Archive for December, 2007
December 31, 2007 at 11:19 pm · Filed under oh the tales she tells
I do not like spiders. I know, it’s just a mental thing… the creepy crawly advancing legs disturb me. I don’t mind snakes and lots of other bugs, mice, whatever, but I am not good at dealing with spiders.
We have a spider issue in my bathroom in our house. Always have. It’s because we have an exhaust fan going up into the attic… which also means there is a connection to the attic for spidies to come in through.
This winter has been pretty bad. Some days there are three, four, or more spiders in the bathroom in the wee hours of the morning when I rise to shower. Other days none– it’s not like we have a massive infestation or anything– but when you’re afraid of spidies, any spidies is too many. Until…
GEORGE.
George is a very large spider in comparison to the ones I normally see. Every once in a blue moon I’ll encounter a brown recluse but normally they appear to be some variety of a generic brown house spider kind of like what I was raised to call a “daddy long legs.” Very small, a centimeter or two, legs included. George is probably three centimeters, and ever since he has inhabited the corner behind the door of the bathroom, I’ve seen very few other spiders visit.
He stays up high, just a little above my eye level, and I’m about 5′7″. He doesn’t build crazy huge webs. He stays in his corner and in my uneducated-about-spiders mind he is keeping the other spiders away because he is territorial and that is now his bathroom.
He is *always* in his corner. I’m talking like it has to have been more than a month now that George has been around and every time I’m in the bathroom and close the door, there he is hiding behind it.
Until this morning.
This morning, I shut the door, and, “Hi, Geor…”
He was gone!
Where did my little spider friend go, I wondered?
I began to ponder the repercussions of his disappearance– the return of more frequent other spider visitors who are not respectful of my space and hide in the shower curtain and the cabinets waiting to scare me– as I did my normal pre-shower routine.
I got all nekkid and hopped in the shower. Turned my back to the deliciously warm water and rolled back my head to soak my hair… and…
THERE…
Was George. Up in the crease where the wall meets the ceiling, over the shower, there for me to have to look at the entire time I had my back to the water to wash my mass of hair.
“GEORGE!”
The dirty little bastard watched my entire shower.
Finished up, got out. Toweled myself dry. Wrapped my hair up in the towel and flipped my head back up, looking in the mirror to apply my facial moisturizer… and there, behind me, quite visible right in the smack middle of the mirror’s view was George, hanging out where ceiling meets wall some more.
I glared at him in the mirror. He didn’t take the hint.
As a general rule, I do my best to just ignore the spiders unless they are in my way or startle me. Those offenses carry the penalty of death. Other than that, I’m trying to conquer my fear of them by letting them be– I know their species existed a long time before mine and that’s something to be respected, even if they creep me the hell out. But I am insulted by George’s sudden boldness.
It’s grounds for squishal if he doesn’t get back in his corner.
What do you think? Should George live, or die by shoe? (Or shampoo bottle. Those seem to be more handy in the bathroom.)
December 29, 2007 at 5:37 pm · Filed under miscellaneous and personal jabber
“Dreams have but one owner at a time. That is why dreamers are lonely.
– Erma Bombeck
December 28, 2007 at 11:53 am · Filed under miscellaneous and personal jabber
“If you have a talent, use it in every which way possible. Don’t hoard it. Don’t dole it out like a miser. Spend it lavishly, like a millionaire intent on going broke.”
– Brenda Francis
December 27, 2007 at 12:19 pm · Filed under exploration of uncharted territories of the psyche, office space
I’m weird. I’ll admit that. I’m even proud of it.
But, for the most part, I’m not *totally* socially inept, and I can get people to at least tolerate me if not enjoy my company. I tend to go out of my way to make my relations with others pleasant, particularly when said people are coworkers, because I know I’m stuck with these folks, and it is in my best interests to play nice.
I’m lucky in that all of my immediate coworkers and my boss are great fun and I don’t have to fake it much with them. But there are others among the staff I’d just as soon were not around. A few of them reside in the department I used to work in, and a few elsewhere.
There’s one who’s relatively new around here. She gets on my nerves. I try very hard to see the good in people and I know she has some, but Lord, she’s annoying. I’m always nice to her as I have no reason not to be. Even if I am tired of her. And it’s not just me; she drives just about everyone nuts. There are several ladies I’ve talked to who are NOT nice to her. But then again, if she had behaved towards me in the manner she has them… I’d probably be ignoring her at this point, at least.
She was kind enough to forward me via email a coupon for something we had been discussing. I know she thinks she’s web/computer savvy and she does seem to know more than a lot of people around here. That forward had her personal email address on it still. (She apparently doesn’t know enough to keep her anonymity.)
I did what any nosy geek would do; I stalked her out. And she does have her own website. And it’s … strange. And goofy. And very poorly built. And dull.
My first reaction was to giggle, and chuckle at it. And then I felt the nasty part of me rising, and I wanted to forward all these links to her junk to several people around the office who would be amused for sure.
But I stopped.
How would *I* feel if that were me? And my coworkers were laughing at my dull attempt at a website? She was just trying to be nice to me and Evil J. was about to do something horrid.
All I will do now is hope to God that my website is at least more interesting than hers. 
December 26, 2007 at 8:41 am · Filed under do we really have to enjoy the holidays?, miscellaneous and personal jabber
Christmas is over. I’m not happy about that.
This year was a mostly good Christmas. There was no drama at any of the family gatherings.
I had some great moments, even though I was doing my shopping at the last moment which usually drags out my inner beast.
I live in Oklahoma; southern state, smack in the Bible Belt. Not very metropolitan, in general, and people here are not always very accepting of each other. Especially when someone is different looking, and there’s still a lot of racism prevalent. It was a couple of days before Christmas when I went shopping this day. I “gothed out” as my Mum has dubbed it because I figured out years ago that if you’re dressed goth, crowds do not smother you in the manic Christmas shopping. People leave you a bubble of space. That’s important to me as I have claustrophobia about being around lots of people.
I was in Bath & Body Works in a local mall picking up some things for my sisters and the pile in my arms kept growing and growing until I was having trouble balancing it along with my other shopping bags. I was then approached by an associate there; a truly beautiful amazon of a woman. She looked like her heritage was a mix of Asian and African American; she had high wide cheekbones and almond shaped amber eyes, and skin I would kill for, how beautiful and golden it was. She was at least six feet tall.
She held out a Bath & Body Works shopping bag to me. “Here, girl. Put that in here!” I smiled gratefully at her and then hesitated for a moment, deliberating over whether or not I should put my other shopping bags in it as it was large enough to hold them all.
She beamed a hearty smile at me. “Go ahead, just put it all in there. Even the bags. Easier on the hands!”
Her grin was irresistible. I smiled back and thanked her well. She said, “You ARE welcome girl. We got to watch out for our sistas.” She made brief glowing eye contact with me and then flitted on to help someone else.
Short and chunky white girl, in red and black gothic clothes from head to toe, funky hairdo, and goth makeup– and instead she saw me with vision I wish everyone had, she saw me for what I really was– a fellow female human out on a crazy fucking day.
I will always treasure that moment. Maybe that immediate, complete acceptance wouldn’t have been so unusual in another locale, but here in Oklahoma, stuff like that just flat doesn’t happen much.
I have to go back to work today. 
I overslept this morning and then wrote a little blog. hehe.
Really going now. Toodles, kids.
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