Creepies & Crawlies...

First of all, I am not afraid of many critters, but SPIDERS freak me the fuck out. Even ones that I know are harmless. Even daddy long-legs, for that matter!!! It's the legs, fangs, the fact that they carry a plethora of babies on their backs, all of it...

That being said, night before last, I had this weird dream where I was w/ my family & my boyfriend @ my grandparents' "farm" in Texas where these particular spiders are a dime a dozen, & while my grandmother was up reading a story to everyone (where the hell that came from, I don't know), Jon & I were off to the side just out of earshot. But the part that kept getting to me was that, behind me, a banana spider kept crawling up the wall/fence. No matter how much I tried to flick it off or get away from it, it kept coming back! Once I finally got rid of that one, another one popped up around my feet -- I even was able to just about crush it, but it's nasty little body was still flopping around. Then, I sat down & was unbothered for a little while, only to realize that I had sat on a spider & it was crushed & stuck to the back of my leg -- it literally gives me the chills just to think about it!!!

Now comes the weird part... I woke up the next morning & went to move a fern that is on my front porch (I know -- it shocks me, too, that I can keep a plant alive -- this poor fern has proven itself to be a survivor for it certainly isn't due to anything I did!). I reached for the handle of the pot w/out really looking, & my hand stabbed through a thick spider web (something that brings out total panic in me before I even see if it has a resident spider in it or not), so I drew my hand back quickly. And lo & behold, what is scuttling on what's left of the web between the fern & front door but a big-ass banana spider!!!! Okay, & the odds of this are? In Texas, it would not be as strange as it is in Mississippi (where they are not rare, but not as prevalent). Needless to say, it kind of creeped me out -- both the spider-factor itself as well as the coincidence factor.

I got to work the other day and was relaying the spider dream to a co-worker & she told me she had dreamed she was pregnant. I told her that I actually saw the spider the next day, so maybe she really was gonna get pregnant. Suffice to say, she was none too pleased with that theory.

And let me just say that, though I detest spiders, I DO NOT KILL banana spiders, or other big, relatively-harmless spiders that make their webs around my house... I just like to know where they are setting up shop so I can avoid them like the plague, you know?

Tangent --> I've always been interested in the symbolism of dreams, so of course, I could not help myself... I had to look up some different interpretations of what spiders might represent in dreams (I left all of my dream dictionaries @ home -- oh yeah, I several -- so I'm relying on the good ol' World Wide Web on this one):

• To dream of a spider, denotes you being careful and energetic in your labors and fortune will be amassed to pleasing proportions. Domestic happiness.
• Is the spider a threat - something that is creeping along stealthily towards you? While spiders are really pretty innocent in real life, many people are afraid of them [i.e. ME]. This could represent a worry you have in real life - that something unseen is planning on causing trouble for you. Could it be people spreading rumors, or someone you trust who is not really trustworthy?
• To see a spider in your dream, indicates that you are feeling like an outsider in some situation. Or that you may want to keep your distance and stay away from an alluring and tempting situation. The spider is also symbolic of feminine power. Alternatively, a spider may refer to a powerful force protecting you against your self-destructive behavior. If you kill a spider, it symbolizes misfortune and general bad luck... To see a spider climbing up a wall in your dream, denotes that your desires will be soon be realized.
• The spider is a symbol of poisonous and sinful desires, on one hand, and an emblem of skillful and creative attitudes, on the other hand. If you dream of a spider, you'd better be honest and work hard in order to be happy and successful. To dream of a spider sitting on your skin: you need to be ready to fight provocation and worries...