" As Per Katie's Request "

I have not done this before. It is a first. I have to tell a little story that Katie feels is quite amusing and would like me to blog about it. It is something that is funny between her and I so I don't know if it will be funny or interesting for that matter to anyone else.

I will start out by saying that there is a thirty-six year age difference between Katie and I so our tastes can be vastly different, especially when it comes to television viewing. However we have found one particular show, out of pure boredom, that we have discovered tickles both of our funny bones. It has given us both several hysterical fits of laughter and also has left us feeling a little " creeped out " at times.

The show is called " Ghost Adventures ". I cannot remember at this time what network it is on but I do believe it is on the Discovery Channel or is it the Travel Channel ? Katie would remember but it's 5:45a.m. and fourteen year olds are generally asleep at this time in the morning!

The premise of the show is this. Three young men ( thirty-ish?) armed with night vision camera's and many other very expensive , ghostbusterish, technical looking, paraphernalia, travel the world to destinations that are supposedly frequented by the paranormal. Ghosts. The three, or is it four, young gentlemen guide us through these home's, prison's, tavern's, hospital's, etc. as we are told stories by the present day proprietors of the mysterious happenings, sightings, and what have you's. After which the polite young gentlemen are locked in to these very old structures overnight. But of coarse, it wouldn't be any fun during the daylight hours!

Once locked in at approximately 7:00p.m. the get very busy setting up the night vision cameras throughout the building. I do admit that I very much enjoy the tours as touring very old places is one of my very favorite things to do. I also found out that Katie like's buildings that are over one-hundred years old. Sorry dear our house is only sixty.

I will tell you this. I do not, I repeat, I do not believe in ghosts. The only ghost I believe in is the Holy Ghost. But at fourteen I did. It doesn't seem to me that Katie believe's in them either but I haven't yet come right out and asked her. With that said, on we go.

The main character on the show is a tall muscular fellow. I will call him dude #1. Look I am lucky to remember my own name most days and really, that's what they refer to each other as, through the whole show. Dude. Katie and I have picked up on the habit of turning to face each other and saying "Dude!" each time that they do. Why we will be just riding in the car and see something and just turn to each other and say " Dude! ".

Dude #2, with the night vision camera follows dude #1 around the supposedly haunted buildings in hopes of seeing a ghostly image or as they refer to it "disembodied voices ", are you gettting scared yet? They have these magical voice recorders that can actually turn what sounds like it could be a voice, into something like this " Get out "or " I don't want you here ". Katie and I try to hear the words but for some reason everytime they record a voice, the words don't interpret to us what it does to the dude's. We really try though.

Anther thing that dude #1 does is taunt. He likes to stand in a spot where someone has said that they have felt a tug or a push. Dude #1 will say something like this " O.K. tough guy, you've picked on other people, nows your chance, come and push me down the stairs ". Alright, I apologize as I am now laughing. If you saw the show you would know why. This is usually one of the parts of the show where Katie and I can't help but laughing so hard that we can't hear, so we try desparetely to control ourselves!

"Whoa Dude! Did you see that?". Where, what, did Katie and I miss the smoky looking figure cross the threashold? Perhaps we were laughing too hard. Not to worry as they will rewind the night vision camera tape and we will get to try and see it over and over again. On occasion we have seen a speck of dust here and there but it has been through tears of laughter so we could have easily missed something. A head rolling down the stairs perhaps?

The dude's have however had some severe headaches. We watch with much concern as they feel something (?) coming over them and then the poor dears clutch their head in their hands and fall to their knees in pain. There have also been scratches. Now those we can see! Odd though that they only seem to appear after the commercial breaks.

Some of the place's that they visit are very interesting. I would love to go on a tour of them as I have a good imagination and I love to walk through old places and buildings to try and feel what it was like to be there many years ago. There is a certain feeling that I get that just thrills me, which is why I so loved visiting Springfield Illinois and Abraham Lincolns home and haunts. Get it? Haunts!

So far Katie and I have really not seen any concrete evidence that leads us to believe that there is any supernatural or paranormal activity. Of coarse we weren't locked in these places with the dude's overnight either. Although this might have been perfect for Katie as she has trouble sleeping at night, I on the other hand would have trouble staying awake past ten.

And although we have had more laughs from the dude's adventures then anything else, we have also gotten a little creeped out here and there. This is the part that I have to tell you for Katie. After the show one night, it was past 10:30, past my bedtime, I went upstairs after saying goodnight to Katie. It was after an episode that was filmed in England at The Rams Head Inn. I guess I was a little creeped out as I heard unusual sounds that night as I went upstairs. Of coarse I repeated to myself "There's no such thing as ghosts, there's no such thing as ghosts. " in my head and told myself how ridiculous I was being. I also reminded myself that we have four cats and two dogs in the house and they are always lurking around somewhere ready to pounce at given moment.

I am a grown up. In a loose sense. If you are wondering what I thought I will tell you. After I turned on all of the lights which didn't give me much more of a sense of security then I had already had , I stopped to think a moment. It seems to me that we are full of emotion. Good and bad. Happy and sad. Even creepy. God gave this gift of emotion to us to experience. Maybe just maybe he was trying to shake things up a bit. Give me a little thrill perhaps? After all, he does have a wonderful sense of humor. Right?

The next day I had asked Katie how she slept. She told me she had slept just fine. I asked her if she might have been a little creeped out from watching the " Dude's " the night before. She said no. I told her quite casually that I was a little creeped out before bed. She thought that this was funny. Apparently I don't get creeped out too often. As per Katie's request, this is our story.