Captain Hotpants down AGAIN - OH NOESSSS! And BUTTERCUPPITY GHOST TALES, Part 1.

Oh. Well apparently it be Wednesday,and I was supposed to start the "Ghost Stories" series yesterday.  HOWEVAH it would appear that Captain Hotpants sprung himself a new hernia, not unlike the hernia of yore, sometime on Monday - so yesterday was full of Dr. appointments and whisperings of surgical fun and games.

WHOO.  HOO.

If you were reading last year, you may remember that the last hernia did NOT END WELL and caused quite a ruckus in Livingston, Montana causing us to drive home at O'DARK THIRTY in the morning for emergency surgery.  And Captain Hotpants was on medical leave for a month, and then was promptly laid off the DAY he returned from medical leave because his former employer (and my former employer as well) are douchenozzles. 


(To be fair, the Captain and I are much happier now that we no longer work for said douchenozzles, so it all turned out in the end - but seriously.  They suck.)

Anywayz, that's what we're doing.  Getting ultrasounds of uncomfortable dude areas.  Poor Captain Hotpants, although I don't feel too bad for him because I got an MRI on my HEAD and was told to take off all my clothes and put on a gown (Why??  Why take off all your clothes for an MRI on your brain??), and the techs were all sitting in this glass enclosure by my feet, and I forgot at the end that I was - you know - totally not wearing any underwear and I may or may not have totally flashed all the techs when I quickly and efficiently jumped off the MRI table in a robust, overzealous gown-opening fashion. 


But I digress, as usual.  You came here to here about GHOSTS, right?  Right. 

So this will be ghost story #1 of many, because there are many.  MANY!

Our shop was in an AMAZING old building that used to be the Steamplant in Spokane - providing all the power for the entire city.  We would go on to later find out the ghosties abound in this place, but when we moved in we had no idea.  None.  So we had this cool big space, and no idea there were possible ghosts. 

The first time I remember anything truly bizarre happening - and there had been some small things, but not anything major, just strange door slams and voices - was before we had the classroom open.  The main two rooms were open for business, but the classroom was a pit of doom that we were working on getting ready (not unlike my current studio!  Hey!  There is hope!). 

My daughter, Sassypants, was in the classroom with her friend Renee, working on putting away some fabric and reorganizing some furniture.  Captain Hotpants and I were in the hallway outside both of our offices, which has a view of the entire store and both entrances.  We hear the classroom door shut, and heard Marina mutter something about "an old lady."

Captain Hotpants was intrigued and puzzled, as there was nobody in the shop - certainly not an old lady - so he went to see what was going on.  Sassypants (aka Marina, as seen in the pic above), was having a good time cleaning (no really, she is a weird kid that way - she like to organize and clean - how lucky am I??) and Michael asked her why she shut the door, to whcih she replied - "There was a customer out there - an older lady."

"No, no there wasn't," said Michael.

"Ummmm, YES, there was!  I saw her just a second ago!" said Marina.

"Ummmm, no - really, there is nobody out there," I said.  

Marina then waltzed out into the main part of the shop and looked around - you know, to prove us wrong because that is the most awesome thing to do in the world when you are 17. 

And there was nobody there. 

"But... but...  I saw her.  She was an old lady.  MOM, THERE WAS AN OLD LADY HERE JUST A MINUTE AGO!"  said (exclaimed?  shouted?)  Marina.

Michael and I had been standing there so we knew there was no old lady in the shop - nobody in the shop, actually.  And we knew this to be doubly true because THE DOORS WERE LOCKED UP.  And the BLINDS WERE CLOSED, so we can't even blame it on reflections.

And then Renee came out and said that she saw the old lady too. 

Which caused Michael and I to look like this:

I don't really believe in ghosts, but I am a fan of Ghosthunters and, of course, Harry Potter, so in the spirit of seeing Dementors, I immediately started eating chocolate in the form of cookies. 

Marina, upon hearing that there was no old lady went from looking like her normal self:

to this:

I must tell you that she just walked over here and saw this and it SO HAPPY that I am posting this picture.  Hehehehehe. 

Anyway - that was the day that it started.  And that night, things started moving of their own accord.  More on that tomorrow, and  possible reenactment video of me finding a MANNEQUIN MOVED ACROSS THE ROOM.  BY ITSELF.    Maybe. :)