Night Crawler

I guess you could say that I have had an overactive imagination since birth. As a toddler, I used to make up stories and talk my mouth off to any willing listener. It turns out it might be a genetic disposition since my son is showing some of the same tendencies. He can definitely talk.

Often times, my subconscious will soak up something of seemingly no importance and my imagination will take it and run. For instance, if I watch a horror movie, I will become terrified when I am by myself and will often imagine someone trying to attack me in my car or in my bed. Therefore, I have had to remove horror movies and murder-type shows from my plate.

Once I read a book called The Gift of Fear, which was very unwise for a person of my paranoia and downright craziness. It was filled with stories of people getting attacked in parking garages and in their apartments. One of the things they advised is to trust your intuitions. For instance, if something in your house looks different than you remember it being, it might have been moved by someone else. This bit of stupidity has followed me around and I'm embarrassed to say how many times it has crossed my mind. When I come home from running an errand and I notice the light in the living room is on, I often consider not going in the house. In my mind, I could not have possibly left the light on, therefore, someone else must have done it.

Just to show you how absolutely ridiculous my mind is, I will give you another example. These days, I am a frequent middle of the night bathroom visitor. Sometimes my consciousness is only enough to get me from bed to the toilet, which is dangerous. If I'm really tired, I try to leave my eyes closed so I don't wake up too much before getting back in bed. Last night, as I stumbled into the bathroom, I noticed that the toilet seat was up. This is odd in our house. We have a toddler and two cats that wouldn't shy from the chance to play in toilet water, so we keep the lid closed when not in use. I paused at the open lid and thought, hmmm, maybe Mark forgot to put it back down. Back in bed I went until the next call from nature. The second time I got in the bathroom, the lid was back up! What!? My confusion was great when coupled with my fatigue. Back in my mind popped this intuition nonsense from the book. I thought about the possibility of someone being in my house and hiding in the shower (this is really not that uncommon in my mind). But because I was so tired, I went back to bed without checking the shower. I hoped I would wake up before someone bludgeoned me to death.

In the light of day, the thought of someone sneaking in my house just to put my toilet seat up to mess with my head seems a bit on the foolish side. He might be the same person who turns the light on in my living room and then leaves the house, or who kills poor sparrows and leaves them in by the side of my car.

At least I can feel encouraged that my intruder doesn't seem to be the vicious type, more like the strange habits type. I can live with that, but for Pete's sake, he should leave the lid down! I don't want my cats drinking pee in case someone forgets to flush!