sasha-- i understand the differences between your "fears" and those phobias of my old roommate. i only meant to suggest the fact that your being so phobic or fearful of something seemingly irrational is a similarity. just like your take-no-shit-whatsoever attitude you say you have in life, and your ability to sympathize with her in a few of the stories i shared here about her lifestyle choices. she had a job, but no car or license, and yes, she was an overall sap on my life. i did not mean to imply that you are a similar emotional and financial drain on your friends and family, just that you have a few personality similarities, not to mention if i could imagine her posting here, she would say lots of the things you do. when i read your posts i almost hear her voice. i bet you two would hate eachother.
as for that ex-boyfriend, i'd probably have punched him in the throat. the closest thing i can compare the interaction to is this: i really like scary and/or horror movies. i love when a movie frightens me. of course, immediately afterward all i want to do is turn the lights on and hide under my covers because every little noise is obviously something scary coming for me and my soul. i had a boyfriend who thought it was hilarious to hide around corners of the darkened house and jump out and scare the everloving shit out of me. this kind of fright is NOT my cup of tea, and would give me heart palpatations. sometimes it would be him waiting in the backseat of my car (which he knew was a serious worry of mine) and wait for me to get in to grab me. sometimes he would hide when i came over, so i'd wander the house, calling his name for a lengthy period of time, and i'd be so frightened by the silent, dark house i'd tear up, beg him to come out, and finally he'd grab me from behind or something, laughing at me for screaming then bursting into tears. so after telling him a million times it was not at all funny to me and i really didn't like that stuff (he thought it too entertaining to stop), everytime he'd pull the act i'd end up smacking him as hard as i could when he would finally emerge to scare me, and usually i would then just tell him how big a jerk he was and turn around and leave. eventually he stopped, but i think he was a fucking dick to so totally exploit scaring me like that so many times.