GHOSTS.......

With Halloween close on our heels I have decided to share a few real life spooky stories with you.  First and foremost let me say that Yes, Virginia, there are ghosts!  I do believe in them, I've just never seen one myself nor been presented with any concrete physical evidence to prove their existance.

Why do I believe?  Well, initially it was because my parents told me so.  Okay, they didn't actually say 'Jo, ghosts are real.'  What they said was more like 'Jo, we came home one night in 1950 something when we lived in San Diego and found all the books from the bookshelf strewn all over the staircase.' 

I know what you're thinking.... California... earthquakes.... books fell off bookshelf and down the stairs....

Except for the simple fact that the book case was at the foot of the stairs and the books had fallen 'up the stairs'.

So anyhow, while my parents never actually said that the apartment was haunted and ghosts had tossed the books up the stairs, I was convinced that it was a haunting because my parents would never lie.  Exaderate maybe, but never lie...

Of course that happened long before I was born, but the story ignited the ghost hunter in me and in time I would become the leading authority on ghosts and the supernatural on the school yard.

And in the house.

I once trapped a ghost in the wardrobe in our house in Scotland and arranged a close encounter for my baby sister.  Okay, not really, but there could have been a ghost in there, so I helped her into the wardrobe, told her to be very quiet.....

And then I slammed the door and locked it!

She never saw the ghost because she didn't follow my directions.  She did not keep very quiet.  She screamed and screamed and screamed until Mama came and rescued her.  I thought Mama would be more understanding, having been in the presence of a ghost herself.  She was not! 

I also convinced my brother of the existence of polterguists and he eventually befriended one he came to refer to as 'Ghoster'.  I guess there weren't very many Specteral Fast Food joints around back because my brother insisted on feeding Ghoster, who had a special liking for peanut butter and mashed potatoes.  Being as we had no dishes appropiate for feeding the supernatural, George would dig holes in the plaster walls with a spoon and fill the holes with his offerings. 

I'm not sure what drove me to dig the decomposing offerings out the first time, but it made a believer out of my brother and he continued to drill new holes and stuff them with more potatoes and peanut butter.  Naturally I had to keep up the charade, encouraging his link to the supernatural.  Mama was getting suspicious though.  How did all those holes get in the walls, and is that peanut butter in them?

Do I still believe in ghosts?  Yes.  Do I have proof?  No.  Perhaps I just want to believe.  Perhaps they exist and I just haven't been lucky enough to see them.  Goodness knows I've photographed scores of orbs.  Maybe they really are spirits!  And sometimes, some nights... I swear someone or something is touching me... but I can't open my eyes or move.  I can feel fingers, I can feel pressure (or maybe its just gas...) but I'm caught in that shadowy area between sleep and awake when the mind is aware but the body will not respond to the brain's commands.  Someone told me that it is actually a sleep disorder, but I know better.  Its a ghost who wants me... one with very bad gas!

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Becca just called from Fort Collins.  The Mesa Ridge Marching Band is currently #1 in the state following the quarter finals!  Tomorrow morning they compete in the semi-finals, and hopefully the finals after that!  Rocky explained that since the school is relatively new, it hasn't enough accumulated points to make it to the Nationals but thats okay because WOW!  Go Grrrrrrizzzzlies!

And while we're on the subject of 'grrrrrrr', once againmy spell check has defected so let me just remind you all that the Vivi awards are not based on spelling and grammar skills.   Grrrrrrrrrr!