The Pagan Mom Blog

So let me first say that at last night’s Spookyblogpaloozananny I didn’t win Best New Blog. However, I did win Rising Tweeter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAYYY!!!!!!!!!! So for those of you that had voted for me, thank you thank you thank you thank you. I didn’t expect to really win anything so I was surprised.

Next I want to wish everyone a Happy Halloween and a Blessed Samhain for my peeps who celebrate it! It is a bit drizzly here. I am hoping it goes far far away by tonight. I actually have to go by the Halloween Candy we are giving out today, I know I know…..I am cutting it close. If it rains I am handing the kids umbrellas so they can still do the trick or treating. THis years public Samhain Ritual is at a park near my home so I get to walk on over this year. Hubs is a little nervous about that. We have had some people standing on street corners every day this past week with signs protesting Halloween and all of it’s “evilness”. He thinks they might show up at ritual. Well if they do people from the ACLU will be there to keep an eye on things. The coven has had so many issues in the past that they now have people at the ACLU come out and hang around so that they can witness what happens and lean on the cops. City PD isn’t very helpful when it comes to these issues. Oh hell, City PD isn’t very helpful at all with anything. Anywho, I feel like I will be fine. And I have promised to talk to him on my cell the entire time that I walk over and the entire time that I walk home. Such a nervous nanny he is. But it’s sweet so I forgive him.

This of course leads me to a Ms. Kimberly Daniels and all of her wacky extreme right wing ideas about witches, candy, and Halloween. She wrote an article that has incensed so many in the community. If you choose to read it I do encourage you to leave a comment on how you feel about it. CBN.com (Christian Broadcasting Network) did have it on their site but have since taken it down for bearing false witness. Commence applause for CBN.com! I personally did not leave her a comment. Well no I did, but I made a video response about some of the highlights of her article and left her a link. Now…..whether or not she actually sees it is one thing. But I sure did feel better! I debated on whether or not to post it here. I don’t want this post to be negative on such a happy day. Nor do I want to instill any negative feelings on this happy day. BUT. I am going to post the vid here because I felt I did it in somewhat of a humorous way. I certainly didn’t yell, cuss, or cast a spell on her in this video. I just pointed out her fallacies and pretty much made a joke of her. So if you watch it….don’t get yourself riled up. It’s not worth it today! And wait to read her article until tomorrow. Because that will piss you off and you don’t need it. K? Alrighty then….here we go!

Todays post is dedicated to the wonderful people visiting from Mrs. B’s Haunted Blog Tour.With preparations for tonights events and tomorrows events I havent been able to participate much with her 31 Days of Halloween lately. But when she asked me to fill in for someone on the Haunted Blog Tour I could not refuse! It’s both a pleasure and an honor.

I thought I would discuss Halloween memories. For many of us Halloween has had a special place in our hearts since we were children. As a child, I identified myself as an agnostic long before I knew what that meant. I was raised by an atheist father and a Baptist mother. I was free to explore religion on my own and as a child I had a beleif in the divine but didn’t know how to describe it. Halloween was always what I looked forward to the most. More than my birthday or Christmas. I always felt alive at this time of year. Many people assumed it was about the free candy but the reality is, it was so much more than that. I could feel the electricity that Autumn brought. Long before understanding the elements I can remember standing outside with my arms spread out, head held back, and just feel the cool light wind breeze right through me. I longed to stand beneath the Moon and just stare at Her beauty. Before understanding the veil thinning, I could feel energy circling around me. It was always something that brought me a sense of peace. At the same time I knew that change was coming. I was never one who got excited about New Year’s Eve on Dec 31st. I never felt that sense of change and a New Year coming on that day. It was on Halloween that I could feel it.

Of course I didn’t ignore the excitement of costumes, decorations, and trick or treating. In my neighborhood it was rare to see a house not partaking. We never decorated our home to any great extent, we had our pumpkin of course. Some houses were like ours, but they did participate in handing out candy. The idea of going to a church for a Fall Festival or to the mall to trick or treat was almost sacrilege in those days. And while I don’t really knock churches for having Fall Festivals or Trunk Or Treating…..I abhor mall trick or treating (and yes, I did once take my children to the mall because around here not alot of homes partake in the holiday). In August I would start dreaming up my costume. I don’t remember buying costumes much in those days. It was mostly buying makeup and then making something up with what we had. I remember distinctly one year wearing black, white, and red makeup and my own clothes and dubbing myself as Jeffrey Dahmer’s girlfriend. The red of course was blood dribbling down my face after a “meal”. Oh the irony of that costume, LOL! Back then I opted for scary costumes. Once in a great while I did something cutesy, but it was usually something scary. In September I would sit down and draw a crude map of our neighborhood and a nearby neighborhood. I would do this so that I could optimize the best route so I wouldn’t miss a single home but the last home I visited would be a next door neighbor. It was a very serious business! At school we had costume contests. Teachers, librarians, and principals would dress up. Not one child was ever offended. The funniest costume was when our lunch lady wore a trashbag with a lunch tray, milk carton, and sporks glued to it. Once I got home it was all about eating as quickly as possible so that we could start as early as possible. In those days you didn’t start until dusk. When I would step outside with my sister and mom, you would see hundreds of mini ghouls and goblins running from house to house. Squeals of delight and friendly hellos from the parents could be heard. It was a happy time. We would spend hours walking from house to house. Getting scared by homes set back in the woods, daring one another to go first. People rigged up their yards so things popped out at you and made you scream. People hid in bushes with fake machetes to rush out at the older children. You knew you were going to be scared and you loved every minute of it. We would ramble home around 10pm. Tired. Makeup smudged, bags full. Mom & Dad would sit and examine all the candy for safety. My dad would proclaim all Crunch bars as unsafe and eat them when he thought you weren’t looking. And if you called him on it, eat one in front of you. We would go to bed in post holiday bliss. Exhausted but smiling. Dreaming of the next year and what you would wear.

Times have changed of course. And with it I have had to make changes. I want my children to experience Halloween the way I did. We decorate our home and our yard. We plan out costumes. The kids make maps of the neighborhood. We have an annual Halloween party so they can wear their costume more than once. I try to make it a month long celebration instead of just one day. And if they so desire, they come to a Samhain ritual with me. So they can spread out their arms and feel the wind. So they can stare at the Moon and feel Her staring back. So they can feel the change that is coming.

As it gets closer to Samhain I have noticed an increase in activity here in my home. I already have two ghosts that reside here. On occasion I get stragglers in, they usually just pass through.  I thought it might be nice to share with you some of the occurences.

About a week ago I heard my name. RARELY have I been clairaudient. It’s one thing that I kinda wish I was more often but it just seems as though I cannot open that part of myself up well. I can only think of one other time it occured and that was in 2006 after my uncle passed (and ironically, it wasn’t my uncle but one of our resident ghosts). It has happened in that in between state of consciousness and sleep. This last time it was a woman’s voice and I am almost positive it’s our other resident ghost.

Two days later my computer turned on by itself. I was in the chair watching Ghosthunters and tweeting on my hubs laptop. My computer had been in sleep mode the entire day. One thing about my computer is that when it’s in sleep mode you must play with the fingerpad, move the mouse a bit, and then play with the finger pad again (it’s a laptop that has been turned into a desktop….long story). I kept hearing a noise across the room by my laptop. At one point I muted the TV and just watched and listened. That’s when it suddenly came on. An hour later it went back into sleep mode. Another oddity since its set to go into sleep mode after 15 minutes of no use.

On the night of our Halloween party the girls ceiling fan came on. Their pull chain is broken. So hubs or myself must climb up, stand on tiptoe on the bed, and pull what’s left of the chain. No child of ours can reach it and the children in the room at the time were all considerably shorter than my tallest daughter (who stands at 5′ tall). We couldn’t explain why it came on when we turned it off in early October due to a cold snap.

And today…today was the freakiest. We have space heaters in each room (just until we get oil for heat). As part of my leaving the home ritual I go through the house turning out lights and heaters. Alex was already at the car and I noticed the living room heater and lamp was on. I went back in thinking I needed to turn off the heater so we wouldn’t risk a fire. I KNOW I turned it off along with the light. Both were on when I got home. Even weirder is the heater was set at the lowest setting…….we use the highest over night so that the dog is nice and toasty since she is getting old and her joints give her trouble in the cold. The setting is one knob and the power is another. I only turned the power knob off. No need to move the setting knob when we don’t change it.

Makes me wonder what will happen next.

I found this disturbing article on Yahoo yesterday. Basically a man was fired. Depending on who you ask will depend on the reason. He says it was because the pin he wore said “One Nation Under God”. The company says that he was fired for not following company policy which states ONLY company pins could be worn as part of uniform.

Now me being the capitalist I am, I would have to say that if someone does not comply with uniform rules and are heavily defiant about it….they should get fired. BUT. The man claims he has been wearing it since March 2008. A year and a half and NOW the company wants to fire him? The man also claims that he had recently started bringing the bible to read on his lunch break. And it wasn’t until then that his button was an issue. IF all of that is true than the company has just discriminated against this man because of religion.

I have worked with people who have brought their bibles to work. I have worked with people who wear religious pins and religious jewelry. I personally don’t see what the problem is with it. Now if a company wants to say that there are uniform rules, fine. I am totally ok with that too. But you don’t wait a year and a half to fire someone over it.

Please read the full article (I am too lazy to c&p it here, sorry) and share your thoughts on the issue!

****UPDATE***** Music Savvy Mom is featuring my blog and my top ten playlist today on her blog. PLEASE, stop by and say hi! And if your not following her on twitter, add @MusicSavvyMom

I figure it was about time to share my knowledge about the holiday. Actually Halloween has morphed into something that isn’t a holiday but a secular gathering for the masses.

Halloween was once known as Samhain to the Celts. It was a New Year’s celebration. The end of the harvest and the beginning of the dark months ahead….winter. It was also beleived that the deceased could come back and visit their loved ones. To appease the gods and honor the deceased, the Celts left food on their doorsteps. Once the Church gained power and worked their way through Europe they found that the Celts weren’t so easily convertable. So the Church dubbed Nov 1 All Saint’s Day. The idea was that people were still honoring the deceased but it was still “holy” in the Church’s eyes. The Celts weren’t so easily persuaded so the Church added Nov 2 as All Souls Day and “allowed” the Celts to continue leaving food on their porches for the saints and souls of passed loved ones. At some point the Church convinced people that demons and evil spirits were roaming the earth on Samhain (which by now was All Hallow’s Eve, the night before All Saint’s Day). As an effort to scare them away, people worse scary clothes in attempt to scare the demons and evil spirits away first. Now you see how costumes and trick or treating got started!

When the Irish came over to America they brought with them All Hallow’s Eve traditions. And over time it exploded into what we now know as Halloween. Samhain has not been forgotten. Many people don’t know that Samhain is still celebrated but that is ok. Many of us have “dumb suppers” or some variation.  A Dumb Supper is a meal eaten in silence with an extra plate at the table for your ancestors and deceased loved ones. Because I live in a home of mixed religions we do not engage in a Dumb Supper, we just add a plate to our dinner table. I know many people who do this, especially if they have non-pagan company at home. In addition some of us gather in ritual. In my town we have a coven and a grove who hold public rituals where anyone is welcome to attend and participate. We gather, we honor the gods and our deceased, we perform various divinations and we may even do a spiral dance.

Unfortunatley there are people who have done some horrible things that have been attributed to witches, witchcraft, wiccans, pagans, and satanists. Just to clarify LaVeyan Satanists (the most common satanist, rarely do you find a theist satanist) do not worship the Christian Devil. They are more atheistic in their beleifs and they DO NOT perform blood sacrifices. For that matter neither do the rest of us. Now I will mention practitioners of Vodoo and Santeria might, I honestly am not well versed in their practices. I will say that anyone doing a blood sacrifice on Halloween night is either doing it because they want to be “badass”, are mental cases, or want to draw attention to themselves. Some will claim they are witches or wiccans or any other form of pagan. These same people are NOT a proper representation of what most of us beleive. In all honesty, it would be like me comparing all Christians to the Westboro Church or the Amazing Grace Baptist Church (extreme fundamentalists in case you don’t know).

Bottom line: Dressing up and trick or treating is not going to make anyone a pagan. Yes, it has pagan roots….but so does most every other holiday. So if your not gonna stop celebrating Christmas or Easter, there is no reason to stop celebrating Halloween.

Well sort of. His parents are out of town so he is staying at their farm and taking care of the animals. I still see him at work (well today he is working at daycares instead of here). Last night he came to the house and had dinner before we went out for a movie (and if you all don’t know what movie, I haven’t done a good enough job bitching). I miss him. Mostly at night. I am NOT a cuddly kind of wife. I like my space and I have issues with invasion of my space. BUT I am used to his side being filled. I am used to rolling away because he is just too hot (I call him the walking furnace). I am used to him whining that I want to turn the light out and can he please finish this chapter? BUT. He is taking the kids Thursday night to his parents. Friday the girls are out of school. So we thought we might just pull lil man out of daycare that day and let them all go hang out exploring the woods and animals. Do you know how much this excites me? I have to stay in town because I am going to Spookypalooza (by the way, PLEASE vote me as Best New Blog? K thanks!). Ok well I guess I don’t HAVE to so much as want to. Either way…I am thrilled. I am always around people. I do a pretty dam good job of surrounding myself with good people. I tend to have fun and enjoy their company. But I have NO time alone anymore. Just driving into the office in the mornings this week (wow, two whole days so far!) have been insanely enjoyable.

On the downside it does suck at night with the kids. I don’t mean being alone with them. I mean listening to them wanting to know why daddy isn’t home. Why can’t they go to the farm (they don’t know they are going Thursday night and spending all of Friday & Saturday out there). For the hubs I am sure he is equally as excited to be away. He doesn’t get alot of away time either, so this has got to be awesome for him. Of course by the time he gets back, I should be full blown PMS’ing. He is gonna want to run away real quick.

****DISCLAIMER**** I will reveal spoilers. If you don’t want to know anything about the movie DO NOT read any further! I will not be held responsible for ruining the movie for you.

So tonight I went and saw Paranormal Activity. The short review is I was highly disappointed. Now let me make some things clear…..I DO NOT beleive in demons. I do not beleive anyone can be possessed unless they consciously allow themselves to be possessed. That is why I think people who beleive in demons and possessions can be possessed, those who do not cannot.

Let’s start with the marketing for this movie. It has been dubbed as the scariest thing since Exorcist. Well, I am not gonna lie but Exorcist scared the pee out of me. I mean I couldn’t even sleep after watching it. The documentary on the boy that the movie is loosely based off of was even scarier to me. And for the record, he was at that time a religious person. I don’t know if he still is or not (yes, he is still alive). So I completely went to this movie expecting to be scared out of my wits. It’s the sole reason why I wanted to go. As I type this, I am sitting in the dark (which makes for alot of mistakes but I don’t want to disturb the kiddies). I am not scared. Sure….I jumped a few times. But it was because things happened that I wasnt expecting. It wasn’t anything horrifying. I seriously think that movie directors and script writers have forgotten how to scare people to death. Poltergeist was scary, it featured all kids fears. The original Nightmare on Elm Street was scary if you were someone who had horrifying nightmares all the time (I still do). Those movies preyed on what you were already afraid of. So I guess if you are a very religious person who beleives every bump in the night is a demon, then you will be terrified by this movie. But PA has left me feeling scammed out of $20 to go see it.

The movie is full of stereotypes. Here we are with a ghost story that is a demon. Not all things that happen mean demon. And when I have worked in the field, I have come across negative entities. You have to give them the power over you, they can’t take what your not willing to give. If your a strong person, grounded in your beleif (or non beleif) your safe. And what angers me is people will walk away and now equate with every thing they hear in their house to be a demon seeking to possess them.

Another stereotype is your typical douchebag who provokes the spirit. I know some people think they get more results from provoking. I, however, do not provoke. You get more flies with honey as the saying goes. And if I was a ghost and had some douchebag yelling obscenities at me, I sure as hell would feel like dragging them out of bed or anything that will terrify them more. Or the complete opposite, find someone else who feels like communicating in a positive manner. Just to be a pain in the tush. Furthermore, said douchebag feels a need to completely disregard his girlfriends feelings every chance he gets. The last thing you would want to do is to purposely go against their wishes and scare them even more. You get help if your scared. That is what we are here for.

The next stereotype is the psychic. I actually kind of like him. But he made the biggest mistake by informing the girl she had a demon after her. In my opinion, he planted the idea of it in their head. When I work with someone I am not looking to plant ideas in their head. I am looking to help them. If I can’t, I find someone who can. I don’t leave them hanging, I will even check back with someone to be sure they are ok. You never leave someone hanging. And if you feel that your presence in the home is  more detrimental to their safety, talk to them outside the home!

My next stereotype really ticks me off. The Ouija Board. Of course it had an upside down pentagram on it. Automatically that gets people assuming negative things. I am ok when someone says they won’t mess with one. If you don’t have the desire or fear it, you shouldn’t be using it. If it goes against your beleifs, don’t use it. If you don’t beleive it doesn’t work, don’t use it. But putting it in a movie as a way for a demon to come through is utter nonsense. The people who run around talking about their negative experiences with it have no idea how to use it and assume that everything paranormal that happens afterwards (or just plain negative) has to do with a board. More than likely it doesn’t. If you use it with negativity or outright disbeleif, your going to get that back on you. Use it with positivity and you are ok. I have had one negative experience and it was due to the fact that I was scared and clueless on how to use one. Once I knew what my mistakes were I have never had a problem. And no, I don’t buy mine….I make mine.

Lastly, the camera. Constantly running around filming everything is ridiculous. I could beleive it better in Cloverfield but even then it ticked me off. Most people ONLY have a camera going at night to see if things happen. Or they grab it when something has happened. Not the entire time. Of course I knew it was filmed in this manner but I found myself wanting to hit douchebag everytime his girlfriend begged him to put it down and he kept filming.  Real people don’t do this!

Now, it wasn’t a complete negative experience. I enjoyed the banging. I enjoyed lights coming on by themselves. I have had those experiences so it brought the movie close to home. And I found myself analyzing everything as we watched shadows move and saw footprints (well hoofprints since it was a demon) appear on the floor from powder. Powder is something we do. Analyzing shadow movements is what we do. Listening to evps is what we do. So all of that appealed to me.

So think hard before you go. Don’t go expecting to be scared.

I have been going back and forth on whether or not to really post this. But I am irritated so I will. If your a fan of Fox News you may have heard about this lovely, quaint, little southern church here in my neck of the woods. They plan to burn books on Halloween. Including bibles. The only bibles they aren’t burning are the KJV bibles. Now I love books. I read lots of books. And one thing I cannot stand is book burning. And the fact that they choose Halloween (the same day that they tout as Satan’s day) to do this “burning of Satan’s books” just shows their redneck ignorance. Here, let me show you some of who they are saying writes for Satan:

Billy Graham (whom has lived in WNC for a very long time. He has a school or something here)
Franklin Graham (son of Billy Graham and whom is taking over the televangelical empire his daddy built. I don’t agree with it but shit, freedom of speech people!)
Oral Roberts
Jimmy Swagart (I guess that prostitute made him sell his soul to the devil?)
Mother Teresa (yea, the old woman who made a life out of poverty to help the dying. Satan has his hand in charity I suppose)
William Young (Author of The Shack, one of my favorite FICTIONAL interpretations of the abrahamic god).

And MANY MANY more! I am not a particular fan of most of these people, but I am a big supporter on freedom of speech. You want to speak out against them, go for it. Burning their books? NO! Don’t effing read them if you don’t like them!

I have to say that their site (linked above) gave me the biggest fit of giggles. In one paragraph they explain that they aren’t burning Wycliffe, Tyndale, Geneva because they are translations into another language based on the KJV. In the same paragraph they inform you that they will be serving fried chicken, BBQ and all the fixings. Well, I guess they could cook it over the lovely bonfire they are going to have.

But really what throws me off is there level of contradiction. Ok so maybe I am a wee bit biased since I don’t share the Christian beleifs (and I will argue that alot of Christians don’t share the same beleifs as them either). But I am seriously trying to look at this as objectively as I can. On their site they have this quote “A true scholar is one who beleives the Bible (KJV) whether he understands it or not”. Hm ok. But the dictionary defines scholar as ” a learned or erudite person, especially one who has profound knowledge of a particular subject”. So how can one be a “true scholar” “whether he understands it or not” and at the same time have ”profound knowledge in a particular subject”?

And it doesn’t stop there! The next quote is that “true scholars don’t beleive the Bible (KJV) to be The Word Of God”. Now most all Christians I know DO beleive it is The Word Of God (I feel like saying “dun dun dun” every time I type that). And if they truly don’t think it is….ok. But the problem is, they go on to explain how book burning is ok because earlier churches did and they are saving everyone from Satan. And how do they back this up?? With biblical quotes! So if the Bible isn’t God’s Word (dun dun dun, aww come on…you knew it was coming!) why are they backing this up with biblical quotes to show that they are being godly? Am I making any sense??? I mean my head hurts just trying to figure out what the hell they are trying to say that they beleive in!

*sigh* So anyhow, here in our lovely state book burning is illegal. I heard from my father in law that the fire marshall has already warned them that if they go through with it they will be fined. I hear upwards of $25,000 is the max. Wonder if they will follow through? I guess they got to, they gots bbq and fried chicken. YOU NEVER TAKE AWAY A REDNECK’S BBQ AND FRIED CHICKEN!

Sorry I haven’t posted in awhile. I always feel bad when I do that. But honestly, it’s just life getting in the way. Well sort of. I haven’t been online as much here lately. I was getting to a point where I was on literally ALL day. In the morning I was checking emails and doing the 31 Days of Halloween. I would be on all day at work with Twitter going constantly. Then get home and I would be on at night checking emails again and going over all my social networking and maybe posting a blog. It’s exhausting! So I have been taking the evenings to just chill, watch horror movies, and hang with the family. I am going to go back to writing articles by hand and then typing. I am finding I can be more creative that way. I don’t do my blog posts that way unless I am in a funk.

So this week we have been cleaning house and putting up a few decorations. Our party is Saturday. Tomorrow night is bake night and finish cleaning. Saturday we will finish the deco. One of our guests is coming early to help out. I plan on doing some video so I will probably post that the next day after or so.

Yesterday was our anniversary. Our 3rd. I have decided I am not going to say that anymore. I am going to go by how long we have actually been together instead. Anytime I say how long we are married I hear “Aww, newlyweds”. Yea, 3 years doesn’t really constitute newlyweds but I hear it anyway. Then when I do hear it I kinda get pissy and have to say “Well, we have been together 14 years”. Of course this gets me the look of confusion. Then I am told “But your kids don’t look like your husband. Are they his?” UHHHH….YES! I don’t get how they don’t think they look alike. I do hear often how much they look like me, but usually he isn’t around. Claire has Mr.P’s body for sure. Yea…ok…I am ending my rant there lol.

I don’t know how much blogging I will get in before Halloween. So much to do in so little time, ya know? I can’t beleive it will be here in just 9 days. NINE DAYS! Then it will be over and I will be kinda sad lol. But then we have Thanksgiving with Mr. P’s family so that will be good. Ok, now I am just rambling. I am gonna go hit the sack.

Disclaimer # 1 I did not receive any free tickets. I paid my way, this is just a recap/review of the evening. I am, to date, not a blogger given free stuff to do reviews on. It’s not that I am not interested (just email me, we can discuss this), the opportunity hasn’t come my way yet. Just posting this for covering my rear is all.

Disclaimer # 2  I was completely aware that I had nosebleeder seats since I was the one who bought the tickets.

So last night I finally got to see Metallica in concert. Just a quick side note: was supposed to see them in ‘92 in DC when they were touring with GNR. I was picked up as a runaway and put in a drug rehab center and thus missed my chance. So 17 years later here I am FINALLY seeing them. Was I excited? Sure. Until we got to our seats. Wait, let me rephrase that. Until we got to our section and I saw how high up we were. Upside, our seats were literally RIGHT by the entrance so I didn’t have far to crawl. Downside, we were 3 rows from the edge and I have an insane fear of heights. Here are a couple of lessons I learned:

1. When your spouse (or significant other) informs you that you will be fine when the house lights go down, don’t beleive them. It’s a lie. There is a slight improvement but not enough to let loose your grip on armrest of chair or spouse (or significant other).

2. People will stare at you in wonder when you have a death grip on anything solid and you stare at the ground. You won’t see it, you will just feel it. It’s ok, after awhile you just start flipping them off.

3. Some asshole from a local radio station WILL come out and announce “The last time this band was in (enter your city here) the arena they played in was left in rubble”. This will be of course 2 hours into the show (after the opening bands) and you have already imagined how your entire section will just break and fall on helpless people sitting underneath you. Let’s face it, after 30 minutes you have already convinced yourself that the entire building is not up to code and when someone blows their nose (or farts) everything will crumble.

You want to know what else I learned? Of course you do!
1. People will scream and applaud when NOTHING is on stage.

2. People will applaud and cheer for the Metallica roadies tuning up the instruments.

3. Some chicks seem to think we are still living in the 80’s. They attend these concerts with 6 inch high heels, 6 inches of makeup, clothes 6 inches too tight (or short or both), and hair 6 inches tall. Ladies…a tank top, some jeans, low heeled boots and some LIGHT makeup and you are still hot. Just saying.

4. Said 80’s ladies are either being carried out afterwards (and not because they are drunk) or hobbling with 6 inch blisters on their feet. Not to mention flat Aqua Net hair, blue eye shadow smeared to their temples and black eyeliner/mascara pouring down their cheeks due to perspiration. We won’t even discuss the state of their black/white/red leather minidress post concert. Ladies, if you take my advice in #3….we can still look hot post concert. Just saying.

So by now you are probably wondering how I even survived the evening. Well despite having the death grip on the hubs, I LOVED the show. I wasn’t too impressed with the opening band but I am a pit girl and I may have enjoyed the show more had I been down there. Who knows? Metallica is a fan oriented band. It is so OBVIOUS in the show. They played old and new (which was good because I have stopped listening to the new). What is good on the old albums is better live. Matter of fact all of the songs kick ass live and almost makes me want to listen to the new stuff. The fans themselves are a special breed. While many of them will fight in alcohol induced arguments, all of them are like a family. They greet you warmly, they are freaking polite, and they love to talk about their first show (and they love it when your a newbie like me). The band themselves refers to everyone in the audience as family during the show. And it’s not bullshit, you can feel the sincerity in it. We were at Time Warner Arena in Charlotte, NC. Arena is pretty awesome and the employees are wonderful. Nothing sucks worse than employees who treat you like a pain in the ass. Not those people…they were awesome! (this is where Asheville City Council should really READ this blog post and LEARN something so they can “fix” Civic Center so I can spend my money here and not Charlotte)

All in all, I will see them again. Just not from the nosebleeders.