Month: August 2002

So, it’s a quiet Sunday night at home. I hear a helicopter go overhead. Okay, that happens from time to time. A few minutes later, I hear it again… and again. The news comes on. There’s a “Breaking News” story about a shooting pretty near my house. The police are looking for the shooter and they have the assistance of the police helicopter. Just then, I hear it again. I look out my window and see the street light up. The helicopter is lighting up my street looking for the shooter. Okay. I’m not going to be nervous…

I was stalked by a spider. Seriously, this guy had it in for me!

I was sitting at my computer when this large, black, fuzzy mean looking spider appeared at the top of my monitor. We stared at each other for about half a minute. I was freaked. I started to roll my chair back. I was going to try and find something to swat the guy with when he leaps from the monitor right at me! He bounced off my chest and landed on my lap. I scream and stand up causing my chair to scoot back and roll over my cat’s (Sasha) tail. She howls and runs from the room. I can’t find the spider. Anywhere. I decide to follow Sasha.

Twenty minutes later I come back in. No spider in sight. Okay. I sit down and start typing again. A few minutes later, I look to my left…the spider is now on the antenna of the TV that’s on the shelf next to the monitor. The antenna is pointed at my head (I seem to be a conductor for better TV reception – go figure) and the spider is rapidly moving towards me.

It took me awhile, but I was able to track him down and moosh him. You’d think he’d try and run away after each moosh attempt, but no – he charged. Was he not happy with the accommodations? Did I somehow interrupt his happy life by typing on my computer? Should I expect the appearance of more and more larger spiders followed by William Shatner?

This is the first anniversary of my dad’s death. I’ve decided to stop wearing my Dad’s watch. When he made 25 years at IBM, they gave him a lovely watch. He was so proud of that watch. It’s one of those self-winding ones – as long it’s moving, it keeps running. I couldn’t bear to have it stop running – so I’ve been wearing it ever since.

But, it’s a huge, clunky watch – obviously meant for a man’s wrist. It’s constantly hitting things and I’m afraid of scratching it up too much. Plus, the band pops open fairly easily (I asked a jeweler, he said that’s how it’s supposed to be). On a man’s hand, it might not slip off when popped open, but it does on mine – I’ve often caught it half-way down to the floor. It’s worth so much (emotionally and monetarily) that I don’t want anything bad to happen to it. It’s time to take it off…and let it stop ticking.

Not a good sign. I woke up today so convinced it was Saturday that I turned off my alarm and went back to sleep…