I’ve been listening to some new music and thought I’d share some of my thoughts on it…

Cartel-Cycles
I liked Cartel’s first release “Chroma” but I was really letdown by their second…so let down that I didn’t think I’d bother with them anymore. But I’m glad I did because their new album Cycles is really good. It sounds more like their first album and it’s fun to listen to.

Dashboard Confessional-Alter the Ending
I was sooo happy to see that Dashboard provided an acoustic version of every song on this album. I like them so much better with just Chris and the guitar. I don’t really feel like they have had a good album since “A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar”. Even that release wasn’t that great…but their new one is pretty good. I would definitely check it out.

Flyleaf-Memento Mori
I’ve known about Flyleaf for probably 2 years or more and I still can’t form a consistent opinion about this band…one minute I like them…the next I think they are boring. I found it hard to listen to their first album from beginning to end because I would get bored, but I did like some of the songs a lot. And with their new release nothing much really changes for me. I like their harder songs better and was disappointed to hear that the new album really lacked anything like songs “So Sick” and the other one…forget the name. But I do like the album…and for the most part I think if you really liked the first one you won’t be disappointed with the second one.

I’ve really been into Brendan Benson lately also…He’s really good. And I can’t stop listening to Brand New’s album Daisy…! Even though I’m not in love with it like their previous stuff, it’s still good….so that’s it…bored and listening to music…thought I’d share what’s in my playlist lately.

so after seeing the movie paranormal activity and it being halloween and everything…i started to really think about the weird things that have happened at my parent’s house over the years. and i’m thankful that i’m not living there at the moment otherwise i’d probably be too freaked out to think about what it could be.

obviously my sister and i believe that our parent’s house is haunted. it’s not just that when you sit in the dark in the living room and look at the stairway you get freaked out…or that the basement is a little scary..it’s that the place is really haunted and we have had many strange things happen. so here it goes.

i used to think i was just scaring myself or just thinking i heard noises, i mean it’s an old house. but then when my sister also told me things that she heard i started to really think it was haunted. i feel like when i walk into my house i can feel something weird. some sort of weird presence. but it’s mostly when i’m alone in the house. it’s like i’m not really alone. i’ve spent many nights in that house with every single light on. or sitting in the computer room and having the door shut because i was afraid i would see someone walking through the dining room, even though no one was home.

the places where i have felt the most activity is the living room, the kitchen, the back stairway, and my bedroom. so let’s start from the beginning. the first thing i noticed about the house was when i was up late either watching tv or on the internet in the computer room…i could hear like a conversation going on in the living room. the living room is right next to the computer room. it wasn’t like i could actually make out words from the conversation it was more like 2 (or more) people were talking with a low voice because they didn’t want to be heard. and this is what forced me to fall asleep every night with my tv on. because even when i was upstairs in my bedroom i could hear weird things going on downstairs. people talking…people moving about. so every night i would put my tv on and i would be able to block out anything freaky going on in the house. and my sister was also doing this too…

the kitchen. i have heard from a few friends that they have been in the bathroom and thought they heard someone in the kitchen, even though everyone was asleep. and i’ve been in the bathroom and have heard someone walk in the kitchen mess with cabinets and that would be it. like nothing violent just like someone getting something to eat or putting something away.

the back stairway. the back stairway connects the kitchen downstairs with basically my bedroom upstairs. it is a small, curving, creaky, old, wooden stairway. i’ve always thought it looked pretty cool. i mean how many people have a crazy stairway like that? it is very creaky, you can obviously hear someone come up or down. and it’s right next to my room….so just about every night i’ve heard that stairway make the noise as if someone is coming up or down….and everyone is asleep. and we have cats so you may be thinking it was the cats…well cece was on my bed and chloe has a freaken bell on her so we know where she is at all times. and mimi…well it’s been awhile since mimi has been in that house…just recently though my mom has confirmed that every night around 3 am she hears this creaking in the back stairway.

my bedroom. i believe that my bedroom is probably the most haunted room in the house. i dont know why. but even my sister who has slept in there has said she doesn’t like it. maybe because it’s so close to the back stairway? probably the craziest thing that has happened in this “haunting” occurred in my room. it was one night when i was trying to fall asleep. and i was just about asleep. i was laying on my left side. and over my right ear i heard “andi wake up!” it was a whisper…and i could feel the breath of whoever was whispering in my ear. and i was definitely awake for many hours after that. and i slept with the light on for a week. i was freaked out.

a few other small things…one time we came home and all my parent’s dresser drawers were wide open. recently my mom also told me that she has been in the house and all of the sudden smelled roses. and this would be anytime of the year but seriously…we didn’t have roses and if it was winter…

so after going through all these things i came up with one main theory of who this ghost is. i know that the house is over 100 years old. and when we first moved in i thought i remember hearing it was built by a father for his daughter as a gift. i’m not sure if it was a wedding gift…and maybe i’ve got this part of the house’s history all wrong but…anyway. i’ve read in places and heard…and dante just recently saw on a tv show that having a back stairway was usually for a servant or a maid. they would use the back stairway so they wouldnt be seen. so i believe that this ghost is possibly a maid…and that explains the use of the back stairway so much and possibly the activity in my room…because her room probably would have been somewhere near that back stairway. and also the kitchen…the maid is cleaning! and the smell of roses…the maid probably cut fresh flowers and put them in the house. as for the conversation that i’ve heard in the house…i dont know. but the rest of it seems to fit together. and i wish i had the original floor plan of the house and the entire history like of past residents…did anything weird happen.

so basically that’s it…that’s all i have about the house. and i’m serious about finding out anything i can about the house so if anyone’s bored…and is interested in finding out the mystery of this house…let me know i wanna work on it!

and when i go home…i still sleep with the tv on. but one thing i wanted to point out…even though these things are crazy and freaky…i dont really recall feeling terrified or really even that scared, just mostly freaked out. the things just really freaked me out…but i’ve never felt like i would be harmed or hurt. what do you think kelsey? and anyone else if you’ve had some weird experience…let me know!

so i’ve been reading a lot lately, which is something i dont normally do. but my boyfriend suggested i read this series of books and now i’m hooked. the first book was monster island then it goes to monster nation and the last monster planet…and these books are like zombies take over…end of the world…watch out for the zombies stuff. not my typical choice for reading but the books are extremely entertaining. and they are a little scary. i’ve been having crazy and bad dreams for like the past week!

mostly dreams about zombies taking over the world and me trying to get away.

last night i had a dream that me along with my whole family was on a hiking trip. something went wrong in the middle of the trip…i dont know what, but for some reason we couldnt go back to the car and we had to keep walking. and we got lost. we were lost for days….i remember in the dream i would text don and let him know were still lost and were still alive but we dont know for how much longer. it was scary!! then in the last part of the dream we go into like this underground tunnel…kinda reminded me of the subway because there were grates in the ceiling like in the sidewalks. for some reason we thought this would lead us home? luckily some people walking above us heard us through the grates and came to rescue us.

so we were rescued and i remember my family and i just sitting in this room and i get this idea that i should write a book about this experience. so i asked my sister if she texted a lot during this experience because maybe we could use some of our texts in the book. and that’s basically all i remember. it was sooo weird!!!

i would have to say out of the books i’ve read these books have been having some kind of weird effect on me. i’m having dreams…and i’m thinking what if this really happened?! but seriously i dont think it could. i guess it didnt help that the first book took place in manhattan and it was so descriptive about the locations that i felt totally creeped out…even though i’ve only lived here for a little over a year, i knew the places the author was describing.

it’s probably not helping that a lot of my reading is being done before bed.

so i had some weird dreams this weekend…

first it started out that my parents, my sister, and my grandparents (linda and john) came to visit me in nyc. so we all were just walking around and we came to a park…which was a lot like pells park in paxton…small. there was some kind of festival there though so we were doing stuff there. then we decided to part ways to get ready to go out for dinner..so my grandparents went to their hotel, my family to theirs and me and don to our apartment. when i got home though i was like “i forgot my purse, my phone, my ipod, my camera and my car at the park!” honestly how do you forget a car? i dont know but it’s a dream…so i’m upset but i’m still getting ready to go eat.

me and don get to the restaurant first and get a table. i get pissed and i’m like “i’m going to the park to get my stuff!” my grandma called to say that she had my car so now i just was missing my phone,camera, ipod, purse. so that was somewhat a relief but i still wanted my other stuff so i was determined to go to the park before dinner to find it. don tried to stop me but i went. luckily in my dream the park turned out to be just around the corner from the restaurant. there was a huge section of lost and found items. i found my purse, my phone and my ipod, but i couldnt find my camera anywhere! so i even looked in the grass…never found it.

all the sudden were all walking and my mom says were getting on a train to drop my grandparents off in ohio to see some of their friends. i didnt want to do this and neither did my sister. she was pissed. but we got on the train…my sister was like pouting the whole time ahaha. she started eating chips until she ate a whole bag…then she pointed at someone that had a beer and demanded they give her the beer. so they did and she chugged it. some guy sitting next to my dad was like “you really shouldnt allow your daughter to drink beer.” but my dad just shrugged. all the sudden my sister puked every where all over the bus.

then change of scenery…i’m in house with my mom, dad and sister. my parents own a lot of property and they rent it out. one of our renters always sends the check and with it he sends a painting or a sculpture because he’s an artist. we got a really weird sculpture and my mom asked me what i thought it was. i looked at it and said “it’s king tritan from the little mermaid (you know ariel’s dad)…she says “how do you know?” and i said “here’s his face and beard and there’s ariel and there’s a crab”

seriously?! what kind of dream is this?!

ok so i was thinking about something the other day…i was thinking about mustard. not just any mustard but YELLOW mustard. back when i lived in illinois, whenever i was at a restaurant…the ketchup would ALWAYS be on the table but you would ALWAYS have to ask for mustard. but when they did finally bring you the mustard it was always yellow regular mustard….

here i have a new dilemma….not only is the mustard missing from the table but now when i ask for it most of the time i’m given a look like…”mustard….?” but then it’s always the spicy mustard they bring. which i guess you can call it dijon. don’t get me wrong i love spicy but this is not what i want!! it’s a completely different taste!!! so i’ve pretty much gone from eating my cheeseburgers with lots of mustard of ketchup to only ketchup…i dont know i just cant get used to the weird taste the spicy mustard gives cheeseburgers and sandwiches.

so at delis i’ve learned to deal with it because i’d rather have spicy mustard than mayo or nothing…but the one place i’ve been able to rely on for my good sandwich with regular mustard fix has been subway. there is nothing better than the way regular mustard makes a ham cheese and pickle sandwich taste…but the other day i went to a different subway than usual…and what was there none of??! YELLOW MUSTARD!! i was like you’ve got to be kidding me! to some this may seem stupid or not a big deal! but just think of something that you crave and then you do not get that is what i’m feeling! why does mustard always get the short end of the stick!? seriously put it out on the table with the ketchup!! and if you are a sandwich place…freaken have all the condiments…you got ketchup, mayo, light mayo, relish, spicy mustard, honey mustard, ranch…and no freak plain old yellow mustard?!?!?!

stop the condiment discrimination! what did the yellow mustard ever do to the east coast?! why is it never good enough to be put on tables all over the country?! i’d like to know answers. but most of all i just need to go on a little rant about something because i havent in a long time!! hahaha