Wednesday, July 21, 2010

On spiders

Itsy, bitsy spider...

I'm almost 100% certain that I lost a few readers on the title of this post, and a few more on the three first words. People with arachnophobia (fear of spiders) are among the most outspoken of phobics (is that a word? Should it be? I think so, but I always think so... Maybe I should check... Ha! It IS a word, and it even means what I thought it did!).

The other day a coworker of mine was telling (or acting out, actually - it's kind of slow in the bookshop during the summer...) about how she had killed a spider by use of an entire bottle of detergent, fifteen plastic bags and her roomate's slipper... When I teasingly tapped her shoulder directly thereafter, she nearly fainted because she thought it was a spider. I also have a friend who is so afraid of spiders, that one time she was house-sitting she did not go into the bathroom for a whole week because she had spotted a spider in there... (Before you ask - yes, the house does have two bathrooms. I do believe she used the other one)

Why, then, since I know the topic of spiders makes so many people uncomfortable, do I still choose to write a blog post about it? Well, I didn't exactly. I wrote a post about something else entirely, but I wrote it over at the Burrow Blog... So you'll have to scoot over there and check it out!

(For the record, the blog post over there is slightly spider related, but no worries - I am fairly sure I won't cause any nightmares. Not about spiders, at least...)

14 comments:

Natasha said...

I was bitten by a spider last week, and for three days, my entire arm ached, had a HUGE red mark, and was about twice its normal size.
No points for guessing what I am going to do to the next spider I meet, and all the subsequent ones who have the pleasure of my company.

Cruella Collett said...

I can see that the whole spider thing is a little bit different if you live in a country where spiders can actually hurt you. We don't really get the big, scary kind...

And I just realized I completely messed up - this post wasn't supposed to go up till after the Burrow thing posted. Time zones never fail to confuse me!

RosieC said...

Rayna, I completely sympathize, but there are so few spiders here that can hurt people that I don't worry about it much.

The house we live in is old and falling apart (literally; sometime I'll share my story about the random Mid-western earthquake and my dreams of calling IU's Student Legal Services). There are cracks and crevices everywhere. The screens in one set of windows have huge gaps around them and have to be removed to open/close the windows. Yeah, decrepit. So, you can only imagine our little troop of small buggers that live with us. At first I hated it (I still do when the buggers fly). But then I came to love our little spider colony because they eat all the other icky things. Me and the spiders, we's close. This close *crosses fingers*

I'm pretty sure I'm close to alone in that one :)

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

I am not too keen of spiders, no that is a lie, I DON'T LIKE THEM
full stop.

Yvonne.

Jen said...

Sure, spiders are creepy but I'm bigger than the spider, so it's easier for me to kill the spider vs. the spider killing me. Now if we're talking a spider from Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter...yeah, I would be running and screaming!

Jemi Fraser said...

I do have some weird and wacky phobias, but not about spiders. I actually don't mind them at all. Not sure why :)

Anonymous said...

I've never minded spiders, and when I see one in my house, I always just let him be. Including the big one I saw crawl out from the tiles beside my fireplace. :o

Talli Roland said...

I don't mind little spiders, but the BIG ones with the BIG legs really GROSS ME OUT!

Cruella Collett said...

Rosie - so spiders are to you what cats are to the rest of us? Interesting...!

Yvonne - I don't think you're alone in that sentiment!

Jennee - funny you should mention Lord of The Rings *proudly wears JRR Tolkien badge* (It's all in the Burrow Blog if you're confused..)

Jemi - no need to worry about them, then! :)

Amanda - I wouldn't be entirely comfortable with spiders crawling around my room, I think - not because I'm scared of them, but because I would worry that they'd explore my mouth while I sleep... Eugh!

Talli - I think the legs are the clue to most people's spider phobia. There are so many of them! And they move - spidery!

nonamedufus said...

Funny, spiders is the topic of such a popular kid's rhyme:

The itsy-bitsy spider
Climbed up the water spout
Down came the rain
And washed the spider out
Out came the sun
And dried up all the rain
And the itsy-bitsy spider
Climbed up the spout again

I wonder if we've done them permanent damage in any way. Heh, heh.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

No fear of spiders here. In fact, if they get in the house, I catch and release.

Sarah Callejo said...

Aaaargh, I nearly clicked on the x when I saw the spider!! Only joking. I don't like them, but I live in the country and they're everywhere. I guess one day I'll get used to them.

RosieC said...

Like cats, huh? I guess that's true. We've had mice here, too. I consider them way worse than spiders.

A spider from HP would be horrible, agreed. I will also mention that there is the WEIRDEST breed of spider here in S. Indiana. Some people call it a spricket. It's 100% spider that can jump close to 4 feet up and at least the same distance in one swoop. Those freak me out. Good thing we have a couple of cats, huh? :)

Cruella Collett said...

nonamedufus - funny - we have that song in Norwegian too, but here the spider climbs on a hat... I don't think I've ever actually heard (read) the entire song before. (Our spider also has a name - Petter!)

Alex - oh, you're a good man! Or just very superstitious, as I've heard that it's bad luck to kill spiders...

Sarah - glad you managed to overcome your terror to come and visit anyway ;)

Rosie - I agree - though I might prefer a furry mouse to a furry spider... (And I totally want to see a spricket now! They sound hilarious!)

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