Remember?

Who remembers that show on Nickolodeon, “Goosebumps,” based on R.L. Stine’s series for middle schoolers? Who remembers R.L. Stine? Myself, I was more of a Christopher Pike fan back in the day, but R.L. Stine was the more popular guy. Anyway, there was an episode of “Goosebumps” where this character is walking around his (her?) life not understanding why no one is interacting with him (except maybe this one girl who could see him? Or guy?) and then only at the end do you, the audience, and the character, realize that’s because s/he’s a ghost who died days ago in a car accident. And since The Sixth Sense and The Others hadn’t come out yet, this was a surprise ending. Now, despite the fact that I can’t even remember the gender of the ghost character, the plot has stuck with me, and sometimes when I’m driving I become suddenly convinced that I actually have just been in accident that I now don’t remember happening, and I’m a ghost, and I’m going to get home and find they’re sitting shiva for me and I won’t even know I’m dead. This doesn’t happen (only) when I actually do narrowly avoid an accident. Sometimes, this happens when all I’ve done is change lanes. It doesn’t help that I’m a really terrible driver. And I do recognize that this is nuts, and it’s not like I really believe I’m dead. But sometimes this thought does seize me.

I don’t know why I felt like sharing this with y’all today. I haven’t blogged in a little while, that’s all.