Today’s lunch was a bowl of secret sauce with whole wheat ziti, broccoli and meatballs (no picture since I assume you guys are over all the saucy pics and I was feeling lazy).
Instead I thought I’d present you with a new smoothie recipe since I made myself a delicious smoothie for a snack around 10 a.m.
In the mix:
- 2/3 cup orange juice
- 1/2 cup milk
- Splash of half & half for creaminess
- 1 cup frozen strawberries
- 1/2 packet vanilla Instant Breakfast
- 1/4 pint raspberries
This one was a winner! Definitely not substantial enough to constitute a meal, but it was a great snack.
Bob Barker
It’s no secret on this blog that Sadie cracks me up every day. Her antics never cease to amaze me.
A lot of my laughter stems from Sadie’s lack of courage. She’s easily spooked by the most random things.
Her current arch nemesis is this little guy that’s floating around in our pool.
She hates him and is convinced he is going to cause her serious harm.
We named the sunglasses-wearing shark thingy Bob Barker, in reference to Adam Sandler’s line in Happy Gilmore where he says, “I hate that Bob Barker,” since we’re pretty sure that’s what Sadie says every time she sees him.
Occasionally I’ll let Sadie out on the porch when I’m right inside the kitchen and inevitably, within five minutes, she’s barking up a storm, clearly trying to rip Bob Barker apart with her nasty words and trash talk.
Apparently I should put her in a Thundershirt every time I let her on the porch.
Irrational Fears
Sadie’s fear of Bob Barker got me thinking about some of my irrational fears.
I am claustrophobic.
I’ve never particularly liked small, enclosed spaces, but I didn’t realize just how much enclosed spaces affected me until a trip to Epcot with Ryan a couple years ago.
(Throwback pic! Tram ride to Epcot in 2007.)
The first line we waited in at the park was for Mission Space, a motion simulator thrill ride. I saw signs warning riders about motion sickness as we waited, but nothing about small spaces.
We got into the little “cabin” (I don’t what what you’d actually call it) and were strapped in as the screens came in close to our faces (closer than in the below picture).
The side doors locked us in completely.
The ride didn’t start. I started to feel trapped. I couldn’t get out of my seat and I began sweating and breathing heavily.
“I want to get out,” I said to Ryan.
“It’s okay. It’s going to start in a second,” he said.
It didn’t. It was delayed.
“Seriously, I need to get out of here. How do I get out?” I said, my voice becoming breathy and more panicked.
Ryan knew then that I was serious. He told me there was an emergency exit button he could press.
“PRESS IT!” I yelled.
“Okay, there isn’t a button, I just told you that so you’d feel better. I don’t know what to do.”
(We laugh hysterically about this now, but at the time I was freaking out.)
Right after that, the ride began and air started blowing in my face. I closed my eyes and breathed my way through the experience.
I honestly couldn’t shake the feeling for the rest of our day at Epcot. I knew I was acting completely irrationally, but I just couldn’t stand feeling trapped in such a small, enclosed space with no way out.
I now really hate most small, enclosed spaces and really dislike elevators. When they take too long to start, I feel incredibly antsy. (It doesn’t help that my sister and I got stuck in one for a few minutes during our trip to Europe.)
I think this fear is similar to the ones certain people have with heights or flying in an airplane. You know in your head that your fear is irrational and logically you know you have no reason to be scared, but you just can’t talk yourself out of your panicky feelings.
Question of the Afternoon
- Do you have any irrational fears?
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Oh my gosh, I rode on that ride last month and about lost my sh*t!!! Anyway, I’m afraid of worms.
i don’t know why but your comment just made me laugh out loud. the worms part was just so unexpected. 🙂
ditto to the LOL.
i’m afraid of cockroaches. bring me a spider and i’ll squash a biotch, but at the slightest hint of a roach, my legs simultaneously turn to jello AND i want to climb walls. or, in most cases, the nearest person. GMTFO.
ew ew ew. i HATE roaches… and palmetto bugs – basically roaches that FLY. terrorizing.
AH! A palmetto bug fell on my neck (from the ceiling i guess) while I was washing my face one night and started crawling up my face!!! I screamed so loud that my husband ran in thinking that I had been attacked by an intruder or something! ick, i feel all creepy-crawly just thinking of it! I’m irrationally terrified of large groups of people – i start to feel claustrophobic when there’s too many people invading my bubble. lol
Ditto to the worms! I remember coming home from some high school event back in the day and my friends drove me home. It was raining all day and my driveway was COVERED in worms. My friend Dave ended up carrying me from the car to the front door. Stepping on them would’ve seriously made me lose my sh*t.
Oh man, I have so many irrational fears. Some of them are quite ridiculous- too embarassing to even post! Don’t worry! Claustrophobia is quite normal
Maybe after reading Mallory’s comment I should have kept my phobia’s to myself LOL
I’m with you on this. I’m extremely claustrophobic and I freaked on that ride too. Not fun at all.
wasn’t it AWFUL!?!? i was seriously shocked that there weren’t HUGE warning signs for people with claustrophobia outside of the ride. i was seriously freaked out.
I couldn’t agree more. I was having a minor (OK major) panic attack. It’s funny given all of the warnings that rides usually have that that wasn’t one of them.
That smoothie sounds yummy! 🙂
Snakes! Even seeing the word gives me the creeps! =0 I sometimes have a completely irrational fear that there is a snake in my bed when I wake up in the middle of the night. And well, the fear that there will be a snake in the toilet! I know- gross!
Me too! I can’t even see one on TV without freaking out. There is no going back to sleep after a snake nightmare!
Spiders. People always say I over react but I cant help it. If I see one I feel like I cant move. I cant kill them myself, or get rid of them (even if theyre already dead.) Oh and if one touches me, its all gone from there. Not one other bug freaks me out, I can deal with roaches and frogs and mice, just dont show me a spider.
I have irrational fears about tons of small things. I don’t like taking off or landing in an airplane. I get really antsy when I take big trips and I have more anxiety over everything that I am taking more than the trip itself. I have an irrational fear of someone touching my collar bones and I freak out if the seat belt rubs it the wrong way. Don’t judge me 😉
hahahhaa you poor thing. the collar bone one is pretty darn funny. 🙂
I have an irrational fear of cats…for real! Even stuffed toy versions freak me out! I can’t even explain why but I’ve been like this for as long as i can remember. I’m guessing I had a bad experience in my past life!
I’m afraid of ferris wheels I refuse to go on them! I also am terrified of grates on sidewalks in the city, I will not walk on them, I fear if I do I will fall in it terrifies me to watch people walk over them and I pull family members or friends away from them
I am horrified of ferris wheel’s too!!!!
Spiders! One time you had a post about a hike you went on and up popped a big monster spider photo (my scalp is crawling just thinking back to it)…I didn’t read you blog for about a week after that…I also will not click on links you included that say anything about hiking because I might see HIM again. I may need help…
that is too funny! i’m so sorry i scarred you for a week!
OMG! I cried on that ride LOL. I HATED IT. I felt trapped too and had a panic attack.. it was AWFUL.
i feel ya, jamie. i was in tears, too.
Yes! My fears are so ridiculous, they can get really annoying but I can’t help but get panicky and antsy. Some include small spaces like you, car rides (I have an intense fear of getting in an accident and NEVER can just relax on a road trip or even a short trip!!), and bugs. Oh, and fish. If I see a creepy crawler, I need someone to get it or I can’t relax and keep watch on it lol and if I go swimming in the ocean or something and a fish gets close, I tweak! Told ya they’re annoyin 🙂
CLOWNS. Can’t stand them. My heart starts pounding and my palms get sweaty. Why are they so awful!?
And also scorpions. The apartment community where I work/live has them because we’re near the woods. That picture you posted the other day…had I seen that I probably would’ve peed my pants.
That is HYSTERICAL that Sadie is so scared of the pool shark. Poor baby!
Oh my goodness! I totally did the same thing on that ride. My dad and I went to Epcot together and once we stepped foot into that ride, I started to get VERY claustrophobic. Well, the ride started, I cried, and then I tried to enjoy it. It didn’t work. Haha. I think now, knowing what the experience was like, I would probably try going on it again.
Me too! Hate bridges.
I’m actually scared of being in elevators with other people. I don’t know why, makes just such a small space with a stranger?
I’m also terrified of driving over water. I have an irrational fear of the car going over the side and plunging into the water.
I get kind of antsy in small spaces. Tanning beds and saunas are both out of the question for me – I’m so afraid that I’ll accidentally get locked in!
My other big, huge fear is cockroaches and bees. Those arent irrational, I guess, but they’re pretty bad. I actually tell people I’m allergic to bees so I have some sort of excuse for my huuuuuuge air-waving, hand-flapping, squealing-and-running reaction to any flying, pointy-butted insect.
can i tell people i’m allergic to elevators?
DO IT! You could totally pull the “Hey, I used to write about advanced health things. This is totally legit” card 😉
Oh wow, that is a scary toy 😉
I am afraid of heights. It is totally irrational and stupid (esp since my husband scaled trees like it’s nothin’….) but, I can’t seem to shake it!
Love the shake/snack idea!
*maybe, not makes
I am absolutely terrified of flying but I have to do it quite often. Turbulence makes me want to die.
I get the heebies with roaches. Paul will have to take care of them for me. I’ll trap them under a cup but he has to take care of them when he gets home. Thankfully I don’t see them too often in my house!
Spiders on the other hand I will catch them and put them outside. You know very well the mosquito issue we have here. Any bug that will eat other bugs is ok by me….living OUTSIDE my house that is!
Snakes and other animals like that don’t bother me too much. I worked at a pet shop as my first job and would wear the snake around my neck just to freak some customers out :D…I was naughty!
Yep…totally can’t do roller coasters! I’m OK on the smaller ones, but the big ones…I can’t even watch ’em on TV!
The more I read your blog the more Alike I realize we are! I too am afraid of small spaces. I despise elevators and avoid them like the plague. And that ride in Disney scares the crap of you before you even get on, your doomed from the beginning
It’s not just the claustrophobia, that ride made me incredibly motion sick. I happened to go on during the soft opening with my family before it officially opened and they were still testing it out. I think that was the closest I ever felt to dying. For the real opening, the added air bags, made it less intense and added a second version. I had no idea going in what it would be like at all! I love Disney but that ride should be taken out.
Being tickled. It is an awful and terrifying when someone tries to tickle me and I have been known to hit and kick in order to defend myself. There have actually been times when I end up in the fetal position on the ground and been close to crying, trying to protect myself from those horrible tickle monsters!
Same here! I really don’t like the feeling and I can go from “ha ha, stop it” to PISSED OFF, hitting and kicking to get away.
I’m with you on the claustrophobia. I actually discovered it at a ride at Universal Studios. Yay for theme parks 🙂
There’s also flying – which I tolerate and is completely related to having a loss of control. I almost had a massive panic attack last Friday on the way back from DC. I seriously think pilots share way too much information. Ignorance is bliss!!
I have an irrational fear of having the person behind me fall when I’m walking down the stairs and knocking me down. I feel like I am in control of myself while walking, but what if the person behind me is distracted or clumsy?!
I also hate being in an enclosed space with a lot of people. I went to a concert last night and the only exits were at the end of a long, narrow hallway. I was trying to hide it, but I was definitely having a mild panic attack.
I HATE that ride! I got on it the morning after the Wine & Dine Half marathon last year and almost threw up. I hate being in crowds when you can barely move and people you don’t know are touching you. I’m always surprised when I can handle standing by myself in a crowded corral at the beginning of a race!
Escalators! I can cope with them now but I always get the fear just before I go on them and see my life sort of flash before my eyes. I also fear getting frost bit in winter (Ireland doesn’t get that cold so it’s quite irrational, but there are times I feel my fingers might just fall off!)
I’m definitely claustrophobic. I didnt know until high school when I got put all the way into an MRI machine which is basically this loud small tight tube. And I dropped the panic ball that you squeeze to let them know you are about to go apeshit in there. It was soooo bad.
I also hate hate hate spiders. I got bit in the face when I was a kid and half of my face swelled up. Now when I see them I scream “ANIMAL!!!” and run away.
I also have a phobia of wet grass. It creeps me out! I dont know why.
And frogs.
I’m a hot mess.
I wouldn’t say it’s a fear, but I am severely grossed out by other people’s hair. Not like on their head, but if I see pieces of it on the floor or in my space. That’s why I was a terrible roomie when I had to share a bathroom. Oye!
ewwww. hair grosses me out, too.
My dog is afraid of hats that aren’t baseball caps. I always thought she was just barking at people who she knew were “bad”, but when I bought an obnoxiously large beach hat she freaked and ripped it to shreads. I was mad at first, but then realized she was really scared and was facing her fear. That and saving me from a potentially bad fashion disaster.
Small spaces freak me out too. And they blew air in your face? I can’t be in an elevator with more than 3 people or I flip my sh__!
I’m claustrophobic too. In fact, I am having some medical tests done tomorrow that require me to be in an enclosed tube, and they are prescribing Valium for me to take beforehand! I also have an irrational fear of clowns. They are just plain creepy.
The same exact thing happened to me when I went on Mission Space too! I vowed never again to go on that ride. It was beyond awful. I don’t like the feeling of being claustrophobic either. It’s an awful feeling!
Heights. I hate them. For some reason whenever I’m on a balcony or something I always picture myself having some sort of spasm big enough to launch myself over the railing. Really emphasizes the “irrational” part of “irrational fear.”
I have two irrational fears: bridges and crickets. I hate driving over, walking on, or being under bridges (or any kind of overpass really). Here in TX the overpasses are SO HIGH in the air and that just adds to it. If I’m not driving, I close my eyes until I’m back on solid ground. When I’m stuck under them I worry that they’ll fall onto me.
The other one is kinda random, but I really really hate crickets. I hate how they make so much noise and they freak the heck out of me whenever I’m around one b/c they’re so spazzy and you never know when one is going to jump onto you. We had one in our apartment this weekend. You can imagine how I handled that.
As a kid, I had an enormous fear that the bad guy in Dennis the Menace was going to come to my house and kidnap me. I swear, the image of his greasy long hair and his knife stabbed into that apple haunted me for years!
I used to be afraid of vomiting but I’ve gotten much better about it (thanks freshman year of college!) but I have a serious phobia of other people vomiting.
It’s 100% irrational and I can’t even articulate what it is that I’m afraid of but I’m like George Costanza in that episode of Seinfeld where he throws the elderly woman out of the way to get out of a burning building. I would jump out of a moving car if I thought someone was going to throw up.
Like I said, totally irrational and yet, debilitating.
I’m afraid of vomiting. Maybe it’s not THAT irrational, but there was a point in my life where it really was. I wouldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep it was so bad. Now, I just freak out big time if I think I’m going to vomit. Needless to say, I haven’t in like ten years.
afraid of deep waters. maybe i watched too many scary movies as a child or something. lol
Spiders and roaches terrify me. The worst part is we are dealing with a roach problem right now and it is giving me panic attacks and nightmares.
I have the same exact fear! I hate small spaces. I worked in restaurants for YEARS and refused to go into the walk-in refrigerators. Sometimes people would play jokes and hold the doors closed, but I would get to tears in an instant if anyone did that to me.
Oh Julie I’m just like you! I hate elevators and too enclosed anything!!! Once my husband and I got on a simulated roller coaster (it was at a arcade) and that top came down, I was freaking out! And after it was over, it took awhile for the top to open and I started yelling please please get this &@#! thing off!! My husband thought I was a basket case! 🙂
YES! any kind of simulator ride = off limits for me now.
Since I was a child I’ve been TERRIBLY afraid of cats–everyone laughs at me when I tell them until they see the way I act when a cat is near by. I always explain it to people like: I’d much rather for a person to take a gun and shoot me, then ever be in a room with or touch a cat. I can’t look at cat pictures, hear cats, etc.
I hate that I have this fear. I wasn’t able to visit certain places in both Egypt and Turkey because those cultures have an affinity for cats and I couldn’t deal. So many other things get affected too, sigh. I’ve been thinking about going to a hypnotist…I need this to go away!
yes. every time i add ice into my vitamix through the top hole while it is blending, i think my wedding ring is going to fall in. i usually add the ice with my right hand for this very reason. i’m weird.
LOL!
Ugh things going near my eyes… I’m not really scared of anything else or at all squeamish but I can’t deal with eye drops or anything like that, anything going near my eyes freaks me out completely!
I very much dislike being in large crowds of people. It’s sort of claustrophobia, but small spaces without people don’t bother me. It’s the being bumped into over and over that gives me major anxiety.
I also have an irrational dislike of square plates. I’m most definitely not afraid of them…but I just don’t like the way they look for no good reason. 🙂
Haha- I love the Epcot story! My irrational fear, which I don’t think is so irrational, is flying. Every little bump, I convince myself the plane is about to fall from the sky. When I flew for the first time with my boyfriend, I was so panicked that he told me I was starting to give him anxiety. I think I need to have a glass of wine pre-flight to calm my nerves, because it’s ugly!!
ryan is the same way!
I definitely have a similar fear of small spaces. I have to seriously talk myself down sometimes for fear of it turning into a full-blown panic attack!
Also? That thing that freaks Sadie out cracks me up. Tina recently posted a video of Murphy freaking out over a Tiki Torch, reminds me of that. Dogs are the best…
1. I am afraid of Oompa Loompas. No, I’m not kidding.
2. On a more “serious” note, I have a crazy intense fear of large crowds. I hate leaving sporting games or concerts, but I had no idea that this was an actual fear until last fall. My boyfriend, his sister, and I went to the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert rally in DC last October, and the crowd was GINORMOUS. We got stuck in the middle for a few minutes (I’m talking people pressed ON me, on all sides), and I started shaking, hyperventilating, and crying. I was clutching my boyfriend’s hand, and finally I just screamed at him, “You HAVE to get me out of here NOW.” Even after he pulled me away from the major group of people, I was shaking for nearly an hour. Even thinking about it makes me nervous!
Bridges and heights. I can’t explain it – or what ever happened in my childhood – but i hate driving over bridges. Major panic attack. My husband has learned to live with my wierdness. Road trips to NYC can be a challange, and we have to switch drivers so that he drives when we hit a bridge. And no radio can be on. and no talking. Driver must keep both hands on the wheel at all times. and only drive in the middle lane . God forbid there are only two lanes. No looking over the side and saying ” how pretty”.
I recently stumbled upon your blog, and I absolutely adore it! This post made me laugh, mainly because I share your irrational ride fear. My main issue is with the rides that lock you in while standing and spin really fast. I panic if I get on one of those…Also elevators and airplanes.
Here’s a tip if you’re ever in a claustrophobic situation again: focus on tangible items and label them to yourself. “I see a TV screen, I see a … “, and so on. Really helps take your mind off the irrational fear.
Also, a few things my dog is irrationally afraid of: plastic bags, keys, inanimate lawn objects (think plastic rocks). Sadie’s not alone 🙂
oh thanks for the tip! i always just breathe in and out VERY slowly.