moderately spooked

who believes in ghosts y'all? oh man...

so tonight, as with last year halloween, i went over to the weiss's house... they're this cool family from church who has been super nice to me and had me over for holidays or just for fun periodically in the past year

to understand what halloween is like for these people though... oh man... you have no idea. halloween is seriously mrs. weiss's favorite holiday ever. she's cherokee on her mother's side and grew up in a huge house with 13 related family units (up to 40 people around at once!) all in one huge building on a reservation in north carolina... and her family has also had a few tribe shamans in it too, which means she grew up very familiar with the cherokee traditions and views of the supernatural, and has many a story from her childhood of things she's seen that way and the cherokee interpretation of what she saw. having grown up with a heritage that very much sees spirits as real and entities you can interact with, she's on the lookout for stories like that all the time to tell too.

besides that, mrs. weiss loves having guests over.... her oldest kid is my age and married and lives elsewhere, but the other two (one my brother's age, and one 2 years younger than that) are fun too... however, when i go over, there's a bunch of people anywhere from 3 to 6 years younger than me who have spent most of their lives in jersey... then me... then the adults, so i'm kinda a middle phase... and it's comfortable and fun to be over there (and i don't feel bad if i'm quieter because i'm kinda an "inbetween", so i'm free to sit back, throw in a comment every so often, and enjoy people without feeling antisocial if i'm minding my own business for chunks of time too)...

anyhow... leigh and i headed over around 5pm today... which was partway through the steelers/patriots game.... since steelers are one of two teams i really like, and the patriots are the only team i really really don't like, it was fantastic to see the steelers be the first team to take down the patriots in over a year :-)

after the game we all ate, and then mrs. weiss turned out all the lights, and lit just one candle and told ghost stories for two hours... first she let everyone else in the room tell stories of ghosts they thought they had encountered before... then she told stories from the houses she's lived in... and from growing up on the reservation in north carolina,... and from local legend around jersey (there are whole series of books about the ghosts in this state, seriously)

my stance is this... i know there's a very real spirit world out there, and there's no problem talking about it... angels, demons, the works.... but i also don't think it's my job to actively mess with it or seek it out because i really don't know what i'm getting into,... so on the average day i don't even think about ghost stories... i generally avoid horror flicks, and scary stuff in general... but tonight... 2 hours of stories... sure i can sit there and try to rationalize things out, and be sure there's explanation/overactive imagination/whatever... i thought i listened to the whole two hours, intrigued, but not spooked at all... and then i left

that was fine... but now that i'm home, i've noticed i'm a little jumpy... one of the first things you see when you come in our house is a whole wall of our dining room that's ALL mirror... and the lightswitch is across the room, so mirror in the dark... our house is 80 years old and makes standard old house creaks and squeaks, and those are moderately making me edgy right now too... if leigh hadn't been with me all evening and here now, i'd definitely be jumping...

anyhow, in short, it was great fun to hang out with a family again for the evening,... i had a great time... and for once i let myself get spooked... how often does that happen? good thing some people don't live near me who i know would love to capitalize on the edgyness/easily being spooked ness right about now :-P

anyhow, homework for a bit then time to crash... later dudes