#TrueStory: Last night, I went ghost hunting with @RachelTrue from The Craft
I have a knack for leaving one thing (while passively accepting an invitation to another thing) WITHOUT KNOWING that I'm walking into someTHING I am about to very much enjoy. This happens frequently, I now know to listen - not question.
13 year old Jen is SUPER HAPPY with this life experience - I GOT TO GO GHOST HUNTING WITH ROCHELLE!!!
Score one for nerd kind everywhere!
K, stop talking Friel - just write the damn post.
Last night, I went to Pour Haus in downtown LA for my girlfriend Meghan's birthday (which happens to be today, Happy Birthday Meghan!) We've discussed at great legnths that we would make the ULTIMATE power lesbian couple. We're both creative and analytical but in very very different ways.
Meghan comes from an agency background, and I come from the school of hard knocks/hustlers. We can independently build digital projects that arrive at the same destination point, but she's smart knowing that an abundant budget is a great thing to have. I, on the other hand, like to test opinions (popular and my own theories), pushing them to extreme boundaries that might not make sense to other people, but after a lot of hard work arrived at said destination point ... sans budget. (I find myself being less stubborn in my elder years, however, I respect the hustle of 20 something year old Jen. She knew what she wanted, and actually got it.)
Professionally speaking, we have a deep respect for one another (seriously check out her site), and that level of respect has translated into a great friendship. (We are both able to compartmentalize effortlessly.)
Just last week, we spent four hours dancing to Boyz To Men, Paula Abdul and NKOTB - while being photo bombed by an ewok ...
Oh, and last December, her daughter spent an entire evening at Zoo Lights calling me Gina. Not Gina as in Geena Davis. Gina as in missing the V and A ...
IF ONLY WE WERE LESBIANS!!!THE STORIES ALONE!!! Le sigh. Give me 10 more years of being single, and maybe I'll try dating a girl again.
Her birthday party was great. We had wine, delicious gorgonzola stuffed dates, and around 10:45ish I gave her a big hug and bid adieu. (I knew I had to get up relatively early to go spinning with my attorney and had to be mentally clear enough to discuss certain deals. Hashtag Adulting.)
On the way back from downtown, I got a text from my gf asking if I could stop by to pick up her mail key (I agreed to grab her mail while she is going out of town).
No problemo, I texted back, r u free now? am by ur place.
Yep, she texted back.
I then swapped out the address in my Uber, and pulled up to her building moments later. <tangent> She lives in one of those super old and historical buildings in downtown. </tangent>
Here, I texted as she immediately buzzed me in.
I walked in quickly realizing she wasn't alone.
I did my best to not pull a Honey ...
(Scroll to :54 or click here - iframe embed code wouldn't work w proper start time.)
I immediately knew it was Rachel, but had so many questions in that exact moment:
Like, 1) How long have you two known each other? 2) Do you live here? When I pick up the mail do we like get to hang out and totes become besties? 3) How gratifying was it for your character to see Christine Taylor's hair falling out in the shower? Her character was such a bigoted see you next Tuesday - that had to feel good. Right? Right?
Silencing 13 year old Jen, I focused on the words coming out of Rachel's mouth.
<tangent>The Craft came out in 96, around the same time as Clueless, and the rise of the Spice Girls. You didn't just want to "be" these girls, you mentally were. I didn't have three close girlfriends at that age, but personality wise, I was definitely a "Sarah." I respected her journey, and development of powers she didn't totally know what to do with.
</tangent>
I admitted that I knew who she was, and mentioned that I still in fact had The Craft on my DVR due to it being on TV last week.
"Don't worry, you'll be receiving a residual. The Craft and Clueless shaped my middle school years."
"Funny you mentioned Clueless, I dated so and so from that movie."
My brain immediately went into fantasy mode of imagining their character's lives together. Not knowing if that information was public, I squashed the thought bubble and went back to focusing on everything IRL.
Rachel then told us about her lifestyle blog focused on health, and general life philosophies. I was super impressed that someone immortalized with a type of "witchcraft" could also be so unbelievably down to earth. (This makes sense though considering she is friends with my other gf who is also super down to earth.)
She mentioned that LA Weekly published an article on her a few weeks ago talking about her tarot reading skills.
Accepting the "ghostly" cue, and realizing we were in a super historical (and I can only imagine) haunted structure - 13 year old Jen piped back up asking, "do you want to explore the building? I hear the basement is super creepy."
"OMG, you're willing to go down there?" said resident gf.
Duh, I said, never one to say no to an adventure.
How many people can say they've gone ghost hunting with one of the four characters from The Craft. I. Wanted. That. Life. Experience. So, I got it!
None of us had enough battery in our phones to download an EMF detector, but fortunately we had enough life left for the flashlight to work should we get the beejeepers scared out of us.
As we began exploring, Rachel made the observation that because this building was around in the prohibition era, it was highly likely that there were tunnels (where they would sneak in the alcohol).
That's genius, I said.
Think about it, this is the basement where they "show people the basement." There's gotta be something underneath here.
We then opened up as many doors as we could, before bumping into one of the building managers asking what we were doing. Being a badass herself (and maybe recognizing Rachel), she was only pissed at the fact that she didn't have an invitation.
"I want to go ghost hunting too!"
Our group grew to a party of 5 (she had a friend in tow, and hehehee Party of 5, also featuring Neve Campbell) plus 1 skeleton key later, we roamed the otherwise "off limit" areas.
Approaching a locked door, Rachel made an observation about the group's "background."
"We all know that because I'm the blackest one, I'm going to die first."
Everyone laughed.
"Yes, but next is the couple that has sex," two of us said in unison.
We looked at the one guy, and continued our laughter respecting that we have all seen the movie Scream (which also came out in 96).
If you're in your 20s, watch this scene and you'll know how to survive a horror movie:
Room after room, we all could tell that there was "activity" (you distinctly had a feeling that "you weren't alone," which by definition we weren't with a party of 5), but whatever "it" was, "it" didn't seem to be bothered by our intrusion. Of course, we made sure to stay respectful of the space and building, but said respect didn't stop us from trying to figure out the EXACT location of potential tunnels.
"Does the building have blueprints?" I asked the manager.
"Not sure, I can find out," she said.
What's that I hear ... oh, just the sound of another adventure ...
All in all, the hunting lasted just shy of an hour. As we got back to the lobby Rachel commented on my heritage.
"What are you," she asked.
Loaded question, I thought before quickly responding with "I'm Irish."
"You're one of those Celtic Druid-like chicks. If we were both back in Salem we'd be burned at the stake."
I laughed knowing that I did actually have a relative burned at the stake, and the apple didn't fall far from the charred tree.
The swapping of social media handles happened moments later ...
... as we started brainstorming séance ideas.
We HAVE to do this again, I said, but like, film it. The 30 somethings LOVE nostalgia - you could turn it into "a thing."
"I'm in," she said.
AANNNNNDDD just like that ... a "True" and "For Real" are now friends, all because of a girl named "Justice." 13 year old, and 32 year old Jen like that.
