spiders follow me

I've never been the kind of girl who is afraid of insects or other small creatures. Whenever a lizard or frog got trapped indoors I would calmly pick it up [with my bare hands] and set it free outside. Whenever some kind of bug was in the house I squashed it without thinking twice [or I set it free if I was feeling nice] and moved on with my life. 

But I don't think I ever had to encounter one of these:

Spiders are EVERYWHERE in this town. I've had many unpleasant encounters with these nasty little creatures since we moved here. Once a HUGE one sneaked into the house and I just about freaked out. I called Alex at work and was practically crying about the stupid thing. I managed to trap it in a cup and there it stayed until Alex came home and set it free. Another time I was in my counseling class and there was a spider on my desk...bleh! I swatted it off and stepped on it. Mind you, I sit in the front row right in front of the professor, so I tried to be discrete, but I was grossed out. 

The worst encounter happened yesterday. I was sitting in my theology class. My professor was just beginning class and opened with a joke [like he always does...he's actually quite funny], so I laughed and glanced down and there it was. A spider [sure, it was tiny, but it was a spider nonetheless] was sitting on my leg....my leg! I jumped a little and swatted it away with my pen. I tried looking for it on the floor, but couldn't see it. I tried to forget about it and concentrate on the lecture. A few minutes later, it was on my desk. This spider has spunk. I swatted it away again and this time looked under my desk. There it was. Hanging upside down from the bottom of my desk. I tried to swat at it again with my pen and it jumped and hung by its string! I almost jumped out of my desk. Some guy was sitting next to me so I turned to him and whispered, "There's a spider on my desk..." He just kind of raised his eyebrows and said, "That's creepy." I'm sure he thought I was crazy. I whispered to him, "I'm going to move..." Why I was whispering to him, I have no idea. 

So I, very slyly, moved to the desk behind me. I was satisfied knowing that spider would no longer bother me and I could finally learn a thing or two about theology. 

Nay.

A few minutes later, it was back! This time it was crawling on the wall...towards my direction! I couldn't take my eyes off of it because I was terrified it would do one of its ninja jumps right into my hair. So I watched it as it slowly crawled across the wall and all of a sudden it stopped and looked at me. It looked at me. I was taken aback and filled with terror. He kept crawling and when he reached the edge of the wall [right next to me] he jumped. Again, I almost jumped out of my desk and I'm sure anyone who was sitting behind me was very amused by my odd and unusual behavior. Thankfully the spider jumped on the floor, not me. By this time it was 12:15, class was over at 12:20. 

So what did I learn in theology yesterday? That spiders are cruel and vicious creatures that follow me and enjoy seeing me squirm...and I think some stuff about the Bible too.