Ghosties.

Oooh! Another thing I've been meaning to tell you. Guamanians... I was just going to ask if that was right, but I guess it is because there's no red squiggle underneath - weird. The people of Guam are very spiritual/superstitious - though I feel like this falls into the spiritual category - they believe that the souls/spirits/energies/ghosts of their ancestors inhabit the trees (Banyan, especially) on the island, so you have to be respectful and ask permission if you're going into the jungle, or if you need to relieve yourself out there by a tree, otherwise something bad will happen to you/you'll get sick. Apparently if they like you, they pinch you to let you know. Granted this is all hearsay and I've never experienced it myself, but I'm not dismissing it. Ghosts, spirits, energies... whatever you want to call them, I believe in them. When I was a kid, after my first dog, Jock died, I swore that I saw him chilling out on the stairs and it scared the crap out of me. Vivid imagination or actual sighting, who knows. Spirits, sharks and tornadoes are all something I want to experience in real life at safe distance, so maybe we'll check two of those off during this tour. I don't really like being pinched though. I also don't like being sick... so I guess I'll take getting pinched instead. I hope these spirits can't/don't read minds or read over shoulders, because I was a little iffy of their existence at first. My friend, Liz (used to work here; introduced me to the place; my yoga instructor back in the Chi) told me a story about how one night she saw a blue orb-like thing that started materializing into a man...

I don't really want to type about this before bed - I always get goosebumps on my arms and tears in my eyes when I hear creepy/scary stories. There was one that a bus counselor told me and my brother and the other bus kids on the ride to day camp when I was a kid... I can't remember all the details of the story. It was something pretty standard, like a group of campers and their 2 counselors went out of camp to spend the night in the surrounding woods. They had heard stories about the woods being haunted, or something, but ignored them and set up shop anyway. Throughout the night weird things kept happening, like chickens bawking or cats meowing, or dinosaurs or something, I don't know. Maybe one of the counselors went to go inspect, and then he didn't come back, and then they maybe went to sleep, but they woke up to noises and there was a gutted cat strung from one of the trees near their tent? I think they still had one counselor, and they ran back to their bunks only to feel like they were being chased and then when they got inside there was - let it be known that I'm having a hard time typing this out as I'm still visualizing this thing after at least 18 years - this gold-glowing horrifying face/mask thing floating in the window with black, gaping eyes that burned red and dagger-like teeth stained with blood - there were probably horns, too, and I think it killed/hung the gutted counselor rather than the cat, or maybe there was a cat and the counselor. Then the monster/ghoul probably killed everyone in the cabin... Like I said, I can't remember all the details, but I used to imagine that I would find this monster floating outside of my dad's 17th floor bathroom window (condo in JC, NJ), and I had a real hard time getting up and going to the bathroom in the middle of the night because I was convinced this monster also lived under my bed. This story was like the Blair Witch Project before the Blair Witch Project was the Blair Witch Project. Scary. Woods. Now I live pretty much in a haunted jungle, on a haunted island. I look forward to bringing positive energy to this place though, so I'm not so worried about it right now. I really disliked that bus counselor, by the by; he always told scary stories that were fun at first, but gave me nightmares months on end. Years. (When I was a camp counselor in Maine, I had to sleep on the top bunk - in the corner, surrounded by windows - first session, and right next to where the door opened second session. I fell asleep to Coldplay's "X&Y" album every night, with eyes shut tight before I was woken up by crying homesick children or the little girl who wet her bed pretty much nightly, and she cried, too, and groggily I would change her sheets before any of the campers got wise - counselors took turns, but that's a whole 'nother story.) I also remember being afraid of werewolves around that same time... I don't know if it's because of said counselor or because I was watching a lot of "Thriller."

With all that being written it's time to say g'night! Cross your fingers that no ghosty-faced monsters infiltrate my dreams, and I'll do the same for you and yours. Peace and love.

MAN! I just read the first page of this article and I'm really creeped out and Sarah's already asleep. GAAAAAAAH!! It's fine. It's fine. GAAAAH!!