Ghost Stories

I am waiting for Sam to be done with his tennis match. Sam is my new PCA client through the same company that Travis is through. Sam has autism but other then that he is very high functioning. Sometimes his eyes go cross eye, which is kind of funny. Sam is about as good as all of the other players on his tennis team but when he misses the ball he gets really mad, which is kind of funny too. He has terrible coping skills. His tennis partner is a chubby kid who is wearing really tight dark washed jeans, a fleece pull over and slicked back hair. He looks like someone I would see at a club. The other team he is playing against also has a short chubby kid, except this one is wearing jogging shorts, a tshirt that says CIA and sunglasses even though its cold and there isn't a speck of sun in sight. Sam is in a school that has grade school and junior high combined and all the kids in tennis look really small. There is one thing they all have in common is that they love trying to play tennis. My eyes blur at all the little energized bodies running back and forth as though they were playing Wimbledon. Its definitely the cutest and funniest things I've seen. They remind me of when I was younger, all the kids that I used to play with. Its a comforting sight to know that while things have definitely changed there are somethings that will never change, in fact they will always remain the same. Now that I'm older and facing issues with the upcoming election I think " These are the kids that will take care of me someday, deal with the issues that I'm dealing with now" I watch them miss balls and fill the air with empty swings. One kid in camo is running laughing looking over in my direction with cold air drool running from his nose and heads straight into the fence and falls down. "hmm" I pause, " reminder, you really have to put that money into that retirement fund"


I love October. It is the spookiest month which sends shivers down my spine. I love getting scared, and hate being scared, overall I'm the biggest baby to ever be able to walk and talk at the same time. I go to haunted houses but only because I can do my method of keeping the frightening actors away. I stay in the middle, hold tight to the person in front while I close my eyes the entire time and scream constantly. I'm not kidding I scream non stop, and I can honestly say all of the haunted houses/hayrides I've been to in recent years I can't tell you what any of them look like :) So being that I'm the biggest chicken, its funny to think We almost bought a real life haunted house before we bought our house. Deep in the woods of Inver Grove Heights is a house that resembles a tree house. Its hard to see and most people pass it by while driving down the road. When we found it, we thought, this is the most amazing place we have ever seen, I mean, who doesn't want to live in a tree house? It was dirt cheap due to the amazing amounts of work it needed. Upon our Inspection our Inspector found a hidden well that went two and a half stories underground. There was even an air hole that we saw but never knew what it went to. It needed every appliance and since it had a wood burning fireplace the soot settled onto the walls and you could see where pictures hung and furniture stood. Our first time in the tree house we felt immediately like it was our home, welcomed. We hated leaving. When we found out all of the work it needed it broke our hearts. It was one step away from being demolished. Our inspector told us he felt a huge presence in the house, one that was so strong he felt the need to pray. After the inspector told that to our realtor she decided she would look into the history since there was a bizarre incident earlier in the year with another couple who had looked at the house. When a burly firefighter and his wife went down to the basement they immediately ran back upstairs claiming they had been pushed and wanted to leave. Turns out after digging through the history there had been a suicide there. That's all we know, that the previous owner decided the abruptly end their life in this mysterious hidden place. I'm not going to lie, it freaked me out a little but when we decided to move on I felt sad and sorry that we had to say good bye. Whoever was left in that tree house obviously liked us since we never felt any terrible presence and who knows maybe it was lonely and excited to have some company. So now it sits, maybe wondering where we went, or wondering when someone will come home as they watch the seasons slowly change from all of the huge windows. The colors fall to deep oranges, reds, then to stark white, waiting, waiting waiting.

This weekend I'm running a marathon. Yes I know, I've been down this road before but as you can remember I didn't finish. This is why I am running this weekend to finish what I had started. As of right now, I personally couldn't care less about it. Its weird this meant so much to me 5 years ago. I trained my ass off then , following a strict running routine while this summer I had barely time to run and didnt get close at all my training calendar runs. I've been so busy lately. It has occurred to me that there are more important things in life then this. But I've signed up earlier this year and while I have no idea what will happen on Sunday I'm just going to go for it and do the best I can do for the old Carrie. The five years ago Carrie, since she deserves it so much. I would love to close that chapter for her so I can move on. Funny note when I signed up for this current race I wasn't married yet, so I'm running under my maiden name. Other then that I fell great physically. No IT band syndrome, I will also have the advantage of running with Stevie, my nephew who have planted on my iphone to remind me of strength.

I bought and drank my first hot chocolate today of the season and it was the greatest thing to hit my lips. I miss the rain. We have gone so long without it. I regret all the times I've ever complained of getting wet. I cant wait to see it again.