Fear
I am a total wuss.
Last night, I inadvertently caught a glimpse of the trailer for that new movie called something like “A Haunting in Connecticut.” I went to bed with images of teenage boys vomiting gaseous substances and some little humanoid thing sitting in front of a wall of flames.
At about 11:30, Signe woke up crying. I’m trying this new thing where I don’t pick her up and rock her back to sleep but instead I stand over her crib and soothe her by talking to her and rubbing her chest. It takes me three times as long to get her to sleep, but it works eventually and I’m hoping it will break her newfound habit of waking up five times each night.
So when she woke up, I stood over her crib soothing her while trying not to turn around every 30 seconds because I was convinced that the vomiting boy and the weird fire baby were standing behind me. I would say “It’s OK. I’m right here. Go back to sleep.” while holding back groans of fear. To my irrational, awake-in-the-middle-of-the-night mind, it was no coincidence that two of our nightlights went out last night. It was a conspiracy of some supernatural order to make me even more terrified.
At one point, as Signe tossed and turned and tried to go back to sleep, she reached her hand through the back of her crib to touch the wall. I froze and almost shrieked out “No, don’t you know that the space between your bed and the back wall is where the monsters live?!”
Seriously. I thought that. I’m 33 years old.
Of course Signe doesn’t know that. Her biggest fear is that I might try to make her eat peas again today. Actually, she doesn’t even know to fear that. And I’m so jealous!
Let’s hope Signe doesn’t inherit this particular quirk of mine.
Now I’m off to buy more nightlights. And backup nightlights.
March 29th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
You and me, both, friend. When that movie trailer comes on at home, Jack & I wip our heads around away from the t.v. and simultaneously yell to Ed (who has the remote 80% of the time) “Change it! Change it! Change it!”
I like to tell myself that I cannot handle scarry movies AT ALL (even the bad ones) because I am so sensitive to all the emotions of life – that I live so fully that I cannot handle the extremes of fear– that I am blessed to NOT be desensitized (like everyone else in the world is according to pop culture).
Yeah, in other words, I’m a wuss, too.
April 1st, 2009 at 12:17 pm
I love scary movies. It’s Youtube that scares me. or mostly Youtube when my friend says “Look up impalements.”
April 6th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Jesus, I thought I was the only freak about that stuff.
After Poltergeist, I started stuffing things under my bed, got rid of anything remotely associated with clowns, wouldn’t eat steak, couldn’t look in a mirror for too long, removed the closet doors in my bedroom (at the age of ten), and was freaked out by the walnut tree outside my bedroom window. I still don’t eat red jello to this day.
Don’t even ask about The Ring, I’m still afraid to watch TV all alone, especially if there’s fuzz. I’m getting chills.
Why?!?! Why?!?! Such unecessary cinema!!!