Spookiest thing that ever happened to me

Around February of 2005 we drove from our home in Farmington, NM to Durango, CO for a concert at their local college. We had planned on driving back home afterward (it's only a distance of 45 miles) but on the drive over we decided to see if we could get a room at the Strater Hotel and spend the night.

We checked in and joked about seeing a ghost as we went to explore our room. I believe it was room 304 but I can't remember for certain. The Strater's rooms are all charmingly decorated with antique furniture and period wallpapers and linens. In each room, propped upon the bed pillows is a journal where guests are encouraged to write about their experiences in Durango. We didn't have time to read any of the entries before going to the concert.

After the concert we stopped for a drink in the Diamond Belle Saloon located off the hotel lobby then went to our room. My once upon a time husband climbed into bed and was instantly asleep. I puttered around, brushed my teeth, washed my face and crawled into bed to read a book and get warm because the temperature in the room was icey. I read a couple of entries in the journal whose writers mainly told of where they were from and chronicled vacation itineraries, then I switched to reading a book I'd brought with me because it was a lot more engrossing than the journal appeared to be.

It was very quiet as I lay there reading except for the OUaTH's snoring. Suddenly, I heard rustling in the room next door and then a woman began crying. Not just crying; she was sobbing in agonizing grief. I had never heard anyone cry like that. I tried to wake the OUaTH but I couldn't move or speak. I glanced at the clock and it was midnight. It went on for several minutes before abruptly stopping. I am sure it wasn't as otherworldly as it seemed, and was only a distraught guest, but in that setting and at that time of night I was spooked. It wasn't scary but it was eerie.

The next morning the OUaTH read the journal as I was getting around to leave. It seems some of the other guests had had similar experiences.

Have you had any eerie experiences?

Happy Halloween!

excellent point

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

C.S. Lewis

How 'bout them Cowboys?

The Texas State Police are cracking down on speeders heading into Dallas.
For the first offense, they give you 2 Dallas Cowboy tickets. If you get stopped a second time, they make you use them.

Q.What do you call 47 millionaires around a TV watching the Super Bowl?
A..The Dallas Cowboys

Q.How do you keep a Dallas Cowboy out of your yard?
A.Put up a goal post.
...
Q.What do you call a Dallas Cowboy with a Super Bowl ring?
A.Old

Q.What's the difference between the Dallas
Cowboys and a dollar bill?
A.You can still get four quarters out of a dollar bill.

Q.How many Dallas Cowboys does it take to win a Super Bowl?
A.Nobody remembers.

Q.What do the Cowboys and a possums have in common?
A.Both play dead at home and get killed on the road!

The truth is out there...

The other night I was sitting on my daughter's front porch after dark and noticed an odd light in the sky. I figured it for an airplane but when it didn't move from the same spot for about 10 minutes I called daughter outside to look at it. It stayed stationary for at least another 10 minutes, then seemed to get closer for a few minutes before it disappeared.

I have had this same dream several times. A group of people are standing in the parking lot of the United grocery store in Perryton, TX at night watching a war in the heavens. We can see the crazy maneuvering of space/aircraft and tracers from missiles being shot, sort of like star wars or that arcade game from the 80s, Galaxian. There's no real sense of urgency or fear from the crowd, though we are concerned. Maybe it's just a hold over from the Reagan years.

Have I left any doubts yet as to the state of my sanity? Just so you know, I knew it before you did.

My dog has fleas. What's worse is she's allergic to their bites. I just gave her a bath. In the process I got a shower. Her licking and scratching are driving us both crazy.

Jackson is walking, cautiously, and only when it pleases him! He's so damn cute and it's not just because I'm his Grandma.

Thanksgiving and my Mom and Dad can't get here quick enough.

I feel like a loser not having a job. Obviously, prospective employers think so too. I don't know if it's my age, my lack of experience or a combo of both, but something aint working. I was so stupidly trusting in my last life. I wish I could go back to being younger and tell him to stuff his priorities up his arse, it's my turn.

Damnit, Janet, Glee was stupid last night.You won't get that unless you watched it.

Scout smells like an old wet dog...imagine that.

Alrighty then, the painting is finished. It's actually been finished for a while, but I've been too chicken to do this. By this I mean, Mzchief first contacted me in regards to purchasing my painting, but graciously suggested that since more than one person has shown interest I should put it up for silent auction. I am not a professional artist, so selling a painting feels odd to me.

This is an unframed 24" x 30" original oil on canvas. I apologize for the poor photos. I'm not a photographer and when I use a flash there's a glare so I tried using the camera without the flash (photo on left.) That works but it doesn't give a realistic interpretation of the colors. The photo on the right is with the flash.

I would like to start the bidding at $50 to cover supplies. Please, only local bidders so that I don't have to worry about how I'm going to post it. The maximum bid offered will be the winning bid. For instance, if the highest bid is $60 and the next highest is $50, the sale price will be $60. I will tell you what the winning bid is, but I will not publish the buyer's name. Bidding will close on November 5.

If you're interested, email your bid to thisisjenny@yahoo.com. If you're the winning bidder and upon close examination of the painting you're not happy with it, I will not hold you to the purchase.

According to the Divorce Care materials, a person should stay single 1 year for every 4 years they were married. If I were to follow through with their guidelines, I'd start dating right around the time I go into a nursing home.

But I understand where they're coming from. So many people jump right back into the game before resolving their issues from the previous relationship. I know one person who has been married 9 times, and another who has been married 5 times.

Statistics for divorce in remarriage are higher than for first marriages. The only specific stat I remember was for fourth marriages which they say end 93% of the time. The stats rose with each subsequent remarriage. (of course)

If a person is still hoping or fantasizing about reconciling with an ex-spouse, they're not ready to see other people.

They stress that divorce care is not a place to hook up; that a relationship is only as healthy as the two people in it. If you're basing your budding friendship on shared experiences, chances are you will find out later on that that was all you had in common. Makes sense.

If and when it happens for me, I don't even want to be thinking about what I lost, and I sure don't want every conversation to be about what we went through.

You Are the Right Side of the Brain

You are a naturally creative and imaginative person. You have the mind of an artist. You are inspired by the whole world around you, and you never hesitate to act on your inspirations. You are very spontaneous. You are a true multitasker. You are always scanning and processing the world around you while you get other things done. You see the big picture like no one else. You have spot on intuition and a good memory.

What Side of the Brain Are You?

Blogthings: Discover the Parts of Your Personality that Have Been Hiding

I am most certainly NOT spontaneous! I am a planner.

The Forgotten Man - Jon McNaughton

I received the link to this video in email this morning. If you go to the artist's website you can click on the painting and roll over each person or object in the painting with your mouse and see an explanation of who/what the person or object is and what each represents. It's interesting from an artistic as well as an editorial viewpoint.

I abhor people who feed off of someone else's misfortune! Especially when it's mine they're gossiping about. Facebook is good for catching up with friends, but it sucks when a perceived friend is only trying to get the goods on you. I should've known better. I would soooo love to tell her the real story because she sure as heck isn't going to get it from the other party.

Deep breath.

That's better.

After the photo brouhaha

over Mzchief's profile avatar, and in the interest of the complete transparency and honesty so often found on the internet, by blog commenters in particular, I have decided to come clean.

The above photo, that I used to use as my avatar and which mysteriously disappeared from my profile, is not really me. I am so ashamed.

Virtual Sistene Chapel

This is awesome! You can explore every inch of the Sistene Chapel. Your arrow keys allow you to turn and you're able to zoom in. This is one of the places I have always wanted to visit. It took only about 4 years for Michealangelo to paint 12,000 square feet of vaulted ceiling. It wasn't merely a matter of picking up a paint brush, squeezing paint from a tube and applying it. He and the other artists who painted the chapel used the fresco process which is mixing pigment with water and applying it to fresh, wet plaster. The plaster absorbs the color. I way over-simplified the procedure. You can't apply plaster to a large area at once because it dries too fast, so I would think it would be difficult to get uniformity in color since you have to stop to apply more plaster.Since they couldn't be sure of the color until it dried, it amazes me how the colors, done in patches, match so well.

Bullying

This post on bullying by blogger Single Dad Laughing is being posted all over Facebook. It's a must read. There has been a case of cyber bullying on my grandson's football team's facebook page. Some kid has been bullying one of the team members. He can't do it there now because my daughter is team mom and she removed the bully from the friend's list and told the parents of the child being bullied what's been going on.

I went through some bullying in junior high. In 6th grade I'd been friends with a girl who, for some reason during the summer between 6th and 7th grades , decided I was a complete geek and started picking on me. She'd tout her own beauty and tell me how ugly I was. Our moms formed a car pool taking turns driving us to or picking us up from school. While waiting for whichever mom was picking us up we'd stand inside the cafeteria. It wasn't enough that she picked on me herself, she and a group of her friends would surround me in the cafeteria and tell me how ugly I was, how goofy my clothes were, how stupid I was, etc. Luckily, I told my mom what was going on and she dismantled the car pool, talked to Tammy's mom and the bullying stopped.

That was a mild case of bullying. Think about the children whose bullying continues on and on and try to imagine how they feel, or put your child in their place and realize how you'd feel knowing that kind of assassination was going on. I know from some of your posts that some of you have already thought about it. It breaks my heart and not just because I had a taste of what it felt like.

When I was younger I had a closer relationship with God, but as time went on I distanced myself from my beliefs and convictions and let the world in. Things were good and I could take care of myself, and when things got bad I questioned God's existence because I felt a loving God would not allow bad things to happen, yet bad things happen - - horrible things happen - - things worse than any I have experienced happen all the time. I was pissed off at a God I wasn't sure existed.

Last night at my divorce care group meeting someone said something that really struck home. Sometimes God allows bad things to happen to bring us back to a closer relationship with Him. This made so much sense to me and it gave me an answer to the question "why?" that I have been searching for for 3 years. Although I was happy in my marriage I was letting the world carry me away. He allowed the destruction of my life in order for me to return to Him. During the darkest hours I felt God had turned his back on me because I had turned my back on Him so in between bouts of questioning Him, I did not feel worthy of any comfort. Since I hadn't thanked him for my blessings why would I be worthy of His comfort? And that's what He was trying to get me to do all along!

Another aha moment from last night - He's been carrying me through it all. He has provided enough for all my needs. He has seen to it that I have been sheltered and fed. He has provided comfort in friends and family. None of this was due to anything I have done, it's all through Him.

The only thing that has ever held me back is me because God has always been here.

Now we'll see if I can practice what I preach.

Drugged by my parents

Another email post.

Dancing at the Movies - Music Video

Sent to me in email today - Pretty nifty!

A very powerful ad

Wow. This one leaves me a little speechless.

Grousing

In trying to finish the painting yesterday, I spilled a jar of oil painting medium on the table and floor. What a sticky, icky mess to clean up. It's a good thing I like the scent of that concoction because my whole house smells like an artist's studio now.

$13 down the hatch. My clumsiness pisses me off.

While I am venting, here's another thing that pisses me off. When you come to a busy 4 way stop and you're waiting for someone who got there first to go because it IS their turn and they start waving and gesturing like a maniac for you to go as if you're the village idiot and they're the stop sign God, at the very least I want to reciprocate by giving them a very significant and vulgar hand gesture. At the most I want to ram them head on.

My ex did that. Which probably explains why it bugs me so much.

I have been in this house nearly a year! I had to renew my lease this month. I second guess everything I do these days. When I moved back to this town from Ft. Worth I just knew I was going to find a job here because everything else had worked out so neatly and conveniently that I thought this was where I was meant to be. So far on the job front, not so much. Still, some things ARE better.

I wish I'd changed my last name back to my maiden name in the divorce decree. During the divorce process there were a number of reasons I didn't do it. I'd had this last name for 31 years and felt it would be too difficult to get used to using my maiden name again. I didn't want to have to change my name on my driver's license, social security card, school records, leases, etc. And there were a couple of other reasons I won't elaborate on which were a stupid reasons anyway. I could change my last name now but it would cost me so I guess I'll keep the one I've got.

Do you ever get tired of living in your own head?

Never met a cliché I didn't like

I had a different blog a long time ago that I deleted. The difference between this blog and that one is like night and day. I never had a problem coming up with something to write about then, now I mostly wonder why I bother. I suppose the biggest difference is that I thought I knew who I was then, and now I am trying to reinvent or rediscover myself. It's confusing to live a life for so long one way then to suddenly start living a completely different way. Being an introvert sort of hampers the "get up and go" needed to make head way.

Just felt the need to explain the irregularity of my blogging.