Random fact friday: i have spidy sense

Okay so everyone is afraid of something. Whether you are afraid of heights, afraid of boats, swimming (cause you can’t), fears are never nice. I have a fear. My fear is spiders. They are creepy and crawly, ugly and hairy. They hide in the darkness and come out when you least expect it. They hang from webs to surprise you and yes — even on occasion despite what others think. They attack!

My fear of spiders started when I was young. My family used to go camping — a lot!  We used to head to Cultus Lake where my parents and all my relatives had trailers and campers, and basically I spent every summer there, playing with my cousins and growing up.

One night while I was asleep in the tent, I felt something on me. I didn’t think anything of it. The next morning I woke up and my mom freaked. My right eye was almost swollen shut. They immediately took me to the hospital, only to discover I’d been bitten by a spider.

The fun didn’t stop there.

Another summer, my brothers and I were camping up in Interior. We were standing on the dock because there were huge waves coming up and everyone was trying to stay on the dock without letting the waves take us into the water. A wave had just crashed over us, we were laughing and having so much fun. I was only 13 at the time. My brother turned to me and his eyes grew wide.

“Omg!” he pointed at me.

I glanced down and there were grey crab-looking spiders all over me. I totally freaked out. I jumped in the water to get them off, but when I surfaced they were floating all around me. The waves had pushed the dock spiders up through the boards.

I saw a spider in my bathtub, so I got a piece of tissue and very carefully…..burned the house down. – unknown quote

My breaking point came when I moved into an old apartment bungalow in New Westminster. The walls and floors were hardwood, and I was by myself and unpacking. I was twenty at the time. Suddenly I saw a few white bugs on the floor-boards near me. I leaned over and they looked like tiny white spiders.

And then it happened…

When I got older I used to get a tingle every time I saw one. There would be a spider crawling across the floor, on the bed, the wall. I could suddenly sense them around me. The walls started to move. I am not freaking kidding! Spiders came up out of the drain in the kitchen, from the cupboards, out of the wood in the walls. I ran from the house like a girl in a horror flick screaming like a wild banshee and immediately called my father.

Well as it turned out the entire set of bungalows were resting on an actual spider hill. Six bungalows in all and the houses all got torched by the city after health inspectors were called in. Spiders everywhere!

I have done everything to try to get over my fear of spiders. I have held a tarantula. I have talked to them (on occasion) politely asking they not bite me please. I have watched every spider movie ever made, all in the hopes that one day after seeing one crawl across the floor you won’t find me attached to the ceiling screaming like death is coming. Nothing has worked!

So now here I sit, telling you this Random Fact about myself. I’m almost forty years old. Yet no matter where I am or what I’m doing, when I get the tingles I know. There is a spider lurking. It’s watching and waiting, wanting to come see me. I don’t know why. Perhaps my blood is sweet. Perhaps the entire species wants to convey some sort of message to me.

Well Dear Spiders — I have a message for you.

Join in on the fun and add your Random Fact Friday, share with us something about yourself we don’t know. Head on over to Insane Mamacita’s Musings and link up! Oh and don’t forget to grab this nifty button from her site to add to your blog.