Friday, March 26, 2010

Kill A Spider And It Will Rain.


So last night my husband and I were packing up our basement junk preparing for the big move next week. I got the job of sorting through the stuff under the steps. This involved looking through the boxes we had sitting there from our previous move, and deciding if what's been sitting in there over the last year (untouched) is really worth keeping. A quarter of the way into the job I came back from sorting through a box and headed under the steps to grab another. About half a step in, sitting on the cement wall less than one foot in front of me, the biggest blackest spider I've ever seen decided to greet me. For those of you that don't know, when I see a spider, I scream bloody murder. So, after I saw this giant spider crawl up the wall I screamed like a baby and ran out of the room. Yep, I screamed not once, but about 5 times while I ran up the steps and grabbed a fly swatter for Matt to kill it. Now, I have to tell you that Matt isn't exactly a fan of spiders either. Especially black ones. Every time he sees a black spider he's convinced it's a black widow and it's going to kill him. After a few minutes of getting up the nerve to kill this spider Matt walks over bravely and with one swat the spider drops to the ground.... and then runs behind all the junk I need to move.
Now you know when you see a really ugly bug crawling just a few inches away from you and it creeps you out? And for the next 1/2 hour you feel bugs crawling all over your skin? Well that's what happened to the both of us. After debating about if we should just leave our stuff under the steps as a housewarming gift for the new homeowners, we decided there was probably something of value making it worth taking this spider on. The only problem was, not only did Matt miss killing the spider he was now refusing to try again.
After demonstrating my frustration with words I won't repeat here I grabbed the fly swatter out of Matts hand and headed under the steps. I found the giant spider sitting on the side of the next box I needed to move, he was an easy target. And then something came over me. Compassion.
I thought about how horrible it must have been for this spider to be crawling around like he does every day, and then have me interrupting him by constantly screaming in his face. This followed by someone chasing him around trying to kill him must not be too pleasant. So then I get this idea rather than killing the spider I'll take him outside. Well apparently bugs don't know the difference between trying to save their life and trying to kill them. I spent the next couple of minutes following the spider around with my fly swatter trying to coax him on top of it so I could carry him outside. Every time he'd climb on, he'd jump off. Every time he'd jump off, I'd scream. And every time I'd scream, Matt would laugh. In the end the stupid spider ended up getting squished by accident. I felt bad for killing him and left the situation sweating and breathless from screaming. And this morning I woke up and it was pouring rain. Buckets of rain. Apparently the bigger the spider you kill, the harder it will rain. It doesn't matter if you were trying to save it's life.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Kids Are Funny

So yesterday my husband and I decided to go for a hike in Peterson Creek Park. At the bottom of the trails there is a sign with maps showing all the directions you can hike. We arrived at the sign a few seconds behind a woman and her two children. Now I don't know much about children so I'm going to guess when I say the boy looked about 5 years old and the girl looked about 7. The three of them were studying the sign and the woman turned to her little boy and said "Do you know where you are?"
The little boy looked at the map and said "No... where?"
The mom then pointed to the part of the map that says YOU ARE HERE and told her little boy "This is where you are."
The little boy took a second and looked the sign over before saying... "Well where are you?"
The 3 of us adults laughed and the woman replied "I'm in the same spot as you are."
The little boy's eyes widened and then said with utter amazement "Weeeird!"

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Untitled

I spent the first 10 months of my life living on the street. A product of one time carelessness. Roaming aimlessly, picking through garbage bags for food, day and night, left alone to find shelter. Starving not just from lack of food, but from loneliness. No one to hold me.
I had nowhere I had to be. Nothing I was supposed to be doing. You might think a life with no rules is glamorous. Free to do as you please with no one to answer to. But along with that comes emptiness. It's hard knowing that you were born a mistake. Knowing that although your parents are desirable separately, when mixed together it creates a joke. I may not be brand new and I may not have been born with the most beautiful traits, but I have alot of love to give. Won't someone take a chance on me?


There are many advantages of adopting an animal from a shelter or rescue group. Please remember this option when you are searching to add a furry friend to your family. There are all ages and sizes available, and many have been placed there because of impossible situations, not because of any fault of their own. Just because you go to a "breeder" does not mean you are getting a better dog. Please do your research and explore all your options available. And in the words of Bob Barker "Help control the pet population, have your pets spayed or neutered!"


This is Linden. He is my Beagle German Shepherd X and the inspiration behind this post.