(These are in no particular order; I type as they come to me.)

1. Spiders. Any kind, shape or size. Poisonous or non-poisonous. Hair or no hair. 8 legs or missing a leg or two. Doesn’t matter. They scare the crap out of me.

2. Chainsaws. I hate the sound of a chainsaw. I get the creeps at the mere mention of a chainsaw. In fact, in my house we refer to a chainsaw as a CS. I think this fear of the CS is due to that good ol’ original movie “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” I took my sister to see it in the theater when she was in the 5th grade, which made me about a sophomore in high school. To this day my sister LOVES horror movies. I, on the other hand, DO NOT.

3. Maggots. The dreaded “M” word. Yep, we call it the “M” word in my house. I hate them. They are disgusting and just the thought makes me want to hurl. This stems from seeing some awful things with the “M” word that I do not wish to write about.

4. A certain Rock Star by the name of Steven Tyler. When I was in the 5th grade I started buying my own records (yes, they were records back then) and I frequently shopped at a little store called The Music Box in my home town of Lodi, CA. I would flip through the records to see if there was anything of interest to me and the very first time I saw Steven Tyler’s face on an Aerosmith album cover I wanted to run out of the store screaming! Don’t know why. To this day he still gives me the creeps. I cannot look at him. If his face pops up on tv I look away as quickly as I can. I just can’t do it. I had a dream not too long ago, with Steven Tyler in it. I couldn’t even look at him in my dream. I kept covering my eyes! How weird is that? I don’t think I’ve taken a good look at the guy since I was in the 5th grade.

5. People with crossed eyes, a lazy eye – or crooked headlights as my dad calls them. It’s so difficult to tell if they’re looking at me! Holy smokes. Just creepy. (I mean no disrespect towards anyone who suffers from an eye problem.)

6. The sound of bones crushing or breaking, blood gushing, heads or other body parts coming off….. Back to the horror movies….. Geez, they need to leave a little to the imagination in my opinion. When I see the CS, I know that something is coming off and I don’t need to see it fly off to get the idea.

7. Dwarfs, midgets. They just give me the creeps for some reason. Nothing against the little people, really. I knew a father and son a long time ago; both little people and they were very nice.

8. The thought of being buried alive, trapped in a water-submersed vehicle or in a burning building with no escape. What a horrific way to die.

9. Bridges…swinging footbridges, high bridges over deep water, narrow bridges, bridges longer than 100 feet or so. I have a recurring nightmare, not too often anymore, about being on a long, high bridge that’s over deep, rising water. In the dream, I get halfway across the bridge and then I turn around and around again. Suddenly the water is all around me and I’m left standing on the one dry part of the bridge and I have nowhere to go. I’m sure the reason for this dream and my fear of bridges stems from me not being able to swim. This leads to my next item.

10. Deep water in which I cannot see or feel the bottom. I want to see what’s under there. I want to have my feet planted on the ground. You just never know what’s under there lurking….

To Be Continued….possibly.