We own a collection of silly old cartoons (like 1930s old) on VHS and every once in a while, I'll remember a phrase from one of the little episodes in these cartoons. Hence, the post title.
Creepy, crawly things do come out during spring. After cleaning my room for four hours the other week, I felt comfortable that unwelcome visitors could not enter through any dusty crevices, gaps in the walls or open windows. I was wrong.
Two days ago, I was working at my desk on a draft for my independent study when I got up to stretch and saw a medium sized brown spider on my ceiling. I mean right smack in the MIDDLE of my room ceiling. Not wanting to panic, I did the usual five minute stare at the insect, simultaneously shocked and hopeful it would scurry off and disappear into whatever ceiling crack it came through. Naturally, it must have felt my eyes glued to it that it sat there frozen. Did I mention I am terrified of bugs?
I thought about what to do. It was 11am at that time, and extremely warm outside. After staring at it, I walked in and out of my room, peeked in a few times, and tried to decide whether or not I could kill it and how. So I went to the kitchen, grabbed a broom, brought it back and once again, stared. Sweating and standing several feet away, I started waving the brush end of the broom at the spider. He/She didn't flinch. I put the broom down and thought, "You know what, this spider isn't bugging me. I should just let it be and continue studying." So I did. For about 10 minutes.
My next weapon was the vacuum. Needless to say, that failed.
I sprayed Lysol at it, flailed my arms like an idiot around it, uttered threatening words at it like it would understand. Nothing worked.
Two hours later, I manned (womaned?) up and confronted the spider with the broom again. With a quivering hand, I slowly approached the body of it and whacked it within an inch of its life. When it hit the floor I kept whacking until I couldn't even determine if there was a spider on the floor. It blended into my stupid coffee-colored carpet!! The vacuum came in handy at that point...
Over the years I've become more sympathetic and less fearful of animals but I've never been able to warm up to insects. My roommate in my sophomore year of college was Jain, and no matter what bug appeared in our dorm room, she would never kill it. Instead, she picked it up and let it free into the wilderness (seriously, that is an accurate description of my college campus). Oh how I wish I had the courage. As much as I love the warmer weather, I can certainly do without the pests that love it too.
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