Possibly the Shortest Entry Ever

I don't like it when a 'definitely' becomes a 'maybe'.

I don't like it when things are up in the air.

Anxiety is a bitch.

-Nym-

Tea Time With Sarah Winchester

DISCLAIMER: This entry is a work of fiction based on where I work; it is not an actual paranormal experience I had while working there!

Sometimes, when it's slow at work, the tour guides (like myself) will be sent in the mansion to do some minor cleaning. So it didn't strike me as unusual at all when, after my lunch break one Friday, I was asked "can you go clean some windows?"

When I'm sent to clean windows, I always go the same route I've created for myself that hits the windows I always see most smudged: From the cleaning closet, I pass the aviary, go through the laundry room and pre-1906 kitchen, into the Guest Reception Hall to tidy the parlour windows, up the main staircase, and then through the second and third floors and back down to the cleaning closet. Imagine my surprise when, on my way through with a spray bottle and a rag, I spotted a small and dark figure in the locked-off front parlour through the window...

(The window on the far right of this older photo)

5 Things I Will and Won't Miss About San Jose

This post is not an entirely serious post.

If You Were My Girlfriend...

• We’d go on ghost tours of of our city. Not to be scared, but to come back to those “haunted” spots later, to leave white lilies for the ghosts, to say “we’re sorry someone hurt you”
• You’d cuddle me under a wool blanket as we watched “X-Files” on a laptop when it was raining outside. We’d be eating take-out Chinese and I’d be doing my best not to spill on the blanket your grandma knit for you.
• I’d travel across town to buy you soup from that one place (you know the one) when you had a cold.
• We’d drive out to the country to see the stars. I’d point out my favourite constellations. You’d tease me for only knowing four. We’d make up our own constellations and see who could come up with the best myths for them.
• I’d make you your own tea blend on Adagio teas, and spend hours coming up with the perfect add-ins to represent what I love about you. I’d make you mix CDs. I’d make you drawings. I’d make you daisy chains.
• We’d go to art museums together and hold hands in front of the masterpieces. “Look,” I’d say, looking at the painting, “isn’t this beautiful?” “Yes,” you’d answer, looking only at my face, “it is.” I would grown and chide you for being so cheesy, but secretly I’d be thrilled.

-Nym-

'Occultism Lite' in Downtown San Jose

I've never made much of a secret of my lifelong interest in things that fall under the umbrella I call "unreality". (Though how real or unreal many of these things actually are is something I waffle back and forth on - what really is 'real', anyway? The label is more or less for aesthetic purposes rather than any judgement as to what I feel is real or not.) Things like the paranormal, the supernatural, cryptozoology, mysticism, magic, occultism...

Some of it I believe in whole hog. The universe is too big for extraterrestrial life to not exist, for example, and I've definitely had experiences with ghosts and what some people would call magic. I am a spiritual person, in my own way that I don't feel obligated to explain on this blog. Some of it I'm skeptical of. Though I've visited the Bigfoot Museum and Loch Ness, I don't exactly buy into tales of sasquatches and lake monsters. Some of it I'm unsure about. But the interest is there no matter what.

And I live in a good place for it, even if I am looking forward to what New York City has to offer in this, too. San Jose has both the haunted Winchester Mystery House, and the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum with its alchemy exhibit and occult library. There are multiple urban legends about local places such as Dottie's Pond, Hellyer House, and Hicks Road. There have been some alleged local UFO sightings and there's a nice space observatory and a NASA centre, and we're not too far from Santa Cruz/Felton with the Bigfoot Museum and the Mystery Spot. San Jose hosts Pantheacon, and there are metaphysical shops in Campbell, Willow Glen, and Mountain View.

And then there's the Martin Luther King library downtown, the largest library on the west coast.