things that freak me out

1. Getting ready to walk out the door in the morning and finding the lock and the deadbolt unlocked. Totally my fault. Phil goes in and out the garage door.

2. Speaking of garage doors, garage doors. When Phil leaves in the wee hours of the morn, I always stay awake after he kisses me goodbye to make sure I hear the garage door come back down. Once, and only once (in the early days of our marriage), I opened the door to the garage to go get in my car and found the garage door up. It had been up in North Portland for about 3 hours. I immediately began looking for masked men with guns. Because that's what you do when you live in North Portland.

3. Sneezing while driving. Come on, tell me that doesn't make you get all weirded out too.

4. Lately, shopping carts at stores. Who knows? Maybe the previous user has the H1N1.

5. Slugs. There have been a lot of them around lately. Rainy weather + Pacific northwest = slugs. Nasty ooze all over the place. Time to get out the slug bait. The other morning I went out and there were about 7 slugs all in the path to my car. Ewww.

5. Standing in line at the bank. Well, there have been a lot of robberies lately. I was in love with direct deposit. Then I got laid off. My 'new old job' doesn't offer direct deposit. So now I get to stand in line at the bank again. I try to go to the one in a Fred Meyer. To me it seems less likely that someone would rob a bank that's in a big huge store.

6. Scary movies and TV shows. I just really can't watch them. Sometimes even shows like Law and Order or Criminal Minds. I spend too much time up alone at night and my mind likes to invent crazy scenarios in which I'm a victim. Then I have bad dreams.

7. Kids riding bikes, scooters, and what-not in the middle of the stinkin' road. Wandering around aimlessly right in the line of traffic. Not paying attention. Not moving when it's obvious there's a big car right in front of them. Where are these children's parents for cryin' out loud?

8. Double decker bridges. But you already knew that.

9. Do-it-yourself fireworks shows. I just know that one of these days somebody I know and love is going to end up on the news with severe burns or will be missing a hand.

10. When the doorbell rings. I don't know why. It just does.