Thank you all for the quick replies! I feel a lot better knowing I didn't do anything obviously wrong. She wasn't squeezing my hand at all, as if to constrict, and she let go easily. In answer to your question, dgring, she has that head wobble thing spiders can have, where it looks as though she's dizzy at times, and at others it seems like she can't quite catch her balance. It gets worse with stress, I noticed. Now to tell the boyfriend he was right... lol.