say hello to my little friend...

Or, perhaps, not so very little at all...?  Before Saturday evening, when Jacob, Julia, and I wandered into the hills of Griffith Park, I was blissfully unaware that we even had tarantulas in California.   Let me stress that- blissfullyunaware.  That spider, waiting right there at the edge of the trail, was so freak-show huge that I was able to put myself into some kind of mind-body disconnect and get close enough to it to put my water bottle in the picture for scale.  The fact that I was able to do so, without running away screaming and crying, means two things:

1) I have clearly (and unknowingly) experienced some huge personal growth in the phobia department.

AND

2)  I was quite winded from having walked up the beginning part of the trail twice and could bear the thought of running down the hill (forget running up- the whole quite winded thing) and then having to hike it again once I had calmed down.

I like to think of that misty grey as "haze" rather than smog.  If I wasn't from the Bay Area, I would get extra romantic and call it fog- but I know better.  Fog it isn't.  Julia pointed out that if I call it haze, it just sounds like a particularly lovely yarn, and thus couldn't possibly be harmful, right... right?

Comments

[Kathy]

Haze sounds quite poetic....til you breathe it. Such are the joys of living around LA, right?

[Anna]

*scream*. the mind body disconnect is right, i have to do that to deal with things the size of my little fingernail, with critters like that, i think i'd have to move house.

[Marnie]

Ok, I was a little frightened when I was told there were black widdows around here, though I've since come to terms with it. Now THIS? I'm not sure I'm ready for tarantulas.

But hey, kudos to you for the whole bravery thing. You are a better woman than I am.

[Julia]

I'm not sure the picture does the spider justice - I could swear it was bigger than the water bottle! You did really well on our hike, though, so don't worry. It just takes a while to get used to the up-hills. E-mail me pics when you get a chance - all of them!!! xox

[Monica]

Well, you are a brave one! That brings back memories of my childhood. My sis was very rebellious and she insisted she wanted a pet tarantula. My parents, hoping she would take one look at a real one and change her mind took us to a pet store. One look and I ran smack into a glass door! I freaked!