Tag Archives: fears

Spiders, Ick!

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I have a (possibly irrational) fear of spiders. Any kind of spider. ALL spiders! They give me the heebie-jeebies. My son used to tease me by touching them, knowing it would not only make my skin crawl but it would also make me feel nauseated. Just the sight of the above photo makes me shiver! Weird, right?

I check my bed every night before I go to bed. I check the sides of the bed. I check the walls and the floor in my bedroom. I shake my clothes and bang my shoes on the floor before I put them on. If I feel a tickle on my skin, the first thing that comes to mind is that a spider is crawling on me. IF a spider really is crawling on me, you would see me doing the “OMFG get it off me” dance and I would be freaked out for the rest of the day!

If I see a spider right before going to bed at night, all I can think about as I lay in the dark is that there’s a spider coming down the wall, or there’s one crawling up the side of my bed. I know it sounds absolutely nuts, but I can’t help it!

I was bitten by a Brown Recluse several years ago, not once. Not twice, but 3 damn times! I made the mistake of not checking my sweater before I put it on and it took 3 times before I realized I was being bitten. It felt like a “nerve tickle” and didn’t hurt. I was freaked out for weeks after that! Thankfully, I didn’t suffer any adverse effects from the bites. They say some folks are immune to the venom of the Brown Recluse. (Yes, I went to the doctor!)

I was up until 3 am one time a few years ago, just trying to get a spider. I saw him in the kitchen on my way through. He scampered across the floor and went right into my bedroom, and under my dresser! That fucker had to go! No way could I go to bed with him in there. Now, just so you know this was NOT a small spider! This creepy bastard was the size of the palm of my hand. If I let him get away, there’s no telling where he might turn up! I grabbed my broom and my handy spider spray. I had to move the dresser and I managed to spray him, which slowed him down considerably. It took hours, but I finally got him and still didn’t get any sleep that night!

When I was working as a Medication Technician at a nursing home in the 90’s, a huge spider came running out from under the snack machine in the hall. Someone had placed a plastic cup over it and called the charge nurse to get rid of it. Since this was late at night, the maintenance crew was gone. They normally took care of the icky stuff for us. The charge nurse picked up the plastic cup, thinking she was going to smash it or something but that spider took off running so fast she couldn’t get it. What did it do? It came right towards me! I let out a blood-curdling scream that woke several residents from their slumber and I ran like hell!

I know, I’m such a baby!

When I wonder why I’m so terrified of spiders, my mind always goes to the story my mother told me many years ago. She said that one day when I was small, I was playing outside on our driveway, just outside the kitchen. Mom told me that she caught me trying to pull a black widow spider out of a crack in the cement and she hollered at me to stop. She said I had been afraid of spiders ever since. I don’t remember the incident so I don’t know what she yelled, but I often wonder what she actually said to get me to leave the spider alone? Could that be the reason I’m ready to crawl out of my skin upon seeing a spider?

Give me snakes, cicadas, grasshoppers, beetles, rats, mice….cockroaches even! Just keep the damn spiders away from me!

What are you afraid of? Do you feel that it’s irrational? Do people laugh at you? I know a guy who is afraid of butterflies and moths. Go figure. Too bad I couldn’t trade fears with him.

Throwback Thursday

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The worst thing about living out in the country and one of my biggest fears is SPIDERS! I always look forward to Winter because the spiders hide out in some hole or crevice somewhere. That way I don’t see them. I don’t have to check my shoes or sweaters for spiders. I’m not constantly on the look-out for them, and I don’t have to check every little tickle I feel….

Here’s an old post from 2008 about those nasty little 8-legged freaks! Thanks for reading and please be sure to comment! I’d love to hear from you.

10 Spiders

Things That Give Me The Creeps!

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After reading another blogger’s post of the things that give her the “heebie-jeebies” I was inspired to make a list of my own. There are many things that creep me out and some may be just plain silly to some but nonetheless, they still creep me out! Please feel free to comment but be nice because you wouldn’t want to hurt my feelings. Ha. Just kidding. Fire away.

(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.