Hi everyone! I ended up going to Repticon today, yay! And as a bonus, I was able to introduce my elementary-age niece and nephew AND my daughter’s friend to the wonderful world of reptiles! As we reptile lovers know, the pre-conceived notions and irrational fears due to lack of education regarding reptiles (snakes and spiders especially) affects all of us and the hobby in general. I am happy to say that while I entered the expo with my daughter and three VERY apprehensive kiddos, we left with 3 new reptile lovers.
Here are some photos as your reward for reading my ramblings above (the two kids are my niece and nephew who were always terrified of my reptile room because EWW SNAKES THEY EAT PEOPLE).
And YEP THAT’S ME TRYING TO OVERCOME MY FEAR OF SPIDERS while secretly about to pee myself due to said fear
Oh my goodness Tom! I might have had a heart attack if that were me! That’s a heck of a way to wake up
Back in 2000 I stayed in the Amazon jungle for 2 weeks with a small tribe, my professor and my peers (it was a requirement in order to get my bachelor’s degree in Spanish). One night we had to take a night walk and OH MY GOSH I’m surprised I don’t have nightmares about those massive things and walking into their massive webs really increased my fear of spiders exponentially. I’m trying to get to the point where I dont scream when there’s an itty bitty one on the wall or ceiling in my house
I’d love to know what happened immediately after your green house spider friend decided it was cool to hang out in your mouth! Like, did you scream? Spit it out? Freeze? Swallow it? Gotta go look them up on the internet now…
Oh my goodness what wonderful pictures and what wonderful memories you made! All of the pictures are fabulous! Is that a Burmese the kids are holding?
Good for you that you overcame your fears of spiders to hold that T, especially after swimming inside the colossal webs! And your young people were exposed to beautiful reptiles and they didn’t get eaten! What a lesson learned!
I’m going to miss the expo tomorrow because of minus temperatures (negative) and snow!
Great pictures! I especially love the kids with the retic, and you with the tarantula. Good on you for trying to overcome your fear of spiders! They really are beautiful, fascinating, and diverse creatures. (Working on my sales pitch for new potential roommates I’ll be interviewing over the next week. )
What a bummer, I’m sorry! Though I completely understand not wanting to go anywhere in that kind of weather. It seems like it’s been a cold winter in a lot of the country. Even here in beautiful Santa Barbara, where we pay the big bucks to live in a mild climate, it’s been colder than usual. It’s actually frozen a few nights, which is rare. Not that I have any right to complain, given the temperatures in other parts of the country.
, that is a retic. Looks like lav or a purple but looks like a lavender retic.
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