The first is the original and the other two have been lightened for viewing pleasure, critique, etc.



*Edit* She's the black figure that the blurry tour guides hand is unknowingly pointing to. :)

This was taken on 4.8.08 at the Circular Congregational Church in Charleston while on the Ghosts & Graveyards Tour. Being a Charleston native, I have never taken a tour before. Bulldog Tours was established in 2001 to help raise money for the preservation of historical buildings in the city.

The Circular Church is the only church on the tour where we were actually allowed to go onto the burial grounds. The tour guide stopped us before entering the grounds to tell us that the parking lot we were standing on was part of the graveyard. There are 1500 recorded burials, but only 500 gravemarkers.

When we stopped, Michael said, "there's a lady right there." He didn't say it too loudly, but said it again. I tried to look in the right direction (after looking at the photo I realized I was focusing on a different point) while Michael held up the camera and clicked. This is what we got. When he first saw her, she was standing where the tour guide's head is blurred.

A few moments later we entered into the grounds. Tyler saw a woman's face ahead of him. She came towards him and he got terribly chilled and nauseous. He didn't say anything until we got into the car. About the same time that this was happening Michael told me again about the woman and that she was in perhaps a Colonial style dress, but wasn't sure. He said it had flowers on it.

While we were in the back of the graveyard I experienced an increased awareness of my surroundings. I also got cold and very, very nauseous. I almost got sick later in the evening as well as our dog, Duncan. Tyler also had some issues during the night.

Residual energy?

The heightened sense of awareness and increased energy used to happen to me pretty much every time I was out in the evenings when I lived in the area. Hell, it happened all over downtown for me, but I will admit there are some 'hotspots'. I love this city and I am happy to be home again. It is alive and to me, it takes me in and keeps me safe.

What color should the red rhinestone busk color be?

Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for being the love of my life. When I am ready to throw in the towel, you whisper the words that become the wind that fill my sails. You are the ballast that steadies me in the strong storm. Without you, I am lost at sea. Without you I am alone adrift in the doldrums. But then, you are so much more.



I love you.

We still have internet access tonight, but I don't know for how long. It was supposed to be disconnected today.

We should be in Charleston right now but we are sitting in an almost empty space (Yay!). We're about a day and a half behind. We're fine with it right now, but this morning was another story. We cannot have the big truck in the lot after business hours so we have to load the cars and drive them over and then load the truck. So basically twice the work. Every night for the last three nights after sunset it started to rain. We still had a lot stuff to do today and had to deal with the washer & dryer. When we opened the truck this morning we discovered that the bar and some of the items on top had fallen over. One of the legs is broken on bar and one of the tables. I just stood there and cried. It took us over an hour to get everything back into place and load what was in the cars.

We went down the leasing office to tell Michael that we wouldn't make our walk through this morning. He was totally fine with that. He later told us not to worry and we could take the weekend if needed. The loft isn't rented and we're technically paying for the month, so why kill ourselves?

baldsug called in the morning and I had an emotional vomit all over him. I called him back in the afternoon and apologized, and I promised to clean up my mess.

While we were breaking down the garden a guy walked by. I asked him if he had a washer & dryer. He gave us a strange look and said no. I asked him if he wanted a set for free and he looked at me again with the same look and then said yes. He jumped through the garden and he and Michael took them away.

Not long after that another resident and his young daughter walked by. She told us in a sassy voice that we needed to move our truck away from the stairs. I politely told her that we do it would soon. We had also debated if we wanted to take the television with us or give it away. So I just blurted out the question asking them if they wanted the tv, also for free. They were totally in to it. It turns out that they didn't have one. We also gave them a spare dvd player that we had lying around.

I told Michael that perhaps there was a higher reason that it has taken us this long to get everything done. We may not have been able to help out these people.

We're getting up early in the morning to load the pick up truck and put a couple more things in the big truck, finish cleaning / spackle / touch-up paint and do our walk through.

We have been able to at least laugh at the situation and at ourselves. It's the only thing that kept us going a certain points.

We have copy of 'Catch Me if You Can' and we hooked up Michael's monitor to the laptop. We're going to curl up on the rug with the cats and let our bodies take a break.

Not sure if we'll have access in the morning. Next transmission may be from the USS Chucktown.

Please keep your fingers crossed that we get out of here in the early afternoon.