Just Mousin' Around

Around 4:30 this morning, I was awakened by something touching my face. In all likelihood it was just my hair tickling my face; at the time, however- I'm still half-asleep, mind you- it felt like something crawling on me, so I frantically brushed at it, effectively increasing my heart rate and waking me up completely. So, after checking that nothing was, in fact, crawling on me, I turn over, closing my eyes, ready to head straight back to dreamland.
Then I hear a noise. Nothing major, just a little noise. 'It's just the house, or the air circulating in the room,' I tell myself, and close my eyes once more. But then I hear another noise, and another one, like something's moving around the room- not a big something, but something all the same. My eyes are wide open at this point, my heart rate starting to pick up once again. I'm trying to think of reasons that I could be hearing these noises- something in the attic maybe, or the crawl spaces? No, it sounds like it's in the room. The noises continue- almost a rustling sound now. I'm getting more and more freaked out by the minute, until I get it in my head that whatever it is- my rather over-active imagination is thinking 'snake!'- is heading for my bed, and I scream, leaping out of the bed and darting across the room to the door. I flip the lights on and survey the room rather shakily, willing my heart rate to slow down. I don't see a thing, or hear a thing. I know I wasn't imagining things...but I wait, and nothing happens. I venture back into the room, flashlight in hand, checking (from a distance, of course) under the bed and such- nothing. I'm tired and scared to get back in the bed, and mad that I can't allow myself to get back into bed, and figurin' that I'm going to have to go sleep on the couch- then I hear it, the rustling noise again. And I catch movement out of the corner of my eye. (There goes the heart rate again.) I walk over to where I saw movement- a table beside my closet- and bend down, shining my flashlight underneath...and discover a mouse, just sitting there, looking at me. I've never had a mouse in my room before (but there's a first time for everything, right?), so I'm freaking out...however, I was relieved that it wasn't the snake my imagination was telling me it had to be. :)-
I went downstairs and told my dad, who was reluctant to get out of bed and help ("Don't you know where the mousetraps are?"), but he finally went off in search of the mousetraps while I headed back to my room to keep an eye on the mouse. And- big surprise- he wasn't where I left him. 'Just great,' I think to myself, 'now where'd he go?' He finally poked his little head out from under my closet door, but ducked back in when he saw me (or maybe it was the flashlight). My parents came up, set the mousetrap, and told me to go back to bed- they didn't see him or hear him. I finally went back to bed, but I couldn't sleep. I kept hearing rustling sounds, and it sounded like the mouse was moving all over the room. It took all my willpower to stay in my bed. I think I finally dozed off at some point.
Right before I got up, I started hearing rustling sounds again, closer and noiser than before. I turned on my lamp, trying to place the sounds and where in my room they were coming from, and jumped- he was on my desk! He ran under my computer, hiding behind a picture frame, making a racket with something. Upon closer inspection, I realized that he'd stolen one of the cough drops from my candy bowl, and was trying to tear into it! My parents came back upstairs to look, along with my sisters- my dad said he'd never seen a mouse that liked cough drops before. ("Maybe he had a sore throat." -ha, ha-so not funny) The mouse ended up scurrying back across the room to hide, once again, in my closet, where we left him in peace- I had to take my sisters to school before heading to work, and my parents had more important things to do than to watch for a mouse.
--My mom called me at work an hour or so later, letting me know that a mouse had been caught downstairs in the kitchen. She took it outside to Garfield (my cat), and he thoroughly enjoyed himself, playing with (eating?) the mouse. We're hoping that was my mouse- I guess we'll find out when I get home tonight, huh?
I think I'm gonna be doing my spring cleaning a little earlier this year... :)