Graceland: The Scariest Thing

Friday, July 18, 2008

The Scariest Thing

I had the little boys come spend the night last night. They were all on the bed and started yelling for me because there was a spider in the canopy netting. I am totally afraid of spiders. My old roommate got a dollar off her rent for every spider she got rid of. It's not unheard of for me to put the longest attachment on the vacuum and suck up the spider and still have a hard time getting that close. Don't even get me started about spiders in my bathtub stories.

Here's one of my most embarrassing moments. Last year Steph and I took a road trip to Colorado (turning out to be an annual trip-yay). We had just returned to the car after going to dinner with Kat and Erica. I started the car and noticed Stephanie was looking at me in horror. She kept saying, "Open your door!" She finally told me there was a huge spider on the headrest behind me. I freaked and jumped out of the car forgetting that I had just put it in gear. The parking lot was pretty empty but the car started rolling toward the only car near us. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't get in the car because of the spider but didn't want my friends or my car to crash. So I was running along side of it completely perplexed. I finally jumped in about the time someone pulled the e-brake. We were laughing so hard, except Kat who was beside herself with the idiocy of someone jumping out of a moving car because of a spider. Her ranting made the rest of us just laugh harder. I'm sure I'll never live this down, but I'm sure some of you understand.

Back to last night. I went in the room and there was this enormous spider- the hairy, jaggedy kind that look like they could bite your finger off (OK, it was tiny, but ugly). I calmly (relatively speaking) got some tissue and disposed of the little guy. I just didn't want to freak the kids out. So, what did we learn from this? A house full of screaming children is more scary to me than a spider. I wonder if I can find something that freaks me out more than ferris wheels.

Here are some photos from the slumber party.

Asher spent most of his time at my house sorting superballs. He worked so hard, I felt bad having them clean them up. They didn't seem to care though.

The new children's museum is a huge upgrade from the old place. I highly recommend it. I didn't take too many photos, but it had a lot of cool things to do.

Here are the kids on the moon. :)

The Planetarium gift shop is by far the coolest toy store in town!

8 comments:

Stephanie F. said...: Oh, I was crying from laughing so hard reading that. Too funny!
You are the most awesome aunt. My boys had SO much fun!
I have gotten a lot braver with spiders since having kids.; July 19, 2008 at 12:32 AM
Chardell said...: I was laughing so hard! I can't believe you were brave enough to use a tissue. The story of the car was so much further enhanced by your friend's ranting. So funny!; July 19, 2008 at 8:52 AM
Heidi P said...: I think I win for being the most afraid of spiders...I even hate the little plastic spiders.
Those are cute pics. Will said in his prayers last night "and bless we had a fun time with Betsy". :) Thanks again!!; July 19, 2008 at 11:45 AM
Emily West said...: I would have jumped out too! I hate spiders. I'm proud of you for being brave enough to kill the one in your house. I would have probably made my nephew do it! :); July 19, 2008 at 8:07 PM
Afton said...: We had very large wolf spiders when we lived on San Juan Island. Holy Cow! We also had a daylight basement and the kids rooms were down there and if one of them woke up in the middle of the night and I had to go down there, well... Let's just say I was pretty sure Shelob from LOTR was down there.

Also, I'd suck them up with the vacuum cleaner, then I would have to put tape over the hose attachment because I was pretty sure it was going to crawl out with a vengence.; July 19, 2008 at 10:34 PM
Jill said...: That story is so funny! I wish there were a hidden camera capturing the whole thing! I hate spiders too!...do you know of anyone who actually likes the little buggers? I can handle small ones,..and I'm not really afraid of huge one's, like trianchulas..(sp?), but it's the big to mid-sized ones that really get me! BLAH!
BTW..you are the worlds best aunt!; July 20, 2008 at 10:44 PM
K said...: You are too funny. I can almost see myself jumping out of a moving car due to a spider. Oooh how I abhor those terrible beasts.

Here's a terrible but true spider story for you:

http://continuingfamilysaga.blogspot.com/2008/01/atrocious-recollection.html; July 23, 2008 at 7:06 PM
Anonymous said...: I wish my nieces and nephews lived close enough to come spend the night! Fun times. I miss you, by the way!; July 26, 2008 at 9:14 AM

My Movie Reviews

Quiet Earth. B-. Another SciFi recommended by Netflix, although this one was actually interesting and enjoyable. A guy wakes up and everyone is gone. Made in New Zealand, it claims to be one of the top ten movies in the US in the year it came out (sometime in the 1970s). After it was over, we agreed that it was good, but the ending was a little confusing, so we watched the ending again with the directors comments. Lame. Apparently the whole movie was supposed to have an anti-nuclear message and the director takes credit for his movie making New Zealand nuclear free. So.... pretend you don't know that and enjoy the movie.
Sunshine. C-. Netflix. That's it. We are not trusting Netflix's rating of sci-fi movies again. The sun is dying so a crew is going with a nuclear missle to "re-start" it. I kept hoping aliens would show up or at least something would happen to draw me in. A lot of things almost happened, but when they did, it did not make much sense.
Warm Bodies. B. Red Box. I was surprised by this movie. I'm a fan of a good zombie flick, but when I heard about the plot, it seemed a bit too much. It turned out to be very entertaining. I'd rate it pretty high on the must see zombie film list and very high on the cheesy teenage romance film list.
Wolverine. B. I'm a fan of the X-Men movies. I'm also a fan of Hugh Jackman. It was hard to go wrong going in with those two biases. The fighting sequences were too long, but that was expected. If you've like the X-Men movies, you should like this one too.
The East. B. I forget how much I love the indie flicks at the Broadway. This also had an environmentalist-based plot, but was written well and I liked how it ended. A women goes under cover in an environmental terrorist group. It goes with the obvious plot of her having sympathies for members of the group and trying to balance that with her personal beliefs. Worth seeing.
World War Z. B. I was in the middle of the book and didn't want to see the movie until I finish, but I couldn't help it and saw it opening weekend. Not a big deal as they are very different. This is a different kind of zombie movie. While most are horror flicks, this was more of a suspense movie. They cut out the gratutious gore associated with most zombie movies and gave it more of a plot. Fun for zombie fans and non-zombie fans.
Silent Running. D. Netflix. I have no idea why this is rated so well on Netflix. Sci-fi movie made in the sixties with blatant environmental message. Forests have died on the earth so they are growing them in a space station orbiting Saturn. Earth decides to abandon the project and for some reason that means they have to blow up the forests. One man understands the impact of losing all our forests so he kills everyone. My description made it seem way better than it is. At one point, he programs his robot helpers to play cards and you watch them play cards for about 10 minutes. Skip this one!

My Book Reviews

The Rent Collector. B. I loved this book while I was reading it. Then the author's comments on the back disappointed me. It was fiction! I was so inspired by the "true" story of this woman living at the dump in Cambodia and learning to read. The whole way through I thought it was true. I was mad when it wasn't. Although toward the end, it started getitng a little unbelievable. It was based on real people which bothers me wondering how much is true and how much is fiction. I still recommend the book, but know what you're getting into.
Divergent. B+. Fun, quick read. YA fiction. Your basic strong female in post-apocolypic world fighting to make change. Even though the story's been told over and over, this one was very engaging. I can't wait to read the next in the series!
World War Z. B+. For staters, this is very different from the movie. It's 10 years after we won the zombie war. The book is a series of interviews with survivors. I was hesitant about the way it was written and that I wouldn't stay involved without a central character. However, the book created a very real world. So much so that when I was getting off the freeway one morning and saw some homeless people waking up under a bridge, for just second, I thought they were zombies. I also wanted to bring it up in conversation. Like when someone was talking about North Korea, I wanted to say, "Did you hear how they handled the Zombie Apocalypse?' It was a fun book. I've never read a zombie book before and I may never again, but I'm glad I read this one. It also was welcome to read a book that isn't a strong female character overcoming incredible odds. I'm seriously weary of that plot line.
Waiting to be Heard. B+. I've followed the Amanda Knox case for several years. I thought, since I knew most details of the case, this might be boring. I was surprised at how engaging and well written it was. She is a quirky girl and, while the complete lack of physical evidence makes me sure she is innocent, I can see why people think she is hiding something. The book was haunting to think the someone who doesn't understand a culture coupled with a corrupt prosecutor could put an innocent person in jail for years.
Girl Gone. C-. Maybe it was called Gone Girl. I don't remember. Book club book. I've never gotten into mysteries. This one took a while to get into, then I couldn't put it down, then it ended and I wished I never picked it up. Ridiculous ending.
The Kitchen House. B-. I have no idea how to rate this book. It was slow to start. Once things started to happen (murder), I found myself sucked in and not wanting to put it down; however, once I did put it down, I didn't look forward to picking it up again. I'm not sure why. Maybe because it's similar to a bunch of other books I've read. I'm just getting weary of the genre and need to mix it up a little. Overall, an interesting read. The story of a young white girl who is indentured when her family dies on the boat from Ireland to America. Her relationship with her new family (the slaves whom she is sent to live and work with) and how her life is different from them because of the color of her skin.
The Happiness Project. D. I'm reviewing the book, but I'm not going to finish it. I knew this wasn't my favorite genre, but it was the book club pick this month so I thought I'd give it a chance. I didn't see the point of reading someone's goals. I sometimes feel like these "self-help" books are an excuse for people to feel like they are doing something to be happier, when really they are an excuse to avoid working on yourself by living through someone else's experience. Instead of reading the book, how about spend that time working on your own "happiness project". As I read, I kept thinking it should have been a workbook for readers to complete their own project while reading hers. I'll be interested to hear how others in book club liked it.

Friday, July 18, 2008

The Scariest Thing

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