a 7th roommate! (and possibly more)

hello ladies and gentlemen... or whoever is reading this these days.

so I'm just posting because ... it's 11:30 and I want to go to bed, but I can't seem to find the courage to do so. You see, when I got home from class today, my roommate showed me a picture she had taken of a spider in our kitchen. if you connect the tip of your pointer finger to the tip of your thumb, and make a little circle, it was slightly bigger than that. And now, I cannot sleep.

Seriously. I'm afraid of spiders, but not really to the point of serious anxiety. I mean, we had spiders at home, but they were generally small. But these things are big. I have posted a picture for your viewing convenience. Ok, so we're not sure what kind of spider it really is, but our picture and the picture online seem strikingly similar, and we are convinced it's a hobo spider. Even if it turns out not to be, I will always think of it as a hobo spider. (Nichole sent the picture to her dad, so we are awaiting his verdict.) For the sake of this entry, we will just assume it was a hobo spider. So... hobo spiders are big. I have never really been a fan of big spiders.

And the fact that this is what can happen if you get bit by one, really isn't making me warm up to the idea of these things just roaming free in our apartment. Hobo spiders are poisonous. POISONOUS!!! Now, spiders at home were never poisonous, and therefore the worst thing to fear was the unpleasant discovery of such an arachnid friend in your shoe, or in a corner, or crawling down the wall during the shower of an unsuspecting, innocent, bystander. But now, I have to fear a poisonous bite that could cost me some internal tissue and causes an incredibly nasty looking bite on your body. I'm telling you, I fear this with a mighty passion.

My roommates were all kind of like "yeah its scary." and my room roommate was like "it's winter- they're coming in because it's cold out!" you know what? I don't CARE if it's cold out- a POISONOUS SPIDER belongs out in the world, away from scared young college freshmen from connecticut who have never had to live under the same roof as such a beast. (although i did live with a huge hairy tarantula... but it was caged, and relatively slow-moving...) I've heard this hobo spider thing has quite the physical finesse and can reach quite high speeds if necessary. (I did not see it, but my roommates' testimony was pretty convincing) FREAKY I'm telling you.

So anyway. I thought maybe if I wrote about it, I could successfully flush out all my fears of such spiders, but apparently it has only intensified it, causing me to be more scared than I was before I started writing... causing me to be even farther away from the desirable sleep.

My roommate tried to reassure me telling me that she killed it. "And", she added, "it was a female, so that's good!" ... I'm not sure what about that is good. In my opinion, a female generally means that she brought along all her little creepy hobo spider babies... into our apartment. And now they're just waiting to grow huge, when they'll plan a revolt and come out one night and attack us all for having condoned their mother's killing.

I'm telling you. I am afraid.

Anyway. I'll try to go to sleep now. I just had to get that out. Wherever you are reading this, I hope you do not have to deal with the fear of hobo spiders.

-Mollie