Sidney and I love going to a certain hamburger place in Myrtle Beach. The unique atmosphere, the unlimited peanuts, cold beer, and delicious burgers make it a slam dunk for dinner. About a month ago we had finished our meal and waited for the server to come back to take my debit card. We sat across from each other at our wooden booth, the table and benches covered in layers of ink from people drawing on them over the years. Suddenly, Sidney’s eyes got big and she softly spoke to me, trying to keep calm.

“Baby, there is a bug on your shirt,” she warned.

I started internally freaking out in a way that wouldn’t make a scene at the restaurant. Without looking down at my shirt, I started moving my body in the seat and ruffling my clothing to get it to jump off. I stood up real fast and walked out of the booth to make sure it was not attached to me anymore. When Sidney told me that I was in the clear and I looked down to confirm it, I took a deep breath. We never saw where the bug went. The two minutes that it took for the waitress to pick up my card, run it, and bring it back were very tense.

I hate bugs. I get sick to my stomach thinking about them. What I had on me a few weeks ago was one of the dirtiest species you will ever encounter. Palmetto bugs are giant cockroaches with wings. They are found in the deep south and like to hang out around areas that have a water source such as fountains or hoses. They move fast and are extremely ugly. I won’t even include a picture of one in this blog post because of how much I detest them. The fact that one was on me still makes me shake.

Yes, living in the South you definitely see more bugs. If you thought additional exposure to varying species and quantities of these creatures would heal my hatred for them, you couldn’t be more wrong.

You see more than just bugs living in the southeast though. Just walk outside your door and you are bound to encounter a lizard scurrying past your feet or a frog hanging out in the grass. I have seen a thousand different lizards and many frogs of varying sizes since moving here. No big deal though, they don’t bother me at all. Same can’t be said for my fiancé…

Sidney hates amphibians and reptiles. Frogs and snakes seem to be her worst fears. Just the other night we returned home and on her house right next to the door was a baby frog about the diameter of my thumb nail. She had a tough time just keeping her cool at that sight. Needless to say, you can imagine the traumatizing experience suffered when she walked outside barefoot a few months back and stepped on a full sized frog in her lawn.

Snakes are plentiful in South Carolina also. Just last week one got stuck in a door at Sidney’s school. An aide asked Sid for assistance but she just shook her head and told the aide to call the office. Thankfully for me, the thought of a snake won’t cause me nightmares.

This brings us to our last creature…spiders. These eight-legged guys make both Sidney and I nervous but they don’t reach the level of bugs for me or amphibians/snakes for Sid. Growing up in Washington, we would get black widows attached to our house and smaller spiders in our basement so I think this upbringing cured me of arachnophobia. I am not cured, however, of the paranoia I feel when I see a spider web indoors and I immediately think of what the spider looks like that spun it and where it must be at the moment.

I have a couple other fears that aren’t creature-related but perhaps I will share those in a blog post down the road. If they can produce a story as disgusting as the one at the burger joint, you are sure to hear about it. Don’t Blink.