I fly to Illinois tomorrow morning and I woke up this morning feeling like I'm coming down with a cold. Figures....I will overdose on Emergency today and drink "Breathe Easy" tea and try to take a nap or something. My flight leaves at 6:30 am, which means I've got to be at the airport no later than 5 am. Jesus. Too early. Then I fly to Seattle, and then switch planes and fly to Detroit, and THEN switch planes and fly to Indianapolis where my bro will pick me up. Long fucking day. Especially if I end up hacking and clearing my throat and sneezing and feeling like I have a giant swollen brain.
This weekend Larry and I went up to McMinville (sp?) and stayed at "The Hotel Oregon" which is yet another part of the McMenamin's family (we are trying to stay at all of their hotels) and I didn't read up too much on the hotel before we got there but once we got there and checked in and took the 6 person capacity elevator up to the dimly lit hallway leading to our nice but dimly lit room I was spooked and I instantly thought "Well, jesus..there is a ghost or two residing in this building somewhere" and I couldn't shake this creepy feeling for several hours. I kept having this feeling that the ghost was a man and that he worked/lived in the hotel in the 40's or 50's.
After we ate dinner (and I drank a cocktail called "A Clockwork Orange" (nice!)) we were passing by the front desk and I popped over to the clerk and said in hushed tones: "This may sound a little strange, but I'm wondering if this place is haunted?" She smiled in a knowing way and said "Yes..many people believe it is. They think it is haunted by a man that worked here in the past whose name is John who happened to also be a cross dresser..as some people have seen his spirit wearing men's clothes but other's have seen him dressed as a woman"...I thanked her for the info and thought "WHOA! A crossing dressing ghost!?" Kick ass. Later I read some info on the history of the hotel and the various owners, employees, guests, etc, and in the 1940's a man named John worked there as a night clerk and he just so happened to be a cross dresser..so..I wonder if he died in the building or if he just came back to "live there" after he died somewhere else.
McMinville is right smack dab in the middle of Oregon's version of Napa Valley..I had no idea we had so many wineries. Larry and I went on a little drive and hit 3 wineries for some tasting. I'd never been wine tasting before. It was fun..we spent too much money...I felt bad not buying anything wherever we went.
I am reading an interesting memoir. It is called "My Lobotomy" (Howard Dully is the author, I think)....It is about how his parents chose to have him lobotomized when he was 12 years old despite him not having any mental health problems. They sort of just wanted to control his "wild kid" impulses, I guess. Totally fucked up. It's a fascinating read.
I am going to go take some Emergency and some Tums and pack my suitcase and then lie down and will this pre-cold-sickness away.
