Okay, I was going to be quiet, but I have to add my voice to the others who are afraid of spiders. Can't
stand the nasty little things! It used to just be spiders, but since I got to college I've extended it to bugs in general. More common bugs I can deal with (ants, ladybugs, etc), and anything that flies is pretty much okay, but little creepy crawly things just freak me out. I think originally I was afraid of spiders because my Mom was afraid of them when I was little. I adored her and anything that scares your mom must be pretty darn terrifying indeed!
I can let them live if they're outside, but if they're in my house they have to die (if someone else wants to rescue them, that's okay, but if it's up to me I'm going to kill them). And if I find them on the wall or something I can usually just kill them and be done with it, although I'd rather call my brother to do it for me <g>. But I cannot stand finding them in crazy places, and they seem to know it and hide out just for me! I found one hiding among the pencils in my desk drawer once, and another
sealed up in the cellophane on my lampshade! How the hell did he get in there? (And, more importantly at the time, how the hell was I supposed to get him out?!)
And cats are no help at all! The couple of times I've pointed out spiders to Twilight she's been completely uninterested. Buttercup, Ian's cat, will chase after them a bit but not actually kill them, which isn't particularly useful. Once I had one cornered behind the trash can. Buttercup was watching one side and I was kneeling on the floor with a shoe in hand on the other side; between the two of us I figured we could keep it there until my brother came home and he could kill it for me. Of course, Buttercup didn't understand the plan and got bored of waiting, so she reached in with one paw and slapped the spider, which of course sent it running for cover
straight at me! I screamed and jumped and threw the shoe at it and hyperventilated for fifteen minutes
. Then I just left the shoe in the middle of the kitchen floor and waited till someone else came home to clean it up. I had this irrational idea that if I picked the shoe back up, the spider was somehow going to come back to life and come running at me again. My Dad came home and laughed at me, but he cleaned it up for me
There was also the time I woke up and saw a spider on my cabbage patch doll next to me in bed-- I'd never gotten out of bed that fast! Or the one I found on my shirt while trying on old clothes... That one had me crying hysterically. I'd had a really horrible week, and my reactions definitely seem worse when I'm stressed out. And unfortunately spiders seem to really, really like my dorm. They don't come inside
too much, but once I counted 18 of them in the windows in the stairwell...
When I got to college I started to worry about other creepy crawly things. Once when I was extremely stressed out I was packing a suitcase and some weird worm/caterpillar/furry thing came running out of it at me. So then I didn't like caterpillary things.
And one day shortly thereafter I went to the bathroom to take a shower and found a giant centipede on the wall. It was as long as my hand and as big around as my finger. It was on the other side of the handicapped shower stall, so probably six or seven feet away from where I would actually be showering, but that was too close. I didn't even want to get close enough to kill it. I just admitted defeat and surrendered the bathroom to it! So then I didn't like centipedes either
If I knew they were going to be there, I think I'd survive. It's the shock I don't like. Especially when they're coming at me! <shudder>
Kaylle
