Tell All Tuesday

So, again, most people know this about me, but if you don't know the whole story, you're missing the full effect.

I am freaked out by bats. Not the baseball kind. I don't mind mice or snakes or spiders or any of those other fun creatures - they aren't my favorites, but I'm ok with them. I'm NOT ok with bats.

Bats and I go way back. As a matter of fact, a bat was the first injury that occurred as a direct result of my having a driver's license! I was driving home from somewhere one night - a pretty uneventful trip - until I started up Sunset Farm and a bat hit my windshield. That was bad enough, but somehow a bat wing got caught under my windshield wiper. So for the rest of the trip up the hill I was screaming while this bat was staring at me and beating its other wing against the windshield. Finally, I made it into the carport and was able to stop the car. The bat was still there...still beating its other wing. I wasn't getting out while it was there because I knew that it would be that precise moment that it would free itself and come after me. (No, I'm not paranoid.) So I did what any teenage girl would do....I laid down on the horn until someone else came out and let it go! And thus begins my traumatic bat saga - but it doesn't end there.

One summer I spent my time doing Summer Missions. (Well, I did that for two summers, but this story only applies to one of those.) Amy Lough and I lived in an upstairs apartment on Deep Creek. Every night we would hear squirrels and other fun woodland creatures roaming the attic. We didn't think much of it. WELL, one night Amy decided to stay in Waynesville with her parents so I stayed at the apartment by myself. No big deal. As I was in bed trying to go to sleep I remember hearing something that sounded like a bird...at first I convinced myself that it was in the attic but then it seemed MUCH closer. So I got up and turned on the light. Nothing. I laughed at myself and went back to bed. Then it happened. I woke up at 1:34am and opened my eyes. There...on my pillow...next to my face....WAS A BAT!!!!!!!!!!! I will not tell you what I yelled - #1, I don't remember. #2, I've already repented so there's no point bringing it up again! I ran to the living room and slammed the bedroom door behind me. When I got there, I had a towel in one hand and a flyswatter in the other. I don't know if I was going to clean him to death or swat him, but I was ready. This THING crawled underneath the bedroom door, flew into the living room and started circling my head. I was VERY UNHAPPY at this point. I ran back into the bedroom, slammed the door and stuffed the towel in the crack under the door. I then listened to this bat beat itself against the bedroom door for hours. I personally think this bat was a relative of the bat that I hit with my car.

I read an entire Max Lucado book that night because I was too scared to go to sleep. As soon as I thought my dad might be awake, I called him. He came over and we searched the house for the bat. It was nowhere to be found.

I moved out that day. Enough was enough!!!!

To this day, I have bat issues. I don't like them. I believe they don't like me. And I'm not very happy when they are around!!!

And now you know the whole batty story.