November 2002 Archives

Our new washer and dryer were delivered a short time ago. I'm sitting here at the computer desk watching the movers move what furniture we are taking from this condo to the new house. A house. Not an apartment, not a condo, not a townhouse but a house. After living in the condo for three years and being used to putting up with the rules of the Home Owner's Association as well as cranky neighbors, it's going to feel good to be able to do what we want in the house. Play the music as loud as we want, put whatever color curtains we want in the windows and have as many people over as we want.

I am so happy.

The cable company won't be out until next Saturday to install the new cable service including the cable modem. I will be at the new house without an internet connection. I'll be without for a few days and I'm not concerned in the least. I have my PS2, GTAIII, GTA: Vice City and NBA Street to keep me busy. Not to mention my Sony Home Theater system and DVDs from Netflix. Malik promised to come over today and hook up my stereo system so I am happy about that. Thank gooodness for ex-boyfriends that you can still get along with. I'll probably whoop his ass in a few games of NBA Street while he's over.

Mimi is coming over when she gets off from work and Erin said she would be coming by too. Now that we don't live way in bumfuck Egypt it will be easier for people to come over our house. In the condo it was a chore because we lived way up on Sunrise Mountain near Nellis Air Force base and were basically across town from anyone who may have wanted to come by. I'm excited.

The guy who delivered the appliances was real cute. I should have gotten his number.

Oh well, I need to go unhook the rest of my stereo equipment.

Last night's dinner at Delca's was great. I got to meet her son Israel who was really cool people. There was lots of good conversation and plenty of good food to enjoy.

When we got there dinner wasn't quite ready so my mom and I stayed in the kitchen with Delca, talking and helping her prepare the evening meal. I cooked the string beans. My mom made the sweet potatoes. We talked about anything and everything as we went along, everyone in a good mood and happy to be together at a time like this. Even though it was our first time at Delca's house, I felt right at home and I know my mom did too. It made a nice substitute for my grandmother's house in Los Angeles since we couldn't be there.

When dinnertime finally came we stood in a circle, held hands and said a prayer over the meal. There wasn't enough room for everyone to sit at the diningroom table so two smaller tables were set up in the kitchen. Delca's kitchen is huge and it overlooks her family room. We served the dinner buffet style, placing the hot dishes of food on the center island in the kitchen. When I finally sat down with my plate I couldn't get over how good everything tasted. Israel and I ate and discussed the differences between Las Vegas and our hometowns in California.

After dinner we retired to the family room and watched television. Initially we were watching Rap City on BET and I got a kick out of watching the reactions of the older generation to what was going on in the videos. We discussed music and musicians, who is really talented and who isn't. We debated on why we felt Alicia Keys got all the Grammys while India Arie went home with nothing. we discussed Aaliyah and how you would be hard pressed to find someone with something negative to say about her. When it was time to go, warm hugs were passed around along with promises to get together soon for good times.

My mom and I headed to my Uncle Earl's house for some quality time with family. By the time we got there my cousin Shaun and his girlfriend Traci had already gone home. My cousin Shane, his wife Candida and her friend Kim were still there along with my Uncle Earl and his wife Debbie. Shane, Candida, Kim and I sat at the kitchen table and talked for over two hours about anything and everything. We debated religion, sexuality, morals, spirituality and a long list of other topics. I love these times with my cousin because he is so smart and has a lot to add to the discussion even if he and I don't agree on everything.

I was left feeling full at the end of the night, both physically and emotionally. I was once again grateful for my family, for friends and for life in general. I vowed not to take anyone or anything for granted and to spend more time with the ones I love.

We are going over Delca's house for Thanksgiving dinner and then we will be going by to see my uncle, his wife and my cousins. I told my friend Mimi that I would call her later on so we could see about getting together. She has to work tomorrow so that is going to curtail any harcore "celebrating" we may have tried to do. I am off, but I'm sure most of the day tomorrow will be spent getting things together to move into the new house.

We were going to pay for movers, but my uncle told my mother that he had someone that would do the job for us. This would be a good thing because it would cut down dramatically on the amount we have to spend on moving our things. I know my mother is as happy as I am to know we won't be stuck trying to move all of this crap ourselves.

I called Malik this morning to wish him a Happy Thanksgiving. He didn't answer his phone so I left the message on his machine. He called back a little later and we had a chance to actually speak on the phone for the first time in at least a month. He was again telling me how thankful he is that I pushed him to go to school. I'm thankful that he stuck with it and realized that he has the potential within himself to do great things. I told him that I would be going back to school in the spring. He was happy to hear that.

I also spoke with Granny, Jenny and my dad. Everyone is happy on this Thanksgiving. I'm sad that I couldn't be in California with my grandmother. She knows she is loved though and that's all that counts.

I'm thankful every day of my life for the blessings I receive and the people who make my life richer. Some things I'm extra thankful for:

Cyn, Jason, Starmama, George and Nini for being good friends.

My mommy for always being supportive.

My brother and sister for being the coolest.

My dad for letting me be a daddy's girl even at 31 years old.

My granny for just being her.

My family both near and far.

My job.

My new house.

My friends Mimi, Ken and Qiana for being there.

I hope your turkey is good. Happy Thanksgiving.

Bored with the location of her present journal, our heroine decides to find a new place to hide on the net. Is it really hiding when you are publishing publicly for all to read?

I didn't think so either.

At the moment I am sitting at the computer desk, having finished fiddling with Movable Type for the night. I set up version 2.51 for this site because I like all the bells and whistles that come with it. I especially like the search function. This was something that I missed a great deal when I switched from Greymatter to MT. I'm happy I made the MT switch. Mena and Ben seem to be rocking right along with the upgrades to this system. Overall, since I started writing regularly online and using content management systems, I've found that Movable Type is by far the best I've used. This is no slight against the other two systems I've used; they are both good in their own right. There is something about Movable Type though that keeps me on my toes waiting for upgrades just so I can see what they are going to add next.

I should be packing and preparing to move into my new house, but after a long week (only three days but boy were they rough) at work, I just need to chill out tonight and catch up on all the housework during my four day weekend. Should four day weekend be hyphenated? I'll figure that out later.

Is it funny that I called this site a journal? I guess I was a little confused on the other site as to just what kind of focus I wanted it to have. In my most verbose moments my site can be a journal, a blog or a weird mix of both. I like to link things and I like to write about what's going on in my life and I like to write about what I am reading and things of that nature. I guess it's a hodgepodge, but with the focus being on me mainly I suppose it's a journal. In any case, in my pen and paper journals (or even the ones that I type into Word on my computer) I tend to write about any and everything, not just personal stuff. I guess that would make the site more like a notebook thing. Whatever it is, it's mine and I will do with it what I like thank you very much. If I decide I am just going to post random nothingness like this because I have nothing else to write I can because it's mine.

My relationship with the Internet has changed over the past few weeks. Whereas I used to spend hours upon hours surfing, reading and posting, lately I can barely find time to update my own site. I am going to get better at that because above all us, I wanted to have a record somewhere of where I've been, what I've done, what I've seen and what I was feeling when it all went down.

Life happens so fast but I don't want to lose a moment of it. A new place, a new attitude. I will try to capture as much of it as I can for posterity. I spent so much time writing to entertain other people. This time I want to write for me.

My life will make a damn good book some day.

I made the decision today to return to school. This is something I have debated on for a long time. I’ve made some premature efforts to return, but I think during those times my heart was not in the right place. All the attempts I’ve made before have been out of some sense of pleasing someone else, be it my parents, my siblings, my boyfriend or boss. I never did it for me. This time feels different because it’s all about me.

I was sitting at work thinking about how much I hate listening to grown ass men beg me to leave their cell phone on for a few more days so they can dig up the money to pay it and it dawned on me that this isn’t the field of work I am really interested in. I realized how trying to educate people on the importance of paying on time is not getting me any closer to my goal of writing for professional publication. I thought about how my present schedule at work is totally preventing me from being able to take the creative writing class I want to take at the community college.

I recognized the fact that my job is not a challenge for me. While the money is good and I enjoy most of the people I work with, to me this is just a stop along the highway of life and I don’t plan to be there for the rest of my life. I had to ask myself though, what am I doing to prevent myself from having to take another job like this again? I imagine myself as a writer moonlighting as a call center representative, but what am I doing to further that writing career? Furthermore, how is working this job benefiting me in my endeavors to write professionally?

I think the HR rep must have been reading my mind or something because as I was having all these thoughts I checked my company email and found that he had sent one out encouraging employees to take advantage of the tuition reimbursement program. The company pays $5,250 per year in tuition, books and fees for classes that will help you further your education. I felt one of those little light bulbs go off over my head. The email stated that some catalogs from both the community college and the state university had been placed in the break room. We were encouraged to take a look at them and see if there were any programs of interest to us.

As I thumbed through the community college spring class schedule, I found that they have a program at the campus not far from my home which enables working adults to complete 15 semester units of fully accredited classes in one semester attending classes 2 hours a night, 4 nights a week. The classes are served up in four week modules and you complete one class every four weeks. Your focus is on one subject at a time. This is perfect for me. I got all excited just reading about it.

I went to my boss and told her that I was interested in having my schedule changed to accommodate my schooling. She and I have been down this road together before, so she wasn’t surprised to hear me bring it up again. Over the summer I had expressed an interest in taking a creative writing class during the fall. At that time I was only looking for one night a week and she had promised me that my schedule would be changed but then sold me a dream. My schedule never got changed to the one I wanted; instead I was stuck on one that keeps me at work until 6pm. I reminded her of all this as I made my request for the schedule change. She told me to send it to her in the form of an email and she would forward it to the appropriate people to make sure something was done. We’ll see. I’m going to stay on her about it. I let her know that my date to register is coming up next week. I’m willing to take it over her head if necessary.

I already have some college credits, but I know that there are some courses that I will be repeating. I’m not repeating them for a grade but rather for the refresher for my brain. It’s been ages since I took freshman composition ( you can probably tell by all the horrible grammar mistakes I make when writing). I want to get my juices going again.

I’m incredibly excited by the prospect of returning to school. I will do what it takes to make sure I get there and get done this time.

This time, it’s all about me.

I'm getting ready to leave for work but I wanted to write something real quick. I haven't written in a couple of days because life is moving so fast. I am content with everything right now. Well, I'm anxious to be in my new house, but aside from that it's cool! There are some comments that I wanted to make on people's sites, but since I usually only have time to try and skim at work, I'll make them here.

Resha, I'm sorry you went through that. It happened to me when I was like 10 years old so I feel your pain. He didn't even know I saw and I never told cause I was so ashamed!

Brick! You look so cute!

Elis, you keep doing your thing girl!

Glad to see your site back up Mr Charles. I was beginning to wonder.

Heyyy. J worked it out!

Um, that's all for now.

Since I don't have a dick - well, at least not one that I have attached to my body by natural means - I am growing rather tired of finding that enlarge your penis spam in my email box every freaking day. It's getting a little redundant. When the dick is too little to be satisfying I don't give it medicine to make it bigger. I get rid of it and find a dick that's bigger. Nuff said?

I didn't do jack squat last night. I just wanted to chill out. Ms Stella has stuff piled over all the corners of the living room that needs to be packed. We are running out of sitting space in the condo. It's okay, we get the keys today to the new place. Our plan is to start taking stuff over to the new house in small amounts so that when moving day comes they only have to move furniture, the refridgerator and the washer and dryer. The movers charge $60 an hour so we are trying to get it set up so that they take no more than 2 hours to move all of our stuff.

A lot of stuff we aren't taking. We have piles of clothing and boxes of food that will be donated. It's amazing what you find you don't need once you start cleaning out pantries, closets and the like. I don't wear half the stuff that's in my closet so I'm going to stop clinging to memories of my days as a fashion dynamo and get rid of the stuff. It feels better going into the new house without holding on to a lot of old things. Something like a fresh start.

A fire truck just pulled up in the complex. I hope nothing is seriously wrong with anyone. I'm too lazy to be nosey. Besides, I'm going in to work today for four hours and I need to be getting dressed.

Listerine makes everything you drink behind it taste so dern nasty.

I hope my Starmama is all right.

If you read Bobby then you already know that he bought a one way ticket to the bay area and is living his life Kerouac style out there somewhere. I love Bobby.

Shaq is back!

So Tyler and I decided to go to the company Christmas party together. I guess we'll iron out details tonight over drinks, but I want to do the most. We get discounted rooms at either Paris or Bally's (I'm opting for Paris) so I want to have one for the night so we can get drunk off our asses and act like assholes (in the privacy of our room of course) with our friends from work.

One Life to Live has been so good as of late. I hate Jen Rappaport. I hope she and Lindsay get shipped away.

That's all I can think of for now. Enjoy your Saturday!

Ms Stella and I got approved for a new home. We signed all the paperwork on Tuesday and I'm so excited I could burst. I absolutely love the house. It's in a nice subdivision in Green Valley/Henderson. I'll post pictures one day I'm sure.

I'm glad today is Friday and payday.

Michael Jackson needs his ass kicked for the baby thing.

Vibe online is reporting that Irv Gotti is going to do a remake of Sparkle featuring Ashanti as the Irene Cara character and Beyonce as "Sista". P Diddy and Ja Rule are slated to appear in it as well.

Yeah. Pardon me while I throw up the taquitos I just ate.

I'm still around, not in hiding, just not really having time for/feeling the internet as of late.

Not writing a whole lot either. Got burnt out trying to rush for some deadlines on some contests I entered. I'll get back in the saddle again soon, just taking a little break.

I still love you.

Edit 8:16pm: OH! How could I slip like that? My baby mama brought her personal site back. Go check Resha out. kthxbi.

I broke my glasses. Now I have to wear my contacts all day every day until I get a new pair. I am going back to the eye doctor to have my pupils dilated. I'll have to report the sad news then. They broke cleanly in half. They were inside on eyeglass case, so don't ask me how that happened because I clearly have no idea.

Work this week has been busy. Someone kicked it up a notch and we are all feeling it. Yesterday I was ready to go in the quiet room and lock the door. Too bad there is no lock on the quiet room door. If there were I would have barricaded myself in there. They would have had to break the window to get me out. Yesterday was tough, but we made it through. Thankfully, I have a four day weekend coming up. I can't wait.

I still haven't seen Eminem's movie. Now the Harry Potter movie is coming out this weekend and I want to see that too. They still aren't showing "Real Women Have Curves" here. I'm still disappointed about that.

Yesterday I looked in the mirror and caught a glimpse of my ass.

...

Billy and I have an appointment to work out together this weekend. He's going to be training me and helping me get the badunkadunk under control. If you guys could see Billy you would know why I picked him to be my trainer. His body is perfect. He's an adonis for sure.

Meanwhile, I am flowing through the days trying to use positive energy as opposed to negative and it is working out just fine. In return I am getting back positive energy and I like it.

Darmon - check your Yahoo! offline messages. I left you something there cause I was too lazy to email.

I am sad that the weekend is over. At least I slept a little later this morning to make up for it. Not rushing into work on a Monday morning can make all the difference in the world when you are trying to get over losing your weekend.

I let Yvette snip my hair some more this weekend and I am very pleased with the result. My haircut looks cuter than ever to me. I catch myself grinning at me in the mirror now. The new cut combined with the switch to contacts again is swelling my head, but not so bad that you would notice. I'm still the same loveable me.

I never made it to see 8-Mile this weekend but I did eat at Joe's Crab Shack. It was all right. My mom asked me if I thought they were better than Red Lobster. I told her only in the sense that Joe's is not trying to masquerade as some fancy place. Red Lobster tries to act like they are this big deal (when you are there) and they are basically the Sizzler of seafood. Meh. I still don't like Shrimp or Lobster and fighting with crab (they didn't bother to give me shell crackers) just so I could get the tiny bit of meat in there was not exactly thrilling. I ate though and brought one of those huge crab cakes home.

I haven't quite figured out what I am going to wear to work today. And I need to go stick my contacts in.

I just got one of those explorer errors on my computer and I pushed it to the side so I could ignore it and keep typing.

George admitted he isn't as far on Nanowrimo as he should be to reach the 50,000 goal. I will admit that I am not as far as I should be either but I'm working on it. I hit a block and I hit it hard. Then while riding in the car with my mom on Saturday, she reminded me of some other things I can add to it. I will be working on it some more this week. I may have two days off this coming weekend and if so, I am going to use them wisely.

For now though, I better get dressed for work.

Happy Monday!

Announcement: Lord Cheez has redesigned his site. Please check out my brother's work and buy a t-shirt from his shop if you like.

What a slow, lazy Sunday. I have not had any breakfast. I have not done any laundry. I have not loaded the dishwasher. I have not cleaned my bathroom. I will move faster than this. Just not right now...

So most everyone I know who has seen "8-Mile" is giving it rave reviews. I haven't seen it myself, but I suppose I can make a matinee before the weekend is out. I still want to see "Real Women Have Curves" but I will have to wait until I go to LA to do it because it is not showing around here.

I went to the eye doctor yesterday and got an eye examination. I am ashamed to admit that it has been two years since my last eye exam. So I got a prescription for both contact lenses and glasses. I bought the contacts but haven't put in the order for glasses because I felt like the LensCrafters guy was trying to hard sell me and I hate that. Please, just let me get what I want at a price I want and don't try to dump a whole bunch of stuff on me that is not necessary. Every time I would pick one frame I liked and it happened to be say less than $100, he would go running off to another shelf and come back with a $250 frame going, "These will probably fit you much better." Ugh.

It's weird having contacts in considering I haven't worn them in over a year. You can actually see my eyes.

Met some new people last night who seem to be really cool. Gonna have to vibe with them again real soon.

I'm still smiling.

How are you doing?

The days have been flying by lately. Maybe it's because I haven't really been letting myself get down about stuff. Even when I have a minor irritation, I allow myself that first moment of irritation then I let it go. I realize that no matter what there will always be people who are incredibly stupid, try too hard or just don't have a clue. That's going to happen all the time and we have to just let them do their thing. If you don't pay them any attention, eventually they will go away and leave you alone. This system has been working for me lately and has led to my stress level lowering.

Don't sweat the small stuff. I have been working really hard at this. I used to drive with my knuckles white from gripping the steering wheel, cussing people out left and right if they cut me off, or wouldn't let me in on my lane change or did anything I consider to be stupid in traffic. Lately, I hang back, leave early enough to get there on time and let the idiots have the road during the morning commute.

At work, I shrug my shoulders at stupidity and ignore those that would try to ruin my day with pettiness. It's not going to work anymore on me. I can no longer be a slave to my emotions.

And you know what? My attitude adjustment has led to all kinds of changes in my life lately. Good changes that I am happy about.

I was disappointed with the election results. I think I want to demand a recount because I just cannot believe that people in Nevada voted the way they say we did. But whatever, I'm not going to argue about it.

The weekend is coming and I am ready for it. I think I might do a little shopping and get myself something cute to wear because I've been so good about it lately. We have to reward ourselves for our hard work. It's a good thing.

We finally got the Tom Joyner Morning Show here in Vegas. They took Doug Banks off and replaced him with Tom Joyner and I am so glad. The Tom Joyner Morning Show is just so much funnier. I drive to work in the morning with tears in my eyes from laughing because they really say some lowdown things. It's all in good fun though. The entire three years I've been living here I have been missing them because, frankly, radio in this town SUCKS.

Yvette wants to go clubbing on Saturday night to release some energy. Oh sure, after she hooks my hair up she wants me to go somewhere and sweat it out right away. I'm still going though because I haven't been to a club in a while and I want to get down.

I'm rambling on and on about nothing so I think I will stop here.

Lucifer's Hot Plate
God's Meat Nectar
The Law Offices of Mama 'n Nem
Follow the recipe!

Welcome to Nevada where you can buy liquor 24 hours a day, have whores delivered to your hotel room, go to a "ranch" featuring whores of all different types and gambling is legal. If we catch you with weed though, your ass is going to jail.

You can come here and get married within an hour of deciding to do so - except if you are gay. Gay people are not allowed to be married here. In Nevada we only believe in one type of family unit and the parents ain't Adam and Steve. Doesn't matter if you've been together for 20 years and provided a stable home for several children, don't bring that shit here.

Welcome to Nevada where we have hotels galore and rooms for everyone to stay in. Except if you are homeless. If you are homeless you are out of fucking luck. I mean shit, how are we supposed to pay the light bill on these casino lights if we have to provide shelter for a family that is suddenly down on their luck and needs temporary shelter? There are plenty of freeway underpasses (don't use the one on Charleston though, it floods when it rains) so you should be able to find a spot.

Hey, at least we voted to replace Nevada Power.

I found this in the Review Journal this morning:

But Steve Dragg, 50, who was with the majority in voting yes on Question 2 and no on Question 9, said the state's reputation doesn't coincide with his views.

"I don't want Nevada to have a reputation as a `live and let live' state," he said.

Question 2 was the initiative to ban gay marriages. Question 9 was the initiative to legalize marijuana. Live and Let live? I guess not.

Today is my mother’s birthday. She has been gifted with another year of life on this earth and after her two battles with cancer, I am always grateful when she reaches this milestone. Our relationship has not always been the best (mother’s and daughters do have drama) but these days I find myself more and more grateful for the relationship we have now because she means a lot to me. She makes me laugh, she has my back and when I have an issue I can go to her and know that she will listen like a mother and respond like a friend.

Happy birthday mommy. I love you.

:o)

Pusha and Slim keep trying to seduce me. Not so much seduce as convince me to get down with some freak shit with them. I am so not with it for a number of reasons. It’s funny though, I was sitting and talking with them last week and I got into their heads about the kind of women they go after and their approach and who has more game than whom. It was hilarious listening to Slim run down the things he says to girls to get them to “drop the draws” as he says.

I also told Pusha that I write about him on this site. He asked me what I write about him and I told him that I write about our encounters and the conversations that we have and the things that we say and do to each other. He asked me if I called the story “The Pimp and His Apprentice” referring to himself and Slim. I just started cracking up laughing. Then e asked me if I wrote about how I am “scared” to get with him. I told him that the story didn’t quite go like that. He thought that was pretty funny. I’m not scared of anything. The flirting is fun though.

Last night, instead of kicking it at the spot like I normally would, I went to hang out with my friend Slayer and his wife and our other homegirl Big Mama. We sat around and talked shit, watched the remake of Carrie on television and drank two cases of Budweiser (I only had four myself). Mrs Slayer made us some vittles that were delicious. When I got home all I could do was pass out.

I got my copy of GTA: Vice City today. I don't think I need to say anything else.

We finally went to the haunted house last night. We had been talking about it for weeks and a group of six or seven turned into just Tyler and me but we still went because there was a lot of hype around the Tomb of Darkness and we wanted to see what it was about.

It was located on Highland Avenue between Sahara and Spring Mountain. There were giant spotlights in the sky to direct us toward it but we missed it the first few tries. Our sense of direction in maneuvering around the strip got turned around and we ended up circling around it but not quite getting in it. When we finally found what we were looking for, the anticipation started to build. KISS FM was out there along with someone selling sausages. Who can eat when you are getting ready to get the crap scared out of you?

There was a small crowd of people waiting to be let in. Some had on costumes, most did not but everyone seemed eager to start the madness. We joined them, taking our places at the end of the line. There was a girl who was dressed as a carton of milk and she let me take her picture. Couples dominated the crowd and we found ourselves sandwiched between two cute, young couples that spent their time in line snuggling and kissing each other on the forehead and rubbing each other’s backs. I wonder if they were trying to reassure each other. Tyler and I are a not a couple and not even interested in each other in that way. We are just buds that like to laugh together. So while the couples on either side of us are hugging cuddling and cooing, he and I were giving each other a hard time trying to psyche each other out and anticipating what we were going to see on the inside. I also took pictures of the Tomb of Darkness sign and the hearse they had sitting out front. A sign when we got to the head of the line informed me that I wouldn’t be able to use my camera inside so I put it away.

When we finally got inside we were made to wait in a foyer where we heard the most gruesome sounds. It built up more of what was in store for us. There was an eerie type of music playing. Music that you would expect in a haunted house but there were also lots of odd sounds. I jump at odd sounds in my own house, so this was not helping me remain calm. The foyer is where you purchase the tickets for the haunted house so we had to wait for everyone they let in with us to buy their tickets.

We were ushered through a door leading from the foyer into the house proper and were given instructions to head towards the right and stay against the wall. As I passed through the door I saw a glass window through which I could see chopped up body parts lying strewn around a bloody room. The room was dark and the lights kept flickering on and off. I started to genuinely feel nervous. Heading around the corner as we were told, we were thrust into an even darker room. A woman could be heard screaming. The lights flickered on for a minute and we are all able to see. We laughed with each other and looked around the room. Every girl was holding on to her boyfriend. I was standing as close to Tyler as possible without knocking him over. The lights went out again. When they came back on a very ghostly looking man was standing right in front of my face. I screamed. Then I laughed because I couldn’t believe I screamed like that. The man stayed in my face. I stopped laughing and inch a little closer to Tyler. The man matched my steps. The lights went out again. When they came back on, the man was standing in front of someone else. Another man who looked like he could be his twin had joined him. As a spooky, recorded voice told us the rules of walking through the Tomb of Darkness the lights continued to go on and off and the men continued to scare the crap out of us.

Everyone else was getting just as jumpy and nervous as I already was. It felt good not to be the only one scared. I glanced at the girl in the couple behind me. She smiled nervously at me and we laughed. Somehow a bond was forged or something because during the remainder of the tour, she would grab the back of my jacket. I almost ran her over a couple of times too so I guess it balanced out.

I can't even begin to remember all of the rooms. We walked through a funeral parlor, an asylum, a morgue, a forest, a prison, death row, a spinning tunnel, a polka dot room where the walls came alive, several murder scenes, and I remember running past a girl in a bed with looking very much like Reagan in "The Exorcist". I ran through a spinning tunnel with my eyes closed because I really felt like the room was turning over on itself and I started to feel dizzy. There was something in every room we went in. It seemed like all the ghouls and ghosts and demons and demented souls in that Tomb were focused on me. It started in the first room we went in and continued throughout our tour. I became the unwilling victim of every terror. The man with the chainsaw chased me. Violent J from ICP chased me through the forest. When I started running from him I ran into a lumberjack with half his face cut off. I screamed and tried to run again and he stood in my way saying, “What are you running for? You don’t want to play with me?”

So yes. I was acting like a girl! I was holding onto Tyler, tripping all over his shoes trying to move from one room to the next and escape the things chasing me. I bet the people in our group were thinking, okay this grown ass woman knows she needs to calm down but I wasn't the only one screaming while walking through there and I am cracking up as I write this because the memory of it is so funny. It was maddening and I couldn't stop screaming and laughing. I felt hysterical and it was fun. Perhaps it was a release of sorts, something that I needed.

When it was finally over, I was on the biggest adrenaline rush ever. I felt like we should have come bursting out of the haunted house performing the dance sequence from “Thriller”. It was the best I have been in, well worth the $15 admission price. I thought about going again because it was that good. I'm glad we went and I'm glad we went on Halloween. I'm glad I went with someone that likes to get silly just as much as I do.

As we walked to the car, Tyler and I went back over what we had just experienced. We had to ride to my house with the windows down because we couldn't breathe and it had suddenly become extremely hot and we needed that rush of cool night air to bring us back to reality.

When I went to bed last night, I was still tripping off that haunted house. Luckily I didn’t have any nightmares.

How did you spend your Halloween?