Scaring The Dead Air Out Of Me

              Ah yes, another Friday night in Tallahassee.  What exactly qualifies a Friday night as being “another” one?  If any of you have ever been around a college town or had the pleasure to live in one, you would know that it involves hitting every club and partaking in the ritual of observing drunkards take nearly an infinite amount of shots until they’re asked to leave by the bouncer who is only looking out for the well being of the other patrons.  It’s a night full of optimism for the Saturday football game that most people will regrettably end up watching with a hangover.  I’m all for polite conversations with the guys and girls in line outside the night club who can barely stand or complete a sentence, but tonight I needed a change of scenery.

This was what I hoped to find in the sky, but saw nothing.

                Even though the inside of my eyelids would have been a great change of scenery, I had the urge to do a little star gazing to take advantage of a calm, clear night before drifting off into a snore-filled slumber that would keep the neighbors awake.  My prediction about the calmness was correct, however, I wasn’t getting enough cooperation from the clear aspect of the evening.  The weatherman (a.k.a. my roommate Adrian) said there would be no clouds, but my vision of the heavens was hazed by the smoke and debris from a wildfire somewhere in Georgia.  I did not realize this until I reached the astronomy observation area of campus, which was luckily only a ten minute walk from my apartment.  At this point the Moon was a dark red, with a blank sky in all directions.  The lack of stars left me bored and allowed my mind to wonder.

                You’re probably wondering what I thought about once I walked away disappointed from a view of the smoky Universe.  Anyone who knows me well enough, or anyone who has seen the title of this blog, would take a wild guess that I think about ALPHA.  You’re absolutely right.  The hazy sky reminded me of the time that I was hazed by members of the group, as well as an ALPHA Tracker who came up with the bright idea.  Be prepared to get a behind the scenes look at what went on during the filming of Dead Air: [LIVE] From The Windsor Hotel back in Spring of 2009.



Click Here to watch the Dead Air Trailer



                Dead Air was a concept for a DVD series that Ron and Scott had for quite a few years before it actually came into fruition.  They had a plan of attack for the logistics of filming our investigation from the second we got there.  I can barely remember anyone taking a rest for the 3 days we were at the location, let alone trying to sleep in the most paranormally active room in the hotel (which was a bit of a challenge in its own right for an inexperienced ALPHA Tracker like me).  This is quite a good segway into the prank, which I know you’ve been patiently waiting to hear about.

                So we’ve already established that the room I was spending the weekend in was notorious for its haunts according to many visitors from all over the country.  That was enough to give a young Bill Karalius goosebumps every time he entered and exited the room.  However, on the last day of the investigation, I unlocked a world of shock when I opened the door with the old school room key. Lacey (ALPHA Member) and Tracy (ALPHA Tracker) decided to mess around with the room and make it seem like a serious haunting took place.  The blinds were opened and closed in a symmetrical pattern, while the blankets on the bed were both un-tucked in triangular fashion.  Not only were the mattresses knocked off kilter, but on top of the far bed were four pillows on top of each other.  On top of those pillows was the “rate my cleaning service” card with the side that said “you’re the expert” facing the door.  To top it all off, I discovered my ghost hunting vest, which held all of my equipment, hanging 15 feet off the ground from the sprinkler pipe. 



The room where this all took place...



This was a bit overwhelming for an 18 year-old who was going on his first major investigation.  My reaction was one that any naïve rookie would have in a similar situation.  If caught on film and censored, you would only hear a monotone beep for a full 10 minutes due to my choice of language.  The first thing Ron and Scott did was call up Lacey and Tracy, who were out at the time to make sure that they had nothing to do with it (and of course they lied about it at first).  It reached the point where Scott and Ron called up the film crew to get everyone to the room to scope things out.  In doing so, our Director of Photography ended up losing his camera bag because he was in such a rush to make it up to the room to see the damage.  Ron and Scott were piecing together who could’ve done the damage to the room like they were part of the Scooby Doo gang, while I was in my own little world flipping out about how I would get my equipment down from the ceiling. 



Needless to say, after a few more minutes of me being a nervous wreck, Lacey and Tracy came clean and the joke was on me.  They ended up getting an earful from the Lead Investigators, however, but they were still proud of the job they did shaking me to my core.  Ron and Scott taught me a valuable lesson on how to keep composure during even the craziest of scenarios.  They also taught me a valuable lesson about how much they hate wasting time, because they were quite furious about losing a half hour of footage due to this little prank put on by the girls.  Ever since that experience, I’ve been calm and collected no matter what the situation was with ALPHA.

Fastforward to present day.  My Friday night suddenly came to an end.  The embarrassing memories of my ALPHA Tracker days were a great way to get my mind off of the chilly weather that I found myself getting stuck in on my walk back from the astronomy building.  Hopefully next time I will be able to enjoy the beauty of space without having flashbacks.