The one where horror writers are made not born...

I just want to let you all know up front that I'm going out of town tomorrow. And we all know that travelling Spot is not always blogging frequently Spot so I thought I'd warn you in advance. Of course, I'm going to Hildi's with my parents so I might turn into "I must blog in order to keep my half assed claim to sanity" Spot. We shall see.

Yep, I'm leaving my whole tribe and heading to Ohio with my parents. I'd promised Hildi I'd come visit her this month (our all time favorite) so we could do some Haunted Houses or see some scary movies together. And when my parents decided to go this week to watch Hildi's youngest she's (5) cheer with the high school cheerleaders at the football game, she suggested I come with them to save money, wear and tear on my knee and so they could baby me. Well, I don't know about the babying part, I'm more on the nurturing side, but at least I wouldn't have to drive alone now that my offspring have decided to get full time jobs. So plans were made and I'm heading off to their house tomorrow so we can head to Ohio bright and early Thursday morning. I'll be gone a week. I hope the cats and my house survive. I'm leaving Sean, Mike and Luke with head colds and crossing my fingers that Lu doesn't catch it. So we'll see what the week has in store for me.

Hildi's husband is one of those lucky so & so's who always seem to be winning something. Seriously, I don't think they've ever actually bought a TV. A couple of weeks ago, he did it again. Won a TV. So Hildi called and asked if I would like the TV from their bedroom. That sucker is huge. I said sure what do I owe you. And she said don't be silly, you can have it for free. Free is my favorite price so I graciously accepted and she sent it home with my folks. We picked it up from them last Tuesday. It was so large that we had to buy a new TV stand for the living room where we were putting the TV. That was fine with me because I was sick of the old one and in fact have plans to redo the living room decor anyway. Tuesday night when Sean got home he started clearing off the old entertainment center in order to put together the new one. I was busy in the kitchen, making dinner.

Sean: Hey mom! I found this really old thing. It's rectangular and black and covered in dust. It looks like it has some kind of tape in it.

Me: (turning around to see him holding up a VHS tape) Very funny dork.

Sean: Wow. I seem to have come across an even more ancient relic! It's so small. What can it be?

Me: (turning around again to see him grinning and holding up a cassette tape) Wow. That is old.

Sean: Do we even have a device that might play this anymore?

Me: Yeah, the stereo in there has a cassette deck. I think there's actually one in my SUV too. *Looking closer at the tape* OMG! That tape is from when I was little! It's probably got Aunt Hildi on it singing "I love a rainy night". It was her favorite song when she was three. Hold on to that.

Sean: We have to listen to it.

So after dinner, we sat down in the living room and Sean put the cassette in the player.

Me: So for my 7th birthday I asked for a cassette recorder and got one. I then recorded make believe radio shows, poems, songs, aunt Hildi and I singing. It was like a video blog without the video.

Lu: You were such a strange little kid.

Me: agreed. I'm just letting you know that I have no idea what you're about to hear. It's like a disclaimer.

*Sean hit play*

voice on recorder (which sounds oddly like Hildi's daughter): so now I'm going to sing a song I wrote. "Every body's got to die sometime, that's just how it goes, don't ask me why though, cause I don't really know." (only slightly off key)

Sean: Wow. You were a morbid little thing at seven, weren't you?

Me: Of course I was. What else would you expect? I was raised watching "Night Gallery" and "Twilight Zone", Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" and my bedtime stories were straight from Stephen King and Anne Rice. I read Poe's collected works at ten. I think morbid was more of a destiny for me than a choice. It really shouldn't surprise anyone that I turned out to be a horror writer.

Lu: You were weird.

Me: Whatever. With the ability to write lyrics like that and halfway carry a tune, I think it's a wonder that I'm not a rock star.

Sean: You are insane.

Me: By "insane" you totally mean "creative genius" right?

I'm not even going to dignify his response with repeating it here. I'm so misunderstood.

And then last night, I dreamed that Lizzie was cheating on Sean. Which is weird, because they aren't even dating right now. But there you go. If you're reading this Lizzie, don't do it. That guy was not as cute as Sean. And he was short.

Well, I'm off to start my packing. Maybe I can sing for my parents in the car. I'm sure they'll enjoy that. Especially if I make up my own songs.

♥Spot