august 9th, 1999

I guess I forgot to mention that I won't be updating on weekends. That's when the least amount of anything gets done and/or I have the most fun. Either way, this entry might suck. You've been warned.

Thank you, Barbara, for the helpful info - it'll probably be in a month or so before we even think about getting on a plane, so I might require your travel agent expertise around that time. I'll probably go through a travel agent once we sit down and shell out all the expense money we can gather and know we want to go then and there. I'm just crossing my fingers that it'll be sooner than later.

Anyway, Ms. Barbara, you haven't kept me posted - I wanna know what's going on so lemme know.

I went and saw The Blair Witch Project this past Friday. Despite all the crowds and the angle we were sitting at because of said crowd, we ended up staying for the whole thing. I heard a lot of crap about the movie in itself, and was a bit discouraged. Oh, I heard from everyone that it sucked. Just plain sucked. That it was "the biggest waste of 90 minutes of [this guy's] life." That it made people sick from all the jittery camera shots. That they sure showed that they made the movie for only $25,000. Blahblahblah. So, you know that I wasn't in the "this movie is going to be the one" frame of mind, nor did I even want to see the movie at this point. I guess the fact that Carl was buying - and the girl at the ticket booth knew me and let me in for free - gave me the extra 'oomph' that I needed to be persuaded to see it.

Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, after all the negative things I had to say to talk myself out of going - to fight the power - to go against the norm - I sold out. I went and saw this huge little film about a legend.

I just kinda feel sorry for those people who live in the town they used for the movie. Those people are being just abused now with people from all over invading their town.

I really did like it, despite all you naysayers. I just kept having to remind myself that it really wasn't real. You tend to forget this when the movie scares the piss out of you and it looks really real. I just sat in the chair thinking:

Oh god, no. It's coming back. What are they going to do? I would have pee'd my pants an hour ago.

Well, if they would just shut up and stop whispering, we could hear what they're hearing. Turn that damn flashlight off! Don't you know 'it' can see that? Stop talking! Shhhh! Don't go open the tent, you morons. Do you want to draw attention to yourselves?

Wait! I can hear what they're talking about. Holy shit - it's getting closer.

Oh god no. No! Don't just sit in the damn tent! Run! RUN! Run like you've never ran before! Run, I tell you! Ruuuuun!

Oh, wait. This is fake. This is all fake. The movie is fake. They're just film students making this movie because they can. Okay, it's okay. There really is nothing out there with them. Really. Okay.

Oh, god dammit - they have to camp out another night? Not me man. I'da hauled ass long ago.

It's going to come back again! Jesus, NO! Ruuuuuun!

I sorta get into movies. Who knew?

So, we're all thrill seekers and shit, so we decide to go out to this park in the middle of nowhere at 11 pm at night after seeing this movie. If you go just north of said park, there is a road that you can take just past this park and you'll get the heebee geebees guaranteed.

Which so happens to have a story behind it. My own personal story.

It's kind of funny, because it mirrors this movie in a way. And I swear to you, I'm not making it up because of the close resemblance to the movies' events or something. Although, it might be cool to have been able to catch a small fraction of what they experienced.

Picture it - 5 years ago. Halloween. Story. Old witch's house. In the middle of the woods. Haunted. Rumored to still be there.

Seven bored teenagers.

One pick-up truck.

We drive there out there. All seven of us. I'm drivin'. Someone in the back bangs on the window to stop. We pull over. We're brave. We're going in, do or die.

So all of us get out of the truck and wander over to the broken fence should be and instantly start holding hands. Two girls, five guys. We see the house. It's not to far now. We're all baby stepping it together. Our hearts are beating so loud. Someone breaks out the flashlight. Wow. That's a pretty big house. There isn't much left of it though. Just looks like a big chimney which is two stories tall. What? The witch was burned alive in the chimney? When was this going to be brought up?

Yep. We all high-tailed it back to the truck. Went home.

So I told Carl about this house a while ago and of the scary road. He wanted to see what I was so paranoid about. I took him out there and needless to say, he was creeped out so bad. It's really hard to describe this road, but I can try.

The road is dead. I mean there's nothing out there. Nothing. No street lights. No houses. No gas stations. No people. Nothing. It's a two-lane road with trees that grow up to the pavement of the road. In otherwords, you're driving through solid trees, which by the way, grow together above the road, like a tunnel. Carl called it a 'dome'. I wish I could get a picture of it. It's fucking creepy.

Anyway, like I was saying before - after seeing the Blair Witch Project and knowing that our friend who went with us to see it got really freaked out by the movie, we knew this road would give him real life heebee geebees. We ended up getting pretty far and found out that there was really no end of the road in sight. We'd stopped to make a 3-point turn which turned out to be a 6 or 7 point turn because of the width of the road between the trees and I'm ready to pee my pants at this point.

I'm just glad that we didn't get a flat tire or something. You all just don't understand.

You know that story of the guy and the girl on a dark road when they run out of gas or something and they hear a weird noise around the car and the guy gets out to check, right? Where while the girl is waiting, she hears something scraping the roof of the car? And something about a hook hanging off the passenger side doorhandle?

That story originated from this road, ya know.

Maybe.