i wanna hear your tales!! (paranormal poll results...)

Well, its a 50/50 landslide! Half of you responded that you have experienced what you believe to be paranormal activity and I would love to hear about it! Feel free to leave me a comment telling me your story.

For now, you can read about mine if you like....

On my 22nd birthday I awoke early in the morning, rolled onto my side
facing my bedroom windows and gave a little stretch. While stretching, I opened my eyes, for just a second or two, and believe that I saw something a little out of the ordinary. It appeared to be a figure of an altar boy holding a candle. After closing my eyes and re-opening - he was gone - or shall we say he had VANISHED because that sounds cooler. Now, I don't honestly believe that my house was haunted as I had never seen or felt anything strange prior to or following that experience. But it was definitely interesting and has lingered in my mind since. I can still picture the candle, it looked like this:  

That wasn't the only interesting occurrence that I have tucked away for safe keeping. About a year before the altar boy visit, a bunch of friends and I had rented a beach house for a week. I cannot begin to estimate the amount of recreational "fun" that we had in that house. We had 3 garbage barrels overflowing with bottles and cans by the end of the first weekend. So, each time I tell this story I make it clear that we were all a little fuzzy-minded. We all had experiences but I can only recall my own...

I had been in the shower on our second day in the house. The bathroom window was open and I could hear my friends talking in the back yard. I also heard radio stations changing and began humming along with each song as it was changed for a better (or worse) one. When I met back up with my friends at the picnic table I noticed that the radio had a digital tuner. I started playing with it realizing quickly that it wasn't at all what I heard in the shower. I heard the ol' school tuner - you know, the dial that gives you static in between stations. I kept that to myself at the time. That night I encountered more shenanigans. My bedroom was the only one on the first floor, everyone else was upstairs. I awoke to a sneeze outside my door and kindly said "God Bless You" (which really sounds like "bleshu" coming from me). I heard nothing else, no footsteps, no doors opening/closing, no water running. I peeked out to see if any lights were on - there was nobody around. I checked the upstairs rooms and everyone was asleep. Of course I thought that I could have heard a sneeze coming from upstairs but truthfully, their doors were all closed and that sneeze was feet away from me. Something I can't explain. Not saying it was a ghost- just saying it was odd. That same night I awoke to find that my shades had been pulled halfway up the windows. I got out of bed, closed them and went back to sleep. Early morning came and sunlight was blasting me in the face. One shade - halfway up. I closed it and went back to sleep. It stayed closed that time. A morning or two later, I was listening to a CD with my friend Monica. We also had the television on- for what reason I don't know. The television was muted and Teletubbies was on. We were completely startled when we heard the loudly whispered word "Ripple" coming from underneath the TV. We both shot a look at each other at that exact moment - solidifying the fact that we both heard it. We confirmed what we heard by speaking it out loud at the same time. This made total sense to us since we must have played Ripple by The Dead about a thousand times over the course of that week. Crazy. Lastly, on one of our last days there, I was beyond ill - most likely alcohol poisoning. Everyone was going out for the day but since I was vomiting every 15 minutes I thought I'd enjoy the couch instead. Alone in the house, dozing on and off I heard the voices of my friends, Kim and Kristen, out in the front yard. Plain as day I heard that conversation - bickering as usual - they are both so good at that. I expected the screen door to fly open any second as they continued their quarrel. But it never did. I looked outside - not a human to be found. The car wasn't in the driveway, there was no sign of my friends whatsoever. I wasn't dreaming and I know what I heard.

I have been fascinated with ghosts and the paranormal since I was very young and I have done some homework on the matter. It doesn't explain the window shades but it sounds like our beach house was the subject of a residual haunting. There were no feelings of dread or heaviness. I wasn't scared or threatened in the slightest. Nobody felt uneasy - we were all enjoying our stay with no intentions of departing early. I will always remember that week (well, most of it anyway) as one of the most interesting and unique in my life to this day. I'd like to rent it again sometime.