Archive for 2017 Salem Trip

October 26, 2017 – Bitch from Hell Maid and I’m Outta Here

Posted in Janet, New York, Salem with tags , on February 15, 2023 by Janet Glenn

Okay, up, my last day in Salem . . . and boy, is it!!! Things are not going so well right out of the shoot! What a disaster! Why do I have to make everything so difficult?  I hate packing!

I’m excited to be flying to New York from Salem but how strange that I’m not staying in Salem for Halloween! In the past, you could not drag me away from Salem on Halloween! I guess I’m thinking Halloween weekend might just be more exciting in New York but since having the final altercation with the Bitch Maid at the Hawthorne, I’m just done. It’s been five years since I’ve been to Salem and granted, I only had three days. You just can’t do Salem in three days, BUT these three days have been hard on me. So let’s start with packing. No organization, I just shove it in, squishing fingers along the way. Got it all in and now I’m ready and the shit begins.

Unknowingly, by not having the maids in my room for the last three days has caused them to suspect me of stealing towels. Towels? Towels?? I didn’t have the maids in because I was EXHAUSTED when I got here and I slept. Slept in my room for three days. It’s my room. I paid to be in it, right? Anyway, here’s what happened. I roll on out of the room and I see a gaggle of maids ahead of me. Out steps one, very authoritative, looking me in the eye and announces to me that I’ve had no maid service while I was here. I look at her, quite friendly and polite on my part, and say, “Yes.” I’m actually a little afraid of her. She looks like one mean bitch and she’s obviously unhappy with me. I would call her a witch but I RESPECT WITCHES, not her! I continue to be very polite and move away from her. I do not engage her. As I walk away, she issues an order to the other maids to COUNT THE TOWELS IN MY ROOM. Count the towels? Are you kidding me? Is that all you got? I still do not engage her. I know her for what she is. There will be a day when I want to come back to Salem and stay at the Hawthorne Hotel and this ignorant bitch is not going to ruin that for me. Engaging her would have caused a huge shit storm and I refused to go there with her. I just walked away. I hope she’s happy. All my used towels are stacked up neatly on the bathroom floor. Every single one of them. For God’s sake, why would I want to steal towels from the Hawthorne Hotel? I have stayed many times at the Hawthorne. Why would I steal from them? I like them very much. I do not need their towels and I appreciate them enough that I didn’t even think to steal from them. They have been good to me over the years. Why would some petty-ass power-hungry bitch even think that I would steal from the Hawthorne? I didn’t even think of it over the years. I am a honest person. I never steal from anyone! I am honest to a fault. I do question the motives of the bitch though. I really do.

So I check out of the Hawthorne. I am very hurt and upset but I leave without a complaint. I just leave my beloved Salem and the Hawthorne. I’m in such a dark mood and I’m just plain mad. I don’t remember getting to the airport. I do remember boarding the plane and feeling bleak all the way to New York. I didn’t know I’d feel this way on my way to New York. I thought I would be excited and happy but no. The bitch maid from hell made sure of that. One last note, when I arrived in New York, it literally took three hours for me to get from the airport to my hotel. Three hours to go 9.7 miles… and the hotel doesn’t have my room reservation. Oh dear, here we go. . . Luvs, Janet

October 25, 2017 – Rain and Salem Ghost Stories

Posted in Janet, Salem with tags , on September 30, 2019 by Janet Glenn

My second day in Salem was rather quiet and relaxing. It rained for most of the day and I slept up until about 4:00 pm. Talk about waste the day! I got up a couple of times and looked out the window which is stuffed way over there in the corner. This room faces the inner workings of the Hawthorne Hotel but I could just see a sliver of the day out there. Rain, rain, oh how I love rain!

I decided to sleep a bit more and then go out which is exactly what I did. It was dark as pitch when I finally got outside and rather cold and raining. I took some very strange video out there in the Commons. In the video that I was taking, my shadow moved along very slowly from one side of a “Welcome to Salem” sign to the other side and disappeared. The shadow even turned around and took a couple of steps backwards along the way! I know that doesn’t sound like anything but I was standing still and literally filming my shadow moving away from me and disappearing on the other side of the sign! I didn’t see this event until I viewed the video on my computer. Well, I loved it, of course, so I quickly put some creepy music on it and uploaded it to my You Tube Channel. Yes, I have a You Tube Channel! And quite honestly, I’ve had several very strange experiences in Salem. I can truly say without a doubt that Salem is haunted. There are many spirits moving around these old Salem streets and I’ve been blessed to be aware of them. Mainly they appear in my photos but sometimes they are physical as well. There was one who appeared just as I was taking a photo of a store window. She was so small and seemed to have a little witch dress on, I kid you not! She came dashing around me so fast. I could actually hear her coming from behind me (it was late and dark with no one around). I could hear this clattering/clicking sound on the cobblestones and as she went around me, she upset the atmosphere. My camera picked this up and surprisingly you can see her in the bottom corner of my photo. She actually looked like a white stick figure (ectoplasm) in a full-run stance with just the suggestion of a witch dress. Of course, I didn’t see her until later when I downloaded the photo but I sure did hear her. She was making a real disturbance as she ran by me. I still remember it very clearly to this day. The other ghostly guy turned up by my side in the Charter Street cemetery. This was my first trip to Salem in 2009. It was my last day in Salem and I was getting in a few more photos before I had to leave. I was taking a photo of the tree that I love in the cemetery and, of course, I wasn’t aware of anything unusual but when I got home and looked at the photo, well, there he was! He was standing right there on my left side intently watching what I was doing. He was male and looked a bit misshappen but there he was, a dark shadow figure. I felt really honored that a spirit in Salem seemed to be so interested in what I was doing and I was so fortunate to catch him in my photo! Another photo I took in the same cemetery captured a swirl of orbs in front of the trees. It was quite beautiful. Another appeared to be a sunbeam playing among a display of Halloween flags hanging in front of a store on Derby Street. The way the sunbeam jumped from one flag to another seemed to not be possible with the sun’s movements and the order in which the photos were taken. It was quite strange. And certainly everyone has heard about the Hawthorne Hotel ghost. Well, I believe there may be something to that even though the Ghost Hunters didn’t find anything! During my first stay at the Hawthorne Hotel in 2009, I was all tucked in bed and sitting up watching TV when I felt something playing with my hair on the top of my head. I looked up and starting swatting things out of my hair thinking it was a spider. There was nothing there, and I looked everywhere! Also, when I stayed at the Hawthorne in 2010, I had several people ask me if I’d seen the ghost when they saw me on the 6th floor. I mean when I was looking out the window and there was a tour outside, they would holler up and ask if I had seen the ghost! I never experienced a ghost while I was in that room but the bed was a true nightmare!

I stayed outside for a bit longer and watched a Salem Police vehicle come racing up with the siren screaming and turn down Essex Street. Then he comes back in a bit all quiet and just creeping along. I guess they got away. I was hoping for some excitement, dang it. Yup, the Salem streets are quiet tonight. Guess I’ll go back up to my room. I have some stale Cheetos and licorice up there. A dinner to die for, yum.

Luvs,

Janet

October 24, 2017 – My Latest Salem Trip

Posted in New York, Salem with tags , on September 10, 2019 by Janet Glenn

Yes, I have gone to Salem once again and much to my dismay, my trip has been defined by cellphones, starvation and a local she-beast from hell … and I flew all the way up here for this! Oh Lord, I really need your assistance for I really believed for a second that I would finally get into a physical altercation after this last encounter! I’ve reached my limit! Somehow it seems inevitable that my last visit would be to the Salem jail? Oh, traveling has been so hard on me as you have witnessed in my Salem blog (but I’ve loved every minute of it). Alas, I digress, let me tell my newest Salem story for 2017!

So, I sort of at the last minute decided to take another trip to Salem in October 2017. It has been five long years and I have missed Salem. The changes I made this time was that I would stay in Salem for three days and nights and then climb on my broom and fly to New York! In theory, this was an excellent idea but as most of my ideas go, some of them suck. I guess another question would be should I tell my New York stories here or create a whole nuther blog? Don’t you just love the way we talk here in southern Texas? A whole nuther … geez. Well anywho (stop it), another blog it is … a New York blog! I have taken so many photos in New York in my three times visiting there with my trusty camera, that it deserves it’s own home. (Pop Quiz: In what movie was an umbrella referred to as “my trusty umbrella?”). I even went to the top of the Freedom Tower/World Trade Center! But here I am getting carried away and I must talk about Salem, right? Right!

Just so you know, I traveled to Salem and New York a week before Halloween. That weekend would be the biggest celebration for Halloween and I was in New York. So, I’m here to tell you don’t ever buy your air fare in all one-way flights! I thought I would save some money …. which I did but I boarded 6 different airplanes! Now that’s 6 takeoffs and 6 landings. I didn’t think of that since I was so engrossed in trying to save some money. And when I realized it, I was crawling onto my first airplane. Too late now! Although I love the takeoffs and landings, they scare the shit out of me! Have you ever been that scared? Well, I have and it gives you the shits. So I rode a lot of airplanes with a lot of people. Only once did I get scared. The guy next to me screamed like a woman when something near the engine that was close to us suddenly shut off. Yes, we all keep a poker face when we fly, don’t we? See? I’m not scared. This is a piece of cake and I’m so brave … yeah right!

So I was up and down (4 times) and finally landed in Boston. Now I always take the same shuttle company to Salem and, yes, I’ve had some problems but no cause for alarm. Well, cellphones have changed all that. Normally the guy is standing there waiting. I mean he is always standing outside of his car looking for me and I can easily see him. Well, this time I did not see the guy and could not find him. I was looking around and around and suddenly this guy (big guy) rushed up behind me and yelled “Are you Janet?” I almost jumped out of my skin (you ever seen that on Caspar cartoons)? I yelled “Yes!” and I’ve just had my first Halloween scare. So he ushered me to his car which was parked out of sight. Hmmmm? Well the first part of the trip was just normal chit chat like always and then the conversation died. Why, you ask? Because this jerk got on his cellphone, yes, while he was driving me to the Hawthorne Hotel. Between Boston and Salem is a lot of residential streets, like a lot of stops. This jerk was texting, calling, talking the whole way and it got scary. He would run up on red lights and slam on the breaks. He was continually having to get back into his lane. Stop signs were a true challenge for him. At one point, he hung up and put the cellphone down. I took my chance and asked if he wouldn’t mind not using the cellphone while he was driving with me. “Oh, sure, sure!” He laid the cellphone down and then turned up the radio. Then he turned down the radio and picked up the damned cellphone again and went at it. By this time we were almost to the Hawthorne and I was so glad to get there and get away from him and his cellphone! I did tip him as I usually do. I know, I’m an enabler.

To say that I was unnerved is an understatement. I got out of the car and felt like I had just left a war zone. I did get into the Hawthorne and was so grateful to be there (yet again). I checked in and pretty much was disappointed with the room … not the Hawthorne’s fault, like I said, this idea was last minute. I was so tired but I decided to do some walking around. I actually got some good shots in the brief time before dark. It seems there is an exhibit at the museum that’s right up my alley. Music/horror movies at the Peabody Essex Museum sponsored by Kirk Hammett of Metallica. I always loved Metallica!

And, of course, like always, I hadn’t eaten that day and once I start walking in Salem, well….. You know? It’s a very crazy thing these days when I don’t eat for long periods. I literally start staggering around like a drunken old woman. I try to straighten it out but I just can’t. My head goes this way and my feet go that way. I am literally starving and too old to handle it! I walk and walk and at the last minute, I decide to walk all the way down to the Witch House. This is a bad decision. On my way back, I’m intent on getting to the pizza restaurant that I haunt. I’m walking on cobblestones which I have trouble with in the best of times. I almost eat it. I tripped on a cobblestone and almost go flying. Have you done that? My forward trajectory is so far in front of my feet I feel like an airplane about to take off. I’m literally running to keep up with my nose! I am doing this crazy lurching thing, I know I look like a sight. I’ve lost my composure, oh my gawd! After some anxious seconds, I regain my footing. Whew! Okay, I’m good ….. except this helpful idiot decides to come up to me and tell me he saw me trip. He was like, “Uh, I saw you do that.” Okay, and …. That’s all he said. He seemed sympathetic, not ugly at all so I say, thank you(?). He walks off. Okay. I can only surmise that he has done the very same thing and just wanted me to know that he has shared my experience? Hell, I don’t know, just get me to my pizza. Feet don’t fail me now! When I get to the pizza joint, my mouth is literally watering. I sit quietly and wait. I swear I will never let myself get this hungry again. I’m feeling woozy, sweaty. They finally call my number, ahhhhhhhhh yes.

And yet another day in Salem for me. I wonder what the next two days will bring? (shiver)

Love you all, Janet

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