Just for Susan

My older sister, Susan, HATES spiders! With a passion!! In fact, we have several family jokes surrounding her phobia. Tent checks with flashlights, shaking the mail off outside of the car before it enters the vehicle, watching her do a "crazy-person" dance if she felt a spider web on her......These were all a part of my childhood and growing up with Susan.

Now, being the delightful little sister that I was, I decided at a very young age that I LIKED spiders. I LOVED spiders!! All simply to irritate and annoy my older sister. Heh Heh Heh. I used to catch them and let them crawl all over me, refuse to kill one that might have found his way into my room and then take it a step further by naming him-- and anything else I could think of.

So yesterday, on my 38th birthday no less, I was measuring a house and had to squeeze between the building and a large rhododendron. Needless to say, I ended up wearing the spider web of an autumn sunshine-loving spider like a hat, and proceeded to do the "crazy dance" in the yard of a complete and total stranger. (For those of you that don't understand, the crazy dance comes unheeded with the assumption that you are probably also wearing the spider himself somewhere on your body.) I have to admit that I immediately thought of my sister. After that, I watched where I was walking much closer and took the attached photo of the next hairy beast that I saw. I'm still going to contend that I'm not afraid of spiders. I just didn't much like the unexpected feeling of his web in my hair and all over my face. YUCK!!!

So, dear elder sister, feel free to gloat and laugh at the mere thought of me dancing all over the yard of some stranger frantically grabbing at my hair and face. I admit it.....I've more than earned it for all the times I made fun of you. Love you, Big Sis!!! :) And to my other older sister, Marj, I'm still not sorry for all those times I locked you in the basement......yet. :) I'll blog about that another time...