Terror in the night

I will find the time to describe our moving experience soon, but now, I just had to write about what got my heart pumping last night.

I got up around midnight to go to the bathroom. In our new house, the toilet & shower are in their own separate little room and it is small. It's about the size of a narrow toilet stall, with one side being the shower. So, in order to close the bathroom door which swings just shy of the toilet, you have to step back, in between the shower & toilet, to get out of the way of the door. Why do I tell you this? So you can understand just how small the room is that I had voluntarily enclosed myself in.

So, I'm sitting there, barely awake, and I realize that there is something moving on the ground. It takes me a few seconds to figure out what it is that I'm looking at before panic sets in & I'm fully awake. It's a scorpion. We've lived in Arizona for 2 years & this is the first one I've seen alive. It was pretty small, but I've heard that the small ones are the worst because they don't know how to regulate how much poison they inject when they sting. I don't know if that's just one of those silly myths that gets passed around or not, but I'm figuring that I don't want to find out. So, I pull off a huge wad of toilet paper & suck up all the courage I've got (at midnight while sitting on the toilet), and begin to smack the wad down on the floor. That booger could really move fast! I've whacking & smacking & I just keep missing him. But, then, all of a sudden, he's flipped over on his back & not moving. I lean over to inspect closer, but he doesn't look smashed at all. But he was completely still. I take my wad of toilet paper & try to scooch him around when all of a sudden, he grabs on to it, flips back over & starts scurrying around again!!! He was faking!!! So, we're back in the whack & smack game & suddenly he's still again. This time, though, there was oozing. I was pretty sure he couldn't fake that. But, just to be sure, I smashed down real hard again & again & wiped him up & topped it off with a flush down the toilet.

Needless to say, I got pretty much NO sleep from then on. Every few seconds, I could swear I felt something scurry on my leg. And, my poor brain just couldn't help but think of his family & how they may come after me in retribution. I killed their baby, after all. Caleb was quite impressed with my story in the morning. But, perhaps, something even better than that will come from this...Don said this morning that he's thinking he shouldn't leave his clothes on the floor anymore!!! Whoo hoo! I'll battle a scorpion any night if THAT is the outcome!