Hiss.....

Typed up Nov. 15....posted Nov. 22

I’m not sure if skydiving has turned me into a thrill-seeker, or if a part of me is just trying to face my fears and life’s challenges with courage, but I keep finding myself doing nerve-wracking things...such as holding a ball python in my hands. It may have only been a baby ball python, but it was still about a foot and a half long.

It definitely was an interesting sensation, feeling his body writhe and tense on my hand. And I’d like to say I was brave, and in a way I was, but I definitely had to try and force myself to relax on the few times he actually turned his head around and faced me.

As long as it was facing away or to the side, it could writhe and wiggle all it wanted and I was perfectly calm and able to pet it, but the moment it turned around and faced me with those beady eyes, and went hissss with his tongue, good Lord did I tense up like a spy in disguise at a nemesis convention.

And the nice PetSmart employee was ever so reassuring, letting me know that the ball python is a constrictor snake, using its body to squeaze its prety before devouring it. But it was OK, I needn’t worry as the snake was winding itself around my fingers - if the snake was going to try constricting on my hand it would be darting in and biting me first.

That made me feel SO much better and reassured. (;

And then for some reason Rey’s voice entered my mind, going “they can sense your fear....”

As much as I don’t like taking advice from him, I had to admit defeat in that instance. So like I said, I forced myself to take those deep breathes, calm down and ignore that primal fear that said this [little] creature wants to eat me.

Hard to imagine what is next for me. In the past five months I have gone skydiving (four times), rapelled 13 stories down the Hilton Hotel in Madison, asked a guy out [and got rejected...again] and held a ball phython. It might not seem like a big deal, but for me, facing two of my biggest fears, it was earthshattering.

On a playful side note, I'm typing this as I watch Toy Story 3. And Calvin, my kitty, is watching it with me. I’m totally not kidding, he is sitting next to me on the couch, staring intently as Andy’s toys try to escape the garbage man. Silly kitty.

P.S. Lotso is quite the meanie considering he’s an overstuffed pink teddy bear who smells like strawberries.