Jumpy

So, as those who are close to me know, I am a bit jumpier than your average cat that was just rescued from a rocking chair factory. This provides infinite entertainment for people who are not me.

When we were younger, one of Josh's favorite pastimes was scaring me every night. He would stand inside my bedroom/closet, and when I opened the door and turned on the light, he would jump out and yell "Bah!" I would shriek and jump a foot in the air. I knew Josh was there. I knew he would be jumping out. And it still honestly gave me a two-second heart attack every time.

One time I decided in advance to not get scared. So I turned on the light, looked at him, and said, "Hello, Josh." He yelled, "Bah!" I screamed and jumped a foot in the air.

When I had just moved to college, my roommate discovered I was jumpy. I believe the discovery was made in some innocuous way--I was concentrating on something, and she came in and said hello. I fell off my chair with a stifled scream and lay gasping for air (exaggerated a bit, but not much). After that, she took every opportunity to scare me. I would come home, unlock the door, and find a dark apartment. Blissfully unaware of things to come, I would go into our shared bedroom. She would spring forth from the walk-in closet, and hilarity (for her)/terror (for me) ensued.

Now my husband likes to scare me. Even though I always know where he is and, being of reasonable intelligence, can guess that he's going to scare me, it still works. I say, "Don't scare me right now." He jumps out and yells, "Bah!" I scream.

I will admit, if I weren't the one being given all kinds of cardiovascular workouts sans exercise, I would find it hilarious too. In fact, in retrospect (he totally got me) and even foresight (I know he's going to scare me again tonight, and the fact that I know makes no difference) it's funny. It's just for those two seconds when I feel like I'm having a heart attack that I don't appreciate my own jumpiness.