A List:

I am scared of the following:

Snakes: The snake is an unnatural beast, with the misfortune of being born without legs. I don't trust 'em further than I can throw them, because I find them unpredictable. No legs! Before anyone goes and says something stupid like, "snakes are friendly" or, "snakes are more afraid of you than you are of them" - well, just remember ... they're cold-blooded. There's no love running in those veins. Stupid snakes and their stupid slithering.

Needles: I'm not afraid of pain - playing an aggressive game of soccer usually meant that I wasn't able to get out of bed for school the next day. In fact, I subject myself to pain on a weekly basis, by continuing to make appointments for my personal trainer Matt to abuse me with his god-forsaken weight machines and treadmills. But I am deathly afraid of needles. Here's the extent of my phobia:

• When my high school was administering Hepatitis B vaccines in grade 10, I spent an entire afternoon in a stall of the girl's bathroom
• I have had 3 cavities filled (and one of them was deep) without any sort of numbing. Some of my more vivid memories.
• When I was applying to schools in the states for pre-med programs, I *only* applied to ones that didn't require a TB test to get in to
• I haven't had a vaccine or any sort of blood drawn since I was 5 years old (yup, it's true - one of my most interesting facts)

Ghosts: Okay - this one is really irrational. I have never seen a ghost. But I don't particularily want to, if they happen to exist. It might actually be more valid to say that I'm scared of the dark - or, rather, what's in the dark.

The Police: I have an unreasonable fear of the police - especially given that I am a law-abiding, seatbelt-wearing, tax-paying member of my community. But for some reason, if I see a police car in my review mirror, my first instinct is to run away, or start crying. I hate the idea that I could ever be in trouble, and I always feel like the police don't like me.

Public Transportation: I had an experience on a Calgary C-Train on June 28, 1998 that would forever change the extent to which I could trust the world. I haven't ridden alone on a train since. After it happened, my boyfriend at the time (Zach), who lived across the street from our high school, used to get up in the morning and ride the train down to meet me at Anderson Station, so that I wouldn't have to ride alone back to school. I will always remember this as one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me.

I am not scared of the following:

Heights: don't bother me. Sometimes I get dizzy when I look down from a high vantage point, but heights themselves have never presented a problem for me. I can rock climb, sit on the edge of balconies, and look over the top of cliffs without feeling like I want to throw up.

Thunderstorms: are my favorite part of the summer. There's nothing cooler than sitting on my porch and watching a storm roll in, trying to imagine the enormity of the clouds as they pile into an anvil and then unleash thunder so loud that it shakes the house. That's just cool. Besides, how are thunderstorms not the most romantic setting possible?

Death: I don't know how to be scared about death. It doesn't usually concern me - at least, my death doesn't. When I think about it, I imagine that it must be a lot like life was before I was born ... neither aware of myself nor in existance in any way that I would recognize. Sometimes I think that the world is becoming such a crazy place to live, that in 200 years I'm not going to want to be around anyway. But other people dying, people that I love? This terrifies me. I used to make Adam promise not to die every time we got off the phone together, as though his vow would somehow prevent this from happening.

I dunno. This just came out of nowhere, and I guess it's now time for bed :P
Maybe a normal blog tomorrow?