A Spider Story for the Books

If I weren't already working with 4 different blogs, I'd start a new one to capture all of my ridiculous and intimate spider, et al. experiences. That would probably be a pitifully hilarious blog.

Two weeks ago I was at one of my favorite Utahn Mexican Restaurants (decent Mexican is difficult to come by here) with 12 of my coworkers for lunch. I was sitting at the middle of a long string of tables, and toward the end of my meal, I was chatting away when all of a sudden I felt (and saw out of the corner of my eye) something fall through my hair. I kind of brushed at it a little bit and thought, huh, what was that? And the coworker sitting across from me asked, "Did something just fall out of your hair?" I replied with an, "I think so..." and then I looked down at my chest and there it was.

A decently sized, black, hairy spider - perched on the top of my right boob!

Words cannot adequately describe my horror. I immediately let out the shrillest, girly-est scream of. my. life. and subsequently jumped to my feet as the spider began running all over me. Unfortunately, when you're amongst male coworkers and you have a spider on your boob and then running down towards your crotchal area, you quickly realize that you're S.O.L. as far as help goes. (As my dapper, male African American coworker that was sitting next to me put it, "Did you see where it was? Sorry, but I ain't riskin nonna that!")

So, as I'm freaking out in front of a PACKED full of people restaurant, I realize that I'm going to have to take care of this myself, and since this all happened in less than 30 seconds, I didn't have time to find a napkin or something to take care of gracefully. Mortified that I'm going to have to touch this spider in some way with my hands, I just start slapping and swiping away (again, in my crotchal region - I'm sure that looked fantastic) until the thing fell to the floor and I stamped it into oblivion like a mad crazed lunatic.

Then, I paused for a second to compose myself - and briefly glanced around the room at the people staring out me with shock and confusion, and silently slid back into my chair. I think I started laughing at that point because I knew how hilarious that all must have looked and then a new, male coworker of mine said, "Hey, if that spider had fallen on me, my reaction would have been exactly the same."

And then I felt validated somehow.

Some of my coworkers said they'd never go to that restaurant again. I'm still debating, just because I REALLY like the food. AND they have one of the best Cokes I've had in Utah. But, I still need some time to get over the resulting twitch I developed.

The funny thing was, I didn't feel a tinge of embarrassment at my behavior/reaction. There was a spider ON ME! You can't judge me for that.

Really I'm just glad the spider didn't crawl down my shirt (it was a close call). I would have hated to have to strip in front of all those people.

Easter Times are Good Times

My Easter weekend was pretty fun. Saturday was full of lots of this:

Which, as you all know, is my favorite.
It also involved some of this:

Slack-lining. Ever heard of it? It's a "sport" of sorts. And it ain't easy!
And then there may or may not have been some egg dying activities...

The two on the front left were my little masterpieces.

And then, on Sunday, I faced my fears and sang in front of our church congregation for our Easter program. I sang as a member of our choir and also in a quartet. For those of you that know me well, this is a big deal because singing in front of other people scares the you-know-what out of me, which usually leads to things like shaking and sweating uncontrollably and a little thing I like to call "voice paralysis." Not exactly what you want to have happen when you're up in front of 100+ people. But, since my theme for this year is "No Fear"... I decided that I need to try and face my fear of this because God has blessed me with a decent singing voice and I feel ungrateful if I can't even use it to sing His praises. So, long story short, I prayed and prayed and prayed this week that I would not embarrass my quartet by freaking out in the moment and that my nerves would be calm so that I could sing my testimony of the Savior. Well, God must love me because I was able to sing all of my notes clearly (without a horrible shaky-ness in my voice - or with crackings or what have you) and actually think the song turned out pretty well (much better than I was expecting at least...). I did have to deal with the fact that my entire body was shaking pretty much uncontrollably (and that everyone could probably see that), but it didn't matter that I looked nervous because I sounded just fine. So, chalk that down as one more fear successfully faced this year so far!

After church, my buddies and I decided to eat the eggs we dyed for a lunch picnic...

I like to call this the "egg" massacre... They fought well, but in the end, we prevailed!

And later that night, my roommate and I hosted an Easter feast for about 20 people (that's not an exaggeration)...

We ate outside on the lawn and then we played ladder ball. Have you ever played that game? It is fun! Mostly because I was sure I was going to suck at it... and then I didn't suck that badly! In fact, I think with some practice, I could be pretty dang good!

Also involved in my Easter celebrations were a FaceTime session with my family and Easter baskets from my roommate and my brother:

There is so much candy happening up in here.

With sunshine, good friends, good food, and an excess of chocolate, how can you really go wrong?

One More Gem I Couldn't Delete:

Spiders. (From 11-11-2010)
I realized this morning that they are pretty much running my life.

Don't believe me? Well, let me walk you through what a normal day for Raechel is:

Wake up in the morning, head to the shower. First, check shower (and ceiling) for spiders. Yes, I've had a few bad experiences with spiders and showering - one of which, if I remember correctly, involved a spider that was spinning a web and kept showing up above the shower head in mid air, and then disappearing. I believe I grabbed my towel, and burst out of my bathroom shrieking, "Land of the disappearing spiders!"I think my roommate, Ashlie, thought I had lost it. We had a good laugh about that one. Anywho - back to my daily routine.

When shower is over, grab towel and proceed to shake vigorously - just in case a spider is hiding on your towel somewhere. The LAST thing I want to do is dry my self off with vicious spiders and/or their guts! (Yes, I also had a bad experience with this - which is why I now always shake my towel before use).

Throughout the day, notice little black dots on walls, cars, desks, carpet, etc. and double check to make sure it's not a spider. Often times it's actually a fly, but no matter. Still make sure it's not a spider.

Before bed, lift sheets and check for spiders. Also check under all pillows and on all walls and in ceiling corners. Ain't no sleepin goin down in my room til I'm more certain that spiders aren't lurking around and waiting to attack!

Throughout the night, wake up every time you have an itch and make sure it isn't a spider. This is important because my first night sleeping in my current apartment, I didn't have a boxspring for my mattress yet, so naturally my mattress was on the floor. Early the next morning, I woke up groggily as I gently swiped an itch on my cheek. When my itch proceeded to crawl back up to my cheek less than a second later, I woke quite alarmed as I had just slapped myself in the face to kill the itch (aka spider that was trying to give me a good morning kiss). It was crawling towards my mouth people! MY MOUTH! Needless to say, I didn't have a good night's sleep for a week afterwords.

Wake up, repeat process.

Do you believe me now? This phobia has gotten out of control. The very thing I fear the most is beginning to take over my life. Anyway -  I would have liked to have illustrated this all out for you, but alas, I do not currently have the energy. But, never fear! For I have found someone who can do it better than me:

Funny bit on the monstrosity of spiders

Something That I Needed to Hear [Read]

Stumbled across a friend from high school's blog today. One of the posts included President Monson's most recent conference talk. And thank goodness too, because I've had a lot on my mind lately in regards to worrying about the possibilities of the future and etc. etc. etc.

Here's what stood out to me:

"I realize there are many reasons why you may be hesitating to take that step of getting married. If you are concerned about providing financially for a wife and family, may I assure you that there is no shame in a couple having to scrimp and save. It is generally during these challenging times that you will grow closer together as you learn to sacrifice and to make difficult decisions. Perhaps you are afraid of making the wrong choice. To this I say that you need to exercise faith. Find someone with whom you can be compatible. Realize that you will not be able to anticipate every challenge which may arise, but be assured that almost anything can be worked out if you are resourceful and if you are committed to making your marriage work...

Choose a companion carefully and prayerfully; and when you are married, be fiercely loyal one to another. Priceless advice comes from a small framed plaque I once saw in the home of an uncle and aunt. It read, “Choose your love; love your choice.” There is great wisdom in those few words. Commitment in marriage is absolutely essential."

Now people, don't go getting all crazy on me [Uh hem, Mom]. I'm not thinking about getting married anytime soon or anything (nor are Chad and I talking about that... just to clear that up). The idea of marriage has just always been a scary one for me because I don't ever want to go through a divorce. Eternity is a LONG time, my friends. I don't take that lightly. If I'm going to make the decision to marry someone some day, I need to be able to trust them completely (or as much as is possible). To me, marriage is not something that is dispensable.

I may not be to this point in my current relationship, but when you've been dating for awhile, you start to consider these things. And then, if you're me, you start to freak out a little about these things. So, President Monson's words helped me a lot. Finances, making the wrong choice, trying to anticipate all the angles and possibilities, these are all things that I worry about. But, as Pres. Monson points out, this is MY choice. And when I find someone that I can be compatible with and who can make me happy and for whom I can do likewise, then I can choose my love and love my choice. Then we can work through all the other stuff together. Then if I have faith and things are right, the Lord will open doors and provide a way.

Everything will be okay, everything will be okay.