a halloween tale

no, I didn't make this up

it is dark by the time I get home from work, now that we have "fall-en back" and because of recent events, I am already a bit creeped out at the moment.

When I got home last night, as I was wondering if I would have any real trick-or-treaters, it was already quite dark, the only lights being the outdoor driveway light and my stove light in the kitchen. Being fairly early though, I figured I might still get a few kids and was glad I had remembered to pick up some candy.

There were no treaters as of 9pm, so all candy gets donated to the office.

After making and eating a little dinner, a few phone chats and watching some tv, I decided to go to bed early. My little routine is to turn on the table lamp in my bedroom when I first get home, that way I don't kill myself later by tripping over or walking into something at night when sleepily trying to put myself to bed.

The table lamp was on like always, but when I went to turn on the tv in my bedroom to watch the early news, and it didn't pop on, I immediately noticed that the backyard light wasn't on anymore either. My heart stopped, as that light shines directly on the general area that was broken into a few days ago. Waiting a moment for my heart to start again, it occured to me that most likely I had blown a fuse, and that if the bathroom light didn't come on, then it defiantely was the fuse. When I went to check, the bathroom light did not turn on, nor did anything in my home office which is also on that same fuse.

Great, problem identified. Remedy, so simple, go to the fuse box, flip every damn switch, viola! power. Except that the fuse box is located outside of the house and by now it was just about 10:30. I just couldn't do it, could not bring myself to go outside, because 2 things scared the heck out of me:
1) the slight possibility that maybe I didn't blow a fuse, it was just a trick to get me to go outside, in the dark, by myself
2) or that even if it was actually blown, "they" (the robbers) might still be lurking around outside
And even though it seemed rediculous even to myself, I still couldn't make myself go outside to fix it.

So, I turned the radio on in my bedroom, and went back out to the livingroom to catch the late news. I turned the tv in the livingroom back on and it made a weird sound, then came to life, but the color was all goofy, too green and red and this was the tv I was just watching, and was all fine only 30 - 60 minutes before...and I started thinking that although small, some pretty strange things seemed to be happening. After turning the tv off and on about 5 times and still getting the odd coloring, I called it quits and headed back to bed.

I decided to put a soothing cd in, to help me mellow out and to help me fall asleep by drowning out the nightime noises that only a week ago I found peaceful, but now added to my anxiety. When I put the cd in, I heard it make the normal "whir" sound of starting up and pressed the play button, but instead of soft music, I heard what sounded similar to a muffled version of someone playing a vinyl album on too high a speed.

Ok, that was officially the 3rd somewhat freaky thing to occur within an hour, and I was really starting to feel freaked out. I tried one more cd, and thank all goodness, it worked fine on the first try. This made me feel quite a bit better actually, and I began to relax and get sleepy. I snuggled into my comforter and fell asleep. When the phone rang at 10 till midnight, I about leaped right out of my bed to run screaming from what is beginning to feel like my haunted little house!

It was just my Mom, calling to wish me a happy Halloween, which really was sweet in theory. I didn't have the heart to tell her how much of an ordeal just trying to get to sleep in the first place was, and haven't yet told her about the burglury, so she has no idea how ill timed the call actually was, and would feel so bad if she knew. And although I was feeling a bit cranky about it all for a moment, it sure was nice to receive a happy call from my Mama, wishing me a happy pagan new year and sending me her love.