Sunday, April 4, 2010

Things that Creep you Out

Ah, fear. There are many things that I live in abject fear of, but those things are either too potentially frightening or too abstract to put into words. Therefore, I've compiled a list of things that creep me out, make me upset, cause the diarrhea-is-forthcoming-if-you-don't-solve-this-soon feeling in my stomach.

* Snakes.
My mom told me once that having an aversion to snakes is among the most common and that it's a Biblical thing (or maybe The Bible cashed in on a common aversion to snakes). All I know is, I hate snakes. Hate them. My family was climbing a mountain once and a snake slithered out in front of me. Yeah, totally passed out ...

* Thunderstorms
My hysteria over thunderstorms is actually tied directly to my fear (not aversion, not hysteria, FEAR) of losing control (can't take airplanes, struggle with riding in a car when someone else is driving, et cetera). They are noisy and shake the house. The lightning flashes incessantly. The dogs get scared. The Weather Channel goes crazy with beeping out the warnings and watches and advisories ... and I just quake. I hate thunderstorms. HATE.

* Toenails
All right, this is an odd one, I admit. In fact, I don't think I've heard of anyone else with the capacity to get worked up over toenails. One day when I was a kid, I was climbing up the cement front stairs and I caught a toenail on the cement and it just peeled off (quite painful). I have hated toenails ever since, even getting inexplicably upset when people rub their toenails on the backs of their heels (it makes a horrible sound to my ears) or on something else.

What are some things that creep you out? Where is the line that you draw between "creep out" and "frighten"? I can tell you, if you wanted to drive me insane, wrap a snake around my neck and pluck on my toenails in the middle of a thunderstorm. I assure you, you'd get results. I wouldn't be ... afraid ... exactly, though. It's the distinction between fear and dislike/annoyance that I'm trying to clarify here.

What do you think?

**Happy Easter, by the way. I wrote a fairly meaningful post last Easter ... it's right here, so check it out if you're interested. I just don't have it in me this year, know what I mean?**

7 comments:

  1. Hi Klo! I just answered your question that you posted in my blog comments about juggling multiple projects. Thanks for aksing! It gave me an entire blog post for discussion.

    As for what creeps me out: spiders, ghosts in the middle of the night when I have to get up to go to the bathroom, and the doctor's office.

    :)

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  2. Don't like mannequins (see my post about the Uncanny Valley), don't like snakes but am okay with them as long as they're not in my house (see my post about Jim Stafford and the two-foot snake in our house), and I don't mind spiders unless they attack me. (see just about any of my posts about living in Florida.)

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  3. Mimes. Hate them and am frightened of them. Had one follow me when I was 10 at Disneyland.

    Mice/Rats/Things like that with tails - I've actually jumped on dining room table and screamed when I saw one.

    I love thunderstorms now that my roof is fixed and find them really helpful to put me to sleep.

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  4. Hairy caterpillars creep me out, usually because they sting.

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  5. If you want to drive me insane, let slimy slugs crawl over my body while making me cross a tall bridge, and then when I finally make it over to the ground on the other side of the river, force me to watch some old Three Stooges movies. Yech!!

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  6. As for snakes...I can't say I like them really, and have to honestly confess that they make me a little nervous, but I would much rather touch one than have to even look at a slug.

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  7. Snakes is my number one thing. I think I can handle just about everything else. No, I take that back. I have an aversion to horror films too. Fortunately, those are easy to avoid.

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