Saturday, September 28, 2013

SOMEONE OR SOMETHING WAS WATCHING

Have you ever felt like someone was watching you?  Some unseen presense there in the room?  You look around, but don't see anyone.  You just have a creepy feeling that makes you aware, maybe makes your hair stand up on your arms.   I have had this feeling many times.

The most frequent was at my Grandma's house...the one where in my other story "Identified Flying Objects" happened.   There was an old wooden detatched garage by the house.  It had a dirt floor, was kind of rickety, and an old musty smell.  Just the usual items found in a home garage.

However, back behind where the car would be parked, there was another little room.  You'd go through a flimsy door to get to it.  That is where the feeling of being watched was strongest.  Us kids would always beg to go prowl around in there though, because it was spooky, and we liked getting into all the junk out there.

There were canning jars, miscellaneous household items stored in there, but the best, to us, was an old antique trunk.  I don't know whose it was.  Probably it belonged to some long ago relative, but we'd look at what was in there.  There were old clothes from a long ago time, mementos, and a strange little box with this person's hair in it...sort of a long tress of brown and gray.  It was fascinating! 

Just as we'd be into our discoveries, though, we'd all get spooked, because we could definitely feel/sense that we were being watched.   It could have been the owner of the trunk, I suppose.  Never saw anything, but just that creepy feeling, and we'd know we had to get out of there in a hurry!  I went in there several times all by myself, when I was told not to, but couldn't resist!

Inside the main house, too, there was a feeling you'd get, especially in the back bedroom.  The places we'd feel it was coming from was up in the North West corner of the ceiling, and also from the closet.  That uneasy feeling of being watched.

Well, Grandma lived in that house many years, and from time to time she'd go out of town, and it would be me that would go over and water plants, get the mail, etc. 

I'll tell you what, I did all this in a hurry, because there sure felt like there was some presense in that house, and I did not like being in there alone!

Eventually she moved to another house, where things still flew around, and new owners lived in the spooky house. 

It is still there.  I see it often, and wonder if the people living there now have had any weirdness going on.


Peace, Love, & Watchers

Monday, September 23, 2013

DOES SHE OR DOESN'T SHE?

Does she or doesn't she?   That is the question that was posed quite a few years ago by a hair dye company.   There was also a jingle that was about washing the grey away.  I don't remember which company or companies they were, but both statements had a way of staying with you so you'd remember them and hopefully buy their product.

Back then I suppose there was a stigma associated with women coloring their hair.  Why they needed to keep it a secret, I don't know.   Everyone knows people get grey hair.   What's the big deal about putting a color on to hide them if you didn't like them?

By the time I started dying my hair, there wasn't much said about it anymore. Now here we are in 2013 and we can see that lots of people have color on their hair...women and men...and there is acceptance.  There are as many colors available now as there are personalities to wear them.   I like that.

I have had fun experimenting with different colors, myself.  I have had my hair red, black, frosted, brunette, and everything in between.   I've used colored hairspray, hair mascara, chalk, and even cherry Kool-aid (which, by the way, looked awesome!).

Mostly I've  done the dying here at home.  Occasionally, I'd go to a salon to have it professionally colored, but that tends to be expensive.  So I go through the whole preparation, which is a bit of trouble.  It can be messy, so here's what i do.


I gather up old newspapers, or an old sheet to spread out on the bathroom floor to catch any drips. I put on an old t-shirt that I don't mind getting dye on. Then I take the product from the box, setting them on the old towel I've covered the sink area with.  Reading the instructions over a few times (no matter how many times I've done this) so I won't forget a step, I then mix the color with the developer, snip the top off the applicator bottle, then start shaking it...a lot, because they tell you you should.  Taking a few deep breaths to actually psyche myself into actually doing this, I start squirting the dye on the top of my head. 

"Don't let it get in my eyes, don't let it get in my eyes!" I say to myself. Everything is going along fine, but then I worry I won't have enough dye to cover all my hair.  The bottle feels like it is getting empty!  By now, my arms are aching from being held up in the air for so long, squeezing that bottle.  So finally finished with that part, I grab a wet washcloth and start wiping the smears from my ears, neck, forehead, arms and anywhere else I can see a spot of dye.  

"Oh, no...what time did I finish...I have to time this for 20 minutes!"  I start counting on the clock trying to determine what time I can take this mess off!  I check several times during that 20 minutes, because, maybe I miscounted the first time.

Looking around, I notice there were drips on the sheet on the floor, and also on and in the cat's litter box.   Well, now what?  Can't let the cats get in there and get poisoned by hair dye on their feet...and you know cats lick their paws, so now I have about 5 minutes before the time is up and I'm scrambling to change out the litter box, because for real the cats are scratching at the door to come in!

"No, cat, you can't come in...you'll be poisoned!" I yell at the door.

So, now the time has come for the washing off the dye.  Hurry up and get the shower water the right temperature, get another washcloth ready to hold over my eyes, because for sure I'll be blinded with the water and dye running everywhere.  And I rinse, and rinse and rinse some more.  I'm supposed to keep rinsing till the water runs clear, but tell me, how are you supposed to know?  I have my eyes squinched shut and can't look at the water right now!    Huh, crazy directions, seems to me.  Now for the last part. Putting on the conditioner and standing there waiting for 2 more minutes...and those are really long minutes.

Now I'm out and it's time for the big reveal.  Did the dye actually work?  Did I miss any spots?  Does it look good?   Yes! Success, it worked!

Now I'm good to go....that is until next time, which comes around before you know it.

So, here I go...getting out the old sheets or newspapers, etc., etc.


Peace, Love, & She Does!

Saturday, September 21, 2013

WRITE, RIGHT?

I'm going to come right out and say it...I am a writer.  There, it is said.  It is said by me, the writer.   Sounds good to me!   Now it is out in the open and not just words I say to myself. 

Why is this important to me?   It is because how can people who read my writing believe I am a writer unless I believe it myself.    I do believe it.  I write every day. I've mentioned my writing to others over the years, and they know what I do.   So, when I say I am a writer, they do not think it is strange...they've known it all along.

For some reason, though, it is a bit scary to commit to the actual owning of the sentence.   Sort of like, well, now I have to prove it.  People will be watching to see what I have written and making their judgements of it......is it worthy to be called 'writing'.   There is also the thinking by some that you cannot really be a writer unless and until you get paid for doing it.    Sure that would be nice, but it is not the reason I and many others write.   

I write because I have to.   There is something that compels me to write things down.   It's always been this way, as far back as I can remember.   Maybe what I write is not interesting to everyone, but it is to me.  I write what I want and hopefully others will enjoy reading it.

With that said, this is only Part One of my thoughts on writing.  There will be more to come.  

I'd be interested in hearing from you .....why do you write?

Until next time.......

Peace, Love, & Words

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

DID I SAY THAT?

Just a funny story that happened at the grocery store the other day. 

My husband and I were going up and down the aisles of the grocery store commenting about this and that item.   At one point we were standing there by the racks of plastic wraps, foils, etc.   I asked did he know if we needed those bags..."you know, those sucky bags."  He was confused about which ones I meant, of course, but he is used to trying to figure out what I'm trying to say, because what I say and what I'm thinking of sometimes are not the same thing.
I keep trying to think of the actual name of the plastic bags, but it isn't coming to me, so I keep saying , "You know, those sucky bags, the one you suck the air out of."  Finally, he figures out I mean the vacuum kind, where there is an air pump that you, yes, suck the air out after the bag is sealed, to keep the food fresher in the freezer.



We did need some of those, so added a package of them to our basket and went on our way.
However, while we were standing there talking about the sucky bags, there was a guy kneeling down restocking the nearby shelves.  He had overheard our conversation and was totally laughing!  We heard him loud and clear, but since we were already so far into it, there was no turning back.  We acknowledged his good natured laughter with our own.  My  husband then uttered his most frequent line to me, "You're killing me!"

As chances would have it I encountered the shelf stocker several more times before we left the store, as I had forgotten some items and had to backtrack to get them.   Every time I passed by, he would say hi and ask if I needed help in finding anything else.  I'd just smile and tell him, no, everything is fine, I can find what I'm looking for now.

So, anyway, we finished our shopping, but I'm still laughing over it, and I'm glad we gave the shelf stocker a laugh.   He probably went home and told his family and friends the "sucky bag" story!

Peace, Love, & Laughter

Sunday, September 15, 2013

IS IT OR ISN'T IT?

While chopping pickles today for a potato salad, I got to thinking about them.  First of all, Pickle is a funny sounding word.  They look funny, too.   Don't know who called them that in the first place, but maybe they were 'pickled' when they happened to make one by leaving a cucumber in a vat of salt and vinegar.
That brings me to my thought.   Why do some foods have a name change?   This  one changes from a regular cucumber to a pickle within just a short time of brining.  Is there some word fairy that waves her magic wand over the vat and presto change-o, they are changed from one thing to another?   I mean, come on, it's still a cucumber!
I'm not fooled!
That led to other thoughts about other changelings in the food world.   We have of course the grape that turns into a raisin when it is dried.  Nothing strange about that except the change of name.  Why call it something completely different?  If you had never heard of a grape and someone presented you with a raisin, what would you really think it was?  Would you even know it used to be a fruit? 
Then there is the plum that turns into a prune.  Same thing here, I'm thinking.  And why would you even come up with a word like 'prune'?  It doesn't even sound like something good to eat.  Your mouth even looks funny and wrinkled up when you say it.  Why not just say it is a dried plum?   Apricots don't have this problem.  An apricot is an apricot whether it is just picked off the tree, or is dried...it's just called dried apricot.  Why didn't it get to have a name change?  Kind of like it got passed over for promotion or something.
It's not only fruit that have this metamorphosis in name.  The food product we call jerky is nothing more than dried, smoked meat.  Why not just say that? Why the fancy name change....it didn't really change.  Same goes for sashimi.....raw fish.  Nothing has changed from an actual fish at all.  I do agree the name change on this one does sound better than just raw fish, but still, everyone knows what it is.  The name change doesn't really fool anyone.
So that was where I was while chopping the pickles...lost in thought about what things are called.

Oh, by the way, the potato salad was very good!

Peace, Love, & Pickles

UPDATE

This is just an update to my journey into blogging.  I am still trying to find a few of the gadgets to put on here.  First is finding the add a gadget page.  Finally, after much clicking on this and that I find the word at least!   Now what do I do?   I find a page that is supposed to tell you how to put something on your blog.   I copy down the instructions, watch a tutorial on how to do it, then when I try it, there is no such page or listing like they said!   They make it all look so simple.   And it should be, but it isn't  for me.   There are two things I wanted to find out how to do today.  Just easy things.......or so I thought!     The first one was how to make these blocks of writing into paragraphs......or at least have a line or two of break inbetween thoughts.    That was the one that sounded easy to do......evidently not, as you can see by this long chunk of writing.    The other was how to put an icon on here that would let people click to follow.     Yes, that would be nice, if someone wanted to follow this blog that they would have a way to do so.    However, I must have fell down the rabbit hole on this one, as I kept getting farther and farther away from understanding what to do.  So I kept backing up, reading it again, watching how to do it, trying it again.   It kept showing codes and plusses and profile changes that must happen.   Huh?    I just don't know.  Could be they are on there already and I just can't seem to find them?    Well, I will keep trying this and that.   In the meantime, at least I do get to write things and post them.   Hopefully, someone, somewhere will read them!   I'm having fun writing them!    Until next time........                                                                                         

Peace, Love, & Perplexity



Friday, September 13, 2013

WAS THIS HOUSE HAUNTED?

My Grandma's house always had a spooky feeling to it.   As a kid, my cousin and I would spend the night over there in the back bedroom......even though we were scared of that room.   It felt like something was watching us from up in the NW corner of the ceiling.   One night we heard what we swore were babies crying in the living room, so we sneaked in there to have a look.   The room was dim, but no lights were on.  What we saw was the old rocking chair just rocking back and forth, with no one in it.   Could this have been a ghost, rocking a ghost baby?   I don't know, but many more strange things happened in that house.  
I will tell more in later posts!
Peace, Love, & Light








THE NEW NORMAL

It's been two days now since September 11th.  Most everyone remembers where and what they were doing when they heard what happened that day.  I'm no different......it is forever stamped in my memories as "one of those days".                                           

Here is my memory of that oh so normal day that turned into tragedy.
I was at the table eating breakfast cereal.  The morning news was on the tv, but I wasn't really paying much attention to it.  I did hear the breaking news announcement, though and looked up at the screen to see what had happened.   There were pictures of the first World Trade Center building with smoke coming from it.   For some reason I felt I needed to record this on a VCR tape, so ran to put one in.   That is just when the second plane crashed into the second WTC building.  I knew then that the first one was no accident.  
I could not look away.  It was sickening, and kept getting worse. I couldn't help thinking it resembled a disaster movie......how and when was it going to end.   I taped the news channels all that day.   Phone calls to loved ones were made, discussions were had, and speculation and suspicion began.  
We all know the outcome.   The massive and senseless loss of life was unacceptable, answers were needed, and steps had to be taken to prevent this kind of thing from happening again.
The day after the 11th, we woke up to a changed worldview.   The new normal had begun.   Did you feel it?   Do you feel it still?   Does every anniversary of the day bring back the same horror you felt those many years ago?    It does for me.   Every time I board a plane or attend an event, even going to a mall.....the thought in my head is always "what if", but I try to put the thought away and go about my business of living.  I suppose that's all anyone can do in their personal day to day activities.   Yes, it is the new normal.


Peace, Love & Remembrance

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

ARE YOUR FINGERS STRONGER THAN CARDBOARD?

Well, I seem to have figured out some of this blogging business, so I'll continue.            

As the title suggests, I am wondering about the strength between a normal person's fingers when paired against a normal piece of cardboard.  I know, you think that is a weird thing to compare, and you would be right. However, it has bugged me for as long as I can remember. So, call me weird for letting such a trivial thing be on my mind for years. I don't deny it. 

Here's the thing.  I'm pretty sure I have weak fingers! Put me in a contest ......me vs. cardboard, and the seemingly innocuous piece of beefed up paper wins every time!

I have tried to open flimsy food packages that have on the side a perforated area that says "push here to open".  I've almost never been able to do it.


                                                                                                                                         
I have pushed, poked, broken fingernails, cut my finger, smashed the box, ruined the food within, slammed it on the counter, and yes screamed at the dang thing!  It doesn't matter what brand of box it is.  They are all the enemy!  As a last resort, which should have been my first choice of weapon, I pull out the sharp knife. (an icepick or scissors work fine, also)   The contest tips in my favor, at last! 

                                                                                                                                           
"Ha ha ha," I sneer at the offender. "You are going down."   I then begin stabbing the push to open place over and over until a hole appears in the cardboard, but one little hole is not enough to break into the package.....no, not yet.  I must make the punctures all around the side of the package, too.  Only once or twice I've stabbed my own self in my frenzy.  I called a five minute breather while I applied battle dressings to my bleeding hand.  Back into the fray, I finally emerge as the victor.....and to the victor go the spoils, as they say.   I have won the right to cook the well protected food that is in the package.  Victory tastes sweet......or in this case, like macaroni and cheese!                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                                      
Peace, Love, & Pasta!




IDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS

Flying objects have been pretty consistent in my experience.  First at my Grandma's house.  She was the 13th child in her family, and when I was a kid, her house address was 1313.......Street.  Maybe that meant something, maybe not.  However, objects such as candy dishes, ashtrays, magazines, whatever was on the coffee table would go flying off......sometimes breaking (on carpet) sometimes not, but you'd be sitting there in the living room and there they'd go, for no reason we could see.  It got pretty commonplace.  Later on, when she moved to another house, the same thing would happen......same coffee table......objects would slide, jump, or fly off it from an unseen reason.  Fast forward to my own house some years back.  We had a blue telephone that hung on the wall.  It had a long curly cord.  Many times the receiver would fly off......stretched the complete length of the extra long cord.  It would not just fall from the base of the phone......it would literally fly with force, then spring back to the wall, then drop to the floor.  We were lucky it never hit any of us as we sat there staring at it.

Here at the house we live in now, there have been a few incidents, such as the most recent.  I was home alone.  The cats were all taking a nap in the far bedroom.  I was working at the kitchen table.  All was quiet.  Then there was a loud crash with breaking glass.  It came from the near bedroom by the kitchen......only one wall away from me. I get up to look......the huge, heavy dresser mirror was lying on the floor broken, horizontal to the dresser.  Absolutely nothing else was disturbed in the room, and all the things on the dresser top, such as papers, coins, assorted junk, was still in place.  Nothing else had fallen. 

The only way......the only way this could have happened, was if that mirror had levitated over and above the junk, and spun around in the air in order to have landed the way it did, sideways to the dresser, mirror side up, shattered. 

The weird thing was......I have become so used to things flying around from time to time, it didn't even scare me at all.  I was just, well, gotta clean up the glass.  So I did, and had to drag the mirror out to the garage, as it is too heavy for me to lift it. 

And it is out there still!

Peace, Love & Levitation!

Monday, September 9, 2013

YAY!

Yay! It worked! Sometimes I surprise myself. The label for Cats worked. Must have done something right! Now to remember what I did for the next time! haha!

I'll continue the cat stories so when you come here to read about cats, that is what you will read about.

I was mentioning their personalities. Paolo is the talkative one. He loves to meow about everything. I love to hear him talk, but at times it gets annoying when he is demanding food.  That is pretty much all the time, or at least every time someone goes into the kitchen.

Rowena (Weena) is the lap cat. She is most happy when she is sitting on a lap. Mine mostly, but, really any lap will do. She purrs a lot when she is happy.

Gretchen is the one with attitude...or as we like to say "catatude". She is independent, barely tolerates being petted, and flicks her tail in annoyance at us when we do. She hardly ever meows, but purrs loudly at food!

Cricket is the silly one. Still a youngster and wants to play. She loves to hide and jump out at the others. This results in much hissing on their part.
She has the longest fur, and needs brushing a lot. She loves to be brushed, mostly while sitting in my lap!

So, that is a quick "get to know the cats" story.

I'm sure there will be more to come, as they keep us laughing!

Peace, Love, & Kitty Cats!

CATAGORIES, LABELS, AND CATS

So today I am trying to section off parts of this blog with labels, or catagories. There is the general, everyday kind of posts I want to do, then there are the stories about my cats. Other sections would be for Ghost Stories only, and my Fan Fiction. There may be others, but for now I'm just seeing how this would work for the cat section. Let's see if it works......

We have four cats living here with us in the house. House cats. They are...Rowena, a tabby, Gretchen, a tortoiseshell, Paolo, probably a Russian Blue, and Cricket, we are pretty sure is a Maine Coon Cat.
They all have different personalities. Cricket is the youngest, at almost 4 years old. Paolo is the oldest. They are in their teen years.

Weena and Gretchen were born near Austin, Tx. Paolo appeared at the apartment door of my daughter. Cricket was found in our front yard being ostracized by other cats in the yard. We took them all in.

Ok, so I will post this and see what happens. Maybe it will be regular post or maybe it will be under the cat catagory.  Here goes...

Friday, September 6, 2013

WHY, WHY, WHY?

Seems to me everyone uses really cool sounding names for their online personalities and blogs. I always want to know why they chose it...what does it mean...is it supposed be a secret...a special code?  Hardly anyone will say why.  I won't keep y'all in suspense.  This is "why" I chose mine and what they mean to me:

First, my online name...ghostmmnc...this is in reference to my favorite character in my favorite book "Lost Souls" by Poppy Z. Brite.
Second, my blog name and statement..teleporting*Weena...
Teleport according to the dictionary is to move without physical contact either by mystical means or by conversion of matter or energy for transmission.
That is what I am doing by sending my thoughts out into the ether when I push publish on my blog posts. Transmitting them this way is very mystical to me, because I have no idea how it works!;-)

Weena is one of our cats. Actually Rowena, but we call her Weena most of the time.  I believe she actually teleported herself once right here in the house!  (I will get to the full story under my Ghost Story section).
Time machine...a hypothetical device that permits travel into the past and future.  Also the subject of one of my favorite movies "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells. The female character in the movie was named Weena!

So there you have it.
Welcome to my Blog!
This is Weena

SO FAR, SO GOOD!

Ok, I'm back. Still trying to figure out some of the set up on here. I thought it would keep my settings the same every time I signed in, but maybe not. So, here I go again, pushing buttons. All I want to do is write! This technical business is not easy for me.

Hope you follow along as I make my way. There will probably be changes here and there as I add or subtract things. Not real sure what they are called...so I'll just say they are doo-dads. I'm not good at math either, so there's that to consider. ;-)...

Now here's a kind of overview of what this is all about. First off, I love to write, so that's mainly what I'll be doing. I pretty much write the same way I talk, so it will be conversational. I welcome comments, just don't be rude. I will delete at my discretion.

Main topics will be whatever is on my mind at the moment. Having a probable ADD brain, it tends to wander, get distracted and jump from idea to ...oh...shiny!

I'll talk about my cats...a lot! There are 4 of them.

I want to discuss books (if I can mention a book on here? Still not sure if it is allowed.)










And then there are the Ghost Stories! I will tell you of things that have happened in my life that are completely true! (maybe I can put these on a separate lable?)

So that will be some topics to start with...and the way I meander around there may be more in the future. I value humor in all things, so feel free to laugh along with me!

Till next time...

Peace, Love, & Pie!

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

TRYING, STILL TRYING

still trying to figure this out...I thought I had picked a font I liked and now it won't show up. what gives? Ok now I'm trying the size to see what happens..there that's better.I like the color of the print. Don't know really how this will look, I mean, I look at the previews but is that how it will look to anyone reading this? I dunno! Maybe I should just push publish and see what happens? Maybe I should make some epic first post? I think it is epic that I even got on here and am typing!!Ok, I tried out this jump a line thing. Hmmm...interesting. I swear, this computer stuff is pretty much over my head at this point. Evidently my way of doing this is to push a button, or click on a word and see what happens, then try to fix it if it goes crazy on me! Or beg for help from family and friends who know much, much more than I do.