I have an irrational fear of...

balloons.

Yup. Balloons.

It's one of those rarely known facts about me. Balloons scare the bejesus outta me but with good reason.

On my 6th birthday, I had a McDonald's birthday party in true 80's classy style. The game of the day was who can sit on their balloon and pop it the fastest. I got so hysterically scared from the noise that my mother had to take me out of McDonald's and calm me down in the parking lot. The poor pimple-faced teenager running my party never saw it coming. It scarred me to the point that I refused to go into any birthday party that had a balloon in sight. I remember sitting on a friend's steps just after my mom had dropped me off at one party until they had hid every balloon in the living room. I can now tolerate being in a room with them but I'm certainly on edge.

This irrational fear of them has also lead to a fear of loud noises and sudden movement. Toads also scare the crap outta me as they can sit there lookin' all half dead and whatnot and then take a huge leap. This sudden movement scares me. And until probably 3-4 years ago, I couldn't flush a toilet in a public washroom without pushing one ear into my shoulder, sticking my finger in the opposite ear and then flushing to avoid the loud noise. Needless to say, I don't like getting scared at all. It's actually a physically painful experience for me. I get pins and needles all over my body and my lips are tingling just thinking about balloons. *shudder*

So N, thanks OH so much for all the balloon pics from Mexico. Sooooo makes me wanna come visit. As you point out though, I may be rational if I get into therapy now. I do have 100 sleeps to get over it...