Well, Mackenzie, you can be glad you didn't have to do what I did...

I read your survey, Mackenzie, and you put down spiders as a fear. So, I'm just glad you weren't in my room yesterday.

I was talking on the phone to my parents about whether or not there was going to be too much snow to go to the ID conference [Intelligent Design - as opposed to the denial of teleology inherent in Darwinism (at least according to Charles Hodge) - not theatre design], and I flopped back on my bed, looking at the ceiling, and lo and behold, there perched a spider. I suppose I should be glad I noticed it then, and didn't have to sleep, not knowing it was directly over me. Anyway, I though about what I should do. I really didn't want to squish it; it was kind of big and would have been really nasty. I thought maybe I could knock it down and catch it in some paper towels. So, I went to the bathroom to get paper towels, pulled the multicolored afghan off of my bed so that if it fell on it I would be able to see it, pulled the stick out of my model (which was for theatre design last semester), and then had an absolute brain wave. I would put plastic under it, on the bed, so that it couldn't move as quickly on the slippery plastic. Then I had an even better idea - I would knock it into the bag! So, I did, and carried down three flights of stairs while clenching the bag shut, and released it outside into the snow (it didn't seem to know what to make of the snow).

I will say this - after watching LOTR, no ordinary-sized spider can have quite the same effect on me as it would have had before.