Merry Christmas

I haven't posted much in the last week because I was out in my hometown for the holidays. While I have internet access on my phone, it's not easy to make LJ entries on it.

My best friend Brian and I went on Monday night to see the new Star Wars movie, which was a wonderful mix of nostalgia and newness. The story was captivating and mirrored a lot of what I recall from the original Star Wars Episode IV film. No spoilers, but I was incredibly entertained and am already looking forward to the next installment.

I had a pretty good time back home, spending time with friends and family. What surprised me the most was the weather, which was ridiculously warm. Christmas Eve was 73 degrees F and sunny all day. It certainly didn't feel like Christmas-time.

As usual, I did need a bit of "me time," so I snuck off a couple of times to the local coffee shop to get myself a bit centered and do a bit of cartooning.


Obviously, I had Santa on the brain. I enjoyed doing these and the coffee shop was a great respite from the holiday craziness.

Last night, my family unwrapped Christmas gifts as we usually do. I bought my 9-year-old nephew the game Simon. He continued to unwrap toy after toy, including a go-cart, and he kept coming back to the Simon game, as did my other nephew... and my brother... and my brother-in-law. It was ironic to see this kid get so much for Christmas and ignore the expensive for a relatively cheap game.

After breakfast with family, I headed home today. It felt good to get home.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Dreaming of Pavlovian Ghosts

I had this dream this morning. It was so vivid, so creepy, that I wanted to post and entry on it, but didn't have the proper means to make an LJ post. So I dictated it to my iPhone's Notes program so I wouldn't forget the specifics as most memories of my dreams tend to fade after a few hours.

In the dream, I was working with a group of paranormal researchers at a haunted house on a snowy night. When we arrived, there was a group of people formed into a single-file line going into the house. At first, only I could see them. In the course of our investigation, we learned that an evil man had hypnotized them to respond to commands by ringing a bell.

The house was full of books, but looked less like a library, and more like a used bookstore. There were shelves and stacks of hardback books, paperbacks, small flip books, and pamphlets. We started looking through the house, but I don't recall the specifics of what we did.

Eventually, we begin to be attacked by the ghosts of these people. At first, it was just books flying at us and then they began to fully materialize and chase us, knocking over books, reaching for us through bookcases, etc.

The only way to stop them was to open a book and put it over the face of the ghost, like you were trying to suffocate them. The book would somehow absorb the ghost's attention, making them part of the story, so they would become confused and lost in the book's world. Once the ghost was confused, you could remove the book and quickly set it on fire. Once the book was consumed, the ghost would vanish.

The larger the book, the more confused the ghost would be, but it would take longer to burn the book. If the book was small or short, the ghost would be confused for a shorter amount of time and you had to burn it quickly before the ghost shook it off.

I fought a particularly handsome ghost. He was dressed like a theater pirate, wearing black tights and billowing shirt. He lunged for me, knocking me to the floor. I grabbed the closest thing I could, an old and crappy romance paperback, and threw it over his face as he struggled with me on the floor. With him on the floor with a book over his face, I groped his butt aggressively while waiting for him to be absorbed by the book. I have no idea why I did the groping part. It felt good in my hand (I admit) and it kept him distracted until he was fully engulfed by the story.

Because it was a small book, as soon as I pulled it from his face, I reached for a nearby candle. Because of its aged paper, the book lit up quickly. The phantom writhed on the floor, eventually disappearing as soon as the book was burned up.

At some point, the investigation team had fought and freed all of the ghosts and was wrapping things up. We were getting ready to head back to the lab to analyze our data.

As we were walking out, the group of students that had walked in single file were now standing near the entrance, thanking us for freeing them. They all had cell phones out and called the main researcher on her phone at the same time and in unison said thank you. It was eerie to hear all of their voices come through on her phone. The main researcher left and the rest of us were preparing to leave as well.

As we were walking out, somebody rang a bell. All of the students suddenly stopped moving and looked back at us in unison. I knew by their behavior this was bad.

I walked quickly out of the house and to the gate at the edge of the snow covered yard. As I exited through the gate, I saw an older car waiting with the engine running and the back door open.

I didn't know who the car was waiting for, but I shut the door and kept walking quickly away from the house.

In the distance, one of the other researchers cried out in terror. I started to run.

In the snow on the sidewalk, I could see the head researchers footprints. I kept running thinking I would catch up to her, but eventually they stopped and I didn't see her anywhere.

Then I woke up.