Tuesday, September 19, 2006

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Let me preface this post by stating that I really dislike spiders. I'm not aracnophobic, I just really don't like them. They creep me out with their multiple eyes and little fangs. I can deal with regular small spiders, but when they start getting larger than my thumb it gets creepy. I think I may have too active of an imagination when it comes to these critters. Just...yuck. Today has been a creepy spider filled day.

Sometime between when I came home last night around 9:30 and when I left for work around 8 this morning, a spider had built a nest in my shoe. I discovered this when I picked up my shoe and got a handfull of sticky spiderweb. Yuck. I thought better of just putting the shoe on and decided to investigate further. I felt more spiderweb inside of the shoe near the laces and going towards the toe. I held the shoe up to the light and looked in to it. Nestled in the toe was a large brown spider. Good morning. This is your wake up call. I dropped the shoe and jumped about 3 feet in the air.

My first thought was to just throw the shoes away and wear something else. Then I thought I wasn't going to let that silly little spider get the best of me. I again looked in to the shoe. Darn - it's still in there. The thing had a body about the size of a nickle and had officially crossed the line between small common spider to big frickin' scarey spider. Armed with a swifter duster in my shaking hand, I bravely managed to extricate web and spider from the inside of my shoe. The spider jumped to the floor. With an angry spider on the loose, I prepared for battle with my one shoed foot. It was a stomping victory.

After the battle, I also evicted the other spider who had been watching from the corner of the door. I didn't want him to get any funny ideas. A couple of large spiders had set up housekeeping outside of my apartment door. They've been there without incident all summer. I let let them stay out there despite the creepiness factor, and the thought that one day they might decide to jump on my head, because, hey, they eat flies. Well, now that they've decided the weather's too cold to stay outside they've got to go. Nesting in my shoe was just too much. I took the broom and went on a spider killing spree. Again...yuck.

As I walked to work, I kept imaging that I felt something crawling up my leg. It might have been the wind blowing or my slacks moving as I walked or just my imagination, but I had that creepy sensation all morning. The other horrible thought that I had was what if that spider laid eggs in my shoe? And I didn't notice? And then one day they hatched, and I was wearing my shoe, and a whole bunch of spiders coming crawling out of my shoe and up my leg? Again, perhaps I have too active of an imagination.

I laughed about the incident later on, but then something else happened. I was driving my car and stopped to get gas. One of my friends pointed out that there was a spider on my window, a bit ironic, since I had just told him the story of the shoe spider. And then there were two spiders. These ones were little, about the size of my pinky finger, and white. I killed those spiders and noticed a few more. I flicked those off the car as well. They don't have to die, but they certainly can't stay with me. In all, there was a total of 5 spiders on my car. I couldn't help but wonder if they were somehow out for revenge.

When I arrived home there was another large brown spider by my door. This time it was nestled by my neighbors door. Hopefully it'll go in there and leave me alone. I didn't take any chances, though. I brought my shoes upstairs instead of leaving them down by the door. I don't want a repeat of this morning. Besides, it might send for reinforcements.

No comments: