Hello, my name is...

Sorry I haven’t updated in awhile. It’s because I’ve been having trouble logging into Blogger. That being the case, I’m not sure whether this will end up being posted as a blog or being sent around by the nice people I send it to.

Anyway, lots to say. This is only one of them. More as soon as I have time and a working technological infrastructure.

I finally got to see one of the big spiders here. It was in my bathroom, on the wall, behind the door. My reaction was to recoil, stare for awhile in facination/horror, then go get my camera (rather, Annie’s camera. Thank you Annie!). The spider, to his credit, was pretty chill about the whole thing, and was content to just sit there.

I took a few moments to put the camera on what seemed a correct setting (Pet: dark cat). When I entered the bathroom again, it was gone. Now…if there’s anything worse than seeing a giant spider on your wall, it’s not seeing a giant spider on your wall, when he was definitely there a second ago. I figured I’d used up my bravery quota for the day, and so I summoned my Appachi to find and get rid of it for me. He didn’t find it, so we assume that it left via the window.

Fine. Gone, and no worries. Except that he decided that he liked my bathroom, and decided to stay the night. That worked out okay. Again, he was very still. It was actually good in a way, because I had to stay up late and write a paper that night. Every time I started feeling tired, I opened up my bathroom door, stared at the spider for awhile, and I didn’t feel like going to sleep anymore.

In the morning, I looked around, and he was gone…or so it seems. I actually found him after some searching. Ask me to imitate it when I get back. My reaction was actually pretty hillarious. I didn’t scream, other than that my reaction was comparable to an 8 year old girl’s. Again, got my Appachi, who caught and removed it.

Now, for those of you who are thinking: “Removed? Why not kill it or flush it down the toilet?” First of all, buddhist country. No killing things if it can be helped. Second of all, these aren’t the sort of spiders you just step on. And flushing this spider would be comparable to flushing a chipmunk. It’s just not going to work out too well. In any case, Appachi removed it without incident.

One or two days later, I left my bathroom door open when I went to dinner (I usually keep it latched.) It seems that the spider likes my bathroom, but where he really wants to be is in my room. As soon as he saw the door was open, he must have booked it out of the bathroom, because when I got back from dinner he was chillin’ on the curtain that serves as a door to my room. “Appachi! I’ve got a visitor again! He’s got 8 legs and he’s really scary!”

It’s at this point that I learned the spiders have essentially 3 modes: Chill mode, where it’s motionless, Creepy Mode, where they do a slow, ominious crawl to where they want to go, and Freak Out Mode, where they go really fast. It’s at these last times that you realize that they don’t build webs. They chase their prey down, tackle it, and eat it. No idea what it is they eat though…

In any case, you’ve all got homework. I figure the only way this spider is going to be less threatening to me is if he has a name. Could be either a boy or a girl’s name. In any case, I’d feel better if I could gasp in surprise, then say admonishingly “Oh, it’s only you. Geeze Gary, don’t scare me like that.” Or “Shirly, you know you’re not allowed in the house. Get out of here before I have Appachi throw you out!” Or “Krogax, I call upon thee! Smite mine enemies!” Y’know. Whatever the situation calls for. So yeah, each of you needs to suggest a name for my “pet” spider. Classic, nutty, cute, epic, whatever you think it should be.