Five for Friday: Places I Would Go

I am easily swayed by television.  I find a new occupation or lifestyle for myself every year when I see something interesting in a movie or television show.  Back in the day, Alias was my favorite show.  So naturally, I wanted to be a spy.  A double agent to be exact.  Just like Sydney Bristow.  And my thinking was that since Jennifer Garner could do it, so could I...but I can never seem to put together the fact that television is NOT, you know, REAL.  So Jennifer Garner couldn't do it.  She was just acting.  And I couldn't do it either.

Then the Pirates of the Carribean movies came out and I wanted to be a pirate.  But not a Somalian pirate.  I wanted to be a Jack Sparrow pirate.  One who drank lots of rum and shot a gun only into the air.  Oh, and one who still looked SUPER hot (like Johnny Depp or Orlando Bloom or Keira Knightley) even after months or years at sea with no shower or anything.  But again...NOT REAL.

I wanted to be a shrimp boat captain when I was younger.  I wanted to dress as a guy and see if I could pull it off at high school.  I wanted to go work at Jurassic Park until about half way through the movie.  I wanted to be Jim Morrison's love interest.  I wanted to be an intern at a hospital...namely Seattle Grace or Sacred Heart.  I even wanted to work in a gas station and be a mafia wife for a bried second.  And I wanted to shave all of my hair off a la Demi Moore in G.I. Jane.

I also wanted to be a Crime Scene Investigator too.  Atleast that's a real job.  I suppose that's a step in the right direction.

I wanted to have DID (dissociative identity disorder...a very real and life-altering mental disorder) at one time.  And that's just plain ridiculous.  Who WANTS a mental disorder??  As I said before, I'm easily swayed by television.

One of the things that has struck me as of late is that it would be super fun to be a ghost hunter.  Or to atleast tour haunted places.  Chris is an avid Ghost Hunters fan and I always watch with him.  The show has actually made me less afraid (or spooked, I guess) by things that could possibly be paranormal because the show really tries to discredit rumors of hauntings instead of justify them.  So today's Five for Friday (after that helluva long intro) is Places I Would Go If I Weren't A Huge Chicken:

• The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, CA.  I am a Stephen King fan.  The more disturbed, the better.  His miniseries Rose Red and the anonymously written The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer were based on this place.  It is creepy to say the least.  You should read about it.  Trust me.
• The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, CO.  This is the hotel that was Stephen King's inspiration for The Shining.  The Stanley Kubrick movie was not filmed here, but the T.V. miniseries was.  It is said to be truly haunted.  And it's so beautiful!
• The Dakota in New York, NY.  This is the filming site of Rosemary's Baby (but only the exterior) as well as the site of John Lennon's assassination.  Spooky.  But the architechture is outstanding.  Too bad everything built today is a dang strip mall.
• The Lizzie Borden House in Fall River, MA.  Do I have to tell you what this one is?  I'm not sure I could stay there overnight, but I've always been fascinated with, you know, ax murders and such, so it would be interesting to visit.
• Waverly Hills Sanitorium in Louisville, KY.  Anywhere with a Body Chute has to be haunted.  This is said by many to be one of the most haunted places in America.  I'm sure I'd have to leave there on a stretcher.  You know, because of the fainting.

So there you have it.  If only I weren't a huge chicken.  I am fascinated by these places but I probably couldn't ever muster the courage to actually go.  Darn.