What a complete disappointment!

Posted by Monica in Random Rants | 1 comment

So I’ve been reading James Van Praagh‘s new book, Ghosts Among Us, and I’m more than a little curious about this whole seeing ghosts thing. The skeptic in me makes it very hard to believe in his abilities, but the curious part of me wants to believe more than anything that what he says is true… that people don’t really die… Their spirit continues to live, just their physical body is too run down and all used up to keep on going. He says that they often times try to contact you to let you know they are still here, but I have yet to have any proof of this… 

Well, in all my curiosity, a few weeks back, I went to his website, and checked out his calendar of events. I saw that he was going to be on a radio morning show in San Francisco. They had the option to listen live, so I thought, well, this would be a great opportunity to try to see what this guy’s all about. I put it on my calendar and set alarms galore so I wouldn’t miss it. I decided I was even going to try calling in. 

Well, Tuesday morning, I had a dream about my grandma and grandpa. Hubby’s phone alarms were going off, and they sound like the old time phone ringers.. Remember the ones with a bell actually in it? Well, I would wake up with his alarms, and promptly fall back asleep… At 530am, there’s no way I’m going to be awake… Anyway, one of those rings triggered a dream… I dreamed that Hubby answered the telephone, and had a bewildered look on his face as he handed me the phone. I took the phone and said “Hello”… Clear as if it was yesterday, I heard my Grandma’s voice say “Hi” back. She asked me question after question about the family, and I told her what was going on. I heard Grandpa in the background tell us how proud they were of us and our girls. I just broke down crying. They told me that they were having fun with the family up there, and they’ve been keeping an eye on things for us. She told me to tell my parents that everything was going to be fine. My dad is going to get better ( he just had a doctor visit about his knees and back), and my sister and her hubby are going to get through everything and be just fine (they work their tails off to survive and get through school). She also told me that they knew we were thinking about moving, and that we’re going to love it there. I was stunned. I told her that I didn’t know that they had ever been there. She just laughed and told me that they’ve been checking things out for us. Ok, talk about kinda freaky… 

Anyway… we seemed to have a long conversation, that lasted close to an hour at least… but I know it was only a short time in between snooze alarms.. When she told me she had to go, I just told her that I’d talk to them later, and said “I love you both so much.” She told me they’d be in touch and they loved all of us too… When I finally woke up for good, it didn’t hit me right away what had happened… It wasn’t until I was in the shower that I realized what that dream could’ve been. What I had hoped it was. But then, I thought.. Yeah right.. there’s no way.. It’s all in my mind that I’ve been stressing over things, and thinking of them, and calling in to this radio segment, etc.. 

Well, Fast forward to Wednesday morning. I was at my computer logged into their live broadcast and ready to call in. I called at about 10 minutes till 8am, and asked when they’d start accepting calls for Mr. Van Praagh. He said NOW, and told me to hang on so they could get me on. Well, I waited for 15 or so minutes, just waiting to hear the live broadcast in my phone.. Instead a lady gets on the phone… I’m assuming she’s the DJ’s assistant, and she starts asking me questions.

Q: Did I want to speak to James?

Me: YES! Of course! It would mean so much to me!

Q: Who do you want to ask him about?

M: My grandparents!

Q: What did you want to ask him, specifically?

M: Oh gosh, there’s so much! I guess specifically if they’ve tried to contact me or my family, how they’re doing, and if they were in any pain when they passed. Oh, and if Grandpa knew I made it there in time to be with him before he passed.

Q: Oh, okay, well give me your name and number and we’ll try to call you back before 9am. 

M: What? Well, um, Okay… here… gave her info.. 

Q: click.. 

Ok, now wait a minute… I called before anyone else did… the phone line was not busy when I called. It rang through with no problem.. I listened in, and just prayed for the phone to ring… After the first couple of callers, I realized that they probably weren’t going to call me back.. So I used my iPhone and tried to get through again. The lines, of course were busy… After so many tries I finally got a ring. It rang for a couple of minutes, then I heard a couple of clicks, and a dial tone… WTF!?!?! So, back to my mission.. I kept calling… Got another ring… same thing… One more time… finally after about an hour of trying, it rang again, and the same lady answered the phone. I asked if they were still accepting calls for Mr. Van Praagh, and she said “Nope, he’s gone.” I was beyond upset. I told her that I called 10 minutes before he even came on the air and was put on hold.. She interrupted

“Well, did you hang up?”

-No I didn’t hang up.. You came back on the line and told me you’d call me back!

“Oh, well, I said we’d try, there was no guarantee. We just went down the list.”

-Ok, so you mean to tell me that all those people that got on air called before I did, and were put on a list? When I was on hold for 10-15 minutes before he even came on the air?

“Yup, we did our best” Click… 

GAAH! You have GOT to be kidding me… I have never been treated so rudely… I mean.. I grew up hanging out at the local radio stations… I hung out with The Rise Guys for goodness sake!!! They were awesome too.. 

So not only did I not get my validations, I was purely pissed off the rest of the morning.. I got the girls ready, and went to yoga… Sure as heck needed my zen back.. Maybe someday…