terrifying.

Confession.

You guys, I am terrified of wasps. And hornets. And bees.

I think I can pinpoint the cause of my fear to childhood. I was playing with a group of neighborhood kids on some abandoned pallets in a field behind our house. At some point one of the kids must have kicked a nest of paper wasps that was (unknowingly) underneath one of the pallets. A swarm of angry black paper wasps materialized and we ran. By some miracle, I didn't get stung, but the youngest of the group, a little girl named Hailey, was stung so many times that she was hospitalized. The sound of those wasps was awful, and just typing this paragraph makes my heart race and my skin prickle.

I am a 25 year old mother and I freak out at the sight of a wasp. I know my response is irrational, and I know that wasps are more likely to sting people who make a commotion, but I can't help it. Something comes over me and I kind of lose it - I've been this way since I was little, and I attribute it to the above experience. The worst part of this confession? I've actually only been stung one time in my entire life, and that was because I stepped on a honey bee. One of those big, fat, furry ones that people always say "don't sting" (lies). And I'm not allergic or anything either.

Over the years I've gotten marginally better at handling this fear. And I should clarify - honey bees don't elicit quite the same response as wasps and hornets. I find paper wasps (or mud wasps, as we called them growing up) to be especially terrifying. When I see a honey bee, the hairs on my arms stand up and I watch it like a hawk, but I can usually control my urge to flee. And I recognize that honey bees are crucially important for crops and that they're slowing vanishing (which could spell disaster for our food system) and all of that. But wasps and hornets on the other hand...*shudder*. In fact I just looked it up, and I think I can easily diagnose myself with spheksophobia (fear of wasps).

So... can you imagine my horror when I looked up while showering tonight and saw seven wasps flying around inside of my bathroom ceiling fan/light fixture (it's one of those cheap enclosed ones..it looks like this)? I bolted out of the damn shower in a millisecond and yelled for my husband. He laughed at me (he thinks my fear is ridiculous) and headed into the bathroom. I don't think he believed me at first.

In my head I thought he would surely be swarmed and the wasps would take over our house and I'd have to run outside in my towel to save the baby from being stung and .... yeah. Now you understand why he laughs at me.

Anyways, Nate saw that there were in fact, several wasps up there, so he put on a winter coat and hat and took down the ceiling fan. Within a few minutes he'd gotten all of them out of our bathroom. Three were smushed and the rest got to live (for now) when he threw the tray from the fan out the window.

Husband to the rescue.

Then he promptly came downstairs and told me to stop googling "wasps in ceiling fan". Of course I didn't listen, and now I'm pretty sure we have an infestation and a giant wasp nest in the attic and that we need an exterminator before I can ever shower again. Google is just as bad as Web MD sometimes.

But in all seriousness, I really don't want to pass this fear onto my son. So I'm going to put it into writing - I need to get a grip. Or at least I need to swallow my fear while the kid is around. Feel free to leave any tips. And also leave any suggestions for dry shampoo, because I may not shower for awhile...