One Week Without: Makeup

Anyone who knows me has probably NEVER seen me without makeup. It’s a staple when it comes to me walking out of the house. My hair can look like I just rolled on out of bed, but my makeup will always be on point. It’s part of something that has plagued me since I was in middle school: insecurity. From the time I was about 10-years-old, I’ve had acne. That’s a very young age to have a face full of pimples. Most kids don’t get it until they hit puberty. So I did get some hell from my peers in school, as they walked around with their baby faces, doomed for the same thing to happen to them. My mom would try and help me to handle it by taking me to a dermatologist. He ended up being a quack who wanted me to go on Accutane. When my general physician saw me to get my birth control (which was recommended by the dermatologist), he told me the birth control would help with the break outs.

I was not allowed to wear makeup until I was a teenager. Even then, there were awful skin nightmares, and mornings where I cried while putting on makeup because my face was covered in pimples. No matter how much I tried to layer it on, the bulging, red, disgusting planet that was living on my chin would not go away.

Obviously as I got older, my breakouts have gotten a lot less frequent, and a lot less severe. But, unfortunately, that mentality of not walking out of the house without a little foundation stuck with me. I discovered the wonderful thing that is coconut oil, which not only took all of my makeup off, but made my skin a lot less prone to break out.

Shortly after that, at 25, I met my current boyfriend, who loves it when I exude confidence. He never understood why I wasn’t confident without my makeup on. He insists that I look just as good without makeup, as I do with it.

About two months into dating, I ended up having an accident at a softball game, and got six stitches in my left eyebrow. So that added to my insecurities to my face, and I started filling in my brows.

So here we are, almost 3 years into the relationship, and I only ever let my face be bare in our home.

This past Saturday, I wanted to go out to dinner last minute. So as he just threw on a t-shirt and a pair of sweat pants, I did something similar with a hoodie and jeans. He was on the bed, ready to go, while I decided to put on a full face of makeup. I’m not talking just a little concealer and mascara. I’m talking primer, foundation, concealer, contour, shadow, brows, liner and mascara, in that order. That’s a stupid amount of makeup, just to go get freaking cheese fries and margaritas.

My boyfriend travels a lot for work, so he left early the next morning for his next business trip. I work overnights, so I took the opportunity to sleep forever on Sunday. I woke up at 8, decided to make dinner, and when I was done, realized I had no time for looking nice. So I did something I rarely do. I went to work without makeup.

Day 1: Monday

No one really noticed that I was looking sloppy. Working 3^rd shift makes you not really mind when someone else shows up in jeans, a hoodie and some sneakers with their hair thrown up and no makeup. I did feel a little naked without my face on, but since I had at least washed my face, I felt fine.

Day 2: Tuesday

This day was a little rougher. Anyone who works overnights knows the battle it can be to fall and stay asleep. So when I woke up at 1 p.m. and couldn’t fall back to sleep for two hours, I decided to pop a melatonin to help out. Biggest.mistake.ever. Oh I woke up at the right time, but I looked like an extra on The Walking Dead. The bags under my eyes were unbelievably awful, and again, I was hungry, so I decided to forgo makeup and make some delicious burgers. So when I went in to work, I had done my hair, and wore a halfway decent outfit. But then, I was exhausted. So when my coworker looked at me and asked how I was and I said, “sleepy,” he responded, “You look sleepy.” My immediate reaction was, “It’s because I’m not wearing makeup.” He immediately got nervous, and said, “No, no I don’t think that’s it.” Then I started kind of feeling bad for him. I didn’t think, “oh, I didn’t sleep worth a shit yesterday, I may actually just look tired.” Most of the day, I do have moments where I expect to brush my eyelashes and have mascara there, but it’s actually kind of nice to rub my eyes out of stress, and not having to worry about smudging the hell out of my liquid eyeliner.

Day 3: Wednesday

 This is the day that I’ve officially decided to go on the whole week without my precious makeup. I think on the conversations I’ve had with my boyfriend, and how I have really needed to work on my self-confidence lately. So, I dive head first. I took my melatonin as I am going to bed instead of when I wake up midday. I shower after work instead of before it, and realize I’m saving a TON of time by forgoing the makeup. I get a few loads of laundry done before work, and head in. That night I get the first realization that I’m not wearing makeup. One of my coworkers looks at me and says, “Oh! You look cute without makeup!” I can’t say I’ve had anyone ever say that to me, but I didn’t want it to be obvious so I said a quick “thank you” and kept working.

Day 4: Thursday

Today, I’m actually noticing a little bit more change in my skin, but I decide to have some fun and

use a nose strip to get rid of the blackheads that have always plagued me. I am realizing though that my pores are looking a lot smaller, and my skin is looking a lot more “glowy.” I am not realizing so much that I am not wearing makeup. I feel like I just look like, me. I discussed my intentions with my coworker, and he actually looked at me after working three days straight, five feet from me and said he had not noticed I wasn’t wearing makeup. It really made me realize not everyone will notice when I’m not wearing my face. I don’t need to wear it every day.

Day 5: Friday

The final day! I’ve made it!After a particularly emotional night, I have made the wonderful discovery that it's hard as hell to hide your emotions with no makeup. Redness around your eyes after crying takes a minute to go away without concealer.
I cannot get enough of how my skin is looking and feeling. I am realizing now that I am ok with how I look without makeup, and although I have scars, who the hell is going to notice but me? My friends at work tell me they are proud that they know I feel good in my own skin.

Honestly, if you looked at my face, you would have to take a microscope and find the tiny scars and pores that I have been so self-conscious about since I was 10. Some of my coworkers are in the public eye and look glamorous every day. This experiment made me realize I am beautiful, with or without makeup. I use makeup because I enjoy it. It’s fun to express myself.

So don’t think that you NEED to do something to look your best. Do you hair, do your makeup because it makes you feel good. Don’t let anyone let you think otherwise, because anyone who loves you will love you for the skin you’re in. 

Being a Girl is Never Bad

Before you take the title of this post the wrong way, it's not what you think. I'm not here to talk about the wonderful things of being a woman, but stating that because I am a girl, I should not be treated as inferior, or different.

A big topic of conversation between my best friend and I lately, has been feminism, and its definition. The recent comments by “Big Bang Theory” actress, Kaley Cuoco, on her “lack of feminism” appalled the both of us. She claims to never have faced inequality, but does that mean she has never played a sport with a group of guys, been in an office building, or even just walked down the sidewalk? Before my mid-20s, I admit, I played the ignorance card. I didn’t read up on feminism and what it really meant. There was a point in college though, in a sociology class, that I realized that being a feminist does not mean you are the extremist that was such a stereotype when I was a kid.

As a woman, you have to dress and look a certain way, or you are considered gross and/or don’t have your life together. If you don’t look pleasant at all times, people ask what’s wrong, or tell you to smile. I had a janitor at my old high school tell me to smile every single day, because he thought I looked prettier that way (which, in itself was creepy since he was older than my dad, and I was 14-18 years old).

I’ve been considered a prude or a tease for most of my life, because I don’t choose to sleep with everyone I try and date. But some people would call me a slut for even sleeping with a man before marriage, for not “saving myself.” One guy told me a few weeks ago at the bar that I seem like I have a great body, so I need to dress like it. Just because I don’t wear skin-tight, cleavage-bearing outfits, doesn’t mean I don’t look great. I enjoy the way I dress on a normal day, because it’s ME. I’m not trying to be someone else. If that is how you believe you look fabulous, and makes you feel sexy, more power to you, girl.

But the thing that has truly gotten under my skin as of late is in my dodgeball league. It has never been an issue before. I play with guys my age, in their mid-to-late 20s, and I keep up with them every game as one of the few girls on the court. They know I can keep up, and don’t even acknowledge that I’m a girl.

Recently, we’ve had a surge in new players, one being an older man. A few weeks ago after I got someone out, he looked straight at me and said, “Wow, you sure don’t throw like a girl.” I don’t like saying certain things while I am fuming mad, so I decided to cool off and just let it go.

But then it happened again. This time it wasn’t to me, but I was still just as furious. The man basically made fun of a guy, because God forbid, a GIRL caught a ball. I had to resist whipping the ball that was in my hand right at the back of his head. One of my friends did handle herself in a way I wish I would have. She was on the opposing team, and nailed him. The icing on the cake was that she screamed, “OH MY GOD, A GIRL GOT YOU OUT!” Of course after the game was over, I went up to her and gave her a high-five. But WHY couldn’t I say anything? The guy was FEET away from me when all of this happened.

I called my mother to vent my anger, and she basically told me I was being ridiculous for getting so mad. But I want to fight back now. I regret my decision to stay quiet. So here is a challenge to any woman that reads this. SPEAK UP. Don’t let anyone make you feel like you are inferior because you aren’t. If you are a man or a woman, you are amazing, just the way you are. Stick up for yourself, or others who are afraid to do it for themselves. It won’t get better, unless you are willing to change it. So I now promise, to myself and all other women, I WILL say something when I am faced with this problem again. 

Ten Years Later...

Obviously today is the tenth anniversary of September 11th. I will never forget that day, just a little more than a month into my first year of high school.

I remember sitting in Mrs. Hemmelgarn's A block history class, and the phone ringing in the classroom, over and over until she finally answered it. It was Mrs. McKelvey, another history/government teacher in the building. She told Hemmelgarn that a plane had just hit one of the World Trade Center towers. We all were thinking, "What kind of idiot flies a plane into a building?"

But then Mrs. Hemmelgarn turned on the news. Another plane had just hit. We were all immediately glued to the television for the rest of the period.

The hallways were buzzing in between periods about the World Trade Center. I rushed to my B block class with Miss Richardson to ask her to turn on the TV so we could follow what was going on.

The one moment that I began to break down was when the Pentagon was hit by Flight 77.

Just starting high school, the entire freshman class had just returned from our 8th grade trip to Washington DC. We didn't stop at the Pentagon, but the memory of driving by the Pentagon and seeing the landmarks around it was fresh in my mind.

My C block class was gym with Mr. Oswalt, and we were not allowed near the TVs, but we went outside and played Bocci ball instead. None of us wanted to play, we wanted to know what was going on in our nation.

I remember walking outside and simply looking up. The most eerie moment of the day to me was walking out the door and simply looking up. There was not a plane in the sky, and being just north of Dayton and west of Columbus, we had two airports and an Air Force Base that constantly had planes passing over us. It was the clearest blue I've ever seen.

I was so mad that the teacher had decided to go outside that day. But I realize now it was a way to get us kids, because that's what we were no matter how much we fought the statement, away from the turmoil and sadness.

We weren't allowed to watch what was going on at lunch either, and by this point United Airlines Flight 93 had crashed in rural Pennsylvania. We wouldn't know about that until we got home that night.

My last class of the day was choir with Mr. Kildow. He refused to turn on the televisions as well, and all of the students in the class were getting frustrated because they knew they were being shut out from a huge moment of our country's history.

I got on the bus to go home and learned that my younger brother, who was in elementary school at the time, had not heard a word about what had happened. I had to attempt to explain the attack to my 9-year-old brother. He was confused on why anyone would do that. I think I was too.

I truly think that 9/11 inspired me to be a journalist. I'd always been a fan of writing, but started giving serious thought to the career when I saw Ashleigh Banfield's coverage that day. It made me realize that as a journalist, you really can make a difference, not just become a tabloid paparazzi.

Now that I am 24, I realize at 14 I was completely oblivious of the real magnitude of the attacks. I didn't get to visit the site until I was almost 21, and the eerie quiet still lingered on. Experiencing that made me realize the actuality of what had happened. I had never set foot in New York before then.

Ten years later, I am a journalist now, and can't help but tear up at the coverage of that tragic day. At my alma mater's Patriot Day assembly on September 9th, I saw three of the four teachers I had on that day ten years ago. My gym teacher had retired a few years ago. But by an ironic twist of fate, I saw him that day as I was in the waiting room to get my hair done.

We all know now that America won't stand for something like that to happen again. We did lose our innocence that day, but we gained a sense of pride for our country.

May we all remember those who fell that day, the heroes that rushed in to help, and those lucky few who survived. September 11, 2001

It's Britney, bitch.

Seeing a performer that is considered a legend in our generation should be an epic experience right? It was quite the contrary Saturday night when I went to see the one and only Britney Spears.

I've always been a fan of Britney, nothing over the top, but I like listening to her music, no matter how overly produced it is.

It all started on Friday when I was offered a ticket from a friend who had a few extra in his stack of six. I was hesitant, but my best friend finally convinced me to go, and bring her along. Saturday I got off work, went on a brief shopping trip for a new shirt to wear to the concert, then my best friend and I began our trek to Nationwide Arena to watch Ms. Spears.

I had zero interest in watching any amount of DJ Pauly D's opening act so we stopped at Boston's across from the arena to have an appetizer and drinks. This may have been the biggest mistake of the night, because we could have gotten a free ticket upgrade. The show didn't sell out so the first 400 people were moved closer to the stage. Nicki Minaj was supposed to be the opener, but she decided not to make the Columbus tour stop, which is probably the biggest reason that the show didn't sell out.

I did have to suffer through about 20 minutes through Pauly's set, and what I saw was laughable. He's just a DJ, so it was him spinning random songs. I'm not exactly sure why it was an "opening act." When I heard the opening riff to Justin Bieber's "Baby," my head immediately went numb. I could handle the rap songs they were playing, but Bieber?! Ugh.

We were up in section 205, which is pretty far up into the rafters at the arena, but we weren't complaining because it was free.

The video screen had a countdown to Britney's headlining set, and people slowly started to file into their seats. Shrieks could be heard when the "Femme Fatale" sign was being lowered onto the stage, but that was the most action we got while waiting on Brit Brit.

We moved a little closer in our section because there was no one really monitoring the upper bowl. The seats were beyond vacant up there.

The countdown on the video board finally got down to about 20 seconds, and the lights fell. Screams were echoing through the arena, and a video setting up the "Femme Fatale" aspect of the show hit the screen. When the video went black, the audience roared and the stage opened up.

Britney showed up in a white, glittery, barely there number, nothing shocking for Britney anymore, and busted into her lip sync of "Hold it Against Me." 

My friends and I were  immediately underwhelmed by Britney's performance. Her lazy, half-@$$ed movements reminded me of when I was in middle school cheerleading and my coach would get on me about how my movements weren't sharp.

Up next was "3," the not-so-subtle song about a threesome, which was just as lackluster as the prior song. Whoever thought it was a good idea to record a version to make it sound like she was singing live needs to be punched in the face. I would have much rather heard the lip synced version, simply because she could not hit half the notes in her "live" version.

She had about 4 different costume changes in the show, the first went into an Asian dress/coat that had reminiscence of Sporty Spice going on. Then the next outfit that kicked off "...Baby One More Time," a studded leather jacket with cut off shorts and a rhinestone bra. That was not the most flattering because like it or not, Britney has never been the rail-thin type of girl. She was healthy when she was younger and that's why her stomach was good to mimic. But after two kids she does still have a little bit of a jiggle. At one point she did a pyramid move on top of two of her dancers, and her stomach was hanging down. I'll admit, just about every woman has that, but the rest of us aren't walking around in a bra.

The next was for the performance of "Boys," when the show shifted gears to an Egyptian style. It was a simple gold bra and bottoms, with some added accessories like a matching cape.

She then changed into a very short kimono for her performance of "Toxic," and my favorite had to be the black sequin dress for the finale of "Till the World Ends." The jagged drop neck, long sleeves and short skirt were unbelievable.

"Lackluster" was my favorite word of the night. The one move she did have down pretty well was the power walk from one side of the stage to the other and throwing her arms up to cross them. They were both moves that my friends and I were emulating for the rest of the night.

I'm not exactly sure why none of her choreographers or directors won't tell her that she needs to pick it up, but put me in front of Britney Spears herself and I will tell her that my high school cheerleading squad could've outperformed her. If she's going to deprive us of a singer by lip syncing, she could at least give us a dancer.

Britney's dancers were the highlight of the show. One even did an acrobatic routine on her swing during "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know." I stood up and clapped, but only for him.

So a word to the wise, do not go see Britney Spears' "Femme Fatale" show unless Nicki is there because you actually want to pay for a show.

American Ghost Hunter at Waverly Hills!

Well I'm finally sitting down today and writing this. Yesterday was absolutely exhausting on so many levels, but let's just start from the beginning.

My mother bought tickets for my birthday to go see American Ghost Hunter in Louisville at the Waverly Hills Sanatorium. For those of you who don't know, and I can't imagine that a lot of you do, AGH is a documentary about paranormal investigator Chad Calek's life. Ever since his youth in Persia, Iowa, he was plagued by a haunting that seemingly had an effect on his mother. He teamed up with Ryan Buell, who most people know from Paranormal State, who executive produced the film to help him get to the bottom of the haunting...but I don't want to give it all away.

I decided to take my best friend, Ashley, along. She's not 100% comfortable with the paranormal, but she deals with my insanity.

We took off from my house at 10 a.m. on the dot. My GPS had told us it would take 3 1/2 hours to get to Louisville, so I figured it would give us enough time to stop and get lunch on the way. Boy was I wrong.

Somehow we added an extra ten minutes on as we were going through the small towns on the way to the interstate. We got past Cincinnati just fine, with some slow drivers who didn't know how to change lanes, but who doesn't run into that?

As we cross the Kentucky border, I split off from I-75 onto I-71 and not 2 miles later, traffic is at a dead stop. Construction. I impatiently watch as the minutes keep adding on to the GPS's arrival time. Finally, after about 10 minutes of waiting, I whipped the wheel and got off the exit to my immediate right. This is where my GPS saved us, because it took us completely around the construction area and back into flowing traffic. But the down side, we had added about 25 minutes on to our journey.

We go on the rest of the trip without a hitch...that is until we actually get to the location. Waverly Hills' address says, "Paralee Ln, Louisville, KY," which was plugged into my GPS. We get to Paralee Lane and a sign there says, "Exit Only." At this point I start freaking out. I'm in a place I don't know and have no clue how to get somewhere. How people ever made it places without technology I have no idea. Ashley looked up Waverly Hills on her phone and sure enough there was a phone number. She got directions and we finally arrived.

We pull up to all 180,000 square feet of Waverly Hills Sanatorium. I had seen this place on so many TV shows and in so many pictures, I couldn't believe I was actually here. The building was amazing in itself. The former tuberculosis hospital had windows only on the bottom floor, which were brand new, I'm sure as part of restoration efforts. Tens of thousands of deaths happened at this place from the White Plague before a cure was found. So many emotions are held in this building, and I was standing mere feet from it. Unfortunately, I never took a step inside.

Now, I love when people turn to me about paranormal occurrences they've had. It makes me feel, special. But ironically as we were pulling in to the sanatorium, my phone goes off. It's my younger brother, who is currently in Wyoming playing baseball. He starts shouting something I can't make out because he's talking so fast. I told him, "Whoa, slow down. What happened?" "Ash!" he said, "you HAVE to bring your EMF detector out here!" I just snickered a little at the irony of the situation and said, "why?"

He proceeded to tell me that before he and his roommate went to practice that morning, they cleaned their room, but when they came back his roommate's bed was completely flipped over. "We couldn't have done it because we were at practice!" he shouted. He then proceeded to tell me about him trying to find out if something was there by provoking it (I blame this on the fact that I've made him watch too many episodes of Ghost Adventures). "If there is a f***ing ghost here do something! Don't be a f***ing p*ssy and just do sh*t while we're gone!" he shouted. "Ash, I'm not kidding," he said, finally calming down, "the door opened on its own." I was extremely excited to hear about this, but we were also still running late. So I said a quick good-bye to my brother and got out of the car.

I took one more glance at the sanatorium and I was ready to go. I take two steps towards the opposite end of the building, when I stop dead. Chad Calek and Ryan Buell are walking in themselves. I grab on to Ashley and go "Holy crap it's them!" She proceeded to tell me not to make an ass of myself by freaking out. I kept it mostly cool until we realized we had no idea where to go.

After embarrassing ourselves a little by just standing around, we finally figure out where to go and make our way in. The documentary viewing was inside of a sort of annex of the sanatorium, where there was little air flowing, but enough to make sure we didn't pass out. It was a total of 95 degrees in Louisville, so I tried to come prepared with a bottle of water, but that was gone within an hour.

Before we watched a second of the documentary we got to partake in a meet and greet with the cast. We lined up to meet Ryan, and for him to sign the book I had recently read of his, Paranormal State. I made it through smoother than I thought I would. Generally when I get nervous I make an idiot of myself. I made some small talk with him, he signed my book and we took a picture together. Then it was Ashley's turn. She just wanted a picture, so I took her phone from her to take it. Buuuut stupid me got nervous and couldn't remember how to take the picture. She finally told me, and after I took a picture of them both snickering at me, we thanked Ryan and walked away. I took a quick picture with Chad and we found a seat in the second row.

Chad surprised us all by announcing that we would be watching his documentary before American Ghost Hunter, that he made at Waverly Hills. But not everyone can see the whole thing. Part 1 is posted online for the public, but Part 2 has been seen by very little people.

We had a short break to walk around, because everyone needed to get up. Those chairs weren't exactly comfortable. Ash and I walked back out to the car to take a few pictures of the sanatorium, then took our seats again.

I won't say too much about the plot of the movie, because I think you should witness it for yourself. Chad's story is interesting in itself because he had just reconnected with his parents and brother. He had to make huge sacrifices in trying to resolve the issue of this spirit that had done so much damage to his family. I will tell you that a problem his mother had been having when he was younger, that he was told had been resolved when they moved, had not gone away.

I think what Chad went through was unbelievably hard. To face closure on something that had literally haunted him his entire life was indescribable. If the tour comes to your city I definitely recommend going to see it. They told us that it's more than just a paranormal movie, and it really is. I hope this comes out on DVD...even though I'm broke I will be putting money down for it.

I won't bore you with the lame details about our drive back...but I thought I'd share with you our wonderful adventure to Waverly Hills. I hope to investigate there one day!

Halloween at Bobby Mackey's

Yesterday was Halloween if any of you didn't know, and it is my absolute favorite holiday. Which is why my friend Trey and I decided we would head down to Bobby Mackey's Music World in Wilder, Kentucky to go on a little ghost hunt.

If you don't know much about Bobby Mackey's, it's considered to be one of the most haunted places in the country, with many murders and sacrifices happening in the basement of the establishment. The well that is in the basement has been repeatedly called the Portal to Hell or  Hell's Gate.

I'll start from the beginning and progressively tell you each story of the spirits as I went through the honky-tonk saloon. I was nervous going in to this place, #1 because it was my first ever ghost investigation, and #2 I had seen both Ghost Adventures shows that were filmed there and already knew what I was going up against. This is not stuff you want to mess around with.

As I walked in I did seem to calm down, I wasn't nervous at all. We were walking in around 9:00, just as one tour was about to leave, so Trey and I decided to just hang out in the bar for a while, which I was glad we did. We got to see OMEB (or the One Man Electric Band) which we were pleasantly surprised with the quality of.

After a short break, they brought in Bobby Mackey himself, to sing "Johanna." This is a song written about one of the ghosts that we will meet later on. I had  heard the song plenty of times from the TV shows and knew this was going to stir up some stuff in the basement, and we were headed there right after he sang it. We also found out that the spirits do not like when hard rock is played in the club, which was what OMEB was singing. He even decided to throw in "Scott Jackson is a p*ssy," before Mr. Mackey came up (You'll hear  about him later too).



We made our way into the front entryway to gather for the tour. The guides, including paranormal investigators Chris Dedman and Dan Smith who were featured on the TV special "Most Terrifying Places in America 2," pulled us outside to give us a brief history of Bobby Mackey's. I had already heard of every story there, so I just hung out in the back.

One woman that I seemed to automatically make friends with, Jo, walked out of the club and said, "Who are you, mysterious medium?" That kind of freaked me out because I've never had psychic abilities. Mediums can communicate with spirits, and to have her call me one, especially since later I found out she was one as well, was mind-boggling.

We made our way into the basement, and since our group was so large, we had to split up. Luckily I was still with Trey, Jo and her husband. My group first went to Robert Randall and Johanna's dressing rooms.

Johanna was a dancer at the club when  it was the Latin Quarter in the 1950's and was the daughter of the club owner. She fell in love with one of the singers at the club, Robert Randall, and her father did not approve. Johanna's father then had Mr. Randall murdered. Johanna sought revenge in her lover's death, so she poisoned her father, then herself. Her father did not die, but Johanna, who was five-months pregnant with Robert's child, did.

The guides handed out EMF detectors and a thermometer. I was handed the second EMF detector, which had been used on Ghost Adventures plenty of times so I knew how it worked. Trey was handed the thermometer.

I was then told to walk in to Robert Randall's dressing room first, alone. This mildly freaked me out, especially when I first walked in to the room and  heard a "bang!" Everyone thought I had jumped because of my reflection in the mirror, because apparently I was the only one to hear it. My digital recorder didn't even pick it up.

Just as I walked in to Robert's dressing room, I picked up an EVP that said, "very good."

Robert seemed to like girls, specifically, me. Even the investigator that was with us told me that Robert seemed to like me.

I'd never really had experience with cold spots or EMF, so when both started happening, it was awesome. I stood by the mirror at the end of the small room, and figured I would put the detector near the chair next to me. The EMF detector started jumping to a .8 or .9 mG, which is a detection there is a spirit nearby.

I handed the EMF to a man who wanted to sit in the chair, and the levels began to go down. Robert was responding more to me and  Jo than any of the males in the room.

We began asking him to make the lights jump on the detector, which  he continually did. We would be polite and thank him for making the lights turn on.

Then we headed to Johanna's dressing room, where she died. As soon as I stepped in the doorway, I got a huge whiff of roses, which Johanna was said to wear a rose perfume. Johanna wasn't as responsive to me as Robert was. I did capture an EVP after I asked the question, "What were you going to name your baby?" but someone was talking in the background and it wasn't clear what she said.

After we spent a few minutes in the dressing room, a lot of people walked out. Chris started telling stories about when he was on America's Most Terrifying Places and they captured an EVP that called him a "spirit stalker."

A few guys were still in Johanna's room inspecting a photo they took, so I walked back in and asked one of them to hold the EMF detector. As soon as I handed it off to him, it started to spike around 1.4 mG. Exactly what I wanted to happen. We didn't capture any EVP at this point, but we did get a lot of readings on the EMF.

As we were standing outside of the dressing rooms, Jo kept spotting spirits walking around the area. Then we headed into the Room of Faces. As soon as I walked in the room, I got a blast of cold air. Jo spotted something on the wall and stopped dead in her tracks. This was to be the most interesting room of the night.

As I walked closer to the group, the girl with the other EMF detector was standing next to one of the tour guides and he was positioning her around a table with BINGO cards on it. The story behind that is a lot of mobsters would play BINGO in the club in the 1930s, at the same time they would bring people into the room to torture and murder. Illicit BINGO gambling was the only thing that law enforcement could prove would happen there. The Wall of Faces at times has the patterns of faces, hence the name. It also has nicks from bullets, and blood splatter under UV lighting.

This is the point where I got my favorite EVP of the entire night. No one heard it with their naked ears, but on the recorder it is a distinct scream.

Then we started the communications with the spirits. The guide placed myself and the other girl with the EMF detector away from one another. The other EMF detector made a noise when it detected spirits, so that's how they would answer yes to things. The investigator that was with us asked if it was a male or female, and there was no response. So he asked if it was a demon, it went off. Then he asked, "Do you know anyone in this room?" It went off again. We kept asking questions and determined it knew someone to the left of him that was a girl. It then went off when it said that it knew the girl holding the meter. It said that it wasn't a family member, and that it knew her from when she was much younger. She freaked out at this point and left hysterically crying.


We kept asking questions while the guide was helping the girl outside. I asked if it was trying to scare her, and it said yes through the EMF.


We had gone over our half an hour time limit by almost 15 minutes at this point, which meant we were not going into the infamous Well Room. If you have seen Ghost Adventures you know that this is the room where Zak Bagans was scratched hard enough by an entity that it drew blood on his back.

The story goes that this was originally a slaughterhouse in the 1850s, and the well is where they put all the blood and parts from the animals. Eventually it evolved into a satanic worshiping room, where sacrifices were made into the well. One of these sacrifices was rumored to be part of one of the most infamous murders in Kentucky.

22-year-old Pearl Bryan from Greencastle, Indiana, had fallen in love with Scott Jackson, a student at a dental school in nearby Cincinnati. She was, like Johanna, five-months pregnant with Jackson's child. Jackson and a friend, Alonzo Walling, attempted an abortion with dental tools. When it failed, the men then murdered Pearl by severing her head. The rumors swirled that Jackson was part of a satanic cult that was based in the basement of now Bobby Mackey's and that Pearl's head was offered as a sacrifice in the well. The head was never found. Jackson and Walling were both offered life in prison, rather than hanging, if they were to reveal the location of Pearl's head, which they refused.

Demonic spirits tend to dwell in this room, which I did not have the chance to experience. I will return someday though and visit the infamous Well Room at Bobby Mackey's Music World.

If you want to listen to some of the EVPs or the entire audio I will be posting links to documents throughout this blog, including on this sentence. :) Enjoy!

If you have any other questions or want to see the rest of my EVPs, or even spot more feel free to comment or email me!

It's Your F#%^%&* Nightmare!

Ahhhh, I finally get to do a rock blog. I'm home for once. I just returned from the Rockstar Energy Drink UPROAR tour and my ears continue ringing, which is the sign of a great freaking concert.

To start things off, the event had to be split to two (neighboring) venues, the Lifestyle Communities Pavilion and Nationwide Arena. Apparently there was a large demand for tickets, so the larger bands were moved to the larger arena. For bands like Disturbed and Avenged Sevenfold, it was understandable.

Today's line up:

Jagermeister Second Stage:

XFactor1

Jackie

New Medicine

Hail the Villain

Airbourne

Rockstar Main Stage:

Halestorm

Stone Sour

Avenged Sevenfold

Disturbed

HellYeah was supposed to be on the tour as well, but rumor has it that drummer Vinnie Paul (formerly of Pantera and Damageplan if you didn't know) will not play Columbus since it was where his brother, Dimebag Darrell was shot and killed in 2004.

I went with my friend Collin and his girlfriend, Lynda. Collin and I tend to frequent rock concerts together so we figured we'd keep the tradition alive, especially with Avenged Sevenfold being there.

I didn't get there until late because my boss wanted me to come into work early, so I only got to see 1.25 acts on the Jagermeister second stage at the LC Pavilion. I sat through all of Hail the Villain's set and one song of Airbourne's.

I loved Hail the Villain's music, the lead singer Bryan Crouch's on stage antics kind of made me wonder though. Not that I'm against a high energy show, which he totally gave out. He just had some weird thing with baring his teeth like a pissed off dog and moving his hands in very strange motions.

Top song, I'm going to vote as "Runaway." The crowd was into it almost as much as their single, "Take Back the Fear." They had the crowd yelling along with the line, "when I say GO!" It was the most lively the second stage seemed. P.S. I found a new ringtone in this song :)

Airbourne I can't really say a whole lot about. I only got to see one of their songs because I wanted to hop over to Nationwide to see Halestorm. From what Collin told me though, the lead singer, Joel O'Keeffe, decided to climb some of the off-stage set up at the LC, including walking over an archway to get into the pit. He didn't skip a beat on playing his guitar either.

As Lynda and I were on our way over to Nationwide for Halestorm's set, we obviously walked by some people. A pair of 30-something guys decided to start yelling cat calls at us, which I proceeded to give them dirty looks. Then these two girls walked by us with their shirts flipped up to show their stomachs. It was 75 degrees out. I could understand if it was blazing hot at 95, but these girls decided to flip up their spaghetti strap shirts when it was cool outside. There was no need other than for them to get attention. Lynda and I proceeded to make fun of them because we were that amused at their attempts to get attention.

Anyway, back to the music. Halestorm was up next for me. We didn't get to the LC in time to get floor tickets at Nationwide (they only let the first 2,000 that got to the LC get wristbands), so we were stuck with sitting in the lower bowl. Not that it really mattered, I could still see the stage pretty well.

I had seen some of the band's opening before, so I wasn't surprised when singer Lzzy Hale began belting out "It's Not You" a capella.

I can understand why a lot of the crowd wasn't into the show, not that I didn't LOVE every second of it. But Halestorm isn't as heavy of a sound as the rest of the bands that were there. Not too many people in the stands wanted to stand up and sing along to their songs, and I'm pretty sure I was the only one in my section who knew every word to their songs.



Top song: The one part of Halestorm's show that everyone loved was when they brought out the big trash cans and played together like it was Stomp (look it up if you don't know what I'm talking about). It began with drummer Arejay Hale (who blew my freaking mind) playing a solo, then Lzzy, Joe and Josh all brought out the trash cans and played together. Arejay made his way back to his drum set and the rest of the band continued playing along with him.

It was during the Halestorm set that I noticed the over-weight man sitting next to me kept looking back at me during the show. This was so beyond irritating. I thought he was going to try something, like grab my butt as I was walking away. So, I made sure I wore my big, bulky Avenged Sevenfold ring visibly to leave a good mark if necessary. He got lucky, because I didn't have to use it. He kept looking back during certain songs though, especially if I was singing along.

Moving on to Stone Sour (unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture), I haven't listened to them more than their singles so I wasn't sure what to expect. I definitely was not disappointed. I felt stupid for not knowing more of the lyrics, but I still enjoyed their show.



Top song: "Through the Glass."  I know it's their most popular song, but it garnered the most crowd involvement. Everyone in that entire arena was singing along, including me (the one song I knew every word to).

Avenged Sevenfold was next up! We had to wait for at least 45 minutes if not an hour after Stone Sour ended their set. They had to build more of a set for the headliners.

I haven't seen A7X since November, 2008, and I was overly excited to see them again. The curtain dropped and the crowd erupted. There was a platform at the top of the stage, where a man was standing. We saw a rope drop to the floor of the platform. He proceeded to put the rope around his neck and "hang" himself (there was another cord holding him up so he was not actually hurt). You see guitarists, Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance, bassist Johnny Christ and fill-in drummer Mike Portnoy begin playing the intro to "Nightmare."

It's about this time that I notice the set looks like it's straight out of a Tim Burton version of Psycho, with the building as a back drop, and three cemetery gates with A-7-X printed on each. I loved this, mostly because I'm obsessed with Halloween and spooky things.

Of course leading singer M. Shadows comes in and breaks that focus with one note screaming, "NIGHTMARE!" After their opening song, Shads makes an announcement they have to stop the show for a couple seconds because the force of the crowd broke the barricade at the front of the pit. It took a good five minutes for people just to move back enough to let the security fix it. It was probably frustrating for people on the floor, but even more frustrating for us sitting up in the stands because we wanted more Avenged and couldn't do anything about it!



I'd never seen Avenged use pyrotechnics in their show. I've seen their Deathbat come to life at the end of Bat Country before, but nothing like what they had go on during this show. The cemetery gates caught on fire, the poles had candle-esque fire balls on top of them, and once in a while fire would shoot up in front of the gates. At the end of Almost Easy (which was the last song of the night) they even had a fire work shoot off at the center of the stage.

Top song: "So Far Away." For those of you who don't know, A7X's drummer, Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan, passed away this past December, and they had him as the back drop for this song, dedicating it to him. At the end, M. Shadows asked everyone to hold up their lighters and cell phones so he could "see us." I won't lie, I teared up a little. Not because I was emotionally attached to The Rev or anything, that'd be kind of weird. I mourned for them and the loss of their friend. It was a great tribute to him. Every time one of this singing solos from their self-titled album came up, they didn't have someone else sing it. They had a recording of him singing, and everyone would point up for him.

The one thing I was disappointed in was that they did not play Bat Country. It was the single that helped them hit the airwaves like a freaking rocket, but not one note of that song was played.

It was 10:00 by this point, and everyone was getting tired. But, we still had one more show to go. Disturbed.

I figured they would have just as much pyro  in the show, as not to be upstaged by Avenged. I am ashamed to say, I am a Disturbed fan, but don't have their last two albums. I knew the words to their singles, but that was pretty much it. My favorite album that I do have (Believe) they did play a couple songs off of, so I didn't look too bad.

The show opened with a scene in a mental hospital, with what it seemed like as lead singer David Draiman having some sort of medical emergency with flashbacks to an abusive father on a child. He was in an ambulance, and as he flat lines, the doctor shoves something in his heart. As Draiman comes back to life, he starts attacking the doctor, and EMS that are transporting him. This was when he came out and broke into "The Game" from their debut album, "The Sickness."




Disturbed did something completely different than the other bands with their visuals. Other than just using the pyrotechnics, they also used video. I'm not just talking they played their video on the back screen, which they only did for one song. They had a video camera and during "Ten Thousand Fists" they turned it on the crowd and showed everyone in the crowd pumping their fists to the song, making it quite literally ten thousand fists.

I hate to be obvious on these, but...
Top Song: "Down with the Sickness." This had the entire place going absolutely ballistic. There's way to describe it. The floor was moshing, everyone was screaming the lyrics, and we thoroughly had our faces rocked off.

After my ears continue to ring (even almost 24 hours after the show, should I see a doctor?), I am very happy with my experience there. Next time I go though, I will be in the pit. No questions about it. Hope you all enjoyed this one!