Keep Smiling!

*SIGH*

Yes, yes, I'm a bad bad blogger. *grin*

This week has just been hectic ... I am starting my new weekend shift (Thursdays, 3-7pm, Friday thru Sunday 7am-7pm) ... which meant I had a 5 day weekend. VERY nice. Looking back, what the heck did I do? Lessee ... a lot of yardwork. Have been neglecting the yard since the start of the heatwave... er... summer. Cut the grass, front yard and back. Edged the driveway. Pulled weeds. Tried to bring trees and bushes and shrubs back to life. Was in a bad mood one day, so REALLY enjoyed killing weeds that day. "DIE DIE DIE!"

Monday night was the RDU Ghost Trackers Meeting. That was cool. We're talking about going Non-Profit, and we're starting to plan our first investigation.

Tuesday evening, I ran over to my friend Jennifer's house for awhile and hung out ...
Wednesday evening was Clayton Obedience Class, our new location ... Thursday, I did my 3-7 shift ...

Tonight after work I've got a date, then I come back and do 7am-7pm tomorrow... hopefully go out "ghosting" tomorrow after work, then do 7am-7pm on Sunday. Monday morning, I'm going to THIS place --> Reins From Above to sign up to do volunteer work ... it's a therapeutic horseback riding center that just opened up right around the corner from where I live! I'm so psyched!!! After that, I'm thinking about driving down to the beach for a few hours and vegging at the ocean. Depends on what the weather is doing.

Anyway, that's life in a nutshell. d:)

Ok.

Went to the Mule Days Parade, in scenic downtown Benson, NC. (It's actually a cute little town.) Met up with friends, and sat with them right at the starting point of the parade, so we could get some good pictures. I'll post some when I think about it ...
The Mule Days Parade is an hour and a half long stream of shriners and floats and tractors and bands and politicians, followed by 30 minutes of people riding their horses/ponies/mules/donkeys/cows in a parade. Yes. Cows. That was a pretty well trained cow! *grin*
Life amused me the entire day, yesterday.

Date with "New Guy A" #2 starts in about 15 minutes.

We're going to Mule Days! Hehehehehehe.

I've changed clothes three times so far ... from yellow to green to pink ... t-shirt, that is ... I seriously need some new clothes!!!

Yeah, yeah ... I'll tell you guys all about him soon enough. *laugh*

Since I'm playing catch-up, all of these 'memory' blogs are going to be out of order as I'm thinking about them. This one is from a week ago ... last Friday night.
A friend of mine had a Party Lite candle show/party. Nice candles and accessories, on the expensive side. It's kind of like going to a tupperware party. You play some games, the Consultant talks about the company and the products, and then you just have fun.

The poor Consultant ... she didnt know what she was getting in to ... (actually, she did ... she knew most of us already *grin*). As people arrived, people started to drink and talk. She didnt actually get to start her presentation for about an hour and a half .. she was very patient and understanding. *chuckle* We were keeping her from a colicky baby at home, which was forcing her husband to deal with it, so she was appreciating the break. *grin*

We bought candles, placed orders, and then drank some more. And drank and talked and drank. I didnt ... I just had two cups of punch that had champagne in it, everyone else was hitting the hard stuff. I was having fun without, and knew I'd have to drive home.

Saw such an awesome sight, one of those things that you imprint upon your brain so you'll never forget it:

It had been very hot and humid out. We had a very hard, very brief but cold rainfall. Where my friend lives, she has a field with at least four horses right across from her front yard. We were standing outside talking about 11:30pm, and there was a full moon ... I looked over to the field and there were the two white horses. One laying down, the other standing over it. The ground was all misty and fog-swirling, and in the full moonlight, the horses looked like they were glowing. It was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. It literally took my breath away.

Last Saturday, one of the things I did was went to the Clayton Harvest Festival. (Clayton is the name of the town I live in ... ) I was curious to see what it'd be like. I had talked to some people about meeting up at a certain booth for a vendor we all knew would be there (4042.com) but none of us knew exactly where they'd be.

I drove downtown ... a 'quick' drive (as quick as anything is in the country *grin*)from my house and parked a few blocks from Main Street. The Harvest Festival was on Main Street ... they had the whole street shut down. When I got to Main St., there were vendors as far as the eye could see. People everywhere. Most of the vendor booths seemed to be run by church organizations and groups (which I should have expected!).

I wandered around, looked at goods, talked to people about their services, got told to vote Republican, got told to vote Democratic, was given a sticker of a Confederate Flag by people who I wondered were members of the KKK ...
Found the booth where I was to meet up with people and hung out for the next hour, but noone else showed up. So I just talked to our Webmaster, and our Web-dudette, talked to strangers, and people-watched.

I think my favorite was a woman who was walking down the road from booth to booth selecting which items she wanted to look at. Everyone else, she was just shaking her head and saying "No, no, no, no, no, no..." She refused to be suckered in to talking to anyone about anything she wasnt interested in. She said she had it perfected in to an art form. You could tell she was a pro at it, by the time she'd gotten down to the 4042.com website booth. They were giving away a chance to win $100 dollars, just for hitting their website. Just needed to take home a flier with a ticket. She was already shaking her head and saying ".. no, no, no... " when she shook out of her hypnotic state and said, "Oh! Ok!" I laughed, and she explained that she was SO tired of being accosted ... I was impressed!!

Last Saturday at the fairgrounds, I was hot and in a bad mood and tired and just felt really icky. I walked up to a vendor selling food and drinks, gave him a pitiful look and just said ...

"Drink?"

He rattled off what all they had.

"Sprite?" I asked.

He asked what size I wanted.

"Large." I requested.

Apparently, the large cups were plastic and came in several pretty colors. He asked me what color I wanted.

"Blue." I pointed at the cup.

He gave me the total. Four dollars for the large soda. I handed my money and asked him ...

"Twenty?" Yes, he had change for a twenty dollar bill.

He handed me back my change, and gave me my large blue cup of Sprite. I started eagerly slurping up the cool wet substance, smiled and said ...

"Thanks!" and wandered off.

Isnt communication wonderful??

Ok, I'm way behind again.

This "life" stuff really gets in the way of my blogging!! So much to catch up on ...

I'm dating someone.

Well, we've met twice and gone out on one 'official date' (out to dinner last night). So I'll count that as 'dating'. d;)

I SERIOUSLY need to catch up on details of life lately ... you just get so far behind and then it's just harder and harder to catch up! I dont know where to start. So I wont even try right now. Mwahahahahahaaa!!!!

Before I tell the T-Shirt Tale of Tuesday, I have to talk of this morning's transgression.... "Always Read the Label" before taking medication.

I really should have just stayed in bed this week. I blame Hurricane Ophelia.

I was in a hurry this morning ... I hate mornings ... I'm not a morning person. I always try to stay in bed until the last possible minute, lounge as long as possible, and then have to rush to get everything together to get out of the house.

One of my coworkers is sick and has been coughing up furballs, so I've been popping extra Echinacea and chewable Vitamin C along with my usual morning drugs of anti-migraine meds and stuff. I took the Echinacea, swallowed. Popped the Vitamin C, chewed. BITTERbitterbitter. It's supposed to be nice, orangey flavored. Grabbed the bottle - it was the wrong bottle. Dove for the sink and spit out what was left in my mouth.

UGH.

Not really taking the time to ponder what I'd just done, I ran out the door for work.

A few minutes later on the road, I got an INTENSE headache from the top of my head to the front of my face.

Now, I'm just sick of headaches. I'm used to headaches of all sorts, shapes, sizes and kinds ... so I grabbed my excedrin ... had a bottle of water in the car ... and popped some Excedrin. THEN it occurred to me that it was probably a reaction to the drug I'd chewed up (Melatonin - a drug I usually take at night that makes me intensely sleepy) because then I got dizzy. So I realized I was just masking a drug reaction with more drugs, and who knows what THAT was going to do ... (Excedrin, with caffeine in it) ...

But luckily, all is well except that right now I'm extremely jittery so that it's even hard to type.

I wonder if they sell straight-jackets on E-Bay. I need to be locked up, or bound, or SOMETHING in the mornings ... and on the days when my brain shuts down ... d:(

Sometimes, I just gotta wonder about me ...

On Monday, I'm walking out to my car. I arrive at the car, and lean up against it to get the keys out of my backpack. I push the automatic unlock button on the keychain, but nothing happens. I push it again, and nothing. With memories of U2Lorax's Story of the keychain alarm battery dying, I groan ... I shake the keychain and try again. *sigh* Not even an audible 'click' coming from the car. However, I do have a key.

I put the key in the lock, and oddly enough, it doesnt fit. For some reason, I shake the keychain again. (???) Then a clue forms in my tiny little brain ... I look at the car ... yeah ... it's silver ... looks right ... says Ford in the back ... I have a Ford ... no ... wait ... I have a red Ford Taurus at home. I have a silver TOYOTA sitting three cars down.

I look around cautiously to make sure I'm not being watched, noone can see out any windows as I've been molesting someone's Ford ZX5 - same body shape as the Toyota Matrix - and wander down to Morpheus, my Matrix.

**SIGH**

Saturday night, I got home from the karaoke (k'ke is easier to type) bar about 11pm to an answering machine message.

"Hey Carol. What's up? Give me a call when you get this. Bye."

Caller ID box said "Private Caller". I didnt recognize the voice, tho it was female. Process of elimination, I called or emailed or IM'ed every female I thought it could logically be, so I wouldnt be guilty of not returning the call ... and then I continued to stew about it for the next 48 hours.

NOBODY calls me ... especially not that leaves a message like that! Everyone has their own specific nickname, or lingo, or way of leaving a message. My answering machine doesnt say my name, so it wasnt someone just randomly dialling.

I HAVE NO IDEA WHO IT WAS!!!!!

I must have played that message three dozen times, listening for a clue ... listening for the tone of voice, an inflection, a hint, an emotion ... I STILL have it saved on the machine.

Ah, them rednecks ...

Someone's gotta bless 'em, that's for sure. Out here where I live, it's fairly country-ish. Apparently, some of the people aint too bright. Driving on one of the roads I travel every day (Government Rd, if the name tells you anything), I saw a hand-painted sign in a yard last week.
______
Yard
For
Sale
------

Now ... how in the H*LL do you sell your yard?!?! I was stunned ... amused ... and pondered this the rest of the way home (just a short drive, somewhat unfortunately! *grin*)

Yesterday, I noticed they had painted over the word "FOR" ... so now at least they're having a "Yard Sale".

WOW.

I need to start blogging more often! Life is happening too quick these days. Well, most days.

I had a very fast and slow weekend. Everything happens and then nothing happens. I havent quite gotten used to this yet.

Friday evening, I was supposed to go out "ghosting" with Tony and crew, but noone else wanted to go, and I didnt really feel like going with Tony alone ... so I backed out also. I thought about inviting myself along with Maureen and her daughter and daughter's friend to go to a movie, but then decided not to ... so I stayed home and just ... well ... drank. *laugh* Fixed myself a nifty Margarita with what was left of my tequila (only enough for one). After that, moved on to some Strawberry Daiquiris. Yum, Rum. At one point, talked to a friend on the phone ... the only friend that I can seem to talk to on the phone for hours at a time because otherwise, I dont really like to talk on the phone. Go figure.

Slept really well Friday night (also, go figure ... *grin*) ... and felt well-rested when I woke up on Saturday. Decided I DID want to go out to visit some cemetaries with Tony, so he and I went and visited three, and took some pictures. No real unusual experiences, except at one point, the pendant I was wearing began to itch a lot. Not sure what that meant. It stopped itching when I left that area I was in.

Got home in time to kill a headache and relax ... then went out to
Sun Dog's Sports Bar and Grill, a small local joint that recently opened up, for the finals of a karaoke contest that several people I knew were in, including Maureen's 15 year old daughter Kelli.

Got there earlier than the contest, and a local band was playing outside in the parking lot ... hung out and talked and met people and socialized. It was ... hilarious to me. There were a lot of motorcyclists there ... a real 'Harley' crew. Lots of leather and bandanas and work-faded jeans ... and it just amused the heck outta me. How do I say this without sounding like a snob ... it was just a completely different class of people than I was used to hanging out with ... but I loved it! It was FUN! It was relaxing.

One of the local radio stations came and was giving away prizes ... I got a free t-shirt ... met one of my favorite DJ's from when I first moved to Raleigh.

The karaoke contest started, and poor Kelli was the first one to compete. SUCKS to go first, that was the one thing she had been dreading most ... it was random selection and she'd been saying all evening "Just dont let me go first! " But she was great!! Didnt win, but was great! It was a TOUGH competition ... but when it came down to the tie between the top two, Jay and Eric, Jay REALLY ripped his tie-breaker song. He was AWESOME. There had been about 15 competitors, so the contest lasted about 2 hours.

Did I mention that I met -SO- many people?? Everyone was very friendly, joking around, (granted, just about everyone was smoking and drinking but Kelli and I) ...

Fun. d:)

Sunday was the slow day. I couldnt bring myself to do ANYTHING that I actually NEEDED to do, except laundry. *laugh*

Ok, while on lunch, I'll try to put in to words the adventure of last Friday night. I dont have my little notebook handy, that I took notes in ... so it'll have to be purely from memory.

I was the first one to arrive at the cemetary. I was wearing my cargo jeans and I swear, each pocket was loaded to the gills. *laugh* Ok, ever-so-slightly 'over packed' I was. The cemetary is in downtown Clayton, one of the oldest and .. um .. one of the more "unsafe" parts of town. The cemetary was established in 1881 and covers a few acres ... maybe no more than 2 or 3.

I walked in the gate and immediately felt .. held back. I was glad I was alone, cuz anyone else would have thought I was nuts ... I tried a few times to walk in different directions, on the path and off, and each time, I had to take a step backwards. I felt like I should explain my purpose, so I said who I was and asked permission to be there. I said out loud that we were coming with respect to the residents, meant no harm, and that we wished to discuss and possibly document the lives that they had lived. I said there would most likely be laughter and joking, but it would not be directed towards anyone still there in spirit ... and as a token, I made a donation of an amethyst crystal to the earth that became them.

That being said, I was able to feel welcome and relaxed. I started taking pictures immediately, I wanted to get a shot of each direction after I first walked in the gate. I was drawn to the far right of the cemetary, as I saw something blurry catch my eye (never did find out what). I was working my way down that way when Tony and Maureen drove up.

I waved hey to them ... met Tony for the first time, met Maureen for the second time, and we chatted. Tony set up his video camera at one end and showed me his infrared thermometer thingie that you can point to a spot and get a temp reading. He also had some sound equipment and other camera type thingies, but I was too distracted by the whole cemetary at the moment to pay much attention (oops *grin*).

Angie called, she was a little bit lost ... so I gave her directions (Me! Ha! The one famous for getting lost going straight ...) and Maureen and I wandered off to get 'a feel' for the place. (And I wanted to see what her 'feel' was for Tony, to see if they were gonna become an item *grin*)

The longer we were there, the more ... energy ... we were able to pick up on. There was one corner we were interested in, and took several pictures around ... Maureen and I both discussed what we "sensed" around there. Tony came over to us and told us that the temp was anywhere from 8-10 degrees cooler depending on the spot, about where we were discussing.

Angie joined us, and we all had introductions and stuff ... I wandered off on my own, didnt feel like doing the chit-chat thing. *grin* There was this one gravestone ... I cant recall the name or dates (written down in my notebook) but I got the strongest sense that a spirit either came to visit it, or left it to go visit someone else. There was just energy there, coming and going.

Then Christy came ... so there was more discussions, and by now it was dark. Tony was ready to go, just as I was thinking things were getting interesting. He was anxious to get everybody back to his house, so he could show some of the pictures he'd taken before, some of the recordings he'd taken, etc. I just kinda kept ignoring his requests to leave. *grin* I played around with my camera settings (not too many options, using an older digital camera).

At one point, I was standing next to a wrought-iron fence, so I rested my arm on it so the camera would be really still ... and took a picture of the cemetary in general. When the flash went off, it showed that there was a HUGE spider right in front of my face that I hadnt seen, since it was so dark out ... the effect was really cool ... so I took a few more pictures of it.

The most excellent picture was Maureen, Angie and Christy standing around talking. I was taking random shots in the dark. When I took some of them, one of the pictures showed a foggy 'mass' in between Maureen and Angie. It couldnt have been fog, or cigarette smoke, or a smudge - it didnt show up in the pictures right before or right after. UNFORTUNATELY, when I took the pics off my camera, that picture got destroyed. The logical side of my head is saying "ok, so maybe that smudge was a bad sector of the memory disk." I have several pictures of "orbs" (but I dont really buy in to the whole "orb" theory).

There are a few other experiences from that night that I'll write about sometime. Cecilia, the 8 year old ... a lot of other young kids that died ... the 'most at peace' spirits we found ... it was really cool. Tony was finally able to round everyone up to go back to his house, which I still wasnt that keen on the idea ... so I went home when they left.

Do you ever say, or even THINK, something that you regret very deeply ... feel much remorse for?

I think one of these things I said, that I'll never forget, was "Wow, how cool would it be to ride out the hurricane in the SuperDome?!" Little did I know ... d:(

Another was on September 11 ... after the first plane crashed in to the WTC tower ... my housemate had his TV on and told me about it. I was grumbley and upset that he was talking to me so early in the morning. Mornings were MY time, he usually stayed in his room and left me alone to get ready for work. (He worked nights.) He stuck his head out of his room and told me about the plane flying in to the building, and I shrugged it off as flight control error, and really wished he'd leave me alone. (I'm not a morning person. *GRIN*)

Both times, my thoughts were directed so ... selfishly... at what turned out to be catastrophic global events. Remorse doesnt even begin to describe the suffocating feeling I have. It's very ouchy.

Check this space later for an update on the ghost-hunting experience ... it was fun ... I'll try to write out details. We've formed a 'club' now. *grin* For now, I've really gotta get motivated to go do more chores!!!

d;)

I put in a new car battery!!!!!!!! And the car didnt blow up!!!!!!! (Yet!!!!!!!)

This was in my old Taurus that I need to sell, but it's had a dead battery. My next-door neighbor said he'd take the battery out and put in a new one for me, since I helped him run some errands and did some stuff for him.

Well, he took the old battery out ... beat up his girlfriend (my neighbor), destroyed her house, got thrown in jail temporarily, etc., etc., ... so I didnt hold him to his end of the bargain. d;)

So I was left with a car with the battery sitting out of it. (Battery wouldnt charge.) So it's been sitting and sitting and sitting, since the week of the next-door-neighbor 'incidents' ... til I got up the guts to attempt to put the battery in myself, and I DID IT!!! (Anything involving electrical wiring and charges scares the crap out of me.)

I did make it crackle a little bit. But I told it to stop that, and it did! I have such a wild imagination ... I left the car door open, and wondered if, when I started the ignition, I'd have enough time to dive out the door if it blew up. That's how scared I was.

But I did it!!!!

Now I just have to finish cleaning the thing out, then get rid of it!!

Too bad, too. It has a full tank of gas. d;) (But only gets about 19 MPG, so that wont last long.)

Ok, so tonight is the first night of ghost-hunting 101. d;)

I'm meeting up with Angie, Tony and maybe Christy (yes, I'm actually using real names.. because hey, if I go missing, then it will make things just that bit easier to find me maybe! *GRIN*) at the cemetary at 7pm. I havent heard from Maureen to see if she's going or not. I need to get ready... unfortunately, I'm starting out the evening with massive cramps (sorry men, but it sucks to be a woman!).

I'm bringing digital camera, extra batteries, extra memory card (if I can find it), flashlight, notebook and pen, pocketknife (never go anywhere without one! *grin*), water, "other supplies as needed" (which to some, would know this means an assortment of 'protection').

Gotta go get ready ... I'm going early to get a feel for the place. It's an old cemetary, so I want to check the dates, names, take some notes, etc.

Saturday night plans changed to Friday night.

We're going ghost-hunting! d=) Met a guy who has some recording equipment, has taken some photographs, and has been doing this for a hobby for about 5 years now. So regardless if I go tomorrow night or Saturday night, I'm going with him SOMETIME.

Tho the way these people seem to be, everyone is going to back out at the last minute and change plans again ... so at this point, I'm not holding my breath. So it may change back to Saturday, or it might not be this weekend. We'll see. But that's the plan.

But, ack! There's a dog show at the fairgrounds, and a gem show at the fairgrounds, and earth church, and so much else going on this weekend, and it's my last weekend of freedom before I start working my weekend shifts ... (7am-7pm every Friday, Saturday and Sunday).