Arachnophobia...gotta love Mondays!

So yesterday as I was transferring laundry from the washing machine to the dryer and there in the bottom of the washer sat a spider. Not just any spider, but a spider with a big bulbous butt. Think Charolette from Charolette's Web. In retrospect, I wish I had taken a picture because I get accused of freaking out over itty bitty spiders. I would say the bulbous part was about the size and an eraser or two. My first thought was "Is it dead or alive?" I decided to just believe it was alive which brought me to my next thought..."How am I going to squish it?" There was no way I would use a paper towel. I considered the end of the Swiffer but pictured missing and it running up the handle. I considered closing the lid and waiting until Paul got off of work but was worried it would crawl somewhere and hide and then I'd have to go to a laundromat until it was found. I ended up getting a 2x4 and squishing it. I left the board in the washing machine until Paul got home because there was no way I was wiping the spider off....just in case some part lived. I spent 30 minutes researching spiders last night trying to identify it. I came up with it being a web forming spider. I went over many scenarios as to how it came to be in my washing machine. None were comforting. I continued my laundry this morning. The idea came to me to use tongs to remove the clothes....just in case the spider had a buddy. I then decided I was a real pansy and ditched that idea. While changing out the laundry I was again thinking about why an outdoor, beautiful web weaving, spider would end up in the washing machine. A light bulb appeared over my head. On Sunday I decided to hang clothes outside. My suspicion is that the spider was a stow away in the laundry basket. My hope is that he/she was the only stow away. Since the spider didn't look like the typical kind I find now and then, this is the only logical explanation I can come up with. I just hope I'm right!