Well it’s about that time all over again! How was your holiday? Mine was a pretty enjoyable amalgam of people that I’ve known from most walks of life coming together for my 3rd annual costume party. One of my latest traditions in my adult years. I Had pictures taken so once they are developed maybe we’ll see what we can do about showing them to you all somehow! This time around I think I’ll begin by telling you all about a couple of real life stories about my travels and the supernatural stuff that has happened to me. We’ll begin I think with my unusual U.F.O. sighting.

At least I think it was a U.F.O., but who can be sure? What I do know is that I could not figure out what happened, and it creeped me out a bit. I suppose that I should begin a little more literally by telling you a bit about my friend Nick. He is a really neat guy, and I’ve known him for quite a good number of years. One of the things that he and I do, or did back in the day is to drive all up and down the back roads of Vermont. Sometimes
crossing the state’s entire length once or twice in an evening. During these rides we’d talk about boys, girls, the people that we knew, the people we didn’t know, the people we wish we could know, and all the money that we’d make when we were famous. We had and still have a lot of laughs together daydreaming and telling jokes to one another.

On this particular evening in question it was about the same time of year as now, not yet deep winter, and not really fall at all. (Up here in Vermont we call this: “Stick Season”) Nick and I are doing our usual thing, driving at a comfy fifty to sixty miles an hour down one of our main roads of Vermont. Not to really gross anyone out, but this part seems crucial to the telling of the story. But Nick had to pick his nose, which he did while I laughed at him because we had no tissues in the car with us. So to hear him tell it, he’d say everyone knows about this, but when without a tissue, he resorts to holding his yucky finger out the window in order to: “Freeze it, and flick it away.” Either way we’re barreling down the road. He has got his hand sticking straight up out the drivers’ side window, and I am trying to focus on the skyline so I don’t gag in disgust, Both of us are laughing at the scenario when all of a sudden a brilliant blue flashing light soared across the sky and flew behind one of the mountains in the distance. Nicks hand shot back into the car and there was a moment of silence as we both tried to figure out what had just happened.

I took a breath looked over at my friend. He looked perfectly normal as though nothing had happened, so I asked: “What was that?” Nick turned his head to me suddenly and replied: “ Oh thank god! You saw it too?” He breathed a sigh of relief and we then decided that if neither one of us knew what it was, it was definitely a U.F.O.. We love to tell this story over and over again when we talk about our travels together.

But that is not all that has happened to me, Ohhhhh no. There is more, however not dealing with extra-terrestrial life, but with the dead!

I was living in quite an interesting apartment in the small town of Randolph Vermont a few years ago, it had a tiny, closet like bedroom, and a nice sized living room and a pretty big kitchen, and large bathroom. It was located in a big old house about maybe seventy feet from some active railroad tracks, so periodically during the day, the entire place would rumble as the train came through town. It took a little getting used to but it wasn’t that bad at all, actually with what I was paying in rent, it was worth the vibrations during the afternoons.

So the entire place was kind of like a horseshoe with the bedroom on one end, and the kitchen on the other, with the living room in the middle. Now then, the bathroom was located between the bedroom and the kitchen, with doors leading to both the kitchen and the living room area. It was a bit of an unconventional setup for me, but it worked out well enough. So I had recently been living at this new place for only a few weeks when one evening I awoke out of a sound slumber, to find that my apartment had reached sub arctic temperatures somehow. I could see my breath and I already had three blankets on, so I turned on my reading lamp and prepared to go into the kitchen to turn up the heater when I was greeted by an odd and unsettling sight.

As I gazed out into the living room I saw an apparition in the shape of a large man standing in the center of the room under the ceiling lamp. I thought at first that it was a trick of the light, I had just woken up after all. So I sat for what seemed an eternity staring out into the other room, terrified, and freezing cold from head to toe. When I decided that this thing was NOT my imagination but something completely supernatural, however I wasn’t about to be completely complacent about it either, no way am I going to be afraid of my own place.

So I finally got up, walked directly into the living room to where this thing was apparently standing and turned on the light. It was at that moment, that my shoulder was placed in the tightest grip possible. It was almost as though someone had grabbed me with ice cubes! I wasted absolutely no time in running to the heater, cranking it up, and shooting back into the bedroom and under the covers. Where I shivered until I fell asleep again.

The very next day I actually blessed the house myself, and never encountered anything like that again in that place, but odd occurrences still happened all the time. For example, there was this puddle of water on the bathroom floor that would just appear, and I’d keep stepping into it with my socks on, then I’d dry it up only to step in it again about fifteen minutes later and repeat the cleaning up process. All of my attempts to actually find the source of this bizarre occurrence failed. It was also about the same time that small lights would dance from room to room at night, looking like really speedy lightning bugs. Neither of these things bothered me at all, and were not the scary apparition that I had witnessed, so I just lived with it like that for quite some time. My friends and I named him George, after the little ghost “Georgie” from the children’s books. (Does anyone recall these books or am I the only one?) When I finally left that particular apartment I almost felt badly leaving my new friend behind, I hope whomever is now residing there has as much fun as I did getting to know him.

Gee, as for one last story, I’m going to have to actually think hard as to what would make a good accompaniment to the stories I’ve shared with you already. I suppose I can tell you about the night my friend Nick and I went out for our annual Halloween road trip a few years ago…

In the tiny towns around the Stowe area, there is a small covered bridge known infamously as “Emily’s Bridge”. Now local legend tells us that somehow, some poor young woman died on the bridge, one version I have heard is that she hung herself after being stood up by her lover when they had planned to elope. Another version is that the lover killed her for money. No one is really sure about HOW she got there, but for years and years the spot has been one of the more active areas in Vermont for the paranormal.

There are some documented cases of horses being slashed in a brutal and gruesome fashion as they passed underneath the roof of this small bridge. Once cars became the popular mode of transportation there have been cases of these vehicles being viciously attacked while on the bridge. Paint scraped off in an impolite manner, and doors rattling. One case stated that the car was actually rocked violently. Seems home girl has issues with people on her bridge! So late one fall evening Nick and I set out to find this bridge.

When we did find it, it was not the foreboding place we had head about. But we then went tooling about until after sunset, and returned late that night to stake it out for a while. Nothing really weird happened, but we had a marvelous time just sitting there and swapping stories until we were too scared to stay any longer and we left. Even though nothing eventful occurred, I had such a nice time that the memory stays with me.

I am always making more memories with my friends and this past holiday party was no exception! We had liquor, beer, chips, and to be honest I went overboard on the party favors. I have like a zillion little plastic cockroaches and bugs of all sizes that I have no idea what to do with. Though the guy I’m seeing thinks that the nearest Jell-O mold might have some uses for such faux insects. Either way I have totally over indulged on the sweets as well. I have an entire cookie Jar just filled with “Dum-Dum” lollipops, and an assortment of chewy candies, and my personal favorite: Peanut Butter Cups! Whoever thought of combining chocolate with peanut butter was a genius! What about your favorite candies? Are there any of you out there who like Jelly Beans even when it is not Easter?

How about watching holiday programming? Would you watch say, “A Christmas Carol” in the middle of summer? What’s your favorite holiday video from any time of the year? I know I can watch certain flicks all year round. Then there are things that are holiday specific, like say “A Christmas story” should be seen only once a year at the corresponding holiday, just like “It’s A Wonderful Life”. So I pose the question: What is something holiday related that can go year round?

Happy Holidays people! They are coming up upon us fast. Are you ready? I hope you all find happiness in the weeks ahead. And don’t worry about me, I’m a drag queen, what do I know?

Lots of strange stuff happens to Matthew...

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