It's been a while

3.5 years to be exact.

What can I say, I've been busy.  I've:

• Gained and lost a roomate
• Lost and gained 20 lbs (twice)
• Run 2 marathons (and am training for a third)
• Run 7 or 8 half marathons (they're all starting to run together...pun intended)
• Written two novels (neither of them published...yet)
• Fallen in love twice
• Had my heart smashed twice
• Watched friends marry and divorce
• Met three of my favorite authors
• Watched a friend gain and lose a television show (but he's back on TV now...)
• Lost dear friends to cancer (LET'S FIND A CURE!)
• Joined the Bone Marrow Registry
• Joined the RWA
• Watched my sister meet the man she'll soon marry
• Survived a hurricane and an earthquake in the same week
• Camped in the woods (never again)
• Camped on the beach (again again!)
• Witnessed a full body apparition
• Went to Texas looking to meet a cowboy (and met a biker instead...NOT the same thing)

Interesting stories, all.  One day I might just tell them.  In the meantime, I'm excited to be back, sharing these little snippits of my life...or something resembling reality.

Dating the living is hard enough

By all accounts, I'm a level-headed girl. I have a job that requires analytical thinking, and I'm constantly looking for the most logical, most simple explanation for, well, everything.


When I can't find a logical explanation, however, I am perfectly willing to accept a paranormal one. Let's face it, I'm just a little quirky that way. Plus, if the guy I'm out with turns out to be a total dud, mentioning my personal history with the paranormal is usually enough to ensure they'll never call me again. It's a lot more sanitary than smoking, and if I find myself flailing, I can toss in the fact that my (seriously, non-existent) "spirit guide" sees us having at least five children and a huge church wedding. CHECK, PLEASE!


Sometimes though, it just comes up when I'm not looking for it. The guy could be perfectly nice, truly amazing even, and yet there it is. When it comes up, I present what I know logically, and pray that he isn't completely frightened of me, this cute, sensible girl who just happens to see dead people on rare occasions. What can I say, I believe in being honest.

That's exactly what happened last night. TechGuy was up from VA, visiting a friend in the hospital. Since it's a bit of a distance thing and this week is crazy enough, we decided to grab a drink in Fell's Point. The chosen place had the dubious distinction of being named, "Baltimore's best 'Dive Bar' in 2006," but at least it wasn't Max's. :)

While we were sitting there chatting, barely a few sips into our beers, the lights came blazing on. Slightly strange, but we just figured someone dropped a contact (not that you'd want one back if you dropped it on that floor). Then, when the bartender walked over from the other side of the bar, grabbed the remote that was right in front of us, shook her head, and fired, I started to think something else was up.

Before I realized quite what I was doing or remembered that I was with this awesome guy who I had no intention of scaring off, I opened my mouth: "Any other ways that light could have come on?"

"Nope, and you saw where I was, and where that remote was," she replied.

"What's his name?" I asked - still forgetting that TechGuy was getting an interesting first-time look into my secret life.

Over the next ten minutes or so, TechGuy and I got the full story on BOTH ghosts. One, a sailor shanghaied during the War of 1812 was a fun-loving prankster. The other, a life-long abuser who lived upstairs until he was murdered by his own son in the '80s, well, wasn't. We weren't positive which one we were dealing with, but when the lights came on a second time, and the AC kicked on, we knew we were dealing with something.

Now, I've seen enough episodes of Ghost Hunters to know that provoking a spirit can either be a really good idea or a spectacularly bad one. Either way, it tends to produce results. Since I was still showing no signs of scaring off TechGuy, I decided to go "all in."

"If you were a real man, you'd turn the fan on," I said to the light (now off since it was starting to annoy the other patrons who, trust me, needed all the low lights and beer goggles they could get). "Lights and fan. Come on, you wimp, show me what you've got."

And...Nothing. So much for "guaranteed results."

I still wasn't 100% on how TechGuy felt about this whole situation, but I got my answer soon enough. He was sitting on his chair with no one except me within easy reach. All of a sudden, he pitched forward a little.

"Did you do that?" he asked me.

"Um...no...."

"He's behind me then," TechGuy declared matter-of-factly. "My chair just got bumped."

I breathed a sigh of relief. Here, I thought, was a real man who was just as logical as me about this whole thing. Squee!!!

Apparently, someone else was anxious to prove that TechGuy wasn't the only "real man" in the room. As soon as I shared that thought with him (without the "Squee" of course), the light flared on. Again. And this time, the fan was spinning at top speed -- just like I had demanded.

The bartender showed us the remote, and we could very clearly see that NOTHING was actually turned on. I gingerly reached forward and hit the fan's speed button, anxious to see what would happen if I turned the not-on-now-speeding fan up. I did not, I assure you, touch any other button - much less the one that turned the lights off. But that's exactly what happened. I turned the fan up, and it and the lights turned off. Then, the AC turned back on.

After that, all was quiet. I tried to provoke once more by asking the guitarist (dive bar had one of those!) to sing "Son of a son of a sailor," but it turned out he didn't know it. Bummer. We left the bar shortly after. After all, TechGuy still had to get to the hospital, and I to the cleaning I had abandoned. Still the evening was, if you'll excuse the pun, enlightening.

Geeks Wanted!!!

Don't worry, I'm not knocking geeks. I ♥ Geeks...especially ones who can help me out with a little problem I'm facing.

My new gig wants me to create a character and do my new job as this particular character. For semi-obvious reasons for anyone who's ever really looked at me, the character that I've chosen is Dana Scully: Washed Up Reality TV Star.

The angle: The X-Files wasn't a fictionalized series, it was a reality show. Since it ended, Agent Scully had a choice between parlaying her fame as a reality TV star into new roles or taking a job doing what I'm doing with the new company. Since ghost-hunting seemed a less dangerous option than spending a week in a house with Vanilla Ice, Gary Coleman, and the rest of the bunch picked for the Surreal Life 27, she picks that.

The entire character needs hair, makeup, and a persona that matches closely with the actual Scully character. Hair's done (thank you, Jesus!), and the makeup and clothes seem pretty easy. I've already planned a few vital explanations (i.e. I'm not really a skeptic, it was a trick of the editors to create a character -- the standard reality TV show line), but there is a serious and singular problem that I'm having a hard time overcoming...

I have NEVER watched an episode of the X-Files all the way through.

I know, I know, welcome to 1995. I get it. However, while I'm a serious ghost-geek, I don't "do" aliens, flesh-eating bacteria, or massive bug colonies. Unfortunately, since every episode that everyone tried to make me watch featured one of those things, I never turned into a fan.
So this is where you come in. The Truth, The Knowledge...it's out there!! If anyone could possibly fill me in on the essential Scully-isms, could you please email me? I'll be spending all weekend studying my notes and watching old episodes, but you'd be helping a girl out if you could fill me in on the basics. Especially catchphrases and popular quotes. Those, seriously, would be the best.

Thanks!!

Things that go bump...

You guys know how I love to take Ghost Tours of historic (and not so historic) cities. Really, it's not so much the ghosts that are the attraction, but the behind-the-scenes history that the tour brings. Honestly, aside from that one time that I had to drive back from Gettysburg by myself and the route took me through the cemetery, I've never really been scared.
Well, until last night.

Last night, Lisa and I took the Ghosts of Annapolis tour. I, of course, was taking photos throughout the whole tour but nothing was showing up. The front of the Maryland Inn, nothing. The fountain at the Governor's Mansion, nothing. The cemetery at State Circle, nothing.
Then, we reached the Annapolis Heritage offices. The guide and the intern were talking about "Audrey," the 10 year old little girl who "loves to have her picture taken." I started snapping, and Audrey showed up in the form of an orb.

Photo #2 is the GreenAlienHead. I don't know what's going on there (the guide didn't say and I only snapped the photo because the I liked the name of the joint), but clearly something is. That's evident by the orbs that are all over this photo (look at the two next to the door).

Moving on, we walked on over to the Big Brice House. This is where things got spectacularly weird. The guide was talking, I was snapping. I took a photo of the top left hand window. As you can see, there's something there. I looked, but nothing was in the window and there wasn't anything in the architecture that implied that there should be something in the photo. I snapped and looked again three more times. The thing in the window kept showing up in the photos, but it wasn't anywhere on the architecture.

The photos, were taken from different angles so that I could eliminate a problem with the flash. Despite this, it kept showing up. I asked the rest of the group if they were seeing anything in the window, and they weren't. Looking at the photo, you can see now that whatever it is, it is definitely inside the house (look at the glass in the window in front of the object).

The Brice House was the home of a little girl who was born with disabilities and whose death was never recorded. In the 1940s, a construction crew found the body of a teenage girl/20-something woman was found entombed in the walls of the house. It's quite possible that this young lady was raised in the room and hidden away from society. Is she looking out now?
Just after this, the camera batteries started malfunctioning. Then, the batteries died. We switched them with another set, but camera was completely dead for the rest of the tour. I kept trying to switch batteries, but set after set of new batteries weren't working both last night and again this morning.

I felt a little stupid, but this morning I got a little frustrated. I mean, I'm going to Vegas tomorrow. I need this camera to work!! I finally went, "Look girls, don't you want me to see your photos? Let this camera work now!" Then, I flipped the switch.

I love it when cameras listen.