Well apparently some of you missed it (mom!) but after this week I won’t have any kids to watch. I’m looking for a job “outside the home” but so far haven’t gotten past the “thank you for your resume” stage. I don’t want to do admin work again, I don’t have the clothes for it. I’d like to do something in health care or home care for the elderly or something but right now I’m just kind of floundering around.
Mark and I have been sick since Friday and are deep in the creeping crud. We both sound like Barry White and are coughing our heads off all hours of the day and night. And yes, yes, yes! we are taking care of ourselves and we have plenty of meds and drinking enough water and getting enough sleep.
We’ve been taking Aleve Cold and Sinus, which works great but today we only had one left. I gave it to Mark before he went to work and went digging around for something else. I found some Dayquil tablets and said to Mark “you know, for some reason I don’t like to take Dayquil but I can’t remember why”. He said it probably made me antsy, which is what it does to him. I said “yea, probably” and took it anyway.
After about 2 hours I went outside on the front porch and immediately remembered why I don’t take Dayquil.
Shadow People.
I called Katie, who also doesn’t like Dayquil and said “I took a Dayquil today and now I am seeing things”. She said..
“Is it Shadow People?”
I just about dropped the damn phone. That’s exactly what it was. I had seen something out of the corner of my right eye, and thought it was an animal running under my car. Then I got a glimpse of it out of my left eye on the total opposite side of the yard. It was like a grey whispy thing, in the shape of like a really loose “S”, about 4 feet tall. Not quite human, but not quite inhuman. And even more than seeing it, it really jolted me like something was really really there.
Katie said she had seen it before too when she took cold medicine, and that it happens a lot to people who haven’t slept, and who are tweaking on uppers.
So I looked it up.
From wikipedia:
Accounts of shadow people typically describe them as being black humanoid silhouettes with no discernible mouths, noses, or facial expressions, though accounts also exist of them being child-sized humanoids or shapeless masses that sometimes change to a more human like form. In most instances, witnesses report seeing shadow people in the peripheral areas of their vision.
Oh my.
It goes on to describe the possible physical and psychological reasons for it everything from Native American religious beliefs, to drug abuse and electromagnetic field dysfunction. In some cultures they are seen to be similar to that of a ghost, “a flicker of a life unable to end for some reason.”
All I know is I’m sticking to Aleve.
I meant to mention something that happened a few weeks ago too.
It was about midnight on a Sunday night, and I was up too late already. I was out on the front porch having my last smoke before bed. This kid came walking up the street and stopped in front of my house. He was either Hispanic or half white half hispanic, about 18 years old. He reminded me a lot of Daniel – about the same build, and typical of a kid that age, not wearing clothes warm enough for the really cold night. Also, he was out walking around at midnight, another silly thing boys that age do.
He asked me how to get to 92nd and Federal. Well, I know how to get to 92nd and Federal for sure, but it’s not a short clip, not when you’re walking. It’s probably about 5 miles from my house, but it’s not a straight shot either. You gotta go up around the park and ride, and all that jazz (you have no idea what I’m talking about do you) and well, it was midnight! And cold!
So I told him how to get there, but I kinda forgot about the park n ride so I made it sound like a lot easier than it actually is. He was totally “not from around here” because he wasn’t familiar with any of the streets I was talking about like 88th, or even Sheridan. When I felt like he understood, I went inside and got ready for bed.
But for some reaosn it was just eating away at me, this kid walking all that way so late. Then I remembered about the park n ride and felt really worried that he wasn’t going to figure it out. After just about 3 minutes, I put my coat on and got in the car to find him.
He wasn’t too far up the street and I pulled over and rolled my window down and said “Do you want a ride? It’s really cold”. He said “no thanks” and we went round and round for a while, me practically begging him to accept a ride. “It’s going to take you like 2 and half hours!” And he’d say “Nah, it’s ok..”
I told him he reminded me of my son and I hoped that someone would offer him a ride if he had a long way to go in the cold someday.
Finally he walked over to the car and I thought he was going to get in but he said “to tell you the truth I took a ride from someone when I was a kid and was abducted and sexually abused.”
Holy jeez.
I said ok, I understood, even though I was flustered. He let me give him a pair of gloves I had in the car at least, and I was glad for that. I thought about him for a long time that night as I tried to go to sleep. I hope he got where he was going.
Well, this has turned into a really long post about only two subjects! I’ll try to be back sooner. I gots more stuff to tell you.
