August 20th, 2009
Tonight I sat about a foot away from a (caged) tarantula, for hours, and I totally kept my shit together. Okay, except for that one moment when he suddenly darted across his cage all fast-like, at which point I may have uttered a womanly squeal of distress… but that’s it. Well, okay, I also had to periodically check and make sure he was in fact still incarcerated and not, say, climbing up my hair onto my scalp where he would surely kill me with the sheer force of his terrifyingness. But other than a little harmless checking and that one alleged squeal I was pretty cool.
And, even though spiders are clearly still hateful, awful little monsters, I can sort of see why some very odd and maladjusted people might think they are cool and interesting enough to keep as pets. Loathsome pets. Which do not love you.
Maybe having a tarantula in my social circle will be good for me. Who knows, I may overcome my phobia entirely once and for all.
In other news, you really need to watch Errol Morris’s documentary “Vernon Florida.” It is possibly the best movie I have ever seen. It is one solid hour of bizarre and I pretty much laughed the whole way through from the sheer hilarious oddness of it all. You might enjoy it too.