Freaky

Last night after dinner, our team was just sitting around feeling physically exhausted and just talking about whatever. The house we're staying in isn't exactly airtight, so small animals can pretty much come in and out as they please. A cat ran down the hall, and that kind of freaked Melissa who is very sensitive to animals running around the house. This sparked a conversation about times when people have been really scared/freaked out by something at night. The stories ranged from being afraid of the dark as a kid, to unknown men entering less than secure Indian hotel rooms. I didn't feel like I had many stories to contribute, but could definitely see how some of their experiences would be very freaky. Eventually a few of the women requested that we change the topic of conversation because they were getting pretty freaked out. It didn't really change though and I'm not sure why. I guess some people still really just wanted to get their stories out there before the topic changed. For the record, it was not the men that kept the conversation going.

Around that time we heard a loud racket out in our small, backyard area. There was clearly something going on back there. It was kind of amazing timing seeing as a lot of people were already on edge. Todd and I got up and went to the back door. It was hanging open, which isn't anything unusual. We often leave it open to give us some circulation. It was dark in the backyard, and you have to walk a few meters into the yard just to turn the light on. I don't want to sound too macho, but I really wasn't frightened by this. The loud racket didn't make me think that someone was out there to kill me. If someone was coming to do that, I'd expect them to keep quiet rather than make a racket. Anyway, Todd and I went out there and discovered that basically there had been two cats fighting on the top of a metal overhang we have in the backyard.

After that we locked up the house and all headed for bed. I put on a playlist of happy music: Hakuna Matata, My Favorite Things, etc. I'm not sure that it really made any difference, but it was probably more helpful than the sound track to Jaws would have been (not that I have that anyway). A lot of the women seemed really shaken up by it. I think they all retreated to their rooms and had happy, girl talk until they fell asleep. Todd and I, on the other hand, talked about what things tend to freak us out and how we get a thrill out of that tension and adrenaline rush. Then we just faded and went to sleep like any other night.