I cannot make this shit up

[mousme]

I just got a call from a woman who has been trapped in her car on the highway for 20 minutes because there is a spider in the car with her. She's so afraid of spiders that she is convinced she'll have an accident if she tries to drive with the spider in there with her.

I realise that phobias are not funny, that they are in fact very serious and potentially crippling psychiatric conditions, and that this woman probably legitimately can't do anything remotely sane like squish the spider or shoo it out of her car.

That being said, I am a bad person and I am going to hell, because damn it was funny anyway.

I had to transfer her to the SQ, who have jurisdiction over the highways, and I am quite sure that they were not nearly as sympathetic to her plight, unfortunately for her.

Comments

[miseri.livejournal.com]

I have fought a grizzly bear,
Tracked a cobra to its lair,
Killed a crocodile that dared to cross my path.
But the thing I truly dread,
When I've just got out of bed,
Is to find that there's a *spider* in the bath!

- Flanders & Swann

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Hee!

[primrose-1.livejournal.com]

As an arachnophobe myself, I sure do get it, but it's still funny!

I have a friend with a severe umbrella phobia. No, I'm not making it up. We were at a storytelling festival yesterday, and we decided to go get ice cream. There was miraculously no line, so I went up to the counter, ordered, got my ice cream, turned around, and to my surprise my friend wasn't behind me and ten other people had gotten in line after me. I found her standing beside the booth, and I asked her why she hadn't gotten in line. She pointed up to the two umbrellas that had been put over the booth to offer shade to the people in line. She couldn't go to the counter to order the ice cream, and was too embarrassed to ask me to order for her. She got Lime Rickeys from the other booth that didn't have umbrellas instead! I can understand unreasonable fears on a superficial level, but confronted with the reality of how it cripples my friend, it really does boggle my mind at how an umbrella could possibly affect her so badly.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Umbrellas? That's a new one on me. Your poor friend, what does she do when it rains?

[primrose-1.livejournal.com]

There isn't even a NAME for her phobia, it's so unique. When it rains, she wears a hat, but she won't touch an umbrella. It's summer that's the worst for her. One year she had to switch grocery stores because her local store decorated with beach umbrellas over every single checkstand.

[sorceror.livejournal.com]

However silly it may be, I still think it's a Good Thing that she didn't drive if a spider would have freaked her out so severely as to cause an accident.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. No good would have come of it.