I MAY NEVER SLEEP AGAIN.

You may not either- if you hate spiders as I do. I’m not the only one. I have a witness. I’ve lived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama off and on since 1988.

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So, not long ago, as I looked for a new home, I encountered a creature that stopped another sweet Tuscaloosa resident and me in our tracks.

Emily is this young lady's name. I am using her first name only for her protection LOL. This lovely lady was showing me an apartment when this huge, massive, gigantic, enormous, immense, sizable, vast, jumbo, humongous spider ALMOST jumped on us.

Sometimes photos and videos don’t show you the entire picture. Folks, this spider was bigger than our hands, with its legs spread out.

The abdomen was SO fat, as Emily said, “It’s probably pregnant.” Cue the girl screaming. Wait, that’s me screaming. Are you ready for this?

I am going to show you the video that I recorded on my phone, and I’m warning ⚠️ you, it WILL haunt you.

@ikedaniel7This spider is ridiculous…horror movie♬ original sound - Dallas

*From ikedaniel7/TikTok

What is this creature? Emily and I Searched the entire Internet (Yes, all of it) to find a spider this large found in Alabama.

The only thing that we could agree on that looked even slightly as big as our “friend” is the golden orb spider found in Australia.

How would a spider native to Australia end up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama? That’s not exactly a, oops, took a wrong turn kind of thing.

If it’s not the Australian spider, then what is it?

Has anyone that is living in Alabama or has ever lived here seen this spider?

Before other media tracks down Emily, let me confess.

I was a total wuss and failed to protect Emily from this hideous thing.

That’s a fact that I will have to learn to live with. My instincts told me to get as far away from this spider as quickly as possible.

Emily informed me that she spent time in the military, so that’s why in my mind, she exhibited all of her bravery on this day.

Yeah, right. I wouldn't say I like spiders. I hate them. There I said it. The hatred and the fear that I have of spiders are not normal or rational. I admit it. I’m not proud of the man I became during our afternoon attack, but if that spider were in my house, I would burn it down and ask questions later.