I really wanted chicken and noodles last night. You know... the super-tasty -perfect-for winter dish that has the really good, thick noodles? I could have been very industrious and made the noodles homemade, but why do that when the Devils Playground has the frozen (and just as good) kind for $1.78? I needed dog food anyway, so off to the store I went.
I was in the spice aisle looking for onion powder when I heard someone say "Do you know anything about buying pepper?" I turned around and there was this little old man talking to me. He was holding one of those tins of black pepper and looked absolutely confused. I asked him what kind of pepper he was looking for and what kind of pepper dispenser he had. He said he wanted regular pepper that you use with a regular shaker. He then went on to say that his wife died 4 years ago and the she always bought the pepper. I told him sorry for his loss and that the pepper he had in his hand is exactly the kind of pepper he needed for a regular shaker. The man then asked me if I knew where the mayonnaise was and I told him aisle 4 with the salad dressing. He said thank you very much for the help with the pepper then made his way to aisle 4.
I have been thinking about this meeting for the past 24 hours. My initial reaction was "How can you not know how to buy pepper?!" Of course I have come up with a million scenarios of what his life with his wife was like. Was he just a jerk who was the bread winner and thought that a woman's place was in the kitchen, so of course she was responsible for the buying of the pepper... or was he just a really nice guy who took great care of his wife and in return, she took care of him and made sure he never wanted for things like pepper?
The quiet and thoughtful pause he gave when he said she used to buy the pepper has ultimately convinced me that he's just a nice guy who misses his wife dearly and would probably give anything to not be at the store asking a total stranger about pepper.
I think life has different ways of reminding you - if you listen - that you should not take things for granted. I truly think this was one of those lessons.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
Whispers Estate Birthday
I really wanted to do something special for my birthday so my original thought was to go to Prospect Place outside of Columbus. Around the time I started making plans I had been listening to the Ghostly Talk podcast and Doug, who is one of the hosts, started talking about all the experiences he had when he stayed at Whispers Estate, a haunted bed and breakfast in Mitchell, Indiana, which happens to be Justin's hometown. Doug was saying that his stay at Whispers and the things that he experienced changed his entire view of the paranormal. I thought that was quite a bold statement and with all of the great EVP's that they played on the show I knew that I had to go there and check it out for myself!
I emailed Doug to get his opinion on what room I should request when I contacted the owner of the B&B, Jarret, and he said Rachael's room had the most comfortable bed. I then emailed Jarret to see if he had Rachael's room open for January 19th. I waited for over a week and still had not heard from him so I called the number on the website, which is his cell phone. It took a while, but I finally heard from him and we were confirmed for my haunted birthday extravaganza!
During my short membership with the mentally challenged (most of them, anyway) Ohio Ghost Chasers, I became friends with one of the gals named Amanda. She is friends with Jarret and stays at the house frequently so she arranged to come with her husband John. She called me Friday night and told me that there would be a paranormal group from Indiana there as well. I'm always interested in meeting new people so I didn't think much of it.
I picked Justin up and we headed to Indiana. When we got to the area Justin wanted to show me a couple of places in the area including a place called Bonds Chapel where there is a strange phenomena happening on one of the graves. I think there are several stories about the grave but the most popular legend is that the man buried there was killed by a chain and soon after his burial an image, almost fossil-like and in the shape of a cross, appeared on his tombstone. His family eventually removed the tombstone and replaced it with a new one and shortly after, the same image appeared again. According to Justin, scientists and experts have come to the chapel to study it and no one can seem to figure out how or why it's happening.
Being the very curious person that I am, I reached out and started to run my finger down the center of the cross and no sooner than I did that I heard Justin say "They say It's bad luck to touch it". I don't think he was even paying attention to me so the fact that he said it right as I was touching it was pretty funny. Of course Justin immediately started telling me that I was cursed. I tried to wipe my finger off on Justin's pants but I'm afraid that had no effect on the curse. I also tried to get Justin to say some sort of blessing on my finger, which I could not take out of the pointing position. Justin claimed that he didn't know any cursed finger blessings but I really don't believe him. I suppose we will see in time!
It was getting late so we made our way to Whispers. We were on country roads so I practiced driving on the wrong side of the road like they do in Europe on our way. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes not. We finally arrived and knocked on the door. We could see the members of the paranormal group through the door and they just stared at us. Obviously they heard us knock and they just stared at us. I guess someone must have told Amanda so she came and let us in. We went to the dining room and introduced ourselves to Jarret, who was sitting at the dining room table. There were so many people from the paranormal group there that we couldn't even get a count of how many there were. No one was talking to us and they were giving us dirty looks so I finally walked into the parlor and said "Hi, my name is Pam and this is my fiance, Justin, and we are from Ohio"... you could almost hear the crickets. They mumbled a hello and that is about it. I turned back around and just said "wow!"
Amanda gave us a quick tour of the house and Justin and I decided to go get dinner in Bedford so we told Amanda that we would be back shortly. After a tasty meal at Mama's we went back to Whispers and brought our stuff in. We started to go up the stairs and there was a contraption with a couple of cameras blocking the way. We stopped and I looked at the paranormal group as if to say "uh, can you move this thing?" and again, they just stared back at us. Someone suggested we go around, but there was only 5" between the camera and the wall. After a couple of minutes their groups leader came and moved it and we went up to our room. Justin told me earlier that he felt the group thought that they would have full run of the house and didn't like the fact that we were there and I absolutely agreed with him.
We hung out for a bit because it seemed that the group was in every corner of the house and there was no place to go. Finally, around midnight the group that was in the attic came down and we made our way upstairs. It was freezing and I really should have layered more! We all took our positions, turned out the lights and turned on our recorders and waited for something to happen. After 10 minutes or so I had this totally creeped out feeling that someone was behind me because my back was to the door, which is totally open. I moved to the floor and Justin followed me. We started hearing some strange sounds including knocking on the floor. Some play jacks were thrown and a long screw was dropped/thrown on my leg. The screw had been on the right side of me, where no one was, and was thrown on my left leg. There is no way someone could have gotten that screw without me knowing it.
At one point we heard something move across the floor and debated on if it was a mouse... a very fast mouse! There was also the sound of something being dragged across the floor that freaked all of us out and then some shuffling footsteps and everyone was sitting down. The stuff that was happening definitely made me question what was happening because we just couldn't explain it all.
Whispers is known for it's audible voices and that is what I was really hoping for. At one point Jarret was standing up talking to us and we all heard a voice behind him. I have only listened to half of my audio so I'll have to see if it picked it up.
Around 2am Jarret came back upstairs and said that the paranormal group was baking a cherry pie, which we could already smell all the way up in the attic. This group had a whole buffet set up with pizza's, several crockpots, cheesecake, cheese and many other things. I really could not believe that they were baking a pie in the middle of the night! One of the things about the house is that you sometimes smell the cologne of the former doctor that used to live and practice there. How can you smell his cologne and know that he is around if there is cherry pie baking? This group was wacky!
We went downstairs to warm up for a bit and then ended up going to several parts of the house to do more EVP work. We decided to go to bed around 4am. We had a couple of snacks because at that point we were both hungry and then went to sleep... at least I did. I woke up at 6am and went to the bathroom and when I came back Justin went. When Justin came back to the room he locked the door and started to come back to bed. All of the sudden someone in the hall tried vigorously to open the door and it scared the crap out of me. I could not believe that they tried to get in our room at 6am!!
I went back to sleep and woke again at 9am and again went to the bathroom. I closed the door to our room and walked down the hallway and when I came back there was one of their female member standing in our doorway advancing her 35mm camera. I was so stunned that I couldn't think of anything to say. She looked at me and all I could manage was "Excuse me, there's someone sleeping in there!", meaning Justin, and she smiled at me and said "I know" - I know my mouth was hanging open in disbelief!! What nerve it took to open our door and start taking photos with Justin in bed!! Did they have no common sense at all??? I got into bed and told Justin about what happened and he said he was up when she came in but he didn't say anything. I'm really considering writing an email to the leader of the group because I still can't believe the nerve!
A bit after the intrusion we got up and went downstairs and the wacky paranormal group was packing up and leaving. I felt so bad for Jarret because they made an absolute mess of his hardwood floors from coming in and out and also of his kitchen because of their smorgasbord. The group finally left and there was a sigh of relief from all. We stayed and chatted for a bit and finally went upstairs to get our things. Jarret ended up giving us a complimentary stay because of us having to put up with the wacky ghost hunters all night, which I thought was awesome of him. He told us to come back for a more intimate stay with just him and Amanda and John, which we hope to do in the near future.
We left Whispers and had lunch in Bedford and were soon on our way back home... I had a lot of fun and the thought of turning 39 barely crossed my mind, which is a good thing! When I got home I called Doug from Ghostly Talk to tell him about our stay and we decided that we should meet at Whispers soon so we can really experience the house the way it's meant to be... without the wacky, intruding, cherry pie-baking weirdo's from Southern Indiana!!
Just sayin'!!
I emailed Doug to get his opinion on what room I should request when I contacted the owner of the B&B, Jarret, and he said Rachael's room had the most comfortable bed. I then emailed Jarret to see if he had Rachael's room open for January 19th. I waited for over a week and still had not heard from him so I called the number on the website, which is his cell phone. It took a while, but I finally heard from him and we were confirmed for my haunted birthday extravaganza!
During my short membership with the mentally challenged (most of them, anyway) Ohio Ghost Chasers, I became friends with one of the gals named Amanda. She is friends with Jarret and stays at the house frequently so she arranged to come with her husband John. She called me Friday night and told me that there would be a paranormal group from Indiana there as well. I'm always interested in meeting new people so I didn't think much of it.
I picked Justin up and we headed to Indiana. When we got to the area Justin wanted to show me a couple of places in the area including a place called Bonds Chapel where there is a strange phenomena happening on one of the graves. I think there are several stories about the grave but the most popular legend is that the man buried there was killed by a chain and soon after his burial an image, almost fossil-like and in the shape of a cross, appeared on his tombstone. His family eventually removed the tombstone and replaced it with a new one and shortly after, the same image appeared again. According to Justin, scientists and experts have come to the chapel to study it and no one can seem to figure out how or why it's happening.
Being the very curious person that I am, I reached out and started to run my finger down the center of the cross and no sooner than I did that I heard Justin say "They say It's bad luck to touch it". I don't think he was even paying attention to me so the fact that he said it right as I was touching it was pretty funny. Of course Justin immediately started telling me that I was cursed. I tried to wipe my finger off on Justin's pants but I'm afraid that had no effect on the curse. I also tried to get Justin to say some sort of blessing on my finger, which I could not take out of the pointing position. Justin claimed that he didn't know any cursed finger blessings but I really don't believe him. I suppose we will see in time!It was getting late so we made our way to Whispers. We were on country roads so I practiced driving on the wrong side of the road like they do in Europe on our way. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes not. We finally arrived and knocked on the door. We could see the members of the paranormal group through the door and they just stared at us. Obviously they heard us knock and they just stared at us. I guess someone must have told Amanda so she came and let us in. We went to the dining room and introduced ourselves to Jarret, who was sitting at the dining room table. There were so many people from the paranormal group there that we couldn't even get a count of how many there were. No one was talking to us and they were giving us dirty looks so I finally walked into the parlor and said "Hi, my name is Pam and this is my fiance, Justin, and we are from Ohio"... you could almost hear the crickets. They mumbled a hello and that is about it. I turned back around and just said "wow!"
Amanda gave us a quick tour of the house and Justin and I decided to go get dinner in Bedford so we told Amanda that we would be back shortly. After a tasty meal at Mama's we went back to Whispers and brought our stuff in. We started to go up the stairs and there was a contraption with a couple of cameras blocking the way. We stopped and I looked at the paranormal group as if to say "uh, can you move this thing?" and again, they just stared back at us. Someone suggested we go around, but there was only 5" between the camera and the wall. After a couple of minutes their groups leader came and moved it and we went up to our room. Justin told me earlier that he felt the group thought that they would have full run of the house and didn't like the fact that we were there and I absolutely agreed with him.
We hung out for a bit because it seemed that the group was in every corner of the house and there was no place to go. Finally, around midnight the group that was in the attic came down and we made our way upstairs. It was freezing and I really should have layered more! We all took our positions, turned out the lights and turned on our recorders and waited for something to happen. After 10 minutes or so I had this totally creeped out feeling that someone was behind me because my back was to the door, which is totally open. I moved to the floor and Justin followed me. We started hearing some strange sounds including knocking on the floor. Some play jacks were thrown and a long screw was dropped/thrown on my leg. The screw had been on the right side of me, where no one was, and was thrown on my left leg. There is no way someone could have gotten that screw without me knowing it.
At one point we heard something move across the floor and debated on if it was a mouse... a very fast mouse! There was also the sound of something being dragged across the floor that freaked all of us out and then some shuffling footsteps and everyone was sitting down. The stuff that was happening definitely made me question what was happening because we just couldn't explain it all.
Whispers is known for it's audible voices and that is what I was really hoping for. At one point Jarret was standing up talking to us and we all heard a voice behind him. I have only listened to half of my audio so I'll have to see if it picked it up.
Around 2am Jarret came back upstairs and said that the paranormal group was baking a cherry pie, which we could already smell all the way up in the attic. This group had a whole buffet set up with pizza's, several crockpots, cheesecake, cheese and many other things. I really could not believe that they were baking a pie in the middle of the night! One of the things about the house is that you sometimes smell the cologne of the former doctor that used to live and practice there. How can you smell his cologne and know that he is around if there is cherry pie baking? This group was wacky!
We went downstairs to warm up for a bit and then ended up going to several parts of the house to do more EVP work. We decided to go to bed around 4am. We had a couple of snacks because at that point we were both hungry and then went to sleep... at least I did. I woke up at 6am and went to the bathroom and when I came back Justin went. When Justin came back to the room he locked the door and started to come back to bed. All of the sudden someone in the hall tried vigorously to open the door and it scared the crap out of me. I could not believe that they tried to get in our room at 6am!!
I went back to sleep and woke again at 9am and again went to the bathroom. I closed the door to our room and walked down the hallway and when I came back there was one of their female member standing in our doorway advancing her 35mm camera. I was so stunned that I couldn't think of anything to say. She looked at me and all I could manage was "Excuse me, there's someone sleeping in there!", meaning Justin, and she smiled at me and said "I know" - I know my mouth was hanging open in disbelief!! What nerve it took to open our door and start taking photos with Justin in bed!! Did they have no common sense at all??? I got into bed and told Justin about what happened and he said he was up when she came in but he didn't say anything. I'm really considering writing an email to the leader of the group because I still can't believe the nerve!
A bit after the intrusion we got up and went downstairs and the wacky paranormal group was packing up and leaving. I felt so bad for Jarret because they made an absolute mess of his hardwood floors from coming in and out and also of his kitchen because of their smorgasbord. The group finally left and there was a sigh of relief from all. We stayed and chatted for a bit and finally went upstairs to get our things. Jarret ended up giving us a complimentary stay because of us having to put up with the wacky ghost hunters all night, which I thought was awesome of him. He told us to come back for a more intimate stay with just him and Amanda and John, which we hope to do in the near future.
We left Whispers and had lunch in Bedford and were soon on our way back home... I had a lot of fun and the thought of turning 39 barely crossed my mind, which is a good thing! When I got home I called Doug from Ghostly Talk to tell him about our stay and we decided that we should meet at Whispers soon so we can really experience the house the way it's meant to be... without the wacky, intruding, cherry pie-baking weirdo's from Southern Indiana!!
Just sayin'!!
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