Category Archives: Vacation

Post-Festival Review: Seances

I’ve been meaning to write more about the festival I attended last week, but simply haven’t found or made the time. And when I’ve had the time to blog, there’s just been other things I also wanted to write about. But I think I can make enough time to talk about the three seances Michele and Belinda held while we were there.

As I mentioned in the last post about the festival, I had never been to a seance before. In some ways, I suppose that’s strange. I’m friends with a number of mediums and I regularly hang out at a store that has about one seance a month. But to be honest, they don’t hold a great deal of interest for me. In fact, I had originally only planned on attending the first seance at the festival: the one held on Tuesday night.

That was a pleasant seance, as it was early enough in the festival that a relatively small number of people came to it. After all, not many people had arrived at the festival itself yet, either. I actually learned something about seances I didn’t know before that night, too. You see, like most people, I had this idea that seances were about contacting the dead. And while the spirits of those departed do show up, they’re not the only ones who stop in. For the first time, I discovered that seances involved contact with spirits in general, and that can include spirit guides (or even deities) as well as spirits of passed loved ones.

The first night, I received a message, this one relayed by Rich. I got a brief lecture on the fact that I need to let the mask down and let people know the real me. This didn’t surprise me, as I’ve received this message before. I think, however, that the fact that it came from Rich — someone who had just met me six hours earlier and knew nothing about me — really increased the impact this time, however.

The second seance was Thursday night. Right up until an hour before the seance, I was convinced I wasn’t going. I had decided that I had already been to one that week. While it was an enjoyable experience, I didn’t see a great need to attend another one. To be honest, I’m not even sure what reason changed my mind. But when the time came, I rode down to the Khaki Shack in Michele’s golf cart. When we got there, we were quite shocked. I’d estimate that about thirty people were packed into the small building (far more than it can comfortably accomodate).

While I can’t say a reason for my change of mind, it became obvious why I had come along after all. In addition to the fact that there was such a large crowd, many who had come that night had been drinking. In fact, a number had cans of beer with them!

Now, for those of my readers who may not know this, you do not come to a seance or seek out a psychic reader while intoxicated. It does strange things to your energy and those around you. The net result is that you end up with very sick psychics and mediums. In fact, Michele and Rich each prepared to ask those who had been drinking to leave, but were stopped by their own guides. So we went forward.

That seance was a dreadful experience, however. All of the mediums had difficulty getting messages, and even some of their guides were noticeable affected by the situation. After about an hour, Michele’s guide called a halt to the whole process, promising to hold a third seance the next night. A handful of us stayed there for the next twenty minutes (after most everyone had left), mainly because the three mediums were feeling quite unwell. Arlene was kind enough to help pull away the stomach problems Michele and Rich were both feeling, and I helped to ground Rich. After a while, we were all able to leave. And everyone’s guides were kind enough to make sure everyone felt better by the next morning.

With the help of Tim, Michele tried to find a location to hold the unplanned seance Friday night. After a few failed attempts, our quartet agreed to hold the seance in the trailer we were renting for the week. We also insisted that everyone signed up ahead of time this time so that we could determine if we needed to break the group up and do two separate seances. Fortunately, only about ten or twelve people signed up (and counting those of us who had to be there, we number around sixteen or seventeen), so we held only one seance.

I want to mention one incident at the third seance simply because of how peculiar it was. At one point, Michele’s guide commented that there was a little boy in the room associated with one of the women there. (Her husband was also there.) Her guide went on to explain that the little boy identified himself as Anthony and said that he was trying to enter the world as the woman’s son. There was more to the message, but I don’t recall it.

What makes this particular message so remarkable is that Amy had a conversation with the woman and her husband after the seance. Apparently, they’ve been trying to have a child for many years. Even more, because of a tradition in the woman’s family, the couple had already planned on naming any boy they had Anthony. Needless to say, this made this seance a particularly amazing experience for this couple — particularly the husband, who was quite the skeptic and primarily came to humor his wife.

The last seance was probably the best. This was partly because of the smaller number of people who came — not to mention that the people who came weren’t there expecting some sort of “show,” but had realistic expectations for a seance. Of course, it also helped that it was the only seance held in our living space, which by that time had been thoroughly infused with our own energy and presence. This made it much more cozy than the more public and chaotic space of the Khaki Shack.

My first post-vacation post

I forgot to mention that I was on vacation last week. So those of you who might have wondered why I was so quiet, you now have your answer. I was off having fun. To be honest, it was quite nice. Of course, vacation gave me a lot to blog about, which I hope to accomplish over the next couple of days.

A group of friends and I went to the Northeast Naturist Festival, which was held just outside of Moravia NY at Empire Haven Naturist Park. While the four of us kept our clothes on for the most part (a few of us got in the hot tub, which meant stripping completely), we had a highly enjoyable time. All of the workshops that Michele and Belinda ran (or at least the ones I attended) went quite well.

We got to the park and checked in about mid-morning on Tuesday. From there, we immediately found a spot in the vendor’s area, set up our canopy, and started setting out our wares. Michele’s belly chains and wire wrapped pendants went extremely well. Our biggest seller, though, were the sarongs that Char sent with us. We sold at least ten of them (and I got a nice orange one, myself). We all took turns running the booth throughout the week, though Amy put in the most time and was our best salesperson by far.

The first couple days we were there, things were absolutely nuts. Both Tuesday and Wednesday, Michele and Belinda had three workshops to present. In between, we also had to go shopping, both in Moravia and in Cortland; and the latter is half an hour from the park. We were all exhausted both nights. In fact, Tuesday nigh, Michele was too tired and couldn’t channel her guide for the seance. That meant that Belinda had to do it herself. Fortunately, Rich came and was able to also help receive and give messages. It was the first seance I ever attended and found it quite interesting.

Wednesday night, I decided that the fast pace was too much for me to continue and let Michele know that I was skipping all workshops on Thursday except for the seance scheduled for that night. This gave me some time to just relax and spend some quality time alone, which I also realized I was missing. I ended up agreesing to go to Cortland again for the few items we still needed to get for the dish to pass dinner we were hosting that night.

Five or six friends came to dinner that night and we had a great time. One of the best things about this vacation is that I got to meet some pretty cool people, thereby further expanding my social circles. Unfortunately, most of them live hours away and we only get to see them on special occasions. However, the four of us from Rochester are talking about trying to make it back to Empire Haven to see some of them on non-festival weekends.

I have more to tell, but I think this is enough blathering for one post.

Vacation Pictures: Shrimping Tour

I’m still here in Mississippi, enjoying a nice time with family and a well-earned vacation from work. Today, we decided to take it easy and laze about the house. About the most taxing thing I did all day was play a game of checkers with my nephew, Liam.

However, I still need to write about yesterday afternoon’s shrimping experience. After the kids got done playing at Lynn Meadows, we loaded everyone back into the van and headed to the beach to catch the Biloxi Shrimping Trip aboard the Sailfish. This is a tour where the elderly, eccentric, and entirely lovable captain of the small vessel takes people out just a short distance from the shore, drags a small shrimping net for twenty minutes, and then goes through the catch to point out the various aquatic life he caught. The captain gives you a bit of information about the Mississippi shriming industry in the process. It was an enjloyable experience, and I thought I’d share some pictures.

First, we have a picture of the boat as you approach it:

The interior has a number of interesting sea artifacts and educational information:

Notice the small “gift shop” area in the far corner. There were plenty of postcards, tee shirts, baseball caps, and other assorted items to purchase.

Except while the net is dragging, the captain spends his time standing on the aft platform, either going through the haul or working on letting out or hauling in the net:

As the net drags along behind, the seagulls gather in hopes of a free meal:

Once the net is pulled in, the captain dumps the catch into his work area:

Notice the stingray in the middle of the picture. This was probably one of the most notable animals in this catch.

As he’s picking up various species of fish, the captain dumps many of them into the aquarium for display purposes:

About five minutes before we reach dock, the captain will dump the contents of the aquarium back into the gulf.

Of course, the captain never forgets the seagulls. All through the demonstration, he occasionally tosses a fish up to them. And when he’s done sorting through the fish on the deck, he will scoop the remaining ones up with a shovel and toss them into the air and overboard, just to create a great opportunity to catch a seagull feeding frenzy on film:

If you’re ever in the Biloxi area, I strongly recommend you check out this experience for yourself. The captain is an excellent showman and the educational aspects of the trip are rather interesting.

Vacation Pictures: Lynn Meadows

This morning, Stephanie and I took the kids to Lynn Meadows Discovery Center. The kids got to run from section to section, playing and having a good time. I took my camera and got a lot of great pictures. There are too many to post here, but I thought I’d post some of my favorites.

I’ll start by introducing each niece and nephew as they got dressed up in the one sections. Alyssa went for the southern belle look:

Kyra, on the other hand, decided to go with the grieving widow look:

The white hat somewhat ruined the look, but she eventually found a more appropriate black hat of a similar style.

Liam made a dashing young man, though now amount of fancy clothes can hide his inner imp completely:

Of course, fancy clothes didn’t work much for hiding Warren’s inner imp, either:

Before he was fully dressed, I snapped this picture of Warren because the oversized hat just made him look like a homeless boy in nineteenth centry London (or at least the stereotypical image):

Can’t you just see him stopping you on the street and asking you for a bit of loose change?

After getting dressed up, Kyra and Warren went over to the nearby hotel desk to check in:

They also had a small room with a “green screen” set up. The center of the room had a kayak the kids could get in. Here’s a picture of Kyra:

And here’s the image that appeared on the television screen outside the room:

I later found out there was a large LCD television in the room so the kids could see the image too. I snapped a picture of Liam on this screen, and got a classic look:

One of the last sections we visited at the Discovery Center was the section set up like a small seaport. All the kids decided to play at being longshoremen. Here’s a picture of crane operators Liam and Kyra:

Alyssa and Warren were in the ship hanging cargo on the crane’s hook:

From this picture, I can only assume that Alyssa was the foreman of the operation:

And here’s a final picture of three of the little hard workers. Doesn’t Warren look cute in his hard hat?

Mississippi Vacation

I’m sitting here in my sister’s computer room in Mississippi. Due to a lag-time between projects at work, I have at least a week off. Fortunately, I knew this early enough and was able to buy relatively cheap plane tickets down to visit my sister’s family. After all, I haven’t been to visit since they’ve moved down here to Biloxi.

Mississippi is actually a pretty nice place. So far, I’ve even been fortunate in that it hasn’t been too hot or humid. Bill actually asked me if I had packed all the dry air into my suitcase, because the humidity has been relatively low here since I arrived.

It’s always a joy to spend time with my nieces and nephews. Warren and Liam have both been tackling me every chance they get. And even Kyra occasionally finds her way into my lap. Alyssa’s happy to see me, though she doesn’t have quite the need for the physical affection that her younger siblings have. To be honest, I think she’d rather read a book. This makes her a girl after my own heart, of course.

Tomorrow, we’re going on the shrimping boat tour. I plan on taking my camera with me. As long as I remember, I should have some pictures to post later this week.