The Egg And I

So how does one properly fortify before going ghost-hunting? Saturday night, I would embark on a paranormal investigation of the Elms Hotel and Spa and I admit to being a tad jittery. I'd stayed overnight with investigators at the hotel before, but this was something new: the hotel was closed for renovations and we would be on our own...in an empty, supposedly haunted, historic hotel. What better way for me to center the nerves and open the senses then digging into some spicy goodness? The lunch buffet at Taj Mahal in Liberty was a fine way to satisfy hose needs.

We had set this new-ish Indian restaurant as the location of a lunch meeting with our friend Charlotte, who is also our financial planner, and she was helping us manage our monies. Indeed, Charlotte is a good bud and fellow Posse member, so we turned a work meeting into an excuse to snatch some good Indian grub. Once arrived, the table was already stocked with a basket of warm and delicious naan. The lunch buffet at Taj Mahal had an impressive array of Indian dishes: tender and turmeric-laden Chicken Tandoori, fiery and delicious Chili-Lime Chicken, and hearty Palak Peneer, a silky blend of spinach of cheese. The K-Man is not the biggest fan of Indian food, but he dug his creamy and spicy Chicken Tikka Masala. We also got to try Charlotte's Chicken Korma, which was quite yummy. That signature blend of yogurt and spices is fast becoming one of my favorite Indian dishes; whether it be with chicken or vegetarian style. The Korma's a charmer, indeed, but it still doesn't quite beat the Vindaloos for me.

The lunch conversation eventually touched on my impending ghost hunt and as Charlotte is a very spiritually-attuned person, she enlightened me to an eye-opening Native American ritual for ensuring that spirits don't piggy-back on you and follow you home. Apparently, once one has visited a reportedly haunted establishment or taken part in a ghost hunt, this ritual involves returning home, stripping naked and rubbing a raw egg in the shell all over your body before showering. The egg supposedly lifts whatever spirits may be attached to your body and removes them. You then break the egg into the toilet and flush it. As if hunting spirits in an empty, century-old hotel isn't odd enough, I would then have to hit on my huevos for ghost relief. Hmmmmm...

The ghost hunt would actually prove to be quite the revelatory experience and will be featured in the next post. Did we experience any spiritual activity? Did walking the halls of the empty hotel feel a bit like being in The Shining? Did any nosy, night-owl neighbors see me getting intimate with the Grade-As from my frig? Stay tuned...