.

I set my wine down (thoughtful, by the way, to leave us yummy red wine) and connected to the internet.  The little boy started splashing and talking about a cockroach.  It was on the other side of the pool from us.  However, after turning my laptop around to shine light around us, we saw a friendly little cockroach not far from where we were.  

I logged into gmail and sent Mom an email saying I was there if she wanted to get on.

We opened facebook and caught up on our Nashville gossip.

Ashley was antsy and asked me to flash the light again to keep tabs on the cockroach.  As I did, she said it was getting closer.  I didn't buy it.

She was bothered enough (and requesting a light check frequently enough) that I gave in and we moved to the higher steps, by the smaller pool.

I took my wine with me and had another sip.  Mom got online and we started chatting.  The rest is a bit blurry.  I'm not sure if Mom and I finished our conversation or not, but I went for another sip of wine.  

I lifted my glass, took my sip, and then realized I was seeing something very large and cockroach-shaped swimming around in my wine glass!

I set the glass down.

I stood up, holding my laptop ever carefully, and spit the wine out into the grass.

"What in the world?!"  were Ashley's thoughts I'm sure...

I tell her what had happened.  Then it hits me what has happened.  I freak out.  Wipe off my tongue.  Shiver.  Freak out.

The good news is, I only saw the little critter fanning its fingers/arms; I didn't feel it.  It never touched my lips.  I may never have eaten or drunk again had it touched me.

Bleh!

The issue remained, however, that there was still a rather large and cockroach-shaped cockroach in my wine glass.  I wanted to just drop the glass onto the ground kind of as therapy (since that wouldn't have gotten rid of the critter), but the glass didn't belong to me.  The other part of me just wanted to leave it there to die in the pool of wine, since it was too big, and the glass was too curved, to get out.  Again, not my glass.

Ashley, thank goodness, found some inner strength and tossed it all into the grass.  (In case you're wondering, the swimming boy and cleaning man had already left before the gringa drama.)  We ran, high stepping it, to the house.  I had turned under toes and creepy crawly thoughts all night!