Entry #56

Entry #56

Friday, April 13

12: 45 p.m. It’s Friday the 13^th, and while I have no personal discomfort with the combination of Friday and the number 13, it’s supposedly the most widespread superstition in the United States today (according to About.com). There’s even a word for  those afflicted with a morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13^th—paraskevidekatriaphobics. Personally, I’m more scared of trying to pronounce this word, let alone spell it again.

David told me that on his last trip to San Francisco, there was a Paranormal Society meeting at the Omni Hotel, which is where he was staying for a couple nights. “I’ve never seen people of so many shapes and sizes as I did at that meeting,” he said. “There were lots of people wearing black, with plenty of body piercings, tatoos...”

I just wonder why they didn’t stay someplace like the Queen Anne Hotel. According to hauntedamericatours.com, this Victorian hotel, which dates back to the 1890s, was originally a girls’ school. 

“The Mary Lake Suite is reportedly haunted by Miss Mary Lake, the head mistress of the girls’ school that once occupied the building in the early 1900s. Reports are that she tucks you in tightly at night if you spend the night in her suite. She is also known to roam the hotel and appear in the mirrors in the halls and lobby.”

Other allegedly haunted spots include Golden Gate Park’s Stow Lake, where people have claimed to see “the woman of Stow Lake...in a white dress, long hair and glowing.” At the Haskell House at Fort Mason, people claim to hear the footsteps of U.S. Senator, David C. Broderick, who died there after losing a gun duel to former Judge David Terry in 1859.

I had a creepy experience when I accompanied Aidan’s fourth grade class to Fort Ross a couple years ago and later heard that this place was a very popular spot for paranormal groups. Our guide even brought me in to her office to show me a photograph someone had taken of a hazy-looking Russian soldier in 19^th century garb taken a few years back by a visitor who happened to see this ghostly image while hiking.

3:30 p.m. For the second consecutive Friday, Hubbell & Hudson is selling fresh challah. Only thing is, it’s still Passover. H & H is a funny place. Their chefs have sold potato latkes next to bacon-wrapped steak, offered a “Passover catering menu,” yet didn’t stock a single box of matzoh. I know Passover rules are confusing and can even seem contradictory, but leavened bread, including challah, will simply have to wait until sundown tomorrow. Sure looked good though.

Saturday, April 14

2:00 p.m. We just returned from The Woodlands Waterway Arts Festival. Having seen some truly disappointing fairs in Galveston and Tomball, we didn’t expect much beyond fried snacks and bedazzled trinkets. Little did we know that we’d encounter some truly spectacular artisans right in our own backyard. 

A friend who’d visited this festival was equally impressed: “...raw talent, with next to no rhinestones or sparkly crucifixes to be seen, wonderful!”

The first booth we saw looked almost like a petting zoo, complete with exterior cage, though all the animals were shaped with metal wire. I’d really like to bring home a dodo bird or maybe a vulture. They would make quite a statement in the entry.

After admiring these animal sculptures, we happened upon an impressive display of handcrafted wooden boxes. While the box-within-a-box below serves no practical purpose, the design itself is mind-boggling. (It opens about three more times before you reach its core—like a matrushka doll in cabinet form.)

People were crowded around Lee Watrous’ Head ‘N Home Hats, mainly because it was a hot, sunny day—perfect for selling instant shading. My favorite was more entertaining than practical (an ongoing theme with me, it seems). Wanna see me pull a rabbit out of a hat?

David and I were struck by the artistry of Tanya Doskova, below. The fact that she managed to get a piece entitled “The Knight, Death and the Devil” featuring the faces of George Bush Jr. and Dick Cheney into this show was quite a coup. In fact, it was was already sold by the time we got there. 

Arabella’s Statements in Metal were unlike anything I’ve ever seen. They lend new meaning to dressing up the garden. We learned that her botanical metal sculptures are shaped using a full-size mannequin. For her miniature pieces, she uses a Barbie doll.

The only purchases we made (besides succumbing to buying overpriced HEB tap water because it was blazing hot outside) were two handcrafted mechanical pencils for the kids. In Birdseye Maple and Italian resin, they were just too cool to pass up.

4:30 p.m. We rushed back home to get the kids (who were too plumb-tuckered to accompany us to the show) and take them to a movie, only the film was already sold out by the time we got there. As a consolation prize, we went across the street to Hubbell & Hudson to get a gelato. I waited in line behind two older men who were buying a variety of beverages and prepared foods from the deli, including two bottles of Opus One wine, which sell for $225 a bottle.

When the total came to $1400, the men remained completely unfazed, handing over a credit card like they were buying a gallon of milk. I tried to act nonchalant, but couldn't stop staring at the computer screen glowing with the most expensive grocery store bill I've ever seen.