Strange Experiences

I've been a bit absent for the last few days. Friday, my mother in-law came into town, and I left class quite early to pick her up from DIA. I had every intention of just leaving a tiny bit early, running out to the airport, picking her up and taking her back to our place. As usually happens, things didn't quite work out that way. I had two wet paintings in the back of my car, transporting them back and forth (as it was time for grading) and I intended to just flip them on their sides, gently lean them against each other with some kind of barrier in between so that my MIL could stick her luggage in the back as well. Well, the paintings had other plans as they continued to flop around in the back, spreading oil paints all over the back of the car, and I ended up driving the 35 miles home first to drop the paintings off before heading back down to the airport. On my way home, this giant semi pulling a long trailer pulls in front of me in the passing lane going about 90 mph (I really don't think this was an exaggeration as I was high tailing it at nearly 85 mph trying to beat the clock), and starts blowing all sorts of debris on my car. Everything from dirt and rocks to giant sheets of metal were being chucked at me like they were nothing. Needless to say, I ended up with some not so pretty paint-damaging dents on my new car that is less than one week old (the new car thing is another story for another time). I wasn't happy. I came home fussing and fuming about bad drivers and how even when I'm in a car I can't escape their idiocy. I got over it. Sort of. Picked up MIL with Sam who was now along for the ride since I'd come home and I needed some sanity for the 35 mile drive back down to Denver. All said and done though, the three of us spent a lovely weekend touring Denver, Boulder, and of course visiting the casinos in Central City and Black Hawk, as well as checking out my college's very own newly acquired gallery space for various fine art shows. In all of it, I took not one picture. Shocking, as I often take random pictures of next to nothing for no apparent reason at all.

One of our stops this weekend, however, was to visit the Molly Brown House/Museum in Capital Hill. If you've never visited, I highly recommend it as the house is fascinating, and the tour guides' stories to rectify often misunderstood supposedly historical information is utterly fascinating. Neither Sam nor I had visited prior to Saturday, and I have to say, it was really quite intriguing.

*Image from Mollybrown.org

One of the strangest parts of the day was our tour guide. Well, the tour guide herself was not strange so to speak, but the experience was odd. When I first saw her, I immediately felt as though I had seen her somewhere prior to the tour (Sam and MIL also had this same feeling, which I thought was a bit unsettling, as we later discussed after the tour). While on the tour of the house, I also felt some sort of weird connection to this woman, and I have no idea why. It's still odd to me now, and it's a good day and a half later as I type this. Sam started investigating to see if he could find out who the woman is. All we knew was her first name and that she was a volunteer at the Molly Brown House, and she mentioned briefly that she is part of the Colorado paranormal society. Hmm. Maybe we had seen her on television? While researching, he finds her first and last name, and discovers that she and her son have a haunted magazine in publication locally and that they do all sorts of paranormal type of things. She is a psychic and empath and her son has abilities as well. Still, none of this seems to explain why we all somehow seemed to recognize this woman as an individual we have met in the past (none of us are involved in anything paranormal, and have never seen the two shows she has appeared on on television), and why I seemed to be somehow connecting with her silently. As I just finished telling Sam, the whole thing is weirding me out. I have sort of strange urging to contact her and talk to her, and I literally don't know why. While I do believe in the paranormal, I'm certainly no fanatic, and I also hold on to a good amount of healthy skepticism when it relates to such matters, but I would really love to know what the draw is to this woman and why I, someone who often goes out of her way to avoid people, suddenly feels the need to seek out this person. Though I'm certain nothing will come of this, and I will very likely never again see this woman, I find the whole situation a bit perplexing. I can't help wondering if others have ever had such an experience and suddenly discovered someone who they didn't know, but instantly felt compelled to connect with.

All in all, it was a great time for all. Mother in-law has made it home safely (literally moments ago) to once again be with her hubby and two Jack Russel Terriers, and Sam and I will return to life as normal (whatever that may be). Whew! Now I feel as though I have lots of work to do to make up for the three days of gallivanting around the state.