Eerie Encounters: The Visitor

It's been a while, so I thought it was time I did another Eerie Encounters story. You can read the first one here if you're interested.

Now, I know I promised stories from my time as a paranormal investigator, but I was reminded of an encounter from my childhood, and I thought you might like to hear that story.

I was probably 12 at the time, and thanks to a monster of a heat wave that hit the Ozarks, the AC had breathed its last. Well, since my little brother needed it more than I, my mother took my box fan and put it in his room until the central air could be fixed. Every day since I could remember, I have slept with a fan of some sort. Not so much for the cooling, but for the sound.

Because when the house got dark and quiet, is when my senses kicked into overdrive, and the noises started. On this particular night, I had nothing to drown out the sounds of the house settling, the train, the car traffic, or anything else really. Everything was shocking loud. Now I should say that I wasn't a particularly organized kid, and my room often looked like a tornado had come through and destroyed it. I had papers, clothes, books, and toys on the floor. Generally, I used the junk as a barrier, so I would know when someone was coming in my room. The noise let me know the door was opening, or when someone was walking in my room. I was a light sleeper, so even with the fan on full blast, I could hear the sound of someone opening my door.

On the night the fan was taken to my brother, everyone went to sleep strangle early. By eleven thirty or so, every light in the house was off, and I could hear the quiet hum of the fans going in the other bedrooms. Despite the hour, I was having a difficult time sleeping or getting comfortable. Something just felt off.

I remember I had turned over in bed, to face the wall that it was pushed up against, when I began to hear the footsteps.

They were slow, walking across my room at a pace that didn't seem right. I could hear the papers and wrappers crinkle and crackle under the weight, slowly making their way toward my bed. My room wasn't very big, and the slow procession of the steps unnerved me. Then, just as suddenly as they had started, they stopped....right next to my bed.

I was far to scared to turn over and see who was in my room, so I closed my eyes, and held as still as I could. That's when I felt the hand on my shoulder. it wasn't overly warm, and it wasn't large, so I knew it wasn't my Mom (who is ALWAYS hot), or my Dad. The hand stayed there for a few moments, then lifted, and the footsteps began to recede away from me. It was only after the footsteps had gone away, and all had been quiet for a few minutes, that I realized I had never heard the door open or close.

I spent the rest of that night on the floor of my little brothers room. When I asked my parents the next morning about who was in my room,they gave me odd looks. Neither one had been in there, and my little brother had been completely passed out no more than five minutes after the weird steps in my room.

To this day, I still have no idea who or what touched me in my room that night.

Love and Lightning Bugs,
 

The List

As you may have noticed, I added a new tab to the nav bar with my latest blog re-design, called The List.

It seems that while Bucket Lists are all the rage currently, too many people wait until their life is half over before they even begin one! So I thought I should start setting my goals early, so that I can hopefully accomplish it all by the time I decide to settle down for the long sleep.

I plan on working on this list, little by little, and updating it as I go with the adventures I plan to have! Make sure to watch that page closely, as I plan on updating it often!

Want to read more bucket lists in the process of being finished? Why not have a look at some of my favorites!

-Scrappy Geek
-Cheap is the New Classy
-Your Healthy Year
-Hobbies on a Budget

Love and Lightning Bugs,
 

Saying Goodbye

I know I normally post about my rabbits, both the good and the bad, but today, I received some pretty upsetting news.

Before I get to that though, I think some backstory is in order.

You see, like every other teenager on the planet, the human known as me at 18 was a fucking nightmare to deal with. I wasn't nearly as bad as some of the horror stories I'm sure you've heard about other teens, but I was no angel either. I had good friends, a job, an close knit family, and an attitude that would make you wonder how my mother didn't chain me in a dungeon.

I got in a pretty bad relationship my Senior year in High School, with a guy who I thought was my Prince riding in on a white horse to save me.

I was wrong.

He hit me, he slapped me, he pushed me around, he forced me into things, and made me feel like the lowest of the low when he was around, or when I did something he didn't like. It was emotional and physical abuse, and once my parents found out about just how bad things had gotten, they shipped me off to Kansas to live with my SUPER conservative Christian Aunt.

I love my aunt,I really do...but at that point in my life, I hated pretty much everyone. Well, my aunt never married or had kids, but she always had cats. As far back as I can remember, she's always had a pair of them. For the extent my "trial 1 month stay" at her home, she had a spazzy calico named Callie, and a talkative tabby named Katie.

You should know by now, just how much I love animals. I tried desperately to form a connection with these cats, but both simply snubbed their noses at me. For the first week, I was subjected to a drastic change in my diet (I was put on vitamins and all that super fun supplement junk...ick), a change in my wardrobe, all my dearly cherished items were riffled through, and all my music and books were put away as well. It was hell, pure and simple.

I felt alone, I felt like an outsider, and I was seething.

And then, one afternoon in my second week there, I was sitting on my bed writing, and the next thing I knew, there was a massive ball of grey fluff on the bed with me. Katie sniffed my hand, looked at me a couple times, then plopped on my lap for the remainder of the evening. After that she was a constant follower, and a happy friend. I still don't know what exactly happened, but before I knew it, I was getting a job in Kansas, choosing to stay there, I realized just how much abuse I had suffered at the hand of my ex, I was singing and drawing and painting again, I was focusing on my photography and writing, my head sorted itself all out, and I was pretty content.

I learned to live again. All because a fat cat decided that I was an ok human being.

And then, today, I learned that the fat cat who was so crucial to my mental healing passed away from kidney failure. She was 12 years old, and quite the chirpy thing when she got to talking. Her favorite place was a lap, or cuddled next to one on the couch. She had beautiful green eyes, and dainty black paws. She was never in a bad mood...and she was the one thing I needed most when I felt the world was falling apart around me.

Thank you Katie. I love you, and I hope we get to meet again at the rainbow bridge one day...

Love and Lightning Bugs,
 

Smash it, Wreck it, Live it, Love it

 I can not even begin to tell you how excited I am to show you my new craft projects! I finally waded through the black hole that is Pinterest to find two amazing books that allow me to craft my way, without all the fuss and muss that regular scrapbooking or art journals require.

The SMASH Book I got is absolutely gorgeous! It's called Pretty Pink, and is full of vintage themed cardstock, filled with beautiful graphics and designs that lend to the overall theme. The pages themselves have no flaps or any embellishments, making sure to create a flat space that you can use to fill with all the random things from your life.

For those of you who don't know, a SMASH book is a sort of scrapbook used as a mobile junk drawer. You can put anything and everything in it, with no special regards to how. I have seen feathers, pictures, ticket stubs, wrappers, leaves...anything you collect on your adventures in life can all be thrown in this book!

Even better, when you buy a SMASH Book, it comes with a super handy glue/pen combo, that allows you to smash on the go!

My other exciting find was a Wreck This Journal, which is sort of like an art journal, but filled with fun prompts to help you on your destructive path through art!

I thought it might be fun for me to show you my progress through these two books from time to time, and show you just how creatively disassembled these books can get in my hands. If you'd like to read more about my Smashing and Wrecking, let me know!

Love and Lightning Bugs,