Narrative speech

Last night was the first night of speeches in my Public Speaking class. We had to give a 4-6 minute narrative speech. I was pretty nervous about giving mine, but I just kept telling myself that even if I didn't give the best speech, I wouldn't give the worst one either.

All of the speeches were good, but after a run of motorcycle accidents, car crashes, grandparents death, going off to war, dog dying and farm equipment mishaps, I felt like I was watching Country music videos.

My next speech is in two weeks and I have to use a visual aid. The speech can be on any subject so if you have any ideas, leave me a comment.

We don't have to turn in a formal paper with our speeches, but I did type this one up once when I was practicing it. Ignore any grammar/spelling/format/style errors as this was just for my benefit.

This is the story of what caused me to move and buy new furniture.

It was Thanksgiving day , 2004. The day started out peaceful enough. I was looking forward to spending time with family, eating turkey and watching football.

By noon, my day would be ruined.

I was walking through my living room when I saw it. From the corner of my eye, a flash! A small grey streak, and then POOF! It was gone.

I paused for a moment thinking maybe my mind was playing tricks on me. No, I know I saw something.

I hurried to the far side of the living room – the side closest to the front door and easy escape) scanned the room, hoping I wouldn't see anything.

Unfortunately, I DID see something. Peeking out from beneath the couch, a soft grey face with 2 shiny black eyes, and little pink ears. A mouse. It might as well have been a grizzly bear for my reaction.

"Oh God! No! No! Not a mouse! What do I do?"

Call Dad. Yes, that's what a 30 year old should do when they are faced with a mouse. I'm crying on the phone to dad that I have a mouse in my apartment - completely unable to function in this situation and he is laughing.

"Calm down, it's just a mouse. He is more afraid of you than you are of him. Do you have peanut butter?"

"yes"

"Go to Walgreens, get some traps, set them with peanut butter and you'll be fine."

Thank goodness for Walgreens. I bought: Snap traps, sticky traps, humane traps, De-Con rodent poison, an electronic rodent repeller and latex gloves for cleanup. I took all this home and set out to catch a mouse. I set the snap traps in the kitchen and bathroom, even though I saw the mouse in the living room. I wasn't about to clean mouse blood out of the carpet. I put the humane traps in the living room and plugged the rodent repeller into the wall.

Now all I had to do was wait. As long as I didn't think about what I'd need to do if I actually caught the mouse, I'd be fine. What WOULD my reaction be?

What would happen if I was woken up in the middle of the night by a loud snap? I decided I better go stay with Grandma for a couple days.

I couldn't stay with Grandma forever. When it was time to go home and check the traps, I called in reinforcements. My friend Matt lived in the same complex and agreed to meet me at my apartment.

I was terrified! I made Matt go in and check all the traps first. As much as I didn't want to see anything, I was really hoping he found a dead mouse. No such luck. All the traps were clean.

We proceeded to check every inch of every room, looking for signs of a mouse. We found a few droppings along the floor boards behind the couch, but that was it. Not finding anything turned out to be worse for me than finding a dead mouse would have been. I was sure I had a roommate.

Because I saw the mouse under my couch, I was convinced it was living in there. I couldn't bring myself to share the couch with a mouse, so I never sat on it again.

I'm pretty sure the mouse was long gone by this point, but I could never relax in that apartment again. I couldn't sit on my couch, even my mattress and box springs were suspect! I couldn't hear the smallest noise without immediately thinking it was a mouse rustling around. It became a daily routine to check every nook and cranny for signs of the mouse.

In the end, I moved. The day before I moved, the Disabled American Vets came to pick up my used furniture. When they tilted the couch up, a perfect circle, the size of a quarter was chewed out of the material covering the bottom of the couch.

As I sit on my new couch in my new apartment, I can look across the room and see the electronic rodent repeller blinking, constant reminder of my mouse.