Scares
I nearly scared the living daylights out of Nick the other day.
Little-known fact about me: I sleepwalk. Not in the 'normal' way, mind, where people invariably seem to end up stepping out of third-floor windows and the like and landing without a scratch (because if I ever did do that I'd probably land on something sharp or on fire or similar), but in a way that involves me talking coherently in my sleep (none of that "all blueberries to the raspberry hats!" stuff - apparently I tell jokes that make sense - even if they aren't all that funny - and discuss the day's events with people), sitting up and sometimes getting up and moving around my room doing small things. I used to regularly turn off my alarm clock in the mornings, for example, despite the fact that to do so I had to get out of bed, cross to the far end of the room, get down on my knees and crawl under a set of bureau drawers to do so, and then get back into bed. When I worked with Nightline I even answered the phone in my sleep on a couple of occasions, which left me very confused when I would actually wake up several seconds later and not know what I was doing.
So, Sunday morning, Nick is passing by my room and he thinks I'm awake because I'm moving around in bed in an "I'm awake" kind of way. So he decides to tell me that we're on the emergency credit on the electricity meter.
Since everyone knows what usually happens when you wake a sleepwalker, I'm sure many of you can see where this is going.
All I remember is a vague memory of doing something in bed, and then waking up with a scream when Nick spoke to me (although Nick says it was more of a yelp). I was pretty distressed when I woke up, and more than a little confused, although possibly not as much as Nick. Poor guy had completely forgotten that I sleepwalk (mainly because I don't do so in the 'traditional' way) and was wondering why I was screaming at him.
***
Of course, that meant that karma had to get its own back on me yesterday.
I was on Nick's computer (mine is having conniptions if it's on for more than a few hours at the moment withe the overheating problem) and the cats are sitting in the room with me. I feel a strange tickling feeling on my right arm, and look down to see what it is.
A spider with a leg-and-body diameter of about two inches is scuttling up my upper arm. And I don't like any spider more than about half a centimeter long.
Cue a screech from me, combined with leaping up and shaking my arm (and the rest of my body) like I had St. Vitus' Dance to get the damn thing off me.
The cats just sat and watched me with interest (why was the human doing that silly dance?). I have therefore fired them until they fulfill their roles as Official Spider-Catchers of the House once more. And even now I keep looking down at the floor around me when I'm in Nick's room (like right now) to check for spiders.
There's one watching me right now, actually. It's only about an inch across in total, but it had better stay the hell away anyway.
Little-known fact about me: I sleepwalk. Not in the 'normal' way, mind, where people invariably seem to end up stepping out of third-floor windows and the like and landing without a scratch (because if I ever did do that I'd probably land on something sharp or on fire or similar), but in a way that involves me talking coherently in my sleep (none of that "all blueberries to the raspberry hats!" stuff - apparently I tell jokes that make sense - even if they aren't all that funny - and discuss the day's events with people), sitting up and sometimes getting up and moving around my room doing small things. I used to regularly turn off my alarm clock in the mornings, for example, despite the fact that to do so I had to get out of bed, cross to the far end of the room, get down on my knees and crawl under a set of bureau drawers to do so, and then get back into bed. When I worked with Nightline I even answered the phone in my sleep on a couple of occasions, which left me very confused when I would actually wake up several seconds later and not know what I was doing.
So, Sunday morning, Nick is passing by my room and he thinks I'm awake because I'm moving around in bed in an "I'm awake" kind of way. So he decides to tell me that we're on the emergency credit on the electricity meter.
Since everyone knows what usually happens when you wake a sleepwalker, I'm sure many of you can see where this is going.
All I remember is a vague memory of doing something in bed, and then waking up with a scream when Nick spoke to me (although Nick says it was more of a yelp). I was pretty distressed when I woke up, and more than a little confused, although possibly not as much as Nick. Poor guy had completely forgotten that I sleepwalk (mainly because I don't do so in the 'traditional' way) and was wondering why I was screaming at him.
***
Of course, that meant that karma had to get its own back on me yesterday.
I was on Nick's computer (mine is having conniptions if it's on for more than a few hours at the moment withe the overheating problem) and the cats are sitting in the room with me. I feel a strange tickling feeling on my right arm, and look down to see what it is.
A spider with a leg-and-body diameter of about two inches is scuttling up my upper arm. And I don't like any spider more than about half a centimeter long.
Cue a screech from me, combined with leaping up and shaking my arm (and the rest of my body) like I had St. Vitus' Dance to get the damn thing off me.
The cats just sat and watched me with interest (why was the human doing that silly dance?). I have therefore fired them until they fulfill their roles as Official Spider-Catchers of the House once more. And even now I keep looking down at the floor around me when I'm in Nick's room (like right now) to check for spiders.
There's one watching me right now, actually. It's only about an inch across in total, but it had better stay the hell away anyway.