So I was sitting on my couch last night, coloring (yes, coloring, as in with Crayolas and a print-out of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, darn it), when I felt something crawl across my leg. I thought immediately that it was a roach, because even though I’ve greatly reduced their numbers around here (thank you, boric acid), they still turn up on occasion. However, when I got a look at it, I saw it was a fat spider. The spider quickly made his way across me, over the edge of the couch, and disappeared underneath it. I think it came from the binder I was using to color on, since it had been sitting on my bookshelf for several months without much disturbance. I’m now trying to decide whether I would have been more disturbed if it had been a roach, which would be disgusting, versus the actual spider, which was just creepy. I think the roach would have bothered me more, based on my past reactions to roaches: I jump around and try to get them away from me, all the while feeling kind of panicked. I grew up in a house full of spiders and used to delight in finding big, pretty ones outside as a child, so I bet I’m just more comfortable with them. That’s not to say I enjoy having them crawl across my person, especially my bare skin, but they’re just more normal to me than roaches, which I rarely saw growing up.

Which would bother you most?