It's a bird? It's a plane? No... it's a Spider!

I'm terrified of spiders. Not just a little squeamish, or shy. Literally terrified. In fact, I think it's definitely reached ‘phobia.' status.

I had to use a picture of a cartoon spider in this post, because the pictures of the real spiders were freaking me out. Even now as I write this, after looking at the spider pictures, I feel like I have them crawling on me. Yeeach.

I don’t know what it is, show me a snake, a bug, other insects, creepy flying things, and I’m fine. Those creepy hairy eight legged beasts though cause me to involuntarily shudder, and leap away in fear.

I have spider dreams. A couple times a month. I’ll wake up in a cold sweat from one of these dreams usually in the dream, a spider has bitten me, or crawled on top of me. When I awake from one of those dreams I have to get out of bed, walk over, turn on my bedroom light, then check beneath my covers to make sure there are no ‘actual’ spiders in my bed. It has to be done, or I’ll lay there wondering about it all night.

In the past, I’ve had good roommates who have been there to kill spiders for me. Seriously, I’ve called out to them in panic and they’ve come to the rescue to kill those pesky little buggers.

The purpose of this blog post though is to prove how ‘brave’ I am. A week or so ago, I was sitting at my desk, totally minding my own business, working hard like a dedicated employee. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move a little bit, it was really close to my head. I slowly turned and there with one of it’s eight beady little eyes practically staring me in the eye was a hairy spider. My first inclination was to scream and run out of my office. I’m not really one for dramatics though, so I settled for jumping out of my chair quickly, and making an “aah!” noise.

I’m at work, no roommates are around, also no good-deeding gentleman. I was left up to my own devices. I grabbed my shoe, and a tissue--two weapons which I felt would help me kill my prey. (I would have preferred a blowtorch, baseball bat and a full face-masked enclosed helmet but those weren’t immediately at my disposal.) I grabbed the web the spider was dangling from from high up above it, gently laid it on the floor and in one fluid motion, before the little beast could scurry away, smashed down on it hard with my shoe. (One fear I always have when trying to kill a spider is I’ll miss it and it will get away.) I nailed it though, hitting down on it so hard the walls shook a little.

Needless to say, it was success on my part. My heart was beating rapidly, I was still a little shaken, but I had conquered it. Can’t really say I conquered my fear, but it was a step in the right direction. Sorry to Charlotte and all of her little friends, but I’m now a woman on a mission, no spider will get past me unscathed.

Okay, that’s pushing it a little. Preferably I would still like others to kill and get rid of the spiders for me. But if I have to kill one…. I’m up to the task.