The Itsy Bitsy Spider...

...or not so itsy bitsy.

Ok ok, I guess in the grand scheme of things they both were in and of themselves pretty itsy. (It's not like I live in Australia where the spiders never die and so grow to the size of hubcaps or something, right Nat?? ;) ) But the effect they've had on my pulse suggests otherwise (or else I'm just a wuss, although I'd prefer not to explore that option).

So yesterday I was sitting calmly in my typical spot on the couch with my laptop on my lap doing something completely routine like checking email, when a grey-brownish spider just pounced on my right forearm. It happened so suddenly that my first thought was that it must be one of those orange-ish ladybugs since I saw one a couple days earlier in this general vicinity of the house. But no, I was wrong.

I've been trying to not be so wimpy around bugs in general lately, meaning that I'm not flipping out and obsessively trying to kill every one that I see in our house. There's been a little spider hanging out around the kitchen sink for the past few months and besides the occasional cobweb strung across the window I've barely even noticed it so I've decided to be cool with it and let it be. I've seen a spider in the laundry room (in the utility room in the basement where there are supposed to be bugs, right??) and the occasional dead beetle or centipede turns up along the baseboards in the basement too. Bugs are a fact of life and I'm trying to be very grown up about this issue!

Anyway, so I looked down at my arm yesterday and then noticed what it was and, well, yes, basically flipped out, quickly brushing it off and probably making some weird noise to boot. Spiders in the kitchen and laundry room are one thing, but I'd rather not have them paying me or anyone a surprise visit as I relax on the couch-! I slowly looked around for where it landed and couldn't find it for the longest time-! Finally, I saw it, not far from where I had been sitting on the couch, and for my own sanity and peace of mind I just squished him. Case closed.

Until today! I put Caitlin down for her morning nap, turned around to go back up the stairs and something caught my eye...AAH! Hanging right in the middle of where I would have walked, a spider, even a bit bigger than the one yesterday, was just doing it's thing. I could have walked RIGHT into it!! This was getting out of hand. I put my fears of that what if aside, promptly grabbed some toilet paper from the nearby bathroom, and came out to conquer it, only to discover it had climbed back up to the ceiling. Ok, here's my chance...(and may I note that this spider was a kind of grey-off white color, blending in almost perfectly with the ceiling/walls/carpet, and causing me to conclude it wasn't the same as the jumping spider as I had run into the day before. This must be just a normal spider, right? hmm...) so I doubled--even tripled--the small swatch of tissue (no need for spider guts on my hand), approached slowly and...

...at the last possible second the spider jumped away from where I aimed!--the sheer thought that it was on me sent me into some kind of get-off-me spider dance, accompanied by those odd sounds again (they must help somehow-!). I had dropped the tissue and began by frantically searching my person for any signs of Mr. Itsy Bitsy. None. And no sign of him on the ceiling, walls OR carpet. Not even on the tissue I finally got up the courage to pick up. So here I sit, back in my normal spot on the couch, creeped out that the spider is actually making a nest in my hair or planning another lovely visit for me when I return to get Caitlin in an hour. Or even worse yet, that it WAS on me until I sat down here and he took refuge somewhere in the couch only to eventually pull a repeat of yesterday when I least expect it. I think I'm having a meltdown!

And y'know the feeling of having walked through part of a cobweb...those stringy bits just slightly ticking your face or arm...yeah, I've been feeling that this whole time too, and chances are that spider is hanging on the end of it somewhere....AAH!