little miss muffet

Spiders cause a visceral reaction in most people. My mother was bitten by a Brown Recluse when I was a child – which coincidently happened around the onset of her Multiple Sclerosis and we’ve always wondered if it triggered some whacked out auto-immune reaction. After the bite and recovery, spiders were destined to die when I was growing up. I still always found them to be enchanting and was proud for being the only one in my 3rd grade class brave enough to hold the tarantula on the science center field trip. My father once caught a wolf spider in a jar for me to watch, her back wriggling with babies. Every summer a giant garden spider maintains a perfect web outside the window next to my computer and I can watch for hours as she wraps up insects and feeds on them.

The boy thinks I’m a total freak for my love of taxidermy (I must have this winged kitten), and all of Laura Zindel’s ceramics.