Friday, August 20, 2010

Freak Me Out Friday

Five Things That Freak Me Out (in no particular order):

1. Flying. Apparently this is not genetic, as my DD loves to fly. She married a guy who also loves to fly, and is, in fact, a pilot. I can't say for sure she did this just to freak me out, but she did meet him during her rebellious teenage years. You do the math.

If you ever see something like this in the air...

...rest assured, it is NOT me.


2. The possibility of finding a gray hair. You know. There. Women in my family tend to start graying in our twenties, so seeing the hair on my head lighten up doesn't bug me. I look at it as Mother Nature's highlights -- way cheaper than having it done at the salon. But as for the other...well, I just don't want to contemplate it. (Silly, I know. But things that freak you out don't have to make sense.)

But gray HARES are fine...

(Admit it. You were kind of afraid of what picture I'd show for this one.)


3. Snot. I mean, eeewww. I can't even eat stewed okra, because if the cook accidentally sneezed into the pot while preparing it, how would you know?




4. Small, closed-in places. Yup, I'm claustrophobic. Though, for some strange reason, elevators don't bother me.



5. Driving over long bridges. (Or even being in the passenger seat.) The same goes for those freakin' highway fly-over ramps. *shudders*

Don't get me wrong. I can do it. I won't hyperventilate or anything. But I will pray the whole time.


So, how about you guys? Anything freak you out?

24 comments:

Jessica Lemmon said...

OMG, I have ALL OF THESE fears! But I would trade out Snot for Sharks.

(PS - my word verification is "tranny")

(PPS - bwwwaaaaa haha ah ahahaaaa!)

(PPPS - I'm very immature.)

JentheAmazing said...

Hmm...I'm not really afraid of heights or any kind of animal or anything, but I am afraid of cliff diving. You know, jumping off a cliff into the water below? Can't do it. I saw a movie in Spanish once where the MC did it and BAM, he hit his legs off the bottom and was paralyzed from the neck down. I'm thinking that's pretty much game over.

Snot? Really? Sure, it's gross, but it freaks you out? Okay, well to be fair, you know what really freaks me out? White foods with strange textures. Mayonnaise, cottage cheese, ranch dressing, sour cream...these would all be things to avoid.

Lynda Elkin said...

My husband is afraid of clowns. And lizards. I'm afraid of rejection and overstaying my welcome.

Daisy Harris said...

That's why I stared getting Brazilians. ;-)

Um, what scares me? Hm. Musicals. I always start crying at them. Don't know why.

Patty Blount said...

Clowns creep me out.

Chin hairs upset me.

Seafood... ugh.

Snakes.

OK. I'm gonna stop there because I just got this vision that creeped me out even more... You with a notepad, stroking a white cat, doing a Dr.Evil laugh. "Ah ha! So THIS is what keeps Patty awake at night! I can now bend her to my will whenever I want! Mua hahahaha."

Hanna said...

Spiders.
Thought I had gotten over it years ago, but a few weeks ago a long legged one came strolling through the open balcony door and... Well. I didn't scream? :)
So. When we went to Skansen and Skansen-akvariet, where you get to pet both snakes and spiders (link in swedish), I forced myself to do it. Very therapeutic, but I'm SO not over my phobia.

Anonymous said...

Wow. We have a lot in common, but #2...

I'm still laughing. I've honestly never even given it thought.

Christine said...

Okay so I love flying. And I think driving on driving on bridges is pretty cool too. :-) So those too things would not make my list.

Small space SOOOO freak me out. I can't even watch movies about them. Elevators that are too crowded make me shiver.

Add to that list any spider that has hair on it. Spiders should not be large enough to have visible hair. *shivers all over*

Yup, those are two things that totally freak me out.
Christine.

Laurie Lamb said...

Surprise vomiting freaks me out. My kids never give me any warning. Also freak worthy--the lingering smell of vomit. Once I steam cleaned one patch of carpet for days. Tip: boiling water on the spot kills the smell. Too bad that took me a week to find out.

Linda G. said...

Jessica -- Ooooh, sharks! Yeah, they freak me out too. And have I mentioned how much I appreciate your sense of humor?

JentheAmazing -- Geez-Louise! You'd have to be insane not to be freaked out by cliff diving. Er, in my humble opionion, of course. And I can't believe white foods w/strange textures freak you out more than snot. I mean, no texture is worse than snot!

Lynda -- Totally sypathize with the clown fear, but I really like lizards. They're cute. And you must be everybody's favorite house guest! :)

Daisy -- LOL! Now, the only thing that freaks me out more than lower body gray hair is the thought of having said hairs yanked out by the roots. ;)

Odd about the musicals, though. Maybe you were traumatized by Andrew Lloyd Webber at an impressionable age?

Patty -- Yeah on the clowns. Chin hairs? Ack. Now I have something else to worry about. Love seafood, though, and snakes I can take or leave.

But wait a sec...let me just finish jotting down a few notes...*laughs demonically*

Hanna -- *shudders* How could I forget spiders? Funny how I totally missed that part of Skansen when we were there. ;)

Posey -- That's the thing about stuff that freaks you out--it can be totally weird.

Christine -- Ah, a fellow claustrophobe. And, gawd, if I were ever trapped in a small place with a spider...EEK! Heart attack time.

Laurie -- Vomit is almost as bad as snot. Thanks for the boiling water tip! Hope I won't have to use is anytime soon. ;)

Thanks for sharing your freak-out fears, guys! It's nice to know I'm not alone.:)

Candyland said...

I'm with you on most of these! Add to this list: clowns, dying, farm machinery, plastic cups, blood, swamps, oceans, losing someone I love and twins. Among the many, many fears I deal with on a daily basis!!!!

Elizabeth Ryann said...

I wasn't even going to mention the normal fears like clowns (who likes them?? Who??) or any sort of animal that can, like, scent your fear. Of course I'm afraid of losing people I love, and diseases--especially the ones where your mind goes first like everything that makes you you is being erased before your eyes (Yes, "Flowers for Algernon" traumatized me when I was very young.). I'm actually way more scared of driving than flying, and I do that a lot more often, which stinks, but there are so many more whackadoodles with a car that can hurt you that I feel that fear is justified. Plus the police like to pull me over a lot for things like dead light bulbs, and that seriously stresses me out.

But the fear I have that's probably the most irrational is diving into a pool. Whenever I try and make myself do it, I start having a panic attack (though I was once able to bypass that when a toddler had fallen in and I jumped in after her without thinking about it at all). I'm pretty certain this stems from a bad dive I had when I was about 11, and I hit the water with my face, hard, and got a really bad bloody nose, and I was really disoriented and couldn't see which way was up because of all the blood in the water, and I eventually made it to the side of the pool but managed to him my head there during the process of finding the side of the pool, and it was all very traumatic. And since I didn't make myself try again before the fear really had a chance to set in, it was really hard to force myself to do it ever after. Though since I'm pretty confident I can pinpoint the source of my irrational fear, it doesn't seem all that irrational anymore.

Sierra Godfrey said...

Couldn't agree more with Elizabeth that animals who can smell your fear are BAD NEWS.

Also I am very afraid of spiders and their unnatural nasty legs.

Also, I'm afraid of aliens climbing in my bedroom window at night and bumping their knee on the sill, which is what wakes me up, and yet I can't do anything because they've paralyzed me with mind control. The aliens in this fear are gray with big heads and eyes...you know, Roswell-style.

Then I think about the aliens in that movie Signs and my skin crawls. Can you imagine finding one of those bastards in your pantry? GOOD GOD.

Also, I'm very afraid of being mowed down by men with uzis in the middle of the night, who come in and just shoot regardless and if you try to hide, they find you anyway. This is actually a Schindler's List style fear.

TAWNA FENSKE said...

I was going to talk about my needle phobia, but then I got the heebie jeebies.

*shudder*

Tawna

Linda G. said...

Candyland -- Okay, I can understand all of those except twins? Were you terrified by bratty twins as a child? Or is it the the prospect of double diapers?

Elizabeth -- I've come to the conclusion that nobody really likes clowns. They are universally terrifying. And driving -- yeah, I totally get that. I try not to think about it, though, since I have to drive.

Re your diving experience: I believe your fear there is entirely rational. :)

Sierra -- Personally, I have an irrational fear of really bad movies, like Signs. There's only one good scene in that movie, and it involves tinfoil. ;)

Tawna -- LOL! I thought we'd agreed to call them "daisies" from now on. ;)

abby mumford said...

the blogosphere is very parallel today. lots of entries about stories/characters you love(d)/when to keep or kill.

and then there are a few about FEARS. one of my major fears is traveling. don't get me wrong, i love to do it (hee), but i have the worst sense of direction/i hate looking like i don't know what i'm doing which translates to an irrational fear of asking for help when i most desperately need it. and also, i hate when out of towners ask me for directions because i'm afraid to lead them astray.

i need one of those tracker chips put in me so i can always be located and pulled back home.

Hallie Sawyer said...

Deep water and what lies beneath freaks me out. I have snorkeled about 7 or 8 times hoping to rid myself of the fear but it is still there. The underwater world is fascinating but even cute sea turtles freak me out. Try hyperventilating with a snorkel. Not good.

Also, birds freak me out. Not all birds. Just the birds in the pet store. They sit there and stare at you with their beady eyes, just waiting for you to come a little closer, a little closer, then, "SQUAWK!". Freaks me out!

Sage Ravenwood said...

I get freaked out by Porcelain dolls and open closet doors. I have a hard time falling asleep in a room with a closed door. Hotels are utter misery.

Otherwise, I tend to be one of those more adventurous souls. I'll travel back-roads up mountains, where there is barely enough room for the vehicles tires. (Hugs)Indigo

demery bader-saye said...

spiders
&
george hamilton's tan

growing up with three brothers and
being them other of three boys has
pretty much conditioned me out of
other freak outs.

happy freakin' friday!

demery bader-saye said...

make that the mother
instead of them other :)

Dianne K. Salerni said...

#1 I'm starting to get over, I hope.

#2 Yes, that's a horrible shock. Let's not talk about it.

#3 and #4 are unpleasant, but I don't swell on them.

#5 is a big fear of mine, along with roller coasters in the open air. (I recently discovered that roller coasters in the dark, where I can't see the air, are kind of fun. This probably somehow relates to #1: things in the air fall down sometimes

courtney said...

Totally boring, but SPIDERS.

And that PICTURE of the dude on the plane freaks me out. I am now afraid of flying and watching other people do insane things up in the air.

Jessica Bell said...

ahhahaha! Pissing myself laughing here! Umm ... ahem ... yeah, that could probably be one of my fears too ... ;o)

Are you a writer? Then you MUST enter this CONTEST!

Linda G. said...

Abby -- A built-in GPS? Boy, I could use one of those. My sense of direction sucks, too, but I don't really mind asking for directions. I figure people just naturally like telling other people where to go. ;)

Hallie -- Snort! Hyperventilating with a snorkel? I think you just gave me a good idea for a scene. ;) Re your other fear: were you perhaps traumatized by Alfred Hitchcock's movie "The Birds" as a small child? That would do it!

Indigo -- Those porcelain dolls ARE kind of creepy. The closed doors thing sounds like a touch of claustrophobia to me, so I can relate. But, OMG, I can't believe you drive on those narrow roads up mountains! *shudders* There's not enough Valium in the world to make me do that.

demery -- LOL! George is looking a little too toasty these days, isn't he? I have three brothers, too. Not sure if they helped with my fears or just added to them. ;)

Dianne -- Oooh, roller coasters! I forgot those -- they freak me out big-time, too. My dad took me on one when I was six, after pointing at it and asking me several times if I was SURE I wanted to try it. I thought he was pointing at the Carousel, and kept nodding. Needless to say, I screeched the WHOLE TIME. Poor Dad.

Courtney -- Spiders. Yup. Totally understandable. And sorry about the pic, bb! I hope I haven't traumatized you into never looking up at the sky again!

Alli Allo -- Ha! One word: Depends. ;)

Thanks for all the freakin' great comments, guys! :)