Home, Creeps and Eats

It's Thursday and I don't have a Manager Meeting today. YAY! Sometimes I just hate having to go in for the meeting when it's my day off. I've got dinner in the oven, a fire roaring in the fireplace and sleepy dogs at my feet. Nice.

As I sit here in front of my computer screen, I find myself struggling to come up with a story today. You ever have one of those moments when your mind just won't let you take yourself back to an event in the past? I'm having one of those moments. Not exactly an opportune time for it, as I am attempting to create a new entry for My Little Pet Blog. Maybe it's the fact that I have the SciFi Channel on and it's showing an episode of "Ghost Hunters", my favorite show.

I have always had an avid interest in the paranormal. One of my few memories from childhood is checking out as many ghost books from the library as I could. My fascination has not waned in all these years. I watch every show and documentary I can find on the subject. I don't want to go looking for my own experiences, mind you, but I love watching others do so. I've had two experiences of my own, where I saw what I thought to be a full body apparition. Scared the crap out of me both times and I'll die happy never seeing one again.

I've also lived in two houses where I have experienced unexplained events.

One house was right in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City, where I lived for several years with my first husband. The house was almost 100 years old and I loved it. Hardwood floors, a big ol' fireplace, claw foot bathtub and built-in cabinets throughout the house. It even had a creepy basement with a defunct old coal furnace and an ominous crawlspace. The basement was the only part of the house that I didn't care for.

One day, my husband and I were out for the day, probably running errands or something and we came home to a bizarre sight.

We had a standing CD shelf unit that was bright red, from IKEA. This CD stand was in a corner in the breakfast nook. It was a sturdily constructed piece, with bolts going up both sides holding the shelves in and bolts on the top and bottom. Well, when we came home that day, the CD shelf unit was in a different shape. It looked as if someone, someone very strong, had gripped both sides of the unit and pulled it apart. The top and bottom were still bolted in but the shelves had all fallen out in various positions. It was so weird. We both stood there looking at it for a long time, trying to find a rational explanation of how this could have happened. We couldn't come up with anything. It spooked me, for sure, but I still loved the house.

It was also in this house that I saw what I thought to be a full body apparition. I was home alone, lying in bed, when I looked up and there in the doorway stood what appeared to be an older man dressed in the kind of blue-grey jumpsuit that mechanics, miners or factory workers used to wear. I quickly ducked my head under the covers and stayed that way for the better part of an hour. I was creeped out, for sure, but I still loved the house.

After these two incidents, I took to talking to my ghost. I chatted about what I was doing at the moment and mused aloud about who I thought he was and his connection to the house. He never responded and after I started talking to him, the creepy stuff stopped. Was it all my imagination? Perhaps, but that CD shelf was real and I still cannot come up with an explanation of what happened to it.

Well, my timer just buzzed and my dinner is done. Time for eats.