Spider Saga

I admit it. I not only HATE spiders, but I have a bit of fear of them too.

Two nights ago, as I entered my bedroom to go to bed I saw a large, black, ugly, mean spider on the wall. He was near the seam of the ceiling and wall and in a hard place to squish.

Squishing spiders is hard on me. I don't want them running around my house alive, but it's very hard for me to get close enough to kill them.

The location in the room was not good either. He was above the curtains and I had to stand on a small ikea stool to reach him.

After standing on the stool for about 10 minutes, shoe in hand, I finally swatted at the spider. AND MISSED!

He began running, pretty slowly I might add, away. I swatted again (which was hard because the stool was a little too far away) and missed again.

He ran down the wall a little, so I hopped off the stool and hit with my shoe again. Can you believe it? I freaking missed him!

He jumped off the wall onto a painting I haven't hung yet.

So I picked up the painting and didn't see him. So I flipped it over, and he jumped off the back into my CLEAN CLOTHES laundry basket.

I was so pumped with adrenalin at this point, I began to sob. I dragged the basket into the upstairs bathroom I don't use (not attached to my bedroom) and shut the door.

I wasn't sure if he was in the basket or not, but if he was then it was the best way to deal with the situation.

So I was crying, and hysterical and it took me forever to fall asleep and I woke up every 15 minutes thinking there were creepy crawlies on me. It was miserable. I got about 3 hours of highly interrupted sleep. In fact, when my alarm went off I called my carpooling buddy and said "I'm going in late today." so I could sleep until about 11 AM to try and get some rest.

Cut to about 10:45 PM last night. I had just gotten home from a musical event and that SAME spider was on the ceiling in the middle of my bedroom, above my bed.

I was thinking about what to do when he began running (and hid in the seam where the ceiling meets the wall).

I was keeping my eye on him, still contemplating the situation, weighing my options, when he began running AGAIN. This time he ran across the ceiling back into the middle of the room above my bed.

I grabbed a magazine, hopped up onto the bed and swatted at him (he was running) and missed AGAIN! Never in my life have I missed a spider so many times! I swatted at him one more time and he dropped to the floor.

I dove off the bed and beat the hell out of him on the floor with my shoe. I even skinned my knee on the carpet going after this guy.

So the spider is no more. And I can finally sleep again!

My boss asked me about it this morning at work (because I had told him the story yesterday) and when I brought him up to speed about last night he said, "R.I.P. , Arachne ... and Phaedra who can finally sleep again."