Listener Stories: Vol. 117 featuring. For Better And Worse

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That sounds shocking in my ears, but we're apparently, at this point when this comes out more than halfway through the year, we have two very special guests from our lovely Parapods Network. We have, for better and worse, Rach and Jerry are here to help us dig into some skeptical ghost story relationship slash ghost story slash. I didn't prep this part. Sorry, the ad-libbing's not working for me. That's okay. You know, you're doing great. You're keep it. I sort of started to run out of steam, and I couldn't find an exit point. Tag team me. Tag team me. Yeah, go ahead. And now we are going to be doing. We are going for our July listeners. We, and by we, I mean Eva, of course, as always, has picked out some wonderful stories for us, but the theme this time around is going to be relationships that you might be in with people that are either, if you're a believer, they're a non-believer, or vice versa. Like a skeptical vibe, yeah. And because, as you have heard Christina and I say for many moons now, we are unfortunately in a devastating blow with skeptics. And it has made our dynamics with them very interesting. Interesting. A cross we bear every single day. It sounds crazy, though, Christine, because isn't your house haunted? Oh, yeah. And my husband. How would you think? You think that would do it? But here's what I'll tell you. He believes it more than anyone else. He's just like, I don't want to know or think about it. I'm like that. I'm like that. There's a ghost in my house I've chosen to ignore. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's more like that where I've just learned like, oh, it's not that he doesn't believe it at all. It's more that he's just like, I'd rather not even consciously think about it. Yeah. You know, that's better than what I'm dealing with every year. Because Allison is just like. I live with Allison. She is a full-blown skeptic. Every time I think there's a ghost. My job is ghost. She goes, okay, so your job's imagination, I guess. You're so creative. Yeah. Wow. That's cute. And I think it is very. It's so cute. As we mentioned in our emails, it's very apropos to be doing this episode with you because the two of you have one of these dynamics, yes? And also, well, tell us about your podcast. That's more on theme, I think, of why we're covering this. Okay, yes. So. Oh, that whole chestnut. I was going to say, I don't know if it's worse to be in a relationship with someone who's a skeptic or in a relationship with someone who so deeply believes but is so afraid of it that they're like, I don't want to know. Oh, I know which one. It's the one I have, I think, because I took Blaze to a Tyler Henry Hollywood medium show recently. Actually, he took me. It was a Valentine's gift and he did it. He did it because I said, psst, I want these tickets for Valentine's Day. And he said, okay. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, he took the hint and he took me and we walked out and I said, oh, so what'd you think? And he said, I didn't know that there's something after we die. And I went, ha, ha, ha. And he said, no, I'm serious. I had no idea. I just thought like we were computers and you just turned off when you died. And I said, huh? And you now like believe that? And he's like, yeah. Where have you been? And I said, well, haven't you always like known that deep down? He's like, no, I just needed to see that. And now I understand. And I was like, what's kind of sick brain? Maybe it's a healthy brain. I can't really follow. I love the metaphor he says that is Blaze. It's incredible. He's like, I had to see it. He's been playing a real long fictional game. I think he needed to. This was The Sims? To see a medium with his own eyes. And he's like, oh shit, that guy's really talking to dead people. They can come back. And I'm like. You're like, he's on herself. Yeah, I know. I do too. I'm like, hello. Okay, but all right. And I think he believed it, but he was just like, I just didn't really understand. So I guess there's growth there. Whereas with Allison, I feel like she's put her foot down and said, I don't think she is. I think that's crazy. As someone who like, I've said this to Jerry. I feel like some people are just more sensitive to that energy. I have a theory that like, it kind of runs in family lines. And I'm the type of person that's like pretty, like I'm a pragmatist. Like I'm just like, okay, I take like data and I, you know, make a system. Yeah, that's Blaze too. So many people believe in it. Like so many people have like firsthand experiences or like. So because of that, it has to be true. Yes. And can I say something too? One of those experiences has to be real for something crazy to be happening. Do you know what I mean? Like even if 95% of the people telling ghost stories, they're like wrong or misconstrued or like didn't understand. If 5% of those stories are true, like there's ghosts, baby. Right. Yeah. That's how we get laws. We only have small percentage of time for us to need to make a change. Exactly. I, well done. What a slam dunk way to end that. Talk about a rebuttal. Platform. I feel like if we were on debate team, we'd be so proud of ourselves and then like we'd immediately lose. Like some of us with the other team would. Jerry would have said that and we'd all go. Smoked him. Smoked him. And I rest my case. Your honor, ghosts are real. Goodbye. And there's no rebuttal allowed. You don't even get it. Like they're. Your honor. Your honor, please. We went to our house because the ghost was bothering our daughter and our daughter at the time was two. And she was calling. She has a cubby. She has a cubby in her room, which we thought, oh, so cute. Such a cute little cubby. But she would call it Papa's room. Oh, no. And you do have a grandpa in her life that she, you know, we call him Papa. Oh, never. He'd never been in that cubby. It seemed a little odd. Also, it wasn't a figure in her life at the time that he was around often, like probably like once a month, you know, like, okay, Papa's room. It's a different Papa. But I would like to be there with her. Didn't feel anything negative until the end. Until we were having some negativity. We were having some negativity right after my youngest was born. And we called in the ghostbusters. Did you mean negativity like from the spirits or you're saying you had negativity like in your family life? Like I didn't feel negative about Papa. Like she didn't feel like it was making her have bad dreams or anything. But then she got scared. But then she started getting scared. Oh, so it became more negative. Okay, I should understand. Yeah, and it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's not cool, Papa. And I'm not down for that. You can live in this house. I'm fine with that. But don't be rude. So then we called the ghostbusters and we had a consultation. And to be fair, very honest, he was like, well, one of two things could happen. You know, we can go in. We can, you know, try to talk to the entity, see what's up and invite it to leave. Or it could ramp up the activity. There's no in between. I'm just going to ask him to leave and I'll do my best. Yes, because more activity sounded. We don't need that. Horrifying to me. And I, as someone who has minimal expertise in this, but I would usually assume that by talking to it at all, you're just, even if you're trying to get rid of it, you're just stirring up activity by, but yeah, by giving it the intention or by giving it permission to talk all of a sudden or to make contact. I like the phrase, invite it to leave. Like it could decline the invitation. I don't like that. Yeah. I think you need to go in there. I don't want to be more forceful. Say this is my house. You're not welcome. Bye, Papa. Get out of your cubby, you little creep. And also I'm wondering, is it like, is this thing like a, if, if Papa is real, if Papa is something that she's seeing, is it like just an old man that, so she's assuming, oh, his name is also Papa or is this like a doppelganger pretending to love Papa? That's what I was going to ask. Because in that way that he feels safer, or Or is it an assimilation thing where all old men are Papa? We've tried to get to the bottom of it. How old is she now? Three. Okay, okay. And she's still, it's funny, she still calls it Papa's room, which is just like, okay. I hate that best duck. It's an active case. It's an active case. Oh, it's an active case. So wait, so have you asked him to leave? I'll probe about it. Like, oh, have you seen Papa lately? And so she just seems disinterested a lot of the time in the conversation. So I'm taking that as a win. I don't know if that's a win, though, because she is having night terrors. She's struggling to sleep and her not wanting to talk about it might just be. Can I, as someone with a four-year-old daughter who I was prepped for any and all like Papa cubbies, like, oh, there's someone in the corner. Like I was, I was fucking ready. And I was like, I live in a house from 1865, like some shit's going to go down. And I was ready. Not a single word. And I've just thought, well, that's weird. Maybe she's like totally closed off. I think it's the same thing that Blaise has, because I have asked her before, like she has mentioned some weird things. Like sometimes she'll say something like, where's she going? Like, and point up the stairs. And I'm like, uh-uh. You know, so they're like weird moments. But when I ask her anything about like her room or the house, she like kind of completely shuts down and is like, I will not entertain this conversation. And it's so weird because like I've never presented anything as scary. Like we don't, you know, watch anything. And she, it's so weird. Cause she's very like insistent. And she has said since she was a little baby, I don't dream. I don't close my eyes when I sleep. I don't have nightmares. I don't have good dreams. I just lay there and I see nothing. And I was like, what the hell? So I don't know if it's like she has seen things and is scared to talk about it. Ollie says that too. Ollie says when he sleeps, he leaves his eyes open. What the fuck is going on? Are they astral traveling? But I know I'm laying next to him and his eyes are very much closed. Christine, I think we talked about this. We did talk about this. We were talking about astral projecting and how we used to fly down the stairs and like kind of like go through our house as kids. Yeah. And I don't know if that's what he means when he says, I don't sleep. My eyes are open. I can't believe that. It feels like he's wandering the house, but he's my kid who's doesn't talk about spirits where my other son Forrest, he wants to talk about. Cause I always have a feeling if I have, or he's never met. See, like I know if I have a second kid, I feel like that's the one who's going to be like, Ooh, you know, but Leona, for some reason was like, I don't think so. And so she and blaze are like, we're actually not going to go there. And I'm like, what is happening? It's so weird. I had, I've never felt sensitive to it, but my husband, Josh has like, he remembers being like living in one of his mom's house when he was growing up and like not going in the house. Like he would play outside. He hated being in there, like hated visiting. Did not get it. So he has. He has gotten confused through all of this. Cause he's just like, I don't sense any negativity. So it's either like specifically pointed towards Elsie. Right. Or, you know, it's just, yeah, I don't know, but the nightmares have gone down quite a bit. Well, that's good. That's good. We, we did do a salt ring around, you know, we, you did. Yes. I was fucking terrified. This is how I expected Christine's motherhood to go. Feeding your newborn, feeding your newborn in their room. Okay. And hearing your other, you're not even two year olds say, stop. I don't like that. Like I would literally, I don't know what I would do. I don't know. Salt it up. I get it. Salt it up. Yeah. Laying Piper back down and going into Elsie and be like, are you okay? And then. Salt bae all day. Come with, come with me. Sprinkle, sprinkle a little salt. Yeah. Oh my God. So is that, that's not happening anymore now though. No, like nothing negative or like dramatic because after that experience of like that, like activity, but what's funny is it probably was like quite around like Halloween time. If I think about it, Piper was a newborn. He got more excited. Yeah. I was more excited. It was playtime. Gross. Jerry, you keep making it worse. Jerry keeps making it worse. Yeah. Yeah. Our podcast is nothing about. I know. So anyway. It's fun to hear these stories because Rachel's not a skeptic, but she's not, I don't have enough firsthand. I was going to say, if you don't have enough firsthand experience, you normally don't talk about it. And so you were just like observe and collect data. And I also avoid it. Like I think about people who like love scary movies and love, like, I don't need any of that living in my head. Yeah. Ever. It's scary. It is scary. It is scary. It is scary. It is scary. What's crazy though, is that I started this episode. So assuming that you are a total skeptic and yet you're the only one who's come in hot with a story that like actually is fucking horrifying and you're like, but I mean, I, you know, I'm thinking about it practically and I'm like, I would not be, but okay. You know, wild. Yeah. You know, the, the reason we started this, Rachel had actually started it years ago with her friend, Jess, um, as someone who was wanting to create content that she needed to hear herself after she'd gotten a divorce. And so you would go, I don't know. She'd gotten a divorce. Jess had, uh, just, she was a newlywed. So it was the dynamic of twenties and thirties of like, what's going on. And, um, Jess had some really hard things happen in her life, like back to back to back. And she was like, Hey, I gotta go. I can't, I can't process this shit on the internet. And so after like a two year hiatus, I was like, you know what? You got remarried. I'll get a divorce. And then I'll be the divorced one. For the content. Yeah. For the story. Yeah. Yeah. I did it for the bit. My children will appreciate that. I'm sure they will. I'm sure they will. Wow. So how's it going? So it's relatively new, right? Would you ever be doing it again? And yeah. A new reboot kind of. Exactly. Yeah. And it's been so fun. I love podcasting. It was like a hard exit when Jess left and, you know, we've kind of talked about that. Like how, you know, it felt like a new start. It felt like a relationship, you know, ending whether like I wasn't mad and I wasn't, you know, anyway, but like, obviously there was that disappointment, but then getting the opportunity to start it again with Jerry and, you know, Jerry and Jess are very similar like level of friends, like met in a similar way. Her and Jess are similar age, like all of that. So it's been really fun to restart it and to, I don't know, shift things in a way that like I wanted to at the time and didn't. Yeah. And. And I even think the premise of the podcast being called for better and worse, a lot of times we were also in the wedding industry. So we met because we were wedding photographers and a lot of times in vows, people say for better or worse. And a lot of times, and is the word because a lot of times it's happening all at once. It's not an or situation. It's always an and, and I just loved. That's why when I, when it was done, I was like, it can't be done. There's so much good. There. John with it. So I, when I was going through my divorce and then I quickly. Was into another relationship, actually by this point in time, I will be married for a second. Yeah. Yeah. July. I know. Oh my gosh. It's that's whenever you said July, I was like, oh my gosh, I'll be married for like two months at this time. Josh. Well, congratulations. Congratulations. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Hell. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's, that's a really good point. I think that's a really good point. it's not just apparel. Quince also offers these elevated essentials for your home from bedding and bath to kitchen essentials, furniture. I recently decided, you know what? I'm done with towels. I'm only working with bath sheets from now on. I want to feel just wrapped up. So I went over to Quince and they have this Turkish waffle terry bath sheet. I feel like one of those dogs where I keep tilting my head because I keep hearing all the words that are my favorite things in the world. Waffle texture, it's terry cloth, bath sheets. They changed the game. Truly, truly, truly. If you're looking for something to even just try out over at Quince, try these bath sheets. Make your summer wardrobe feel easier. Make your home feel good too. Go to quince.com slash drink for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com slash drink for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slash drink. This is from Nikki, who uses she, her pronouns. Thank you for normalizing pronouns. And the subject line is, help me tell my skeptic husband I'm a psychic. Okay, so I was also, I knew you'd like it. It's a bit of a, as Eva put it, a Dear Abby situation. Nothing even happened yet and I got goosebumps. The husband's like, I don't think so. I love telling men they're wrong. I can't help it. I know. Oh, Jerry's like fucking chomping at the bit here. Well, then shit, I don't even have to read this. Okay, great. Yeah, let Jerry read it. Okay, here we go. Long time listener, first time caller. My name is Nikki and the skeptic in my life is my cis male husband. And then of course she puts go figure. This is a long story and I love to yap. I know you can relate, so I'm going to get right to it. First, let's address the subject line. Yes, you read that right. I think I might be a little psychic. I say, I think because it's kind of new. Well, not new exactly, but it's like I just became aware of it again, if that makes any sense. I've had intuitive feelings since I was very young. I also totally saw spirits when I was a kid, including the hat man. Cool. But I digress. I eventually grew out of it like so many of us do. I also have some wishness on my mom's side of the family. My grandma used to tell stories about how her father could cure warts with the touch of his hand. Now that means you have to touch someone's warts though. Yeah. Can you do something more fun with your hands? Yeah. Maybe have a lot of fun. Don't yuck his yum, you know? Well, I mean, there's so many things that could be cured. Can we maybe try and focus on. Maybe never grab. Well, Jerry, can you heal a wart? Because once you can heal a wart, maybe then you can talk about what level of healing you're. Hey, how much time do I have? Okay, here's my wart. Hold on. Once you can heal a wart though, I'm mad that you can't heal other things. That's like less hard to cure. Like, what about zits? Like, you can't handle my acne. Oh, maybe he could. Maybe he just like had. Maybe warts were like his expertise. Or maybe wart was just like. People came from all around. People came from all around to get their warts cured. Yeah, maybe warts did, especially the warts. You ever had a planter's wart? Brutal. Can I tell you? I have one right now. I'm not even joking. You're totally right. Maybe he can heal all things. But like the one time there was like one wart that like everyone's just remembered. They're like, that's the wart guy. Oh, that's the wart guy. Right, right. Type cast. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like, I grew an arm back once. But all you guys want to talk about is that wart. So true. Oh, my God. So, let's see. He heals warts. Excellent. Story is. Oh, here, we get a whole story about it. The story is the wart would disappear within 24 hours after he touched you. It was a family secret that was passed down to the oldest grandchild for generations. So like, if you're the second oldest, fuck you, I guess. Yeah. If you have a wart, don't. Don't ask any questions. Yeah. See, this is why it sucks Leona's the oldest grandchild because she's going to be like, I don't care and I don't believe you. And then walk away and no one's going to know the secret. I don't want this burden. I didn't ask for this. I don't have a wart. Leave me alone. Yeah. Let's see. More family witchiness. Growing up, my grandma told all of us grandkids that she was a witch. To give you a picture, my grandma was a little five foot nothing sassy lady from Texas. She was exactly what you picture, sweet as can be, but also scary as hell. And she'd say all sorts of creepy shit to us. She would threaten to put spells on people who upset us or do onto them if we didn't behave. Wait, hang on. Or do them on us. Oh, do them on us. Do the spells on us if we didn't behave. I was like, hang on a second. Then she'd just giggle. She'd just giggle and walk away and act like nothing happened after she threatened my mom and children. Classic. She passed away in 2020, but to this day, none of us know if she was kidding or serious. So now to some of my more recent experiences. As I said, I've always had a strong intuition, but it definitely got stronger when my grandparents passed away. And they died 40 days apart. Interesting. 40 nights. Bible. Noah's Ark. Turning warts into wine or whatever. Planter warts. For example, one day a while back, I was in the shower and I got a random thought about my great uncle Moose, which was his name. Which was his nickname for Morris, which I love that you made sure to tell us that. Yes. He was a man I met maybe five times in my life. The point is I barely knew him. So it was really random for him to cross my mind. A few days later, his daughter texted me to tell me he had passed away. Another time I had a random thought about my husband's dog, Nala, that he used to have with his ex. I met the dog once years ago before my husband and I were even dating. So it felt really random to think of Nala at the time. Same thing happened. His ex texted him a week or so later telling him that Nala had passed away. Oh, no. Oh, they're all stopping to say bye. Yeah. But it sounds like there are people who shouldn't really like need her goodbye or want her goodbye. But maybe she's just like the like the strongest magnet near them. I was going to say that happens a lot where like couples will dream of like their partners like grandma or somebody like it'll like come through a different person in their life rather than directly. Yeah. Maybe to help help warn them or maybe that's just like, like you said, the open person in the like the open. Yeah. Or they're like just the easiest to fly to or something. But they're available that day. In the shower, though, Uncle Moose, like, hold on. I'm in the shower. Like you don't need to have an opening in my schedule for Uncle Moose to say. I'll always pencil Moose in. Yeah. They're they're not all about death. The one that free feels the craziest to me is that I predicted I was going to fall down some stairs. Oh, my God. But imagine after Nala and Moose, you're like, am I going to die? And I just predicted it. Yeah. That's terrible. Visualize my own death. Yeah. Yeah. Manifest your own death. I would I would be horrified any time I got a flash of anything. I'd be like, what could it mean? For weeks, me falling down stairs kept randomly popping up into my head. I kept thinking, what the fuck is that about? And then I'd go on about my day and forget all about it. One day I stumbled a little on some stairs at work and had the very clear thought it won't happen at work. Oh, yuck. Who is telling you this? Your higher self? Someone who obviously like has a mouth but not arms to catch you so you don't fall? I don't know. Wow. I'm not supposed to intervene. It's like, I'm going to just keep horrifying you until it happens and then watch it happen. The second you stumble down one step, they're like, oh, by the way. It's now. Yeah. It's not now, but it's later. Have a nice trip. See you next fall. Oh, you know, they were just waiting for that. That moment. Yeah. I stress the word. I stress the word clear because I have anxiety. Oh, like I heard it clear. The voice is very clear. I stress the word clear because I have anxiety and ADHD. So, you know, it's loud as hell in my head. So clear thoughts stand out. I thought I was losing my damn mind. And sure enough, a few weeks later, I ended up falling down the stairs in my basement. Side note, I also ended up breaking my first bone, which I did not know what happened. Oh, that part. That part was a secret little surprise for the moment. Yeah. Apparently they didn't want you to know that yet. Um, there are many more I could tell you, but let me not lose the plot. I still need your help with my husband. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That guy. That guy. Uh, as you can imagine, my husband is a typical man in the sense that he's a very logic and science based thinker. Not a bad quality to have until your wife starts thinking she might be psychic. I made offhand comments our entire eight year relationship about being psychic or a witch, and he never shoots it down, but he doesn't really buy it either. And for the last few months, I've been basically exploring and secrets. I got an Oracle card deck and have been pulling a card daily. I've been working on meditating and trying to connect to my spirit guides. I also have my first Reiki massage this weekend, and my husband knows about none of it. There's worse things you could be practicing. I know. Imagine your secret life is just like healing yourself. I wouldn't even feel guilty about it yet. If I were Nikki, I'd be like, this is just a vacay. This is just a self care experience. Definitely. He's a good man, and I know he loves me deeply, so I don't know what my problem is. I'm feeling so apprehensive about showing this side of myself to him. So now I come to you, Em and Christine. I'm doing Rachel. And we pass it off to two other people. For your advice, how do I tell my very logical husband that I think I'm psychic? I'll take any advice you got. And as a side note, I moved from Texas to Pittsburgh in 2023, and I spent much of that three day drive listening to And That's Why We Drink. That's a lot. That's a lot. That's a lot of you guys. That's a lot of me. Hey, I drove to Indiana one time to shoot a wedding, and I listened. the entire time i was in a target trying to find something because i didn't pack correctly and that's when i learned about the back rooms for the first time and i was like i hated here but i'll be back and it'll change you and here you are here you are yes um well so thank you nikki what what advice does everyone have i think for me as someone who like i'm very practical um and it helps that like like i said i'm like a lot of people have this experience so it can't just be like bullshit like saying something that's bullshit because you don't understand it is ignorant and dumb like it just is it's not like science minded right but i think it's just like yeah specifically leaning into like the spirituality aspect of it like spirituality is a part of every single culture on the planet like just because someone doesn't feel super tied to like a specific religion like we can't deny that as the human race we aren't drawn into some like spirituality of some kind something for no reason nothing right like right every literally every single early civilization on the planet had a higher belief system well i saw something that was like some people call it manifestation some people call it prayer some people call it quantum physics some people call it like all of these things and it's just an energy transfer it's and they're saying but nobody is saying that it doesn't exist no one's denying the existence of it you just call it something different and i think in this situation the reason you're feeling this is me assuming making an ass out of you and me uh i think the reason that you are so hesitant to share it is because you are still vulnerable about it you're still in self-doubt and so you are afraid of rejection and i would encourage you to not give a shit because yeah yeah you do not have to share everything as far as like um you and your partner don't have to share everything you don't have to do everything together all right as long as he's not being dismissive or disrespectful they don't even have to enjoy it like they don't even have to enjoy it themselves just as long as they respect that you enjoy it right but saying that like like i'm working on my spirituality it feels something that's important to me right now is it should be enough like again like i think the tent like our the holistic view of self is like you know emotional physical spiritual and i think there's another one but like spirituality is always in there yeah for most people to feel like healthy happy in a full version of themselves so if that manifests for her and like drawing cards and like yeah figuring it out like that's great and that's special that makes you feel more connected to yourself and the world around you like your partner should be supportive of that i would agree and i would also add like i i would also encourage you to not feel that you have to prove anything like oh no the cards really do work or you know i feel like when i started this kind of spiritual journey um you know and i was like i wanted to prove like it's not crazy like people tarot really work you know and it's like at a certain point i realized like oh it is not my place to convince anyone else that and also it doesn't work like nobody like i said blazin freaking and understand that something happened after you died till he like had one particular experience and went got it you know some people just take to things differently yeah so don't feel like you have to prove anything to anyone you know um yeah that was all i think you don't need him to join you right and you're not asking him to you just need him not to yuck your yum right right and you need to be able to do it freely without feeling embarrassed like you have to hide it because it's not something it's more of you and i think that's the reason why it's scary is you talked a lot in the beginning about how deeply rooted it is in your family it feels like a core part of you that you are exploring and that's a really scary thing to want to share with someone and feel like they could dislike it and so it's not that you need him to join you it's that you feel that he needs if he doesn't support it that it's a form of rejection and it's not those two things need to be separate like again he just needs to be able to respect that you're doing it yeah you shouldn't be ashamed that you are doing it just because you're integrating it not him yeah the only way to have a healthy relationship is to allow like growth and change within a relationship it's the only way that marriage can happen it's the only way that marriage can happen is because you allow yourself to grow and change and i think it can feel daunting you know like if i picked up like roller derby and started getting really passionate about roller derby my husband would be like okay that seems out of nowhere it seems a little weird but you are pretty aggressive and athletic so i love you know we're channeling this yeah you know what good point rage because maybe the partner maybe the husband will be like oh yeah that i totally see that you know who knows maybe he doesn't see it affectionately he doesn't see it affectionately he doesn't see it affectionately you don't even know yeah so who knows um don't let your own like mind talk you out of things sometimes um it likes to try to keep you but the longer you don't say something the more you feel like you're keeping something that's when and then it's gonna be weird stuff will come up about it like i've been keeping this from you and then it's like why would you you know so don't keep it to yourself too for too long i also would like to say before we go any further into giving advice rachel and i have no qualifications zero sure i have a bachelor's degree i have a bachelor's degree as well not in counseling well here you go eminem um master's management to be fair okay that's good in what adjacent conflict management i thought you said catholic management yeah she manages this catholic every week i need help okay yeah my degree is as an intervention specialist and so when people hear that unqualified like yeah but it was for special education we're not sure it has nothing to do with far more qualified i i was gonna say we have master's degrees but in television like yeah like we like to write fictional shit this is not we're not but people listen to our show my dream growing up i was gonna say it's like there have been a few times when people have asked me ghost hunting advice but they're like oh i think i have like a demon in my house what do i do and i'm like what do you do i move i don't know why am i the qualified person first of all yeah but i i guess like i i've i've accidentally made some people think that um i'm an exorcist so i oh well and that's the thing on the internet people can say whatever they want and can talk about their experiences and like i know we talk a lot about our mental health disorders and whatever else and i mean i've diagnosed myself with several things on tiktok but and that's why i think it's very important to say like please do not yeah don't take this as any purpose you can listen to me i've got it very good track record i've got impeccable i have an impeccable track record well fantastic okay don't listen to my own advice most of the time but when it comes to other people i was gonna say i said to jerry the other day as i like psychoanalyzed one of my friends who was in a new relationship and i was like this is not good this is bad news you know gave her the spiel sometimes a lot easier to figure it out and i was like am i psychic and then they were like it's probably just your like autism packer pattern recognition i said oh tomato tomato well it's always the autism never the psychic abilities yeah could be both it could be both you never know and yeah it is it's always definitely one it's definitely at least at least got that diagnosis in the book today's episode is sponsored by the aspca pet health insurance program uh as a frequent goer of the dog park uh i have seen some scary things happen to the dog park uh luckily not to my dog although very recently we had our first scare he ended up stepping on a bee and got stung but i was absolutely panicked as a first time dog parent who has absolutely um infantilized my little puppy dog in a moment like that you really are thankful that you have your pet insurance uh the aspca pet health insurance program offers customizable accident and illness plans that can fit your budget your lifestyle even your pet's particular quirks um like if he enjoys stepping on bees and horrifying their parents because let's be honest that bills can add up fast all we ever do at the dog park is talk about how expensive our dogs are this will help you in the long run aspca pet health insurance has been around for almost 30 years and has covered over a million pets and when it's time to submit a claim it's easy just use their app and receive reimbursement for eligible vet bills directly into your bank account so you can get back to focusing on what really matters your pet my little hankies and to explore coverage visit aspca pet insurance.com slash drink that's aspca pet insurance.com slash drink one more time again that's aspca pet insurance.com slash drink this is a paid advertisement insurance is underwritten by either independence american insurance company or united states fire insurance company and produced by ptz insurance agency limited the aspca is not an insurer and is not engaged in the business of insurance who would like to read the second uh story is that uh should we are you all reading any or are you just oh yeah okay so jerry i gotta pull it up i have a whole laptop because i still have not been to the eye doctor so i can brag not to brag it looks like we have pictures for uh stories so at some point we'll all have to okay you know take a look at the bottom this is juicy okay hopefully these images sent the pictures in a group chat for after okay perfect okay okay good good good good okay all right so this is am i allowed to say their name yep okay this is called i will never tell my skeptic husband this story oh hopefully he's not a listener tell me tell me so awkward if he he's like so i checked in and that's why i drank this week what's going on i heard hello i'm christine eva and that's why we drink team lovers of the weird thirsty little rats fur babies and sorry m beloved lemon yes okay as long as you're not we're fine i'm tagging myself as thirsty little rat so great that's excellent i'm just you can finish my drink so i might be the thirsty little rat okay perfect my name is mac she her and i am a long-time listener first-time writer i saw your request for stories about skeptic partners and being a weirdo who is newly wed to a skeptic i figured this would be a great time to share to preface i've always had as my family calls it the touch can you the wart touch hey excellent callback excellent she's a professional i would hear and see things that no one else could i would have premonitions of the future and be able to just know when something was going to happen this impacted me so much as a child that i even pulled my mother to the side once to speak in private about a visitor i had i regularly papa's here i was here i would regularly get visits from my grandmother who you passed when i was a toddler never menacing she was just always there sometimes she would help me navigate hard things sometimes she would come with warnings one day she warned me of a car crash i saw her in my room i could smell her brand of cigarette classic and i got these horrible flashes of a red car wrecked in the woods as a teenager maybe 11 at the time that didn't make sense tweenager oh my god i was like teenager at 11 what's happening i don't think i understand what a teenager is yeah okay tweenager maybe 11 at the time that didn't make sense no one i knew had a red car and i couldn't drive yet about a week later around halloween my friends and i were getting ready to go to a haunted hayride right as we were getting ready to go my friend's mom got a call the hayride was canceled by the woman who ran it she had just found out that her son had passed in a bad car accident oh my god grandma came to say you're not going to be able to go to the hayride i know i was like what is the point what is the message you know we were we were bummed that's what we were bummed i sure bet oh my god we are bummed that our fun halloween night was ruined it's one of those stories that at 11 it's it means one thing but then as you get older it slowly morphs into like it's not really funny anymore when you get to a nation you're like i think this is a very vulnerable thing to do to admit that this is how you felt yeah and we all would have been the same way at 11 we would have all been like 100 percent as angsty tweens do so my friend's mother showed us a photo of the car that was in the crash too i don't know force us to empathize so they showed the car to be like oh this would you rather be here my dad used to do that he'd be like oh yeah you feel sad look at these starving people and i'm like why yeah why yeah why was there people starving in china always the reason and then when the internet came around my dad's like i can even show you pictures of it and i'm like what okay fucking weird okay it was the red car my grandmother had warned me about i told my mom all of this and she very nonchalantly looked at me in my distraught teenage eyes and said everyone in the family has that we didn't speak about it again and i continued to navigate this weird ability on my own maybe i'll share more of my stories in the future but let me get on with this story flash forward to adulthood i meet my amazing husband and i am very clear about how i see ghosts and about my ability to just know things when we first meet i love the upfrontness him being not a complete skeptic as he believes in ghosts and did not question my ghost stories but also not a full believer he thinks psychics are the best or bs uh he's always shrugged my visions off or reassured me when i have a bad or weird feeling that i'm just anxious and then gets upset that i i'm always right when the exact thing i said would happen wow wow and then they say men dot dot dot i mean it's we're all thinking it yeah oh yeah even though he's skeptical he has always been a part of all of this for example when he and i met my grandmother came to me the next day and i was like oh my god i'm so sorry i'm so sorry i'm so of what should have been our first date i had to postpone due to some life things and i was worried i wouldn't hear from him again i was really contemplating just cutting my losses before he even got the chance to ghost me but the familiar smell of her cigarette smoke filling the room and the happy little visions of he and i together confirmed that i had found the one and that he would stick around and three years later we are now married grandma was like let me tell you yeah about your long drag he's not gonna be perfect but he'll be good enough yeah i love that she's like here's a car crash also here's your beautiful marriage you never know what i'll show up she runs the gamut she's like it could be something that will affect you minimally or just so significantly yeah yes well significantly as a tween that probably was big sure you know what it's significant at all yeah yeah to me certainly i mean it was canceled for everyone that's true not just them that's true it was a ripple effect a lot of other people on that day i bet yeah big but big bummer of a day that was now for the part i refuse to tell my husband we eloped halloween 2025 in a cemetery close to my first big girl apartment where we went often while dating my grandma showed up with her cigarette i love this it's just like my husband's a skeptic we did get married on halloween in a graveyard yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah but i'll never tell him my secret i think i'm not buying that he's a skeptic that's yeah right we were going to wait a while but i just had this feeling this push that it needed to happen that day so we did the thing and it was beautiful just the two of us we didn't tell anyone we were eloping we invited all of our friends over to our house for a halloween party that night and surprised them with the news when they arrived it was a great night and once the sun went down we went out to the fire pit and decided to make a fire and roast some marshmallows my friends and i were chatting as my husband walked around the border of our yard collecting firewood and sticks with a flashlight in hand this was a great night and i was like oh my god i'm gonna go to the fire pit and i'm gonna go to the fire pit then it was like something told me to watch him told me to check on him in the yard i looked up from the fire and saw him at the far edge of the yard he was bending down to pick up a stick and as he stood up the flashlight came up with him and what came into my view made my blood go cold ah there was a woman standing right in front of him inches from his face what did he see this woman they were nose to nose and he is over six foot tall it felt like they stood there like that for ages even though it was probably like 10 seconds she was terrifying i had never seen her before she was not my grandmother she was pure white in a white tattered nightgown with white and gray hair covering her face i couldn't see her feet or her hands and her face was featureless i'm gonna throw up what is happening i know there's like three more paragraphs and then as my husband put the flashlight down to get another stick she was gone i sat frozen in my seat as my friends chatted to me when i finally unfroze i excused myself to go inside i salted and cleansed every door and window in my small house i told no one what was going on i lit an incense said a little prayer and marched my terrified ass back out to the fire pit to check on my husband who was totally fine and enjoying his fire building adventure just a clueless man yeah thank goodness for it like honestly for once finally you know just humming humming along for once it's beneficial to all of us thank you we installed a camera on that side of the house and i'm sorry to report that we have never caught anything on it don't be sorry that's great don't be sorry it's all right i apologize i still have no idea who she was or what she wanted but thinking about it chills me to my bones i will never tell my husband what i saw this is the first time i've really even talked about it i don't know i don't know what kind of beyond the veil wedding present the universe was trying to give me but i really could have gone without that thank you all for making me laugh and supporting the weird kids out there also my sister would kill me if i didn't give her a shout out so taylor i know you're listening love you taylor please see the attached photos of my goofy animals shadow the dog and lilith the cat to brighten your day and a bonus photo of our wedding day so you can see how great it was pre-freaky ass ghost visit i'm gonna just look back oh very cute i'm trying to picture this man with a with a witchy creepy yeah person knows featureless nose i think i mean for the best i don't i wouldn't say you know what i wouldn't say either i wouldn't you know remember when we said oh imagine he listened to this podcast now he's gonna be crying if he listens yeah that's so scary do you think something followed him home from exactly my thought jerry that's the risk of getting married in the cemetery followed from the cemetery i totally agree interesting i mean i heard you wanted a bride yeah exactly she's wearing all right yeah she was wearing all right corporate she probably stepped between you she's giving him a kissy wedding kiss no no no i do oh man i just hate that um yuck i wonder what the i'm i'm although it was i can't imagine it it would had to be horrifying to actually see but i feel like i'm just left with more confusion because i'm like why is that something that the the spirits felt that you needed to see but would not give you any more context like part of me feels like it had nothing to do with something for her part of me feels like it's just something that she witnessed she just had a feeling she said something for me to check on my husband and she looks up and is like whoa something's like oh you're here but i would spiral and then i would go what were they telling me about that like how come i haven't seen any other experiences he's had with spirits that he was unaware of is this the only one or hey it's a long life compared to the rest it's a long life you never know yeah that was her in the future and she grew taller and she was floating she didn't have feet oh oh she didn't have hands or feet yeah but she had terrible energy she had terrible energy though terrible energy though i hope no accident so i used to see a woman in white in my mom's bedroom oh lord and she i mean she didn't really have a face but she also was floating she didn't have feet she was standing in my mom's mirror so she's looking at her her face that has no features looking at herself yeah i'm looking at this wedding she was going where's my fucking face but i look at this white photo and like this person she's like significantly shorter i don't know i don't know if that's i feel like if the vibe is bad i don't want to say that it's yeah she did she did feel sometimes i wonder like is the vibe bad or are you spooked yeah i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know because the vibe is bad do you know what i mean like also like if you're but if you're getting if you're seeing your grandma and you're seeing car crashes and you're getting married in a graveyard i feel like at that point you kind of have a like like if you saw a ghost you wouldn't immediately be like terrible bad right like i feel like yeah i mean yeah it's like ominous except i don't know i guess the grandma did give good tidings of yeah i would think i would look at my track record and be like if most of the time what i'm seeing is something like that's a quote bummer i would yeah i i would put this in the bummer category until proven otherwise i'll also say she said that they were face to face for what felt like 10 seconds that's a long time no she said it felt forever but it was probably like 10 seconds i'm like 10 seconds is like you said a really long time to be standing like this with a nothing you know what i mean she was terrifying i'd never seen her before she was not my grandmother she was pure white in a white tattered nightgown with white and gray hair covering her face i couldn't see her feet or her hands and her face was featureless and then as my husband put the flashlight down she was just gone i do i do wonder i i i wish that she in the moment had asked him like hey did you feel anything weird just happened like because for all you know that was the only time in his life that he has also felt something odd are you cold you're telling each other very cold did you get a chill in your bones are you feeling happy to be married to me oh god i thought a snake was gonna come up when she was like i look up and he's in the grass with a flashlight i was like oh he's gonna get bit by a snake i don't think that's that i thought there was gonna be a i thought there's gonna be a yard accident for sure like she was i totally oh my god i was like i thought grandma was gonna come back but no creepy faceless lady this episode is brought to you by angry orchard hard cider every day there are little things in life that feel way bigger than they need to i regularly say i cannot stand being inconvenienced i know everybody feels that way but for some reason i feel like mine's dialed to 11 i just hate being inconvenienced i hate it from like my wi-fi regularly cutting out when we're trying to record all the way down to like hank threw up in his bed this morning right after i cleaned it for like the third time this week this stupid haircut that is way too short please don't even talk about it there's just there's so many little things that i could i could find time to complain i mean we have a show called and that's why we drink because we just always find reasons to complain and that's why we drink we luckily have partnered with angry orchard and they are here to tell you that you don't have to get angry get orchard angry orchard hard cider is made with two real apples in every cider which is why it has that real fresh apple flavor instead of being overly sugary and angry orchard is the number one hard cider in the country so they clearly know what they're doing when it comes to crafting cider it's crisp refreshing approachable whether you're new to cider or already a fan and it's gluten-free so you can partake as well angry orchard is available at bars restaurants retail stores and many other places so if you're new to cider and you're new to cider and you're nationwide in my fridge it has been gifted to many people at the dog park in the past and they have always thought oh thank you not thought they've said it to me thank you so much i had a bad day this is really gonna help so if you're having a rough day or if you're not don't get angry good orchard near you visit angry orchard.com and use the cider locator to find angry orchard near you angry orchard cider company llc angry orchard is a hard cider with other natural flavors please drink responsibly um okay so this is called oh quit it suzy i don't like that i'm out but it's the name you guys handle this one yeah it's already bad uh okay so hi christine m for baby's amazing team at etwd jerry and rachel also my name is katie she her libra first off i wanted to start this by saying how much i love your podcast um let's crack into it my ex-wife lost her oh okay of course now suzy is just okay oh we'd like suzy now i'm an okay got it yeah i thought i was gonna say i'm an asshole i'm an asshole i'm an asshole my ex-wife lost her aunt suzy quite suddenly she had cancer and hid it from the family until near the end of her life it was devastating especially for my ex-wife a few months after her passing a lot of paranormal activity started happening at our home our touch light would turn off and on our emf reader would our light and our emf reader that's also next to the light that's our bedside emf our family emf this is the portable emf on all night our travel emf um okay so let's see our touch light would turn on uh our emf reader would constantly be going off and our gas fireplace would switch on and off it seriously freaked me out but my ex-wife would always say that's just suzy the only thing that convinced me this was not a demon was that my dog would always act the same way his tail would start wagging he would go into the spare bedroom and stand on his back paws as if he wanted someone to pick him up oh and she's like i can't showing his tummy oh baby i don't have hands or feet i can't pick you up that's the worst part about being a ghost is you can't pick up any puppies can't even uppies uppies uppies okay oh your dog is a baby so oh my god if he wanted he wanted someone to pick him up after seeing this a few times i started to relax a bit however it was getting very annoying so we then removed the touch light and blew the pilot light out in the gas fireplace during this time we told my ex-mother-in-law suzy's sister what was going on this woman was convinced we were lying and would always roll her eyes whenever we told people she would always make the same comment if it's true how come i've never seen anything my ex-mother-in-law would be at our house from time to time helping with the kids and nothing would ever happen until one day my ex-mother-in-law was in the doorway of my daughter's room in the back of this room there was an old lamp that had a switch on the cord to turn it on and off it would always make a loud clicking sound and she would always make a loud clicking sound noise when you did this we were talking to my mother-in-law about more odd things that were happening and she made another comment about how we were making it all up when we heard a loud click and the side lamp turned on we all looked at the light for a long time no one talked until i heard my ex-mother-in-law say okay quit it suzy okay suzy's in the corner middle fingers up she's like your sister you can't escape me i'm your sister yeah what the fuck live a little yeah okay quit it suzy then another loud click and the light turned off that was the day she finally believed us odd things would still happen from time to time but my mother-in-law never doubted us again sorry this toast oh you know what and i have advice for the first person too sometimes you just need who wanted to know how to tell her husband sometimes you just need to like ask your your team be like can you just help me orchestrate something that like will work i feel like in this situation it's like the mother-in-law's like why don't i ever see anything like she's bound to see something suzy's like i'll show you something she's like i'll show you something she's like oh yeah you know yeah i'm pretty sure you're failing suzy yeah quit it suzy whoever your suzy is just a quick get him just a giver yeah it's my favorite all right well wonderful all right uh rachel would you like to do the number four yes the honors and for you okay i'll need a scoochie scoochie scooch okay this is from christina she her hello and that's why we drink family my husband z and i are high school sweethearts i am the spooky spiritual one and he's the there's an explanation for everything one over the course of our relationship several paranormal things have occurred in his presence let me share some of the stories i have so we can roll our eyes together at this lovely clueless man love it number one my favorite outright denial i grew up in a haunted house i experienced disembodied voices and i grew up in a haunted house and i grew up in a haunted house speaking in my ear and watch semi-transparent figures disappear around corners. i had told them your face would you literally shift it like your you left your body your soul like was like your body took a screenshot ssris are not enough for these people like if you're seeing this shit like it's not doing enough speaking of ssris i'm so sorry i'm derailing this did you forget well yes but um so for the wedding we are doing um like specialty cocktails for brady and i like his and hers and he's doing a jack and coke i am doing a paloma but if you know anything about a paloma they have grapefruit in them and grapefruit don't mix so we are doing a pineapple paloma yeah you have to think about those things it also fucks with birth control we don't want that on a wedding night exactly i'm thinking you're on some other level absolutely okay so you know disembodied voices figures disappearing we're back okay i told him of these instances and more and his response would always be i believe you've experienced something strange yawn oh boom one day we were hanging out in my bedroom talking about a recent experience i had and he outright said i just don't think ghosts exist he got up to go to the bathroom and my door forcefully swung open as he reached for the door now he briefly paused turned to look at me and said well that was weird he spent the rest of the night adding pressure to the floorboards on either side of the door in an attempt to recreate it oh stop wasting your time he opened windows in the room and on the bottom floor to create a draft it did not budge to this day he still thinks it was all a coincidence or he loves scientific method it is absolutely as stated outright denial this is like you have to be right denial but i can agree with the outright denial because i'm just kind of like i don't see it like our tony box will turn on at random times and i'm just like what is going on with the tony box i mean i'm the same way but i feel like if somebody said to me oh i this thing happens and i i feel like his answer smacks of like i think you i believe you believe what happened you know and it's like you know at a certain point like yeah i agree with you though i am with you where i'm like oh must be a glitch must be a lightning electrical issue until it's the fact that he's spending all night trying to prove it it's like he knows something you know what that what he did reminds me of it reminds me of when you accidentally like move your chair and it sounds like a fart and then you try and get it to do it again and it won't do it again like i swear it wasn't me except jerry this time like begging for people to be on his side about it yeah but this time you did he did fart he just won't admit it like he not really but like he did have the experience and he's like no approve it and so he's trying extra hard to compensate you like he clearly knows something's up he did fart this time i know it for sure that's funny okay number two this one is legitimately scary great love it one weekend in 2022 we spent the weekend at an airbnb in warwick new new york to visit some wineries there that first night i could not shake the feeling of being watched we went to sleep and i unfortunately experienced sleep paralysis i was very aware that something was in the room with us but could not move my limbs to warren z sleep like a victorian child so if anyone would break in he'd drool through it are they historically good sleepers i don't know but i love it they're historically kind of almost already dead sickly yeah yeah yeah as i'm fighting with my mind to awaken my limbs my eyes are tracking movement i cannot see but feel i'm concentrating so hard i start to see the shape of a young woman i have the immediate thought that she died here that her is nearby and we should be wary of our host all at once my feeling comes back and i shoot up in bed movement seemed to startle her and she shot across the room climbed atop the dresser and into the closed vent i did not notice was on my side of the room i was wondering why you paused and i was like what's going on there was a lag but oh my god hey i'd like to not read any more no sorry we gave you the worst one the rental to the main house where our host was currently staying shut the fuck up i sobbed i want to crawl out of my skin right now like i don't feel i don't want to be here this is a movie this is a movie script this is heinous i sobbed in fear and turned on all the lights roughly shaking z awake he tried to comfort me saying it was just a nightmare but she knocked off my bracelets and engagement ring i left on the trinket tray in the center of the dresser and they were lying on the floor i could not sleep for the rest of the night because every time i would get comfortable i would be lying on the floor and i would be lying on the floor and i would be lying comfortable i would stare at the vent and it felt like she was just outside my view watching me back i don't even like writing this i could dip it together with that yeah okay is that what it says that's fucking i mean wow so that's the worst certainly that i just had a nightmare and that my jewelry must have slid off themselves z i've honestly i've had enough in that moment divorce i would be like you have to be i'm worried i can't i'll send you to be on my side i'll send you my lawyer's information right yeah that's my advice i mean even here that racket was beyond me but men i guess at a certain number three this is the last third there's a third there's another one i really i'm i don't want to do it anymore title we still have beef about this what's the reason i don't want you to keep going is because i feel like i if i'm writing this i would have saved the worst for last and that i agree that was exactly right you can't get i can't go on i think she's going in order of events okay chronological chronological okay the last experience was maybe a year or two ago our apartment is directly in between two cemeteries and one night i saw the shape of a man standing at the foot of our bed z is already asleep and i was just settling in for the night i saw the shape oh i screamed i'm shaking z and screaming not once breaking my gaze from what i assumed at the time was just a random man in our room he was stirring there's a man where are you slowly putting on his glasses mind you by the time he's up the shadow man disappears and i see him in the room and i smack z with my pillow if there had been a person there you would have yeah we would have been goners luckily it was just a ghost but it pissed me off so much that it just stood there watching us stayed as he was waking up and then peaced out before he could actually get his eyes on it i yell at him about this frequently lol thank you so much thank you thank you so much for taking the time to read the frustrating accounts of my husband's disbelief i'll be sure to update y'all if that ever changes thanks for laughing scares much better i don't know who i'm more mad at the husband or the ghost because it's like both of them are working together to make sure that i can gaslight you they're gaslighting your brother like gaslighting christina that email felt like a shit sandwich it felt like the bad was right in the middle yeah yeah it was bookended by something i could tolerate a young woman screwing up your walls into a vent that way the scurrying the scurrying enough is enough and climbing on to the dresser like a little spider person like i don't think so and the fact that like oh maybe it was a nightmare i do want to believe my skeptic husband oh why is my engagement ring on the floor with my jewelry i mean no your honor explain that yeah yeah we all rest explain that the reason okay so that was horrifying i experienced a sleep paralysis situation where i my son was in the and i heard what i thought was him coming back in like he had forgotten something and so i heard his keys and then i opened my eyes and i see a woman in my doorway and it was an old woman my god so which is what i was picturing whenever you were reading this and she looked at me just turned her head and walked out now i have the baby monitor on my bedside table i see her walk in on the baby monitor to my son's room i you are fucking lying i am like crying because i want to but she was very like i could hear my son crying and i wanted to get up desperately and i couldn't and but in that situation she was at least trying to like tend to my kid she wasn't scurrying up my dresser into a vent oh honestly i this is why i know i can't i'm sorry i'm watching two lizards it's mating season then they're on my wall it's crazy i feel like in that moment there's a reason why i'm not meant to be a parent because if i saw a a woman approaching my my kid's crib and in my mind i'm sorry i'm thinking of the scurrying woman i'd be like i don't i can't get in there i wouldn't yeah you're on your own learn to fight i don't know what i wouldn't know what to do it would be like when you throw them into a pool and you hope that they flip over like sometimes it's for the greater good just like that um i was gonna say too i'm sorry i'm still stuck on i mean aren't we all this woman scurrying okay and also i want to add to like the fact that the vent connects to the main house is so distressing to me it's like yeah something in my mind my it's like something was coming to watch you like in your guest room in this situation as someone who knows virtually nothing about the paranormal are we assuming this wasn't a ghost it was some sort of like i don't know i'm assuming it wasn't a ghost you know what i mean assuming it was like a sort of like entity like negative entity i don't know also i mean i it would cross my mind for a moment like was this like the people in the main house that were like yes like like a true crime up here like they're frogging or living in the ceiling or something what was that one movie where the the watcher house oh the grandparents were not really the grandparents and they were like under the house and they were like climbing the oven to clean it or whatever yes what in the that's what it reminded me of i don't know what that is i'm with rachel on this i don't even know what rachel thinks but i know what you're talking about i think i've seen clips of this where they like get on facetime with their mom and yes that's not your parent yes and i've always wondered everybody stop who dropped them off you know who dropped them off there i'm gonna hang up on all of you in five seconds it was a bad movie um but i i mean i would have at least certainly because christine and i are always talking about like which is when you hear a sound the middle of the night like do you hope it's a ghost or do you hope it's someone who's breaking in yeah um and uh i if i woke up and saw someone near my jewelry while i'm sleeping in a guest house i i would think someone broke in and is trying to rob me and then all of a sudden they scurry into the wall and i'd be like what the fuck was that no yeah i'm sorry i'm picking up i'm picking up and moving yeah no i'm like when when things got bad with elsie i we had only been in the house for like four months and then i was like oh my god i'm like oh my god i'm like oh my god i'm like oh my god i'm like oh my god i'm like oh my god i'm like oh my god i'm like oh my god and i was like we have to move yeah i mean how could you totally and thank god they were just instead of like living there i don't know wow um but i will say i never thought about this way but i think blaze also sleeps like a victorian child if that's what we're going with because i do sometimes hear like the other day there was a crash in what was the other day it was a few weeks ago there was a crash in on the third floor of my house and i assumed like the cat had broken a glass like i heard glass shattering and like i was like oh my god i'm like oh my god i'm like oh my you don't want to hear glass shattering in the middle of the night and i literally turned to my husband who is like a martial arts person and like trains every day has a baseball bat in the bed i'm like wake up and he's like no i'm tired and i'm like there's something some glass shattered and he said oh that's too bad and i'm like will you get the activate he's like that sounds like a later me problem activate like where's your sleeper asian button it's time to kick in and then i tried i said i'll i'll do the big i'll do the big the big show the big finale i said i think someone's in the house and he goes i'm sure he's like oh what i don't think so and i'm like okay so nothing apparently i mean i am hearing it i feel like the first the first thing commission if you're gonna be a martial arts person i feel like the first thing you the first step is wake up but i feel like they teach you well i don't i don't know for sure but i imagine they teach you like how to remain calm in situations and he's like too calm i'm like it's time to begin what you've been training i mean thank god by the way as emin i always discuss like you just said it was a ghost because the glass panel of my vanity up here just like flung itself off and shattered everywhere it's also a mirror which felt like bad luck um but yeah it was weird and the fact that blaze didn't wake up i almost was like uh-oh now the ghosts know he's not gonna get up anytime soon yeah it's like all that training is for not all the time josh once he's asleep once he's actually he's useless he's gone like they're they're gone where are you terrible he's a horrible husband terrible father literally he's a victorian child near the death all of a sudden and i i we regularly say that i look more like the boy but i act like the girl and she looks like the girl but acts like the boy and she really also sleeps like a victorian child and like i know if someone broke in with a with an axe stabbed me a million times so i had time to scream for an hour and we live in a shoebox she would just sleep the whole way through she would roll over and go are you okay and then like roll back over like that's how blaze is too yeah yeah she was in deep sleep kiss forget it but it's just one of those things where i'm like oh you are the man aren't you such a such a guy and then i'm sure it was just a nightmare you know like oh god we know who needs to train blaze is leona apparently he's sleeping with her eyes open he could take a couple lessons i'm gonna get her a baseball bat to put by her bed that's who needs them yeah yeah the one with the eyes wide open all night long um okay wow that was a doozy uh is it yeah is it my are there more is it my turn oh there's two more yeah i feel like i've left the planet again sorry now that we're all settled into our house there have just been a few last minute things that i've really needed we've been together me and allison for nine years and we're still eating off of the plates that we got at goodwill when we got our first place together and uh we were like it's time for a facelift for a while and we're still eating off of the plates that we got at goodwill for the insides of our kitchen cabinets and we ended up going on wayfair we found the perfect plates bowls all that a full set instead of it just being kind of like just a pile of random plates that we've gotten there it's no longer an assortment of things but just a fine pristine perfect little set of plates it's in bowls it's very beautiful we got all of this from wayfair you can find so many things on there couches and beds and like all the like wall decor there's so much you can get over at wayfair they have it all and on top of that you can shop with wayfair team of product specialists they vet everything by uh by hand using a 10-point inspection they test things like quality of materials functionality and features and even how long it takes to build but guess what even better than that they will come to my house and they will build it for me so no assembly required on my half if there's anything you need in your home just go check wayfair they've got fire pits they've got i mean everything you can imagine if you're ready to upgrade your home for way less head to wayfair.com right now to shop all things home and get your ready for less that's w-a-y-f-a-i-r.com wayfair every style every home this one this one is from kate who uses she her pronouns thank you for normalizing pronouns and the subject line is hey the woman in the laundry room wasn't my mom and now my dad has some new beliefs oh hello everyone thanks so much to eva that should that should be how every email starts just thank you but thanks to eva for making this video and i'll see you in the next one possible for making every day possible of course thanks so much to eva for reading my story i appreciate all the hard work you do also if christine and emma are reading this ah okay love that uh thanks for all the laughs i've been listening since episode 25 oh my gosh long time that is a long time be aware there is a slight trigger warning for a mention of suicide for this story okay let's crack into it as you can tell by the title my dad has some new beliefs about what the afterlife could look like so does blaze apparently he went to a tyler henry show at the hard rock casino and it changed his view on life you never know what it's going to be you never know what it takes you know uh okay but as you can tell by the title my dad has some new beliefs about what the afterlife could look like and it all started with the woman in the laundry room the following stories and family lore has been told to me by my mother who swears these were the experiences might that made my dad realize maybe there is actually something to look forward to after our time here on earth also bear with me there are two stories but you can't tell one without the other. So here I go. For a quick bit of context, my grandparents and great uncles are all from the Appalachian mountain area. When my great uncle was in his early twenties, he was dating a girl we'll call Jamie. Jamie was so madly in love with my uncle that when he decided he was moving to California to start over, she was coming with him. My uncle, however, told Jamie she could come with him, but he would not marry her for what reason? I have no idea. I mean, I mean, maybe she just, he just didn't want to, I don't know. I guess that's allowed. I think she came with him anyways. And once, when months later he broke up with her. Yeah. She showed up at my grandparents' house in a wedding. Oh God. Okay. Sorry. This gets really, really dark. Okay. Sorry. Whoa. I did not see this coming. Okay. She came with him anyways. And when months later he broke up with her, she showed up at my grandparents' house in a wedding dress and died by suicide in front of them. Oh my God. Oh, oh, oh. Oh my God. In front of him or just his parents? In front of the grandparents. Like, so his parents. Oh my fucking God. Wow. Everyone in my family has known about this since, since including my dad, even though he was not alive when the events took place. So this was like her grandpa. Okay. Oh my God. What the fuck? Horrifying story. And then it says, end of trigger warning. Thanks. That's good. Thank you so much. Thank you. Hey, I got that. Hey, I think we, we figured that one out. We all landed on the other side and went, what the fuck? Jesus. Okay. Whoa. All right. End of trigger warning. Other added context. My dad prior to these events was the biggest skeptic my mom knew as he would make fun of her even talking about supernatural things. When my mom and dad were 20 years old, my dad was in the military. After long deployments, my parents would come home to a small farm town in the middle of California to see their families. On one of these trips home while visiting my dad's parents, he saw something he'd never forget and still refuses to speak about to this day. It was an easy day of lounging around and talking to my grandma about baby shower plans. When my dad decided he'd do the laundry for him and my mom before they packed up to go to his cousin's house. See first man who's just stepping up and doing the laundry. Thank you. Incredible. Incredible. Okay. It was an easy day of lounging around talking to my grandma about baby shower plans. When my dad decided he'd do the laundry before they packed up to go to his cousin's house. Think of an old home that was built in the nineties where you walk in the garage and then straight ahead through the living room. Was the kitchen. My dad walked down the long hallway to the garage where the washer and dryer were located while switching clothes from the washer to the dryer my dad saw something white and flowy out of the corner of his eye oh no oh my god when he looked up he saw wait hold on wasn't that also what that lady was wearing in the yard like nose to nose with that guy oh yeah the bride unfortunately on the wedding day yeah she also looks like the geez right oh that's right yeah okay here we go while switching the clothes from the washer to the dryer my dad saw something white and flowy out of the corner of his eye when he looked up he saw the back of a woman with long dark hair walking through the garage door into the house wearing a long white dress oh my god he called for my mom but before he could get an answer the door slammed shut my mom told me that my dad explained after seeing this woman he felt an immense amount of dread and with that he took off running down the hallway when he got into the living room he found my mom and grandma talking there he interrogated my mom and grandma demanding to know who came down the hallway and why they were trying to scare him when they swore up and down that neither of them had done it and that he was the only one in and out of the garage all the color drained from his face in the same trip home just days later my mom and dad went to stay with his cousins the children of the earlier mentioned uncle and visit just before heading back to san diego one night after going to sleep my dad awoke to the sound of knocking on the sliding glass door oh my god that was across the living room from the air mattress he and my mom were sleeping on he sat up and when he turned to look at the sliding glass door he saw the same woman he had seen a few days ago oh my god clawing and pulling at the sliding glass door hey hey ghost stop clawing stop climbing stop with the scurrying and the clawing the animal movements is too much it must be done what it what it is is untenable frankly untenable it is it's untenable and i'm just an incredible word my new my new hex is quit it suzy and that should just calm it all like just everything got to stop absolutely that's enough suzy okay um clawing and pulling at the sliding glass door she made eye contact with him and put her hand against the glass of the door what as as she faded away what kind of fucking steven spielberg et shit was that what do you mean so spooky do you think that her dad looked like her uncle oh and then the woman was like there you are you motherfucker i found you for your ass you know you just came full fucking chills because especially at that age 20 which is like the same age around when this would have oh my god jerry well and also where did she commit suicide at the grandparents house that was built in the 90s no no no that was in appalachia so oh and they were in california so now they're like they've all moved to california but also she followed him to california remember like that yeah she could have been attached to like something that was still in the house or something and just got with them or i've been attached to them shit i don't know yeah that's horrifying yeah especially like dying in such a traumatic way yes like yeah i could also see it being something that like she relives constantly she's just like in this weird limb limbo space yeah yeah i i wonder the if this were a steven spielberg et movie i feel like they have like now like found common ground with the hand up on the glass together and i feel like maybe now she'll go the fuck away you know maybe uh maybe that's what i'm hoping i'm like let's have a happy ending here like oh now we've made contact through the glass like let's agree to disagree that's what's happening right now thank you you know well earned yeah is that what's happening okay yeah yeah okay i see okay blah blah so he saw this woman at the sliding glass door she made eye contact put her hand against the glass and faded away my dad went back to sleep i don't know how he managed that and had countless night terrors uh of him waking up to find the woman standing over him oh god she got in like come on never mind you gotta rip up i know and i was like steven spielberg would just i don't think he would it's become all of a sudden the velociraptors there my dad went back to sleep ah he had countless night terrors all of this woman standing uh standing over him staring with her hurt and sorrowful brown eyes into his my dad told my mom all of this and after looking at the sliding glass door she was trying to get through he realized there was still a handprint no no no hmm it's in that moment i would literally buy a goodbye fingerprint kit or something just to have evidence of this a fingerprint kit you and i would be on amazon like hold on who's gonna be a long time i need to show people like this bitch was here here's her literal dna yes your honor your honor your honor get it together get real you just get one of those glass cutters and like like they do this around it from spy kids or whatever yeah no i'm assuming that's a real thing yeah also i'd be like i mean this is just okay it's all just very horrible okay uh so my dad told my mom and he realized there was still a handprint um and i was like oh my god i'm gonna uh-huh to this day that handprint is still on the sliding glass door and get your kit get your literally it's like today is the day about um you can't get it off um hey kate can you just get a fingerprint kit over there now what's that pronto get a new what are you what are you an idiot come on we gotta do something come on think about it think about it one and one is two let's go what is this animal also like has anyone tried to wipe that off because that feels like you're desecrating bodily remains or something it feels weird to oh really i would i was gonna say i'd take uh one of those power cleaner things one of those crazy i would literally put a sharpie border around it and be like you can wash the window but not this section because this is the only turkey so fast this is this is one of those things where i'd be like if there if there's ever a contest where it's like we're looking for literal evidence of a ghost you have it right there dear lord that's a money maker that's a money maker i mean i just turned it into a turkey there goes the money oh man oh i see what you mean okay oh i see what you mean i wasn't following at all okay okay okay okay that's funny like that's a good joke oh good okay uh yeah now how do we get back into this terrible sad tragic story let's see to this day the handprint is still on that sliding glass door it's believed the print okay now this is even getting spookier i mean i didn't think it could tell me immediately what it's believed the print is between the two panes of glass and that is why nobody can scrub it off okay but she preserved herself she fucking knows it's a money maker fucking amazing because she was trying to go through the glass holy shit and by the way with an expo marker you can make as many turkeys as you want now yeah because it's a permanent fixture we all win oh my god so my dad my dad uh okay the sliding glass door it's believed the print is between the two panes of glass and that is why nothing can clean it off my dad at that point told my mom he believed in the afterlife now because how could you not when your uncle's dead ex-girlfriend won't quit following you around and made her promise not to tell anyone so yeah that's how my uncle's ex-girlfriend was the woman in the laundry room that was not my mom and made my skeptic dad believe in ghosts and that's why he drinks oh my word first of all i'm very i'm very sorry also for the family trauma and i'm not we're not trying to play through that it's because that part is just absolutely bananas level like not okay but just like the fact that your dad is just like going about his life never having even met this person and then all of a sudden she's like you look just like him like that's fucking terrifying and he was young when this happened is that like it was him as a young yeah he was really young he like moved away from home he wasn't alive no i i know when this happened to him 20. about the same age right yeah yeah yeah he was about the same age as the uncle when she crazy to the side yeah which i think makes so much sense to jerry's point of they probably resemble one another pretty strongly would be my guess like there you are you handsome mother father yeah i'm gonna come in that door i'm oh so spooky forever i know wow that's just like that's like a that's a good one that's a really good one all right we have one left who would like to read it he wants to take us home jerry jerry take us home wow all right i'm gonna actually call my mom to take me home because i am a little scared mom pick me up pick me up two things you know about me i hate being inconvenienced and just as much as i hate being inconvenienced i love food factor uh is quite a game changer because not only do i know i'm getting good food i'm getting yummy food and i'm getting food in two minutes it's not even something where you have to prep the entire thing or take apart the ingredients and then put them all in a pan and you know kind of wait around for it to cook two minutes or less you have delicious food and it's never it's never frozen it's always fresh food if you are looking for something to try that's really going to fill your belly but you know if you're on the go or if you just don't want to wait if you are hangry if let's say you're showing signs of being hangry and your partner is like how do i fix this immediately you get over a hundred rotating weekly meals including globally inspired flavors like mediterranean and asian but they also every single meal is crafted with functional ingredients There's lean proteins, there's colorful veggies, there's whole foods, there's healthy fats, and Factor bans 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The meal that I just had yesterday was this honey mustard chicken. So far, that's the best meal that I have gotten out of Factor, but every meal has been great. Head over to factormeals.com slash drink and use code DRINK50 off to get 50% off and free daily greens per box with new subscription only while supplies last until September 27th of this year, 2026. See website for more details. That is factormeals.com slash drink50 off. This is the time I asked my sister-in-law's dead dad to grab my skeptic boyfriend's ass. Incredible already. Wow. Notes. I'm fine with that so far. Yeah. Although consent's important. I was about to say, I feel like I should be the voice of reason here, but maybe I won't be. I think I'm a little, um, I'm putting my own experience in, uh, in the loop when I make that statement because I have been, we were saying poltergropes. I've been grabbed on the ass by a ghost and because the story is good, I'm fine with it. So I think like, yeah, it seems like in hindsight, I would hope that this, this were all in good fun. All in good fun. Did it for the bit. Did it for the bit. Big time. Hello, Em and Christine. I saw the call for skeptical partner stories and ran to the submission page. I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't have some sense of the paranormal world. I remember being three and telling my mom I didn't like the ghost in my room. Valid. Off the jump. Yeah, who would? Who would? To which she told me at three, they just need my help. So thanks for the complex, mom. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Yeah, no, no, no, no. They're there for your assistance. It's like, you know how you help, you know how you therapize mommy all day? Well, now you have to therapize these ghosts too. Yeah. Just kidding. That was just a joke. That was not a reference to this person's actual parent. She would also tell me when my grandfather's ghost was around visiting. Oh God. Cool. So growing up with this very matter of fact interaction with spirits, I become pretty used to weird things. My boyfriend, however, believes everything has an explanation, a theme. We love it. For example, I have a pride tiara on my shelf that I got at a local pride parade. I've known since I moved into my current house that it came with an old man's ghost and he's a grump. The house or the tiara? Yeah. I thought the tiara and I went an old grumpy gay. What's happening? I was like, that's a delightful spirit. Absolutely. Just like a sassy curmudgeon. Please. Please. Give me a sassy curmudgeon any day. I do think that they mean the house, but I like the idea that it's attached to the tiara. And also I love that like a curmudgeon had to be attached to a rainbow tiara. Like, you know, the vibe there is just- You know he's so fucking over it. Hilarious to me. 100%. So good. One day my boyfriend and I were sitting minding our own business when I heard a loud pling sound just before the tiara flew off the shelf as if someone flicked it off. I immediately started yelling at the ghost, telling him that in my head, it was a ghost. I said, "I'm not a ghost." I said, "I'm a ghost." I said, "I'm a ghost." I said, "I'm a ghost." I said, "I'm a ghost." I said, "I'm a ghost." She said, "I'm a ghost." I said, "I'm a ghost." She said, "I'm a ghost." I said, "I'm a ghost." I said, "I'm a ghost." I said, "I'm a ghost." I said, "I'm a ghost." I said, "I'm a ghost." their last name is Parsons now finally has a nice ring to it thanks everyone thanks for having us a blast as always a blast thank you and we'll see everyone next month for more listener stories yay bye that way you know you're in the right car taking the right trip and your driver knows you're the right passenger make sure your ride is your ride with pin verification from Uber one more way Uber is putting safety at every turn learn more on the Uber app