You Think You Know Someone

It's funny how you think you know someone well, and that can be totally changed in the blink of an eye.

Art (my long-suffering) boyfriend and I went up to the Gropius House in Lincoln a few weeks back. (I highly recommend it, it's amazing.  http://www.historicnewengland.org/  )

Now Art and I have been together for nearly four years now. I wouldn't say that I know every single thing about him, but I really thought that I had an idea of his personality and general knowledge of his likes and dislikes. I can usually predict how he'll feel about something with pretty close accuracy.

On the day at the Gropius House, we were walking around the grounds, waiting for our tour to start. I was the most amazing thing...there was a stone wall made out of square stones, and wrapped around the stones was a beautiful, two and half foot milk snake. The snake had wrapped around the stones in a way that made an intricate, geometric pattern.

I cursed myself for forgetting my camera, then I remembered Art had his. I called him over to take a picture of the snake.

Art couldn't take the picture, however, because he was too  busy running for the car  and screaming like a girl at the mention of the word "snake".

At first I thought he was kidding, and I started making jokes about the poisonous rattlesnake. Then I realized he was dead serious. A grown man afraid of a milk snake.  He's a man who routinely camps out, has hiked the white mountains, is really "outdoorsy".  A milk snake.

I nearly laughed myself into a coma. I just couldn't believe it. The funnier I thought it was, the madder he got at me. He threatened to find something I was afraid of and laugh at me. I told him, "Dude, I routinely have rats crawling all over me, you think I'm seriously afraid of any animal?" That didn't go over well.

It wasn't until the big, ferocious milk snake had gone back into his  hole and Art was safe, that he could begin to see the humor in it, but he still doesn't find it as amusing I did.

P.S. Art took exception at me saying that he "screamed like a girl". He's right, he was too busy whimpering to really get out a good scream.