Welcome to Prince Edward Island, the beautiful home of many potato farms, Anne of Green Gables, and of course a ghost named Max.But let me make this perfectly clear, Max doesn't actually live on Prince Edward Island. In fact, Max lives somewhere in limbo when he's not busy haunting my 14-year-old cousin in Massachusetts. However, I did hear a great deal about "Max" while I was vacationing in PEI last week, so it's almost like he/she was there.
Vacationing with my cousin George is always interesting. Occasionally annoying, but definetly interesting. Someday, he'll make a great paranormal investigator. We'll being seeing him on Sci-Fi someday with his own show about ghosts and where to find them, how to help them, and how to speak to them. He'd never have to write a script for it, since it's all he talks about anyway. It would be an understatment of the the worst kind to say that he is interested in Ghosts and the paranormal. My cousin is completely obsessed. An obsession rivaled only by my obsession with Doctor Who.
The fun thing about him though, is trying to decifer exactly what it is he's talking about. He's a bit like that Road Runner character on Loonatics Unleashed (bizarre cartoon my sister aparently likes) he likes to talk quite a bit, and extremely fast. He talks so fast that almost everyone that hears has no hope of understanding what he's saying and just stands there and nods when it seems apropriate. I am a fast talker by nature, there are times my friends have hit me to get me to slow down, so If I actually listen and pay attention I can usually understand most if not all of what George says. Though I have found that since he is usually talking about the same things, I can just zone him out.
My first full day in Prince Edward Island, I went to a county fair. The day was cold and overcast, and towards the end it rained buckets but I did enjoy almost every minute of it. The vacation group consisted of myself, my cousin (and probably best friend) Miriam, my parents, my sister, my cousin Lydia, my Aunt Cathy and Uncle Mark, and of course my cousin George. Though our family is very close, we very rarely did something in which we were all together. We typically split up into two or three groups.
As is tradition, when arriving at the county fair, the first thing we did was split up. Miriam and I were together, on vacations typically if you find me you find Miriam and vice versa. George, being the third oldest cousin was put into the "Nelly/Miriam" group and given $20. As we walked head on into the games and rides part of the fair, it was early afternoon, there was no rain, we had plenty of money and life was good. Our first endevour was a fun house, the likes of which I hadn't actually been in since I was nineish. I wanted to ride the Tilt a Whirl after that, Miriam refused due to motion sickness, so I went on with George instead. I had a good time with him on it (though our car didn't really spin all that much). I managed to conquer my somewhat irrational fear of Ferris Wheels, and it turned out to be one of the most amazing experiences of the vacation. You could see the entire island from up there. If you ever get the oportunity to see a birds eye view of Prince Edward Island, do it.
The bumper cars were fun, Miriam and George and I killed eachother effectively (not literally of course, I would have to be a ghost to be writing this) My personal favortie ride, the Scrambler, was made even better by making stupid faces at George everytime his car went past mine. It was after this that the trouble started.
It all started when George said "I'm out of money", how and where he managed to spend $20 so quickly, I may never know. What this meant was though, we had to go find his mom (my Aunt Cathy) so he could ask for more money. It took us about a half an hour to find her, even with a walky-talky. George, who again talks extremely fast, was trying very hard to communicate exactly what it is he wanted to know (where are you?) to his mom on the other end. I eventually had to grab the thing away from him and ask her myself. Over the course of the day, I became quite used to doing that untill I just took it permanently. We did manage to find her and get George more money and after stopping George from letting lose the sheep and chickens downstairs ("they don't want to be locked up!") we made our way back to the rides and games.
You know how in cartoons, when it rains, the umbrella always gets blown inside out? I never thought umbrellas actually did that. I proven wrong however when my cheap, red umbrella was blown inside out by the extreme, pouring wind and rain that had apeared while we were inside looking at animals. It was gold and wet and windy, so naturally George was hell-bent on going back to games. I did manage to win a cute Sylvester the cat stuffie! It was fun at first, untill George ran out of money again...right in front of the "win a playboy bunny" stand.
He pretty much threw a fit, the likes of which I haven't seen since the trip up with my seven-year-old sister. It was actually rather amusining, watching George and me and the playboy bunny guy. We all seemed to have different goals. George's was to get money from an unspecified source (me or Miriam) and play the game to win a "bunny". Miriam's was to calm George down and let him know exactly what he would win (a playboy bunny). The playboy bunny guy's was to get George even more bent on playing the game, and aparently to hit on me. That's right, in Canada I was hit on by a playboy bunny guy. He didn't hit on Miriam, just me. He started off by calling me an either "full grown woman" or "full bodied woman" dependent on who you asked, and then just generally flirted and hit on me. Naturally, this made my goal to kick the playboy bunny guy in the balls and get George out of here and to the gate we were suppose to meet the rest of the family at. I acheived one of these goal eventually, buy dragging George by the shirt in the pouring rain, kicking and screaming, to the gate. We had an argument over which spot was actually the gate ("NO GEORGE!!! SEE HOW THERE IS NO GATE HERE!!!!! THIS IS THE SIDE OF THE FUNHOUSE!!!) and I ended up literally dragging him by his shirt in the pouring rain to the other gate, people were staring, but I was cold and wet and miserable and didn't care.
This is basically what traveling with George is like. He talks rapidly about ghosts and tries to prove he's ALWAYS right. It's really fun getting him talking with my mother, an extreme ghost sceptic. Their debates can last hours, days, or even years. So after all the ghost stuff I've been through this week, you might wonder what my opinion is on the matter. I am the daughter of the worlds most concrete sceptic Unitarian, my mother. However, I am also the cousin of the worlds most obsessed, believing, paranormalist, George. Spending a week with both of them has left me...confused.
I find it interesting, how someone can beleive something so completely one way, and how another person can beleive the exact opposite. Each person truely beleives they are right. I find it hard to side with one person because how can I just ignore someone else's beleifs? When two people try to get me to side with them, and feel so passionate about what they're telling me, how can I just pick one and cast aside that other passion. I don't quite know who to beleive. I have the same problem with religion, my beleifs are all very abstract.
Anyway, putting all the philisophical stuff aside, the trip was awsome! Prince Edward Island is absolutely beautiful, and all the dirt there is red!! It looks like that other brick road in the Wizard of Oz movie that intertwines with the yellow-brick-road. I finally know where it goes! It's also famous for being the place that "Anne of Green Gables" takes place in. Pretty much, anything you want you can find on PEI and you can find it with Anne of Green Gables plastered on it. Which is great if you're an avid fan of the books, like me. I even got to meet Anne at "Avonlea Village". I didn't actually say anything to her, but my sister got her picture taken with her. Plus I got to see Anne cream Gilbert with a slate, which made me happy. And there was the beach, an incredible swimming/rock climbing experience. The rocks were red too! It was awsome, it really was.
Oh, and if you should ever come across a ghost named Max, and they're looking for a person named George, don't scream. Calmly tell Max that George lives in Massachusetts, remember? After that, Max will probably leave, George claims that most ghosts only stick around long enough to give you a message they need delivered, and half the time don't know who they are.
Au revoir!
*Nelly*
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