itsy bitsy

Usually I have pretty decent stories to tell about all our exciting activities and unlikely run-ins with strangers. We both work about six nights a week so we really don't have anything out of the ordinary to blog about. However, I do have something that happened to me the other night that I think can be universally enjoyed and I thought I'd share it with you. As you know know, I now live in West Palm Beach. This makes my commute to work somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes depending on traffic and how badly I don't feel like driving. Well two nights ae ago, I was driving home from work at night. I was alone, I was tired and I was annoyed that my long drive had only just begun. About five minutes into the drive I noticed my eyes were detecting movement on a "closer focus area" than my regular driving eyes. I narrowed in my pupils to get a closer look and there it was. A spider moving across my windsheild. The inside of my windsheild. I now my mother knows, but to inform you more clearly...I do not like spiders. I shudder at the thought of one. Everything about them freaks me out. More information about me is that I try as hard as I can not to kill bugs. Even ones that make me want to pee myself. I will kill something if I think it can hurt me. Like a bee, or a mosquito. But I try very hard to resist killing things out of pure fear- thats just not fair. But back to the drive. It was a small spider. Brown and skinny and scary. Worst of all, it was fast. My eyes widened and my hands tightened on the wheel and I tried to balance the task of driving safely and keeping an eye on my new passenger. The road I was on was a 45 mph three lane road and I couldn't let this get out of control. I switched the focus of my eyes every few seconds. Close, far. Close, far. Close far. Close.....where did it go? Far. Close...holy crap, where is it!? My eyes darted all over the car. Keep in mind, its nighttime to boot and I couldn't barely see in the car anyway. Every mile or so there would be a light. If it was red, I would stop and panic. Frantically searching. It's on me. I know it. It's crawling down my neck. It just bit me, I felt it! I smacked frantically at neck, rubbed my head like a scrach off ticket because surely it was making a nest in my hair. Green light. Far. I took deep breaths. I reminded myself that there's probably spiders in my car all the time, I just happened to see this one. Things were going to be fine. I was getting to the highway- the half way point. About 15 minutes left to the drive. I got on the ramp and merged onto the I-95 South towards West Palm Beach. Far. Far. Close. There it was. In the same route he was going before. Left to right. Directly in front of me. How did he get back to left without me seeing him! I gripped the wheel. Now I was on a highway. I focused in and out trying to hold on to him this time. I picked up a piece of paper that was laying in my passenger seat. Should I kill it?? It hasn't done anything to me! If I can just get home I can brush it out of the car. If I kill it, I know I'll feel guilty. I sat ready with the paper, waiting for the little monster to make its move. It's just waiting to jump off the window onto my face, I know it! Close, far. Should I do it? It's wrong! Close, far. Close...its gone. No! I lost him again! Why did I hesitate?! Now I also knew that he could move closer to me without my knowing. He'd done it before, he'll do it again. He's just hangin out on windsheild. It's ok. He doesn't want anything to do with you. He just like the windsheild. About another two miles passed. I searched, rubbed my head, slapped my neck, wiped my face...how did it get in my shoe!? He seemed to be crawling everywhere on my body. In my ear, up my nose, over my eyebrow. Where did it go?! Movement. On the windsheild again. This time higher. I had visions of him crawling onto the ceiling and dropped down onto my face. I grabbed my paper. Stay where you are or you're gonna get it! He moved higher. I stood my ground. He disappeared into the shadow above me. No, no, no! Thats the worst place you could go! I'm not killing you, please don't hurt me! I shrank down into my seat and tried to watch above my head. I realized I had shot down to fifty five miles an hour trying to drive safe when I should be gunning it home. I obviously wasn't going to kill it so what I needed was safety. I leaned into the gas. My goal now was to just get home. He reappeared on the windsheild and moved the right. Phew. He was now probably somewhere on the passenger side. But now I remembered. A few days ago my car was hit while it was parked outside Rachel's house. The women who hit me is paying for it, but my door was hit in such a way where I can't open in. I've been crawling across the car coming in and out through the passenger side. I'd have to crawl right past the spider. I finally pulled into my parking spot at home. I turned the car off and hit the dome light. Shrunken into my seat I searched the car. Just go for it. I eyed my path across the car. Just go. Fast. I flung myself across the car and leaped out, shutting the door behind me. I shook myself frantically. Was it on me. After I stopped jumping around I reached into my pocket so text Rachel. My pocket was empty. I knew it immediatly. My heart sank and I lifted my eyes to look through my passenger window at the driver door. My phone was sitting in the driver door pocket. Remember now that my driver door is broken. I'd have to crawl back through the passenger side to get it. I wanted to cry. I took a deep breath, opened the door and dived for my phone. I slammed it shut and did my "shaking off the spider" dance again. I looked back in the car. No. I didn't. ..... I did. The dome light was still on. I had to laugh this time. I repeated my dive and dance. I ran inside my house, into the bathroom and carefully inspected myself in the mirror. No spider. I haven't seen it since. I'm just hoping that the morning heat killed it. I haven't found a body. I cleaned out my car today and even took it to be vaccum it. I'm so glad I didn't kill it. All in all I think I handled it well. -lj