Things that go bump in the night

Have you ever allowed someone to tell you a scary story and though you’re an adult and logically know there is no such thing as monsters, when you shut off the lights and go to bed every last corner of your house seems to have something like this lurking around.

See, this is scary. What could it be? Probably a half faced ghost with blood soaked fangs, but you can't tell because it's dark.

Well that’s what my night was like last night. Some friends got off talking about scary things during our ride home from Chili's and by the time we got home we were all so unnerved that one couple (who conveniently live just across the hall from us) came over to our house for a little Wii Mario Party instead of going straight home, to lighten the mood. This helped immensely and when I went to bed I was in incredibly light spirits and thought, huh I guess I've overcome my wimpiness.

While Mario Party helped sleep come quickly initially it did not prevent me from waking up drenched in sweat with my heart racing like I had just broken the world record in the 400m sprint, repeatedly through the night. Some of that adrenaline must have gone straight to baby because she was bouncing around in my belly with a ferocity I have never before experienced. By 4:40am I had enough of pretending to sleep and so I got up to read, write in my journal and watch a movie in the living room... with every light on.

Movie selection when I am terrified is a very delicate process, the movie needs to lighten my mood yet be innocent enough to invite those warm fuzzies into my home. After perusing my selection I decided that nothing is warmer and fuzzier than Santa (except Jesus, but we didn’t have any movies about him), so I watched “Miracle on 34^th Street” and FINALLY got some sleep.

The moral of the story is that I have not overcome my wimpiness at all. I am still absolutely incapable of dealing with anything dark at all. So I stand by my previous conclusion that all scary movies, haunted houses, and personal stories of encounters with the “other world” are things that I should avoid at all costs. In the future if necessary I will resort to the childish, yet effective method of jamming my fingers in my ears while “la, la, la’ing” while such things go on around me. I know, I’m not normal at all…