...a change in plans & armchair dark tourism...

“Life is what happens to us

while we are making other plans.”

~Allen Saunders

 I’ve been commuting on the train for over ten years. I sit on the top deck in the very back of the car in the very back of the train so that I can sit alone and so I don’t get bumped by commuters with large backpacks.  I love the train. I can get a great deal of work accomplished while riding; and, I can do a great deal of reading! Mostly, I love what I see along the way.

 

I’ve often laughed and said that extreme commuting is not for wimps. While driving the last stretch home in 2008, I was hit by a semi. My car was totaled; I walked away practically unscratched. Thanks Saturn!

But last Wednesday, I slipped. I lost my balance which I do somewhat often with Meniere’s disease. This time, unfortunately, it was close to the stairs. In open-toe shoes, I fell down about five metal steps with sharp ridges (for better traction but not so great for bare skin). My ankle is sprained and my large right toe is beyond wonky. I’m a squeamish girl so I really cannot go into detail. Let’s just say I’m not going to be a foot model after it heals; and, it’s probably not going to hill for a few months. I’ll also note that I’ll get to save on nail polish. Ugh.

After a visit to the emergency room and opting not to take the pain medicine because it would make it so that I could not drive or would require a shot (and isn’t a tetanus shot enough for one day!?!), I drove home and proceeded to elevate and ice for the next 70 hours. I had big plans last weekend: Halloween haunts and a harvest festival at a local farm. Instead, I was stuck on the sofa.

This really is the season that I over-plan. Why do all the fun spooky events have to be shoved into one month?!? We can be spooky all year long but by midnight on Halloween many people want to forget the holiday ever existed.

Recently when I visited the Shirley Plantation, there were visitors in the gift shop asking about the plantation being haunted. Ghost tourism is on the rise but again, it is somewhat limited to October. In the cover story of Cooperative Living magazine (October 2015), it reads, “History-rich Virginia ranks at the top of the National Register of Haunted Locations’ ‘haunted places’ list, with over 170 sites claiming ghostly happenings. History and reality TV ghost shows have boosted ‘ghost tourism’ in the Commonwealth”.  The Shirley associate responded to the inquiring guests that only a portrait was haunted; however, as noted in the Cooperative Living magazine, “In October 2014 Shirley began partnering with nearby Berkeley and Edgewood Plantations for reservation-required ‘Haunting Tales and Tours’ [which] emphasizes ghost stories and mourning rituals” (October 2015). I am bummed that I am going to miss that tour but I purchased the book Haunted Plantations of Virginia while at the Shirley Plantation so hopefully that will give me a good amount of spooky reading.

Since I’ve been grounded (hmm, we could actually unpack that word a bit here), I’ve been reading and perhaps being an armchair (or rather sofa) dark tourism tourist. Several sources recommended Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey, which it turns out that I love-love-love this book! There’s an entire chapter dedicated to Richmond, VA. I just finished Chapter Nine: Melancholy Contemplation Moundsville, WV about the story of the Greenbrier Ghost, which my mother and I visited on the way to the Crescent Hotel this summer.

I’m halfway in and really like how the author approaches the idea of how the places mentioned in the book are truly haunted. In a footnote, Dickey elaborates, “…usage of the word ‘haunting’ predates its associations with ghosts by several centuries, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, and it’s not until Shakespeare that ghosts also begin to haunt” (5).

I’m attracted to haunted locations with or without experiencing the ghosts; I’m there for the story!

Ghostland is divided into four sections: 1. The Unhomely (houses and mansions); 2. After Hours (bars, restaurants, hotels, and brothels); 3. Civic-Minded Spirits (prisons and asylums, graveyards and cemeteries, a park); and, 4. Useless Memory (cities and towns.)  Once I’ve finished reading the text, I’ll write a full review.

In the meantime, I’m going to work on embracing the slowing down and enjoying of the season, even if it is a blink in time.

Works Cited

"Boo! Virginia Is Very Rich in Haunted Environs." Cooperative Living. Cooperative Living Magazine, Oct. 2015. www.co-opliving.com/coopliving/issues/. Web. 03 Oct. 2016.

Brown, Beth. Haunted Plantations of Virginia. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Pub., 2009. Print.

Dickey, Colin. Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places. New York: Viking, 2016. Print.

...commuting, flowers, and love...

“Love takes off the masks that we fear 

we cannot live without

and know we cannot live within.

I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense 
but as a state of being, 
or a state of grace–

not in the infantile American sense 
of being made happy

but in the tough and universal sense 
of quest and daring

                                         and growth.”

~ James Baldwin

This has not been the week for commuters in the area. Yesterday, the interstate was closed for hours after someone jumped to his (her?) death. Fortunately for me, aside from still being alive, it also only cost me an additional 40 minutes to my typical 3 hour commute. Does that sound heartless? Maybe. As I was sitting in traffic, what seemed like a parking lot, I sent a text to my fella that somebody better be dead. Okay, I didn’t *really* mean it.

This morning the train broke down on the way to work. It only set me back 15 minutes but still… I had to scram to my shuttle bus.

Monday was a federal holiday so the commuter rails weren’t operating. I bought an Amtrak ticket from town to work. This is the best commuting experience ever! I would do it daily if it didn’t cost a mortgage to do so. This type of luxury would really put a cramp in my jewelry habit. As I walked home through town near the Randolph-Macon College campus (I know! It’s crazy that I commute 3 hours when I live less than a half mile to another campus), I walked by this beautiful house. My fella and I actually got to go in this house during last year’s holiday tour.

But even though my commute makes me fussy, I get to come home to this!

Okay, my fella has a body but he’s private so this is all you get!

He greets me at the door with flowers and a shot of pumpkin liqueur in a Jack-o-lantern shot glass. 

 

...cognac will taste a little bit better...

My fella and I have switched our grocery shopping day to Saturday instead of Sunday because we want our Sundays to be more relaxed. This weekend that just couldn’t happen since yesterday was a super busy day with the Monster Walk. 

The Spooktacular events in town have me excited and also pretty tired. I’m commuting daily this semester (as opposed to previous semesters where I commute four days a week). It seems as though as soon as I arrive home, it’s time for bed. In reality, I have an hour and a half to make dinner and get myself ready for bed. Busy weekends let me let go some of the steam but since I'm an adult, there is still chores to do.

On Sundays, I pack my lunches for the week thanks to a suggestion that Professor Z made connected to Bat Fit. This has helped me take back what little time I have to my weeknights. I’ve changed my semester focus of losing weight to simply not gaining any. In that way, I’m trying to be nicer to myself. ((Self coaching: Breathe Sharon... you can make it through this year))

At least if we have to go shopping on Sunday, it was nice to have the spooky reusable bags for our groceries. I have two with Abigail Larson designs and recently I picked up a few with Halloweeny designs. These are from Target. Because our local Target is right next to one of our grocery stores, we went there first today. I found the best Halloween flask. My fella has his own flask that he loves but I’ve never found the right one (size and decoration). I think this one will do :D

 

My lunches are packed. Tomorrow while many Americans will be staying home to *celebrate* *Columbus Day*, I’ll be catching the train since it's a regular school day for us. The regular commuter trains don’t run on federal holidays so I paid a bit more to ride Amtrak from my town straight into Washington, D.C. No driving tomorrow! Yay! And I get to walk a mile to and from the train station which will be nice.

Hope you all had a great weekend! Let’s toast to a great week!

...the chapel of pumpkins...

I’d rather be in the mountains thinking of God,

than in church thinking about the mountains.

~ John Muir

When I tell others that I have a 6-hour daily commute, it is usually a response to an inquiry. I don’t often offer up information that makes me sound nuts; but, when asked, I explain that it’s a lifestyle choice just in the same way as having kids or working the night shift is for others. When I’m feeling particularly snarky, I follow-up to their OHMYGAWDs by asking, “How many sunrises have you watched?” Over the last decade, I have experienced hundreds. I chose my verb carefully too. I haven’t merely seen but been a participant in observing the sun. I know that right now during my commute is one of the best times to see the sun rise. With Daylight Savings Time, the schedule will be switched and I’ll lose the small window of time where I see the most beautiful oranges and reds. 

The mornings are now dark. I watch the sunrise over the Potomac River. The evenings are getting darker as the days grow shorter. My commute will soon include sunsets, and later it will include darkness from start to finish. This is the cycle of the academic year.

Yesterday I saw the pumpkins. These are no ordinary pumpkins but the annual pumpkin patch at the church on the hill near Brooke Station just south of Quantico. I have often written about the scenery from my commute including wildlife to sunrises and sunsets; yet, annually I look forward to nothing more than the hundreds of bright orange pumpkins lying in the green grass of the white church. There is something so quaint and inviting about the entire view.

From the website of Andrew Chapel United Methodist:

“Andrew Chapel has long been the little lighthouse on the hill.  Every passenger riding a train along the east coast sees the beautiful steeple, shining through the night…”

I see this chapel often but in fall, especially when they have hundreds of pumpkins gracing their lawn, I make a point to focus. Sometimes I offer up a small prayer of gratitude for such beauty. Yesterday, I snapped some pictures. 

In 2007, I even wrote a Haiku upon viewing the church.

Sunbeams wrap around the church

A heavenly sight.

This morning's inspiration.