Showing posts with label fears. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fears. Show all posts

Saturday, November 12, 2011

10 Day Challenge: Day 3

8. Things that go bump in the night! 

If I am home alone (which luckily isn't too often) I can convince myself that every creak and bump in the night is an intruder. In high school, my dad converted one of the bays of our garage into a rec room for us. I had a sleepover out there with all of the girls one night. It was maybe 1 or 2am and we heard this THUMP, THUMP, THUMP. Then it sounded like someone was moving heavy furniture around in the attic above our heads. The exit from the rec room required walking through the other bay of the garage. We were too scared to do that in case someone came down from the attic and saw us. 

Logically, we called the house phone with our cell phones. 
No one answered. 
Then we called each of my parents' cell phones
No one answered. 
Then we called each of my sisters' cell phones
No one answered. 
Then we called the boys we had hung out with earlier that evening. 
No one answered. 

Finally, the noises were still happening and we were getting really nervous. One of the girls suggested we call the police. We decided to wait 10 minutes to see if it would just go away. 10 minutes later, after a couple minutes of quiet, we heard what sounded like footsteps. 

We did it. We called the police
They answered.

They came and checked everything out and couldn't find anything! The window was open so they assumed it was an animal or something. Regardless, we made it out of the rec room and into the house safely! 

Best part: The next morning at breakfast, my parents didn't even believe that the police had been to the house in the middle of the night. It wasn't until we showed them the missed calls on all of their phones that they believed us!!!!

7. Small, tight, dark, airless spaces. 
We've discussed this before: Halloween Fears

6. Breaking Humpty Dumpty style.
Breaking my bones isn't too scary. I lost count around 20, you know, that whole OI thing. Please refer to the movie Unbreakable for further details. Samuel L Jackson was way worse off than me, but you get the gist. 

Anyway, I'm scared of breaking Humpty Dumpty style. I figure I'll be okay as long as I avoid boxing or the X games. 
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5. Failure.
School and things like that have always come easily for me. I've been really lucky in that regard. Grad school in a field I've never studied before, sort of intimidating! 
4. Angry Dogs
Dogs normally love me and I normally love them. However! Those scary angry mean dogs that charge people from behind their chain link fences. They scare the living daylights out of me!!
3. Sour Milk
I am scared to drink milk anywhere but from my mom's fridge. I always seem to be the one to find sour milk because I never drink it unless I really really am craving it. So then, I pick it up and take a huge gulp, only to find out it's sour. This has happened multiple times and it is incredibly GROSS. 
2. Ferris Wheels

Do you see the terror in my eyes and the barely concealed grimace? I'm fine going up high, it's the slow movement and the stopping and starting that kills me!
1. Hurting people's feelings. 
I hate hurting people's feelings. Well, obviously a lot of people do. This isn't a quality that makes me unique. You'd probably be a bad person if you enjoyed it. But, it breaks my heart. On occasion it is unavoidable and that's so unfortunate. 

Monday, October 31, 2011

In Honor of Halloween - What is your Greatest Fear?

What do you fear the most? 
Do creepy crawly bugs, rodents and snakes scare you? 
Do you have a silly, irrational fear?
Do you fear age and infirmity? 

I fear dark tight spaces. When we played hide and seek as children, I never could hide in the best places like the dryer or the cabinets because I would totally freak out.
Illustration Found Here

 I went to salt mines in Austria and was fine until we got to these narrow tunnels. I was 13 at the time and the tunnels were so narrow I had to pass through them with my shoulders turned diagonally. The only way I did it without completely losing it was to insist on the last place in line. As long as there was a clear path to escape behind me, I was okay. 

The other time it really got me was when we took an overnight ferry from Greece to Italy. The beds were bunked and we had an interior cabin. Without the lights on, it was so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. I was on the top bunk and woke up in the middle of the night terrified. It felt like I couldn't breathe or move. Sheer terror literally took over my body and I cried like a little girl and begged for the lights to be turned on immediately because I couldn't find the light switch in my panic. 

The older I get, the more I can reason with myself about it and stay calm longer. It is so bizarre though how your body reacts to things it fears. The reaction I have, when I feel trapped like that, is intensely physical. I can't get enough air and all of my muscles tense. 

Are you scared of anything?

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Bad Ol Putty Tat

Today, my cute little innocent kitten turned into a vicious mouse killer.

 I don't know whether to be relieved that our house has one less mouse or to be completely disgusted. 

To be honest, I'm a little of both! 

She didn't kill the little mouse all the way, and poor Kathleen had to trap the mouse so it wouldn't escape before her boyfriend came to get rid of it for us. 

Luckily, I was at work and didn't have to see any of it! 

I got a frantic call from Kath asking what she should do. They don't tell you how to handle these situations when you adopt a little kitty!! 


All I can think about is whether the mouse was as cute as GusGus. 


And then I remember how mice scurry and that they carry disgusting diseases. 

Have you ever read the Little House on the Prairie books? Do you remember when a mouse chewed a circle in Pa's hair to take for its nest? Yeah - that's one of my greatest fears. Vivi can continue eliminating mice. I'll keep all of my hair, thank you very much!