The Visitor

OK...so last night was a little on the creepy side. Josie wanted to sleep with both of us, so she came up with a schedule of who would sleep with her at what times (in my bed no less!). John had the first shift since he is usually back in his recliner by 1:30am. The plan was for me to sleep in my recliner and have him to wake me up so I could stumble to my bed in the middle of the night. That was OK because I figured the worst that could happen was I would sleep in my recliner all night. Boy, was I wrong!
Everyone had went to bed and the cats were starting to settle in and go to sleep. I was on facebook (of course) and listening to the Sully Erna CD that I just synced to my phone. Around midnight, I decided that I was getting tired and turned off the TV, took out my contacts and settled in my recliner with my Snuggie. I was just drifting off when a lamp on the other side of the room came on. By itself. I looked around and all the animals were in the same places they were earlier. Josie had been over there earlier plugging in her DSi so I thought maybe the plug was loose and that's why it came on. But at the same time I wasn't very comfortable about getting up to check things out. The longer the light stayed on, the longer I contemplated going to my room and making a bed on the floor! Finally, I decided that John would be up in a little bit and he could turn the light off. So I told myself, "Go back to sleep." Seconds after I did that, the light flickered and turned off. Properly freaked out, I got up and turned on the light next to me. Surely a cat walked by and pulled the plug out of the wall, because after all it was loose this whole time. I went over to plug the light back in and found that the plug was firmly in the wall. OK...so the bulb is loose, right? Nope! If that bulb was in any tighter it would have broken off in the lamp. So...what's next? The switch. Must be the switch that's messed up. And once again...no. The light turned on and off perfectly fine. Somehow I maintained calmness, turned off the light and got back into my Snuggie, turned out the other light and got in the recliner. Knowing that John would be in the living room soon, I tried to visualize a protective force around me and eventually drifted off to sleep. I woke up to a noise and saw the light on in the kitchen. John came in the living room and before he could sit down, I blurted out the night's events and was down the hall before he could say anything. I got in bed with Josie and Wolfie and fell asleep before I knew it.
Fast forward to this morning. I was retelling the story to John and Josie - just in case they thought I was talking in my sleep earlier. John said, "I remember you telling me about it last night. But that's not all that happened." Apparently, John had his own visitor last night after I went to bed. He was in his recliner and the full moon was filtering through the blinds in the dining room. He saw a shadow of a woman standing in the corner of the dining room that leads into the living room. The same corner as....the flickering light!
This led to a discussion of "why does that freak you out" and "it doesn't bother me" and "it's just your mom". OK for the record it doesn't freak me out that my mom hangs out from time to time. It's actually kind of comforting. But the reality of it all - flickering lights and seeing shadows - is the part that kind of weirds me out. And even that is contradictory because when she moves the wind chimes in the bathroom it doesn't bother me at all. I suppose it makes me uncomfortable because I don't know for sure it's her. I mean, we've had pictures move, rubber ducks fall in the tub and even had one large picture fly off the wall. For awhile there was an uncomfortable presence in the house so I burned the sage and asked the negativity to leave. It helped because nothing has happened in months. Until now....