Monday Check In

Last week...

Writing Related: Moved a scene that I had originally written as part of the end to a place in the middle of the book because it works much better there. I'm still working on rewriting the end of the Ivan's book, but I feel like I'm making good progress. 

Motivational Quote: "For any one of us our forever could end in an hour, or a hundred years from now. You never know for sure, so you'd better make every second count. ~ Sarah Dessen

What I'm Reading: I'm not reading anything right now. I'm going to the library after work today so I'll start a new book tonight.

Random Things: You may or may not know that I am terrified of spiders. This is important because of what I'm about to tell you -- My sister brought my mom (who lives with me) a huge hanging planter filled with different succulents. It is so heavy, the planter's plastic hook cannot support the weight of the plants so I've been keeping it on our back porch because it gets more sun than our front porch. Anyway, I brought the planner in one night because we were supposed to get heavy rain overnight. The next morning, I walked by the table where I set the planter and a spider leapt off the plant and landed on my arm. I, of course, screamed and slapped it off, then continued to shake and cry for the next ten minutes. It wasn't one of those tiny black jumping spiders you sometimes see on your porch (at least in my area). This was the size of a nickel counting the legs and was beige in color. (My mom came to my rescue and killed the spider.) Now I'm afraid of the planter and hate having to move it or water it or have anything else to do with it. Irrational I know, but I can't help how I feel.

Random Photo:

         Here's a picture of the succulent planter I mentioned above with the jumping spider.
 

This I know for sure...

I am afraid of spiders. I always have been, always will be. I know I'm so many times bigger than they are, but it doesn't matter. It's an irrational fear, I know that, but it doesn't change anything.

If I'm home alone, I will leave the room a spider is in, close the door, and wait for someone to come home to kill it. Once when I was a teenager, I thought a spider fell down my shirt at the same time my friend's mom was parking the car. I don't even think the car was completely stopped before I was out of the car, tearing my shirt off, and flapping it around while standing in the parking lot of the local movie theater.

Now that spring is here and the weather is getting warmer, the spiders at work are everywhere. We're surrounded by a huge field which is nice for seeing fox, deer, and turkeys, but our building seems to draw the spiders inside. Every morning when I enter my office, I turn on the lights and check for spiders in the corners and such. I hate to go into our supply closet and avoid it whenever possible because I think that's where all the spiders live.

Just once when I have to go in there, I wish I'd find one of these instead.