Ghost Whisperer - A Spoiler and Some Speculation on My Part

Since last night’s episode of Ghost Whisperer was a rerun I decided not to watch it. After all, it was an episode before Jim died and I didn’t want to get upset about killing him off all over again. Yes, I’m still upset about that. Next week it seems Melinda will be dealing with an overbearing mom. Not sure if the mom is a ghost or living relative of a ghost.

Things look like they’re going to start to get interesting in the Melinda/Jam relationship beginning February 13th when Sam catches Melinda in some lies which could expose her secret. This causes him to start questioning his relationship with her. I’m thinking, and this is just my opinion, that secret is something that could trigger more of Jim’s memories. After all, it’s not your run of the mill secret. But we all know what will happen. He’ll start to question whether she’s someone he can trust and wonder whether she has ulterior motives in befriending him. Jam will probably start pulling away from Melinda and cause her to go through another episode of roller coaster emotions. Jam seems to have a good relationship with Eli. Maybe he’ll be able to help Jam deal with his doubts about Melinda and bring him back to her. I’m just speculating here but to me this all sounds good. We know they can’t have Jam recover all of Jim’s memories in one episode they’ll have to drag this out until the very end.

For updates on Ghost Whisperer visit my new blog TV Chat

Photo Credit: CBS

We've Been Robbed

What ever happened to the days where you had to actually authorize for money to be taken out of your bank account? Twice in the past two months we’ve had money taken from our bank account without our knowledge or authorization and when we complained all we got were excuses. Granted the amount was less than $5 on each occurrence but it was a violation and in my opinion taking something without asking is the same as stealing.

The first time this happened was with a company called All American Direct. It’s the company we had to go through to get NBC on our satellite. According to Dish Network there’s no local affiliate for NBC in our area so they can’t provide it and we were referred to All American Direct where we could get the station for a small monthly fee. When I called All American Direct I was told we couldn’t get NBC through them because we could get it with rabbit ears BUT they could request a waver if we paid a $3 non refundable fee. I was instructed to check with them in two weeks to see if the waver was approved and if they didn’t get an answer within 30 days we’d be automatically approved. Less than a week later Don noticed they took an additional $3 and change from our account. We called the company and were told we were approved to receive NBC and they do an automatic monthly payment. We argued that we only authorized a one time fee to be deducted from our account and was not informed of the auto pay policy and did not authorize any additional payments. Since there was no other way we could get NBC we had no choice but to do business with this company.

The second time additional funds were taken from our account was the result of an online order through Dirt Devil. We purchased a Dirt Devil Kwik handheld vacuum as a Christmas gift. We were given the transaction total before we confirmed our order then an invoice was emailed to us for the same amount. A few days later we noticed an additional $1-$2 was deducted from our account. A call to Dirt Devil and we were told they’d made a mistake on the sales tax. Again we argued that we only authorized payment of a certain amount and should have been contacted before additional funds were removed from our account. Needless to say we are never doing business with Dirt Devil again and will not purchase any Dirt Devil products whether it’s directly through their company or a retail store.

In both of these instances we would have authorized the additional funds and there would be no problem but to assume that we’d be OK with it is wrong and another example of Customer Disservice. And people wonder why I have a problem with big business and customer service in general.

Ghost Whisperer - Goodbye Nicole

In case you didn’t catch it in the credits, tonight’s episode of Ghost Whisperer was directed by Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Tonight we saw Sam and Nicole part ways. Nicole figured out that Melinda had a thing for Sam and confronted her about it. In this confrontation Nicole admitted that she liked the new Sam and wanted to keep him. What she didn’t figure on was Sam not being willing to settle, he wanted to wait for more. That was advice both Melinda and Eli gave him after he confided that he feels he wants to be married and have children but everybody’s telling him that he wasn’t the type to settle down and he strung Nicole along for 10 years. He feels something is missing from his life but doesn’t know what it is. At the end of the episode Melinda watched Jam put luggage into a car and she was heartbroken thinking he was leaving with Nicole. Her tears soon turned to a smile when she saw Nicole get behind the wheel and drive off.

The rest of the story was a lake or pond that was overrun with ghosts. They were disturbed when a college student, partying with her friends jumped in the water. There were dead fish along the shore and an investigation revealed there were chemicals in the water that go along with decaying bodies. These ghosts, whose spokesman was the student’s father, were upset about what happened to them and trying to protect the living. It’s revealed a funeral home that was having financial problems dumped the bodies of those who were to be cremated into the water after his furnace for cremation stopped working. The ghosts were embarrassed and were trying to protect their loved ones from finding out the truth. The group of ghosts who told Melinda in a past episode that what she does will affect those around her and pretty much predicted Jim’s death were in this episode. They admitted they were spirits who chose not to enter the light because they wanted to stay and help the living. They told Melinda that she did not cause Jim’s death, it was fate.

Spoiler:
Hillary Duff is to appear in a future episode of Ghost Whisperer. No report on when the episode will air.


For updates on Ghost Whisperer visit my new blog TV Chat

Ghost Whisperer - Jim's Memories Resurfacing as Nicole Returns

Did anybody catch what I talked about last week? Melinda’s up and down emotions. She’s sad Sam’s going in search of Nicole, happy she won’t return his calls, sad when he’s going out of town to look find her, happy he finally agrees to take her along and she might be able to rekindle his memories, sad when she sees a woman answer the door and hug him, happy it’s not Nicole, sad he has her new phone number, happy he gets an answering machine, sad when she returns his call, happy Nicole told him to have a good life. Well, you get the picture. At the end they come home and he asks her to go out with him when a woman gets out of a cab. It’s Nicole and Melinda’s sad again.

One good thing, we only got to see Sam in the mirror once this episode the rest of the time we saw only Jim. It does seem like he’s having more and more Jim memories though and no Sam memories. He didn’t remember if he liked Mexican food or not when Melinda takes him to a Mexican restaurant her and Jim use to eat at. He tastes the food and remembers tasting it before and wonders if he and Nicole were there at the same time as Melinda and Jim. As he’s raving about the food he starts to itch and suddenly he’s covered in a rash. He may have Jim’s memories but it’s still Sam’s body with Sam’s allergies. As he’s in the bathroom a ghost is talking Spanish to Melinda and has a message for a guy at the counter. Melinda, trying to help tells the man she has a message for him and repeats what the ghost tells her, in Spanish and doesn’t realize she just told the man his girlfriend looks like a hooker. Jam walks up just as the man is about to let loose on Melinda. Jam gets into a fight with the guy and the next scene is him leaving the ER. Jam suddenly has a flashback of a man being wheeled in on a stretcher, it’s Jim. Then he remembers getting shot and gets terrible shoulder pain.

The ghosts Melinda ran into on her trip very benign and rather amusing. There was the man who rented the truck Melinda and Jam were in. He was a coin collector and had dropped a coin in the truck but can’t pick up. It’s a valuable coin and his wife sure could use the money. Melinda agrees to help and when she finds the coin she sticks it in an envelope and mails it to the widow. Later as Melinda’s picking up a garage full of stuff she bought at an estate sale she opens a jewelry box. The ghost of a woman yells at her. She promised she’d be buried with a certain broach and her sister forgot. The funeral hasn’t happened yet so Melinda goes to the funeral home and puts the broach on the woman’s body. Jam, not quite sure what’s going on believes Melinda is just a person who goes out of her way to be nice to everyone, even people she’s never met.

Back in Granville Delia has a reunion of sorts with some high school buddies. Feeling uncomfortable because she hasn’t seen these girls for years she has Eli there to keep conversation going. Ned has agreed to spend the night at Melinda’s to let the heating guy in the next morning. We see three girls at Delia's have but soon realize one of them is a ghost. She was a high school friend who died before graduation. The party’s soon over when Delia gets a call that there’s a party going on at Melinda’s. Seems Ned was there studying when his friends showed up and brought a party with them and it got out of hand. Delia goes from green to red in a split second, stops the party and takes Ned home. The next morning the ghost is still in the house and Delia’s aware of it then she finds a joint in Ned’s bedroom. Not knowing what to does she goes to Eli for help. Ned ends up grounded, sneaking out to go to a party and Delia jumps to conclusions again. It turns out the joint was left there by one of Delia's friends the night before. Delia was a party girl in her younger days and her friends called her Doobieia. They were at a party and her friend got killed on her way home from the party and Delia blames their wild ways. She soon finds out, with Eli’s help, that her friend’s parent’s been very strict and locked her out of the house because she was five minutes late getting home. She was walking back to the party because she fit in there. She was upset and crying and didn’t hear the car that hit and killed her. Eli helps the ghost talk to her parents one last time and she eventually goes to the light.

It was nice to see Eli finally embrace his gift and not try to run from it. He realized he could help a ghost and didn’t need any prodding from Melinda.

SAM AND MELINDA NEXT WEEK:
Nicole sticks around and realizes she’s attracted to New Sam and doesn’t want to let him go. Melinda’s sad again.

I tried to find some more juicy spoilers about the show but nothing new was to be found. If anyone has any news they’d like to share please enter them in the comments. As I said, I love spoilers and the more the better.

For updates on Ghost Whisperer visit my new blog TV Chat

My Quest for the Perfect Bra or Why I Hate Bra Shopping

I discovered I hate bra shopping. I’m a full figured girl and bought my bras from a store in a Chicago suburb called “The Underwear House.” I could get satin bras, lacy bras and panties to match. The bras had underwire but they fit great and weren’t uncomfortable. They made me feel sexy. After I got married I moved to Alabama and when I needed new bras I called The Underwear House and ordered my bras over the phone. I read them the brand, style number and size. They took my payment information and sent me the bras. I’ve done that several times over the last five years and it was nice and convenient. I didn’t have to go shopping (I hate shopping) and try them on (I hate trying them on).

I needed new bras recently and decided I wanted to get away from underwire. I got tired of the wire poking through after a while and leaving cuts and bruises under my arms but that meant I had to go out and look at bras and try them on. Since I lived in a small town and the only store was Wal-Mart that’s where I went. Big mistake. The store is hot, the boxes don’t have the proper sizes in them and after about 30 minutes of trying on 2 bras (I took about 8 in the fitting room and that’s when I found out they weren’t in the correct boxes) I left empty handed.

We moved last month to a new town and I saw a Lane Bryant store. I knew where I was going for my bras. They’d surely have my size and I should be able to at least find one that I liked with no underwire. Last Friday was my day and the search for a new bra began.

First I couldn’t find the store. I knew where I thought I saw it but it wasn’t there. I did find a Kohls and knew they had a lingerie section so I went in. Yes, they had bras. Bras in every color imaginable with very loud prints. Whatever happened to black, white and beige? I went through every rack and box and they didn’t have my size. Before I left I asked an employee about Lane Bryant and received directions. When I got to Lane Bryant I headed straight to the lingerie section which was bra heaven with bras in white, black, beige, pink, red and purple and no loud prints. It wasn’t long before reality set in and I realized they all had underwire and molded cups that felt like they were made out of foam.

I saw a clerk and decided to ask for help. I have to say she seemed like a nice person until I told her what I was looking for. Then the questions began. I first asked if they had any that weren’t padded and she wanted to know what I had against padding. I told her I have enough of my own, I don’t need to add more. She tried to tell me this wasn’t really padding (anything one half to one inch thick is padding in my book)it was a lining to make sure “your headlights don’t show.” That’s fine but I don’t want any padding or lining and I don’t want underwire.

After foraging through the forest of padding and underwire I saw it. The only bra in the store, with no underwire or padding and they had it in my size. The nice, helpful clerkzilla informed me that couldn’t be my size, I had to be bigger and she proceeded to get out her tape measure and measure me in the middle of the store, announcing to anyone who could hear what my bra size should be. It seemed I had the band size correct but she wanted me to go up a cup size. She then gave me one of those underwire, molded cupped bras that I didn’t like to try on. I appeased her but still took the one I liked in the fitting room. After I had the bra on clerkzilla gave me she barged in the fitting room and saw there was a 2 inch gap between my skin and the top of the bra. Guess what? I needed to go down a cup size. I went to the register with the bra I picked out and debit card in hand. Now began the inquisition.

If you buy two you get two free. No thank you, I only want one right now. (I wanted to make sure I liked it before getting more)
Do you have our credit card? No
If you get our card you can get 15% off. No thank you.
You don’t want to save 15%? No. (By my calculations, the bra was $24. 15% would only be $3.60 which wasn’t worth a credit card to me)
You can apply today and if you’re not approved I’ll still give you our catalog. No thank you.
Why don’t you want our credit card, you can pay the balance with your debit card? I don’t want or need your credit card. (This was the first time I’d been in a Lane Bryant in over 10 years, why would I want a credit card for a store I don’t usually shop at.)

I was getting the feeling that they wouldn’t let me leave without that card but remained firm with my NO answer. I finally left with one bra paid for with my debit card and felt empowered. I held my ground and could not be bullied into buying more bras or applying for their credit card.

Don told me to go back next week and get more bras. I’m a little afraid to go back in there and think I’d rather order them over the internet, at least my computer doesn’t argue with me and I can turn it off when I want to.

Ghost Whisperer - The Future of Melinda-Jim-Sam

I’m the type of person who reads the last page of a book first. While I’m reading the book if I think I’ve got something figured out I’ll skim through several chapters ahead to see if I’m right before continuing. If a book is boring I’ll read the last chapter to see how it turns out, that makes me more inclined to enjoy the book to get to that happy or surprise (not for me) ending.

I’m the same with TV shows. I read the days ahead spoilers for my favorite, and only, soap opera Days of Our Lives and I look forward to reading anything about the primetime shows I like. During my reading I found the following about Ghost Whisperer and thought I’d share for anyone who’s interested.

WARNING: IF YOU DON’T LIKE SPOILERS AND DON’T WANT TO KNOW WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN STOP READING NOW. THE REST OF YOU MAY CONTINUE.

Kenneth Mitchell who plays Sam will only be on the show this season. Jim will regain his memories of his life with Melanie and Sam will be leaving. Jim, now in Sam’s body, and Melinda will remarry and try for that baby they wanted before Jim’s death.

With the season half or more than half over it won’t be long now until we see the reuniting of Melinda and her soul mate Jim. It’s still a stretch and I’m not liking this whole Jim’s death storyline but I have to keep reminding myself. It’s not real. It’s only a TV show.

For updates on Ghost Whisperer visit my new blog TV Chat

Ghost Whisperer - Melinda's Emotional Rollercoaster

Since Jim died Melinda has been on a roller coaster ride because of Sam/Jim. Every week she’s happy to see him then gets depressed when he tries to find out a little about his past, then gets happy again when he doesn’t find anything and ends every episode almost in tears as he’s trying harder and harder to find out about Sam’s past.

A few episodes ago Jam found and engagement ring in his safety deposit box but had no idea who it was for. For several episodes he’s been dwelling on that and Melinda gets upset when she thinks he might be getting close. The episode last night she was worried when she heard him on the phone then her spirits were raised when she found out he was talking to his sister, only to get depressed again when his sister informs him there’s a girl, Nicole, he was involved with for years but it was an on again/off again type of relationship and she finally gave him an ultimatum to get married or leave. Jam feels his new address means he didn’t make the decision to get married but then there’s the ring.

During his search for Nicole he finally gets into his email account with the help of Ned. Jam couldn’t remember his password but it’s funny, he remembered his email address. He finds an email he sent to Nicole asking her to marry him but there are no emails from her. He talks to Eli who suggests Nicole may have been more personal with her reply and sent him a letter or left a voicemail. Sam can’t remember his voicemail password. Eli informs him that the phone company only requires a social security number to grant you access to your voicemail. We later see Jam with a phone in one hand and his social security card in the other. As the episode ends Jam informs Melinda he’s leaving to find Nicole and the scene ends with Melinda in tears, again.

Now to backtrack, this episode had a young ghost at a house that Delia was going to sell. The family left the house with all its furnishings and family photos around. As Ned is cutting the grass on a riding mower there’s a 911 call placed that there’s been a terrible accident at that address. The same call is placed several times and each time it’s the same message, same voice and no emergency. Seems the boy was killed as he was run over by the lawnmower and his father was the one who called 911 and said he was driving the mower when he hit his son. Doing her investigation Melinda finds out the parents are separated and the ghost wants them to get back together. It wasn’t the father who was driving the mower but the oldest son who blames himself. The mother not knowing this blames the father and that’s why they separated. The oldest son can’t handle the guilt anymore and jumps off the roof of the house. Jam happened to arrive at that moment to do some repairs and hears the crash. Melinda is on the phone with one of the EMT’s who tell her there was a real call from a neighbor to that address. Melinda arrives at the house before the EMT’s and Jam is in EMT mode. He stabilizes the boy and instructs Melinda to get magazines and bed sheets to make a splint and they need to keep the boy still. The parents meet at the hospital and Melinda walks in. The ghost is also there and with Melinda’s help the truth finally comes out, the mother forgives the father and tells both her sons that she loves them very much and is not mad that them. Seems the ghost was blaming himself for the accident and was angry with his father for covering up the truth as he has a habit of doing. The ghost sees and goes into the light and the family seems to be on their way to repairing their problems.

Is Jam remembering more of his past as Jim? In past episodes he’s been drawn to the basketball court not knowing that Jim had a standing date with Ned. He’s drawn to Melinda but has no idea why. Now he remembers some of his medical training.

The previews for upcoming episodes have Melinda and Jam going on the road in search of his past together.

For updates on Ghost Whisperer visit my new blog TV Chat

Time to Call Ghost Hunters

I don’t believe in ghosts, hauntings or poltergeists. With that said I think it’s time to call Jason and Grant from Ghost Hunters. For the past several weeks we’ve been finding pieces of glass on the floor in the bathroom. The first time as I was exiting I got a sliver of glass in my foot. We figured something had broken before we moved in and it hadn’t been cleaned up completely. A few days later Don found larger pieces of what looked like parts of a light bulb in front of the commode. Since that time we’ve both found larger pieces of curved frosted glass. We’ve mopped the floor and still, glass shows up every 1-2 days. It’s both annoying and frustrating trying to find the source.

As I said, I don’t believe in ghosts but Jason and Grant started out to debunk the existence of ghosties even though they are using the H word (haunted) more often this past year so I have confidence that they’ll be able to find the source of the broken glass and make it safe to walk around barefoot again.

If that doesn’t work I can always call Sylvia Brown and have her tell them to “go to the light” or “go home”.

Photo Credit: Scifi.com

Resolutions

With the start of the New Year comes the time to turn over a new leaf and make resolutions. I make resolutions many times throughout the year and never keep them but when January 1st rolls around I think I’ll try harder after all, New Year, New Live. I’m usually proven wrong but I keep plugging along and making them anyway. I never tell anybody about them because I KNOW I will fail but since I’m trying to make positive changes in my life and be more accountable for my actions and words I’ll tell the whole world, or at least those of you that have entered my world in the past year.

1. I will try to stop procrastinating. I have a terrible time with this. I make all these plans and they sound good at night when I’m laying in bed. I even have the energy at that time to achieve some of them but use the excuse that it’s too late and I’ll do it tomorrow. When tomorrow comes I don’t have the energy and keep saying, after breakfast, after lunch, tomorrow.

2. Be more organized. This will partially be achieved with the success of #1. I’m a very unorganized person and one of my plans that I usually procrastinate on is to become more organized, starting tomorrow.

3. Start seeing more good in people and not focus so much on the negatives. This is a negative of mine and I’m positive that there are times when this is the only side of me that people see. It takes too much energy to always see the negative and become fixated on that. I think it’s the emotional thing. Only seeing negative is depressing and that negativity drains a person until there’s nothing left. I’m tired of always being drained and depressing.

4. Stop focusing too much on what other’s think of me. I don’t mean that I don’t want to care what other’s think but I don’t want to let that feeling of “I’ll embarrass myself” or “people will think I’m too old” stop me from having fun. I’ve had a long standing crush on Donny Osmond. I was always embarrassed to admit that. When we moved and I got stuff out of storage I found my life size cardboard cut out of Donny Osmond as “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” At that time it came out that I like Donny Osmond and I got defensive but now I don’t care. I’ll shout it from the rooftops and I’ll post it here, I LIKE DONNY OSMOND. There, it’s done and I can’t take it back. I will also admit I took the cutout to the Chicago Theatre after one of their performances, stood outside the stage door and got it autographed.



Photo taken around 1995


Photo taken around 1998, notice the wild hair. Bad perm and windy city Chicago.