9:54 a.m. - 2005-10-17
if not one, then the other
Dear readers, you may all let out a collective sigh of relief. I am back. I survived the ropes course. During all of the "ground level" team building activities, I became increasingly nauseated by the inevitable wall obstacle. We did the "knot" game where you all hold hands in a twisted mass and untangle yourselves. We did a "land mine" game where you had a partner, and one of you was blindfoled and had to guide you without touching you through a filed of "land mines", i.e. tennis balls. I ended up on a team with about 4 former football players, who easily caught me during the "trust fall" (a backwards fall from the top of a five foot post, into the waiting arms of your teammates. Time came for the wall. And granted, the trust fall made the wall acitvity seem slightly less scary, however I was definitely nervous about any number of the following things: them failing to shove my ass up over the 10 foot high structure, me getting halfway up and then getting stuck, dangling helplessly, me feeling nauseated can make me a little gassy, and I think we all know what I was afraid of with regard to that. Despite all of this, after we (I say we, but I mean "they" because the guys did all of the work on this one) got our two guys up on top, to assist in pulling up everyone else, I volunteered to be first, thinking that everyone's arms would probably be strongest at the beginning, and so I stepped up, half terrified and half determined. I put my foot in the "stirrups" the guys made with their hands, envisioning broken fingers and dislocated arms, and well, I basically "zoomed" right up, was grabbed by two sets of hearty hands and was half shoved and half pulled up and over. It was no big deal. There was that uncomfortable moment where I was poised, one leg on one side of the wall, and one leg on the other, straddling a 1 inch wide board (Ouchies!) until the guys lifted me over and onto the platform, to the applause of my very supportive team.
Now, if you recall, in various previous emails, I have mentioned how I have this irrational fear of spiders. I also do not care at all for bees and wasps. They are like flying spiders. We had bees everywhere the whole weekend and there were several incidents where people got stung. I hate getting stung! It hurts all day and generally swells alarmingly. Well, we were sitting in a large circle in this room, during a session where there were a lot of bees. I felt something on my shoulder and turned...about one inch from the end of my nose, I was face to face with a rather large spider. Just sitting there. On my shoulder. Holy Shit. There was no way I could freak out in this session. I was paralyzed. It suddenly moved toward my face and I just swatted it. I couldn't see where it went. I just knew it wasn't on me anymore. I breathed out slowly and realized I was sweating. I tried to just move on mentally, and focus on what the speaker was saying. I leaned back and movement caught my eye. The spider was on the back of the neck of Jim, the person sitting next to me. I had flung it ONTO him! I wasn't sure what to do, since my flinging, would likely result in it landing on the next person. The spider began to move and was about to go under his shirt. Well, I just could not stand by and let someone experience my absolute worst nightmare...a spider coming between me and my clothing and being IN my clothing with me. Arghghgghgh!!!!!
I bravely reached over...and poked John, the person on the other side of Jim. I pointed to the spider, now halfway under Jim's t-shirt. John's eyes widened, and with mighty and potentially sacrificial heroism, plucked the spider with his fingers from Jim's neck, squished it with a definitive pinch, and flung it's dead body onto the floor. We gave each other a "good work" nod, and turned our attention back to the speaker. He doesn't need to know I almost peed my pants.
