I received a telephone call yesterday informing me that I have the ghosts of two women living in my home and that one was there with me at that very moment! The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I said “Yes, yes, tell me more…..”

Last year a friend recommended that my husband, Tim, and I read the book “When Ghosts Speak“. It’s written by Mary Ann Winkowski, consultant to the CBS hit television show “Ghost Whisperer”. We bought the book and enjoyed reading it. Imagine our surprise when we learned that Mary Ann lives in nearby Cleveland and that she was appearing on Halloween at Carrie Cerino’s Restaurant. I quickly made our reservations for the event.

Months later, we began attending Mary Ann’s monthly book club meetings at Borders Books in Strongsville. It’s always an interesting evening with Mary Ann and attracts lots of unique people with great stories. It was about this time that we learned that if you called Mary Ann from your home on a land line, she could tell you if  there are any ghosts in your home. We found this especially intriguing since we often joked about sharing our home with the paranormal.

Our ghost, we thought, could only be seen by our black and white cat, Cookie. Cookie has freaked us out for several years with her imitation of a mime. She can be walking across the room and walk directly into an invisible wall. She will actually push against it a couple of times and then step back and walk around it. Yes, very creepy.

Another time there seemed to be some type of alien force field between me and Cookie that kept her from coming to me. She tried to push past it but couldn’t get any closer than three feet! Finally turning and hugging the wall, she was able to reach me from a different direction.

Now here’s my dilemma….one of Mary Ann’s assistants has offered to come to our home to contact and remove our ghosts, for a fee, of course. Tim, who encouraged me to call her in the first place, thinks I’m being silly for wanting to have her visit. I feel that since I’ve gone this far, I should see it through and even view it as some Halloween fun. What do you think?

Recently I read about a coupon that could be downloaded from a company’s Facebook fan page. Since I suffer from a  “keeping up with the Jones” mentality when it comes to technology, I wanted to distribute coupons, too.

After doing some research, I discovered Wildfire Promotion Builder, an easy-to-use web application that allows designers to create interactive Facebook campaigns. To add to my excitement, I learned that it was much more than coupons—it was also contests and sweepstakes! My head began to spin…the more I learned, the more I had to have it, both to draw traffic to my Facebook fan page and to offer promotions via Facebook to my clients.

I signed up for the free version and installed it onto my fan page. Now I had it and victory was mine! What to do, what to do… I know—what better way to work out all the kinks than to take it for a test drive? Thus, the “Komjati Design FRESH CASH Giveway” was born.

Today is the third day of the sweepstakes and it has had a few touch-and-go moments. Moments that made me glad it was my own personal project. Like the first day when the Promotions tab completely disappeared from my fan page. I removed the Boxes tab, posted the promotion again and all was right in my world, whew!

I’ve lost count of the number of times that I have been out walking my dog and people have stopped me and asked for directions to the old Chippewa Lake Park. The amusement park operated from 1878 through 1978 when it was closed for lack of attendance, so they say. As a local, I have heard rumors of other reasons why it closed but that’s of no consequence now. Chippewa Lake Park has stood forgotten for 31 years, many rides frozen in time exactly as they were on that final day. 

Most of the curious drivers looking for the park are over the age of 50 and have a few quick memories of the park to share with me from their car windows. Having been raised in Medina County and now living and working here at the lake I have my share of these memories too. Dad worked at Ford Motors in Cleveland and they had their yearly company picnic at “Chip”. Mom worked at Medina’s National Disposal and they had theirs here, too. It was THE place to go.

Growing up, Mom was always telling me stories of living here when I was 6-months-old. She worked at the park for 75 cents an hour selling tickets to ride the Caterpillar and about Nickel Day, when admittance was only 5 cents. Now I’ve lived here for 10 years and my husband for almost 30. We’ve hiked the overgrown trails and picked blackberries on the abandoned park land. Like our neighbors, we have a passion for the area.

Recently I’ve been asked how I feel about the old park being sold. In 2008, Chippewa Partners LLC purchased the land and plan on turning it into a massive resort called “Chippewa Landing”. The $100 million proposed development will include a hotel, spa, five-star restaurant, theater and Biltmore-style manor house. I tell friends that I’ve taken a “wait-and-see” attitude especially since I’ve read that as many as 300 full-time jobs could be created. That would be a great thing for this area and our economy. As I get older, I am learning that change comes whether you like it or not and sometimes, looking back, things really are better. I’ll just have to wait and see.

Chippewa Partners deserves kudos for ingenious public relations work for opening the park to visitors on the weekends. Kids have been sneaking in there for years. Adults like myself who knew the danger, now get to go in and safely see everything. Check out my pictures taken in April 2009 on my Facebook fan page and become a fan of Komjati Design, Inc., too.

Last summer a horror movie was filmed in the old park and it is due to be released this year sometime. Check out the movie trailer for “Closed For The Season”. You’ll recognize lots of scenes of areas that are also in my photos.