Today I was reminded that I needed to update my contact info with my caseworker here at the hotel. So I called my ex to make sure he is OK with being my main contact, which he is and he reminded me that I’m still his main contact, and not his boyfriend or his other friend who both get a bit frantic in emergencies. I laugh at this but my ex said “…no really you are calm & collected in most situations that ** don’t involve spiders or kittens. **”
Spiders creep the hell out of me and cute fuzzy kittens make me stupid and also cause me to scream like the nelly queen I really am, especially when they show up in unexpected places.
So what situations can you or those close to you deal/not deal with?
This is meant to be a light hearted thread. I do realizes that a number of Dopers are going or have been though recent difficulties, and this is not to make light or lessen what they are dealing with.
I don’t think I could trust my brother to take out the garbage, but if you need him just to be there, or drive you to the hospital, or whatever, he’s there for you. He’s unbelievably reliable in emergencies, and he’s able to retain all kinds of information being thrown at him in order to make use of it later. He’s driven crazy distances to help out my sister (a couple of chronic illness issues) and even to try and save a dog once. But in day-to-day life; don’t ask him to pass on a phone message, because he’ll forget all about it. It’s a little bizarre.
This same brother has a funny “emergency” story involving my mom. He scraped his knee pretty badly when he was about 10 years old, and the wound had to be cleaned up. The doctors tried to numb it in order to scrub out the gravel and dirt, but it didn’t take, so he just bit his tongue and tolerated the pain. My mom felt woozy and left the room to lie down on the chairs in the waiting room. Once everything was done, my brother hobbled over to her with all the info he needed to take care of the wound, and tells her it’s time to go home. My mom is generally solid in an emergency situation, but my brother still makes fun of her for not being the "grown up"in that case!
Oo, I’m not so good with spiders, but I’m squicked out beyond belief by centipedes. Any emergency involving centipedes would produce a lot of running by me, and then near-catatonia/whimpering once I thought I had escaped.
Oh, and a rule in my house is that I must not deal with stuck jar or container lids. My husband once joked that I did the thinking, he opened stuck jars and did the heavy lifting, and the quip stuck. (Edit: Pun not intended.) I inevitably manage to get lids to the point where the barest effort from my husband loosens them, so he tells me to not bother struggling and just default to asking him. One time I didn’t and apparently struggled a tad too long - this turmeric-laden curry sauce just blortched out of the jar and all over my light tan pants. I carefully walked to the edge of the linoleum (at the border between kitchen and living room), announced, “We. Are ordering. Out.” and then stripped off my pants and threw them in the garbage. (Turmeric stains like nothing I’ve seen. It wasn’t worth trying.) So, no jar lids lest I’m willing to tempt fate.