Spin Cycle: Fears (yikes!)

This week, I have taken up the challenge of a Mystery Spin Cycle, offered by Sprite's Keeper. Normally we all blog on the same topic, but this week, random topics were chosen by Jen and Sprite herself. My topic this week? Fears. (I was told that love would be too easy of a topic to discuss, considering previous posts...ha)

Fears...I have many, as I'm sure we all do, so I'm going to narrow mine down to a top 10 for you all. Now, don't judge...some of these are irrational, but hey, they're MY fears! These are listed in no particular order:

10.  Clowns - Ever since I saw It by Stephen King, I am petrified of clowns. That, and there was an episode of All My Children that had a clown in it with Erica Cane...I think she was raped by the clown or something, but it totally scarred me. I hate clowns. I will go out of my way to avoid them when approached by one at a public event. Ugh. Scary.

9.  Spiders (well, all creepy crawly bugs for that matter) - If I see a spider in my house, that thing is dead. Dead as the day is long, but I have had a few really gross spiders in my apartment before. Once when I lived on my own there was one in my bathroom at the top corner of the wall, and this thing was huge and hairy. So huge that you could hear it breath. I smashed it with my Swiffer and flushed it down the toilet, screaming the entire time, of course. And I check the bed for spiders every night, too. Neurotic? Yes, but what if there was a spider in my bed? I'd want to know!

8.  Snakes - Once, we were at the zoo, and we went to the desert part of the zoo because my companion wanted to go. I knew I didn't because the desert? Seriously? Lizards, hairy spiders, and snakes? No thank you. I don't care how cute meerkats are, snakes scare the bejesus out of me. But my companion wanted to go see the snakes. Ugh. So we went. And it's in this dark room, where several different types of snakes are lined up on the wall in glass cages. That's fine, let's keep them there. But they had this kid who must have been interning at the zoo or something who was walking around with a snake talking about the different types. He spotted me, and he must have known I was scared, because he kept following me around. Over and over, and he kept talking about what the snakes ate and how they killed their prey. I wanted to hit the little punk. There was a line to get out of the room, but you bet I beelined it there as soon as the room cleared out. Ugh, I hate snakes.

7.  Needles - I hate needles, too. I faint when I get blood drawn, and getting shots, I'm the biggest baby ever. This fear goes back to my childhood. See, I had heart surgery at the young young age of four months old. I was really not a healthy kiddo, and I had a lot of things done to me, needles, procedures, etc. Ever since then I'm scared to death of them. I had to get weekly allergy shots, too, as a kid, and I would try to negotiate my way out of it. Every Thursday would be a struggle. I'd cry, I'd beg, I would ask the nurse "can we talk about this? I'm really not comfortable with this?" Can you imagine your kid at the young age of six or seven trying to bargain with the nurse? Maybe that's where I got my lawyering skills. I've gotten better, but now, when I get blood work, I get all clammy and faint easily. I dread these appointments, and T always goes with me to distract me and hold my hand. God help me when we start having kids....

6.  Blood and guts - on that same note, I don't like seeing blood and stuff. Even fake blood. If CSI comes on, and they start pulling out some dead guy's guts, I get really creeped out. I think that goes along the same lines as needles, but still. I don't even like seeing my own blood, for that matter. Like I said, god help me when I have kids....

5.  Flat tires - I've had a few situations where I've gone out to my car, and my tire is flat. I don't know how to change a flat tire, and yes, I probably should, but I don't. So every time I think my car looks like the tire is a little low, I'm extremely paranoid and make T check all of the tires twice because I'll be damned if I'm stuck with a flat tire again!

4.  (Some) dogs - I used to be scared of ALL dogs as a kid, even the little yippie ones you can kick out of the way. However, I've made a lot of progress in that area, so now I'm only scared of big dogs. Like pit bulls or rottweilers. My mom's cousin was brutally attacked by 3 pit bulls a few years ago, and man, those things can scare me to death. When T and I are out walking, and I hear a loud dog barking, I do kind of jump out of my skin just a bit. I can't help it. It's just an automatic reflex, but we're working on it...

3.  Making someone angry or disappointed - I'm a people pleasure, as much as it pains me to say it. I know I should say I don't care what people think, and I tell others they shouldn't worry about what others think, but I kind of do. If I know I've let someone down or hurt someone or angered them, it takes quite a bit for me to get over that. So yes, irrational fear as it may be, a fear nonetheless.

2.  Losing a loved one...because, well, who wants that to happen? None of us, right? Moving on...

1.  Failure - I am my toughest critic. Not kidding either. I'm the kind of person who sets the bar really high and then gets upset when I don't do as well as I think I should. I have a huge fear of letting myself down or letting those I care about down. Not good.  And with me starting to write a book, I have this huge fear of failing at that or people not liking what I write.  I know, stop it....

So there you have it, folks! Nain's top 10 fears! What sorts of things are you afraid of