The Attic.

I have an embarrassing confession to make. This afternoon after I finished putting a coat of primer on my desk, I screwed up all my courage and headed upstairs with my trusty shop vac with intentions of getting rid of the monstrous cobwebs in the attic off the east bedroom closet, which I want to use this space as storage for Christmas decorations and stuff. I find the upstairs totally creepy, and at first completely refused to go up there alone, especially if I was the only one home. It's something about the combination of the naked light bulb hanging from the ceiling in the landing and the wallpaper and how dark it is...I'm not sure. But it's creepy.

Anyway, I gave myself a little talking-to about how fearing the upstairs is not only ridiculous, it's very embarrassing for an adult, and up I went. I vacuumed for about two minutes, feeling confident that I'd conquered the fear of the attic. I even squat-hopped out of the closet and into the attic (you walk through the bedroom and into the closet and there's a little door to the attic from there). Cobwebs were disappearing like crazy and it was starting to look halfway decent. 

Then, behind me, the light in the closet flickered. I paused for a second, took a deep breath, and willed myself to keep vacuuming. Then the light flickered again, and I looked around and realized I was all alone in a totally creepy attic with cobwebs everywhere, and I switched off the vacuum and the light and beat it downstairs as fast as I could.  Sitting down here where it's cozy and warm, I feel a bit silly.  But there is NO WAY I am going back up there again, not by myself anyway.