I suppose I could post about an accomplishment of sorts that I've kept quiet because I've always been embarrassed by it. But maybe somebody who shares my fear, as I've never met anyone else who does, will stumble upon this and find it helpful. For pretty much as long as I can remember, I've been afraid of taxidermy. For those unfamiliar with the name, this stuff:
Stuffed, mounted, DEAD. ANIMALS. Severed heads with cold, dead, glass eyes endlessly staring staring staring. Yes, I know it can't hurt me. I know they're not going to come back to life or fall on me or anything like that. Honestly I don't know where the fear came from. As I've gotten older, it's turned more into disgust and sadness that some people kill just to put a trophy on their wall. But as a kid, into my teen years and adulthood, it was fear. I remember being startled by (I believe) a very menacing stuffed badger on my high school trip to Europe and going completely white. Like ghostly. So much so that a friend had to kind of lead me out of the store we were in to get back to normal. I also remember going into a friend of a friend's house in high school only to be greeted by the two biggest moose heads I had ever seen, and immediately running back out. There were childhood experiences too, like pretty much any place my family went into in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I hate that place. And when I turned to find myself shoulder to nose with a deer at a restaurant that has since gone out of business.
As a kid, (and teen) my strategy involved freezing and staring at the ground when I encountered this stuff. Now, if I'm caught off guard, I tend to swear. Sorry, but it's true. But then I can usually handle it slowly. If I know it's coming, I can do a little better. Back when Husband and I were first married, my sister wanted to go to Texas Roadhouse. Everybody knows what's in there, and what's above the door when you first walk in.
I knew and was warned there would be mounts, but still I wanted to try. A lot of my motivation was all I had heard about their fab rolls and cinnamon butter. Okay, let's pause here for a sec. OMG their rolls and cinnamon butter! Drool....Anyway, Husband and I met my family there. I was able to keep my head down a bit as we walked to our table, and hold Husband's hand, and survive dinner. Go me! I was pretty proud of myself. Fast forward some time later, Husband's family invited me to dinner (again at Texas Roadhouse) for his sister's birthday. He was traveling for work, so I was on my own. I used my head slightly down technique again, silently praying we wouldn't get stuck right underneath anything. We didn't, and I was able to enjoy dinner with my in-laws.
Definite progress. Recently, I've been going to Scheels a lot with Husband since we got him a pistol for his birthday. Scheels also has a mountain like Cabela's, but it's smaller. I often refer to Scheels as baby Cabela's.
Past the mountain is where they keep their guns, targets, ammunition, safes, ear protection, all that good stuff. Past the mountain is A LOT more intense. I wish I had an accurate picture of the gun counter area, but I never bothered to take one. Piece together these from Google images:
I know you can't see much in that second picture, but the very bottom of some are on that pillar. There's a lot of those pillars with something on every side, plus those rams, and lines of different things on the back wall. Yikes. A lot in a rather confined area. I'm not going to pretend like it didn't take me probably a good half hour to get the nerve to attempt to go over there. Because it did. But you know what? I made it. I was able to look at the pistols with Husband without losing my mind. However, I did eventually get very antsy with the need to get out. That's why I do kind of like Scheels. There's none of that stuff on the main level. So if Husband wanted to quickly grab a box of ammo, I would just wait downstairs in the women's clothing area. Win win. Side note: Holy heck, why are all the cute workout clothes so expensive?! For real...$60 on sale?? No thank you.
Now, I do need to make something very clear. I am not totally cured. I still won't go to Cabela's. So don't think hey, let's take Lindsay to this place and not tell her there's mounts because she's done all this. Nope nope nope. I need to decide on whether or not I think I can handle a place. Cabela's is still out because I need to know I have an escape. There is no escape in that store. It's literally everywhere, I've seen pictures and don't try to tell me otherwise. To me, it's everywhere. Speaking of that, clearly pictures don't really bother me. That first picture I posted did make me gasp at first, though, and I do see some that are still just a giant Noooope. But...I've gotten so much better!! I've wanted to share my victories, but hesitated because I don't want it to make people think I'm completely normal with it. I'm not sure that will ever happen, but I am much better and that makes me want to share.
