Better Than Pennies From Heaven...

I believe in the paranormal. Not all of it, I know people make things up, and dr. evidence to make good TV. But I am a member of a ghost hunting society (so what if I havn't gone out on any "hunts" in several years) and I have gone on many overnight trips to find ghosts, including spending the night in the woods to explore Rogue's Hollow, the cells of Mansfield Reformatory, and a haunted mansion. It fascinates me. Nothing really out of the ordinary has ever happened to me. I love scary movies, it doesn't freak me out to watch the Amityville Horror (which this real story is way more interesting than the movies) alone, or poltergeist. I spend weekends watching the haunted marathons.

So I don't overreact to situations that may seem strange. And realize most things do have an explanation. I don't believe in orb photography, because the Dr. in our ghost hunting group did a whole test about orbs vs. dust, and insects.

With that said...

Last night I was cleaning my apartment, jamming out to the new Nicki Minaj CD..Pink Friday (which btw contains some jams!) on the Blackberry via my headphones. I cleaned off my coffee table, dusted, emptied the glass ashtray, cleaned it, set it on the table beside a lit candle. Nothing else was on the table with it.

I sat in my foyer sorting tru a truckton of mail that's been piling for months. Mostly bills. Mostly court and BMV crap. When I heard it. A loud enough to get my attention through my headphones, "TINK". What it sounded like, was one of my damned cats when they knock over a glass of water I have on the table, because their water doesn't taste as delicious.

But I didn't have a glass of water on the table. My next thought was, maybe my candle broke the glass because it got too hot, no hot wax melting all over the table. No cats running away as if they'd just caused a ruckuss. No nothing. I sat perplexed for a minute or so scanning my living room for the source of the noise, but eventually went back to sorting my papers.

When it became time for a smoke break, I sat on the couch, and saw it, right in the middle of the ashtray, was a quarter. Face up. In my clean ashtray......

I picked it up and dropped it from about 12" and that "TINK" was the exact tink I heard while sorting my mail! Where this quarter came from I have no idea. Not that I think my pets could've picked it up and dropped it, but even if they could, where the heck they found it is another story.

This is the first time in all my time searching for the paranormal that I was actually a bit freaked out, because I could not explain how this happened. I set the quarter next to the ashtray and asked if there was more where that came from? (can't hurt to ask, right?) and said if you are a spirit and you are mean you have to leave. I also asked it to happen again. Which it didn't.

It was a 1991 quarter which bears no other signifigance to me other than that is the year my best friend in the world died. I had a dream about her shortly after she died that she got on the school bus and I was so shocked to see her, and I said "I've been looking everywhere for you" and she replied "I've been here all along". I remember that dream almost 20 years later like it just happened.