The One with the Moth

Wednesday I was sitting at my desk counting down the last hour until 5 o'clock rolled around, when out of the corner of my eye I spot what can only be described as my worst nightmare come to life.
Somehow, I am sure purely for the reason of wanting to see of the horror that would soon strike my face, a ginormous moth had made it to the third floor and cleverly chose me as its target.
Here is a little background information before I continue the story:
Jenni (for those of you who don't know- my sister) has always been afraid of moths, butterflies and ladybugs. Mostly because they flutter, which to Jenni is the worst thing God ever created. When we were growing up it became sort of a humorous fact in our family and we took every opportunity we could to tease her about this fear. I should mention that it was often that these particular bugs would seemingly hunt Jenni down just to terrorize her.
In example, during a camping trip a few years back the family was sitting outside at a picnic table late at night playing a card game. We had a propane lantern going so we could see and to Jenni's dismay it was attracting a rather large amount of bugs...more specifically moths. At one point in the night a moth flew straight at her and she did a sort of duck and cover move putting her head down and covering it with her arms. Stunned, my parents and I sat in silence as we watched the moth land on her sweatshirt and slowly crawl under her arm and into where she was hiding her face. I am pretty sure her screams echoed across the Yosemite Valley.
As luck would have it some of Jenni's fear has, over time, rubbed off on me. Basically I loose it when I see a moth.

So back to the current story, this clever little moth had found its way up to the third floor and headed straight for me. With a sharp, audible intake of breath my chair flew out from under me and my phone went crashing to the floor as I made for the other side of the room. Half laughing and half crying (something I also get from Jenni when I am scared) I tried to explain to my boss and the Associate Principal who came running to my office asking “What is the matter?!” and “What is going on?” that there was a moth the size of my face hovering around my desk. In retrospect, the moth was of course not quite that large but it was big and fuzzy and fluttery and gross and I am sure, trying to eat me for dinner.

So as nice men do, both start looking around for the alleged moth as I cower behind Allie’s desk.

Pretty soon I hear my boss say “Oh Tamara, It’s just this…” Joe points to a card board cut out of a dragonfly I have stuck to my sorter and laughs.

“No Joe, I am positive it was not that!”

“Hey Bert. Look at this! This is what scared her!” (Insert another laugh) “This was it! It just flew over here.” Laugher now is coming from both of them and of course me now.

“Joe, I promise you it was not that!” LOL “There really is a moth over there.”

Well it took us another ten minutes before I found the moth and Joe smashed it with a doomed FedEx box.

“Tamara, that was just crazy! Its like they are coming out of the woodwork as they say.”

Yes Joe, crazy indeed. And terrifying.

Here is Joe’s version of my moth…