So I have this fear of tarantulas. Even typing the word aids in my visioning them crawling under my desk. My back starts tingling, I start sweating, and panicking that they are crawling on me. I have to stop typing about this before I freak out. Overall, I know that I am relatively safe. I have vowed never to step foot in the states of Arizona, and New Mexico. It is a well known fact that during a family drive one summer from Alaska to South Padre Island, Texas - I did not get out of the car until we were at the Texas border. Living in NYC, I know to stay away from pet stores*. It is also a well known fact that when I see a picture of said arachnid I start screaming and throw the book/magazine across the room, stand up and start crying. That's how bad it is. Cry me a river. Once Elizabeth gave me a thank you card, and inside there was a big spider cut out from a magazine. She highly enjoyed watching me freak out, and then get furious at her. In doing all of this torture (she did it on numerous occasions) I no longer trust receiving any mail from her.
Anyway, all was going well with my phobia until the financial company SPDR started running that ad campaign featuring the big brown spider, and the black widow spider. These ads run in the two weekly's that I read: NY Times Mag & The New Yorker. Basically I have not read the NY times mag in a while, and luckily my summer roomie was a girl from Arizona who would ever so kindly go through the New Yorker before I read it, and rip out the ad. (I personally think she was tired of hearing me scream and throw it across the room.) Well, I no longer have the kind roommate to go through the mag for me - so this week's New Yorker has just been sitting here on my desk. Marcos stopped by, so I asked him to tear the ad out for me. He did so, and told me to write about my phobia. I asked why I would want to do that - to which he replied: "because your website is so you." So there, I wrote about my phobia.
*This is interesting to note - my 7 year old friend (she turned 8 last week - so that will take some adjusting too, when she gets back) is obsessed with pet stores. She finally succeeded in dragging me into the Petco on 86th - I asked the man working behind the counter were the spiders where kept, and he informed me that there were no arachnids in pet stores in New York City. He said that one of the first rules that Guilani passed, was that of banning the selling of Tarantulas in NYC. If that doesn’t make me love new york, I don't know what it will take.