Tell Me About Your... Spider

WARNING-Not a post for those with sensitive stomachs.

OK, here's a joke for you (parental types may want to skip it)... what do an 80 year old hooker and I have in common? Answer... a very compromised gag reflex. (insert rim shot here)

So the latest manifestation of this pregnancy is a nearly instant gag reaction to icky things. I was finally feeling better, not overly sensitive to smells, eating different foods, not especially nauseous and now this. Nifty.

It started Thursday morning when I squashed a big spider that crawled out of my laundry. I almost instantly threw up. It was a very close call. The last time something like that happened was years ago when a bunch of people were in the kitchen of a friend who had a very nervous, skittish dog and someone dropped a pot that made a huge noise. The dog immediately ran out of the room while pooping and it was the most godawful thing you've ever smelled. It was pure fear and death all in a smell. All of us were fighting the instant urge to be sick. This was like that. I have no idea why, I've squashed many a spider and used to tape them to the wall à la Vlad the Impaler with no qualms. So what the hell?

I was working on set later that day and the client was a Psychologist. We were talking about spiders and I mentioned my incident that morning and she told me that in Freudian philosophy a spider represents your Mother (doesn't everything though?). In light of that, it was interesting that I had such an instant and visceral reaction to killing something that represents motherhood. Put that in your pipe and smoke it Freud!

Of course, I had the same (actually worse, I'll spare you the details) reaction that evening to cleaning up the pool of barf my dog left me after he'd gotten into some chocolate as a present on the kitchen floor. Certainly didn't help that the last thing I'd eaten was a chocolate brownie. This better go away before the baby arrives as I understand there are often lots of icky things coming out of them and I don't want to be adding to it!